Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

WestsTigers4VR said:
I’ve got a weird one here but I was just going through some of our backs and a little devil on my shoulder told me something.

How would Starford Toa fair as a winger. Now before we grab the pitchforks let’s have a little looksie. Now in no way am I saying that Toa and To’o (yes Brian) are on the same stratosphere but I do believe Toa could have a similar impact.

They have pretty similar builds with Toa being a couple centimetres shorter but negligible in weight. They have a similar run style in a strong fend and tough carries, it would also eliminate the amount of defensive pressure he is under as he does tend to miss tackles and have lapses in defence.

All you have to do is go back to the Knights 2020 season on the wing and he was outstanding, now granted he had KP feeding him good ball but he was still great regardless.

Tough carries out of our end is what we need and suffer greatly in. I mean Tupou is the only one with a good carry but he has an error in him and he is leaving. We all know Toa has potential, all you have to do is look back at the cowboys game. It’s just like every other back we have, he fails to find consistency.

Now I’m not expecting him to play like that every week but I still believe he has a place in our backline hopefully. Thoughts?
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I think that we're missing a trick by not trying to repurpose Star as a winger.

He's here for a couple more years, unless he's moved on.

Last time he had a longer run on the wing, his two main deficiencies were his hands and his positioning (at times). If we can do a lot of work around his ability to catch, particularly in traffic, I think there's a decent 3rd or 4th choice winger there. His ability to play centre or fb (if desperate) helps his case.

I know he has a lot to work on, and has had ample opportunity to jump out of the ground and hasn't, but I'm a little more bullish on his ability than others. It's easy to forget he's only 23.....
 
Kelce68 said:
I think that we're missing a trick by not trying to repurpose Star as a winger.

He's here for a couple more years, unless he's moved on.

Last time he had a longer run on the wing, his two main deficiencies were his hands and his positioning (at times). If we can do a lot of work around his ability to catch, particularly in traffic, I think there's a decent 3rd or 4th choice winger there. His ability to play centre or fb (if desperate) helps his case.

I know he has a lot to work on, and has had ample opportunity to jump out of the ground and hasn't, but I'm a little more bullish on his ability than others. It's easy to forget he's only 23.....
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He has also played one game this year, in which the team struggled. I reserve judgement till he has had a chance under Benji this year with some capable halves. Might be a confidence player at this point in his career.
 
Hbom said:
He has also played one game this year, in which the team struggled. I reserve judgement till he has had a chance under Benji this year with some capable halves. Might be a confidence player at this point in his career.
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Our backs all have an opportunity to step up this season. There’s nothing stopping them getting in and doing the tough stuff which is how it all starts. I was a Noffa critic in the end but early in his career he would get our sets off to good starts with strong carries and tries came to him at the back end of those sets. Hopefully we get some improvement from our outside backs knowing they are all playing for their futures.
 
A few times on here I have seen critcism of Toa based on his defence and missing tackles. The problem is the facts don't back that up. He had an effective tackle % of 84% last year - Much better then Olam or Naden (last yr or this yr) also better then the likes of Bradman Best and Kotoni Staggs. Think people go off personal opinions that just arent real a lot of the time here
 
boonboon said:
A few times on here I have seen critcism of Toa based on his defence and missing tackles. The problem is the facts don't back that up. He had an effective tackle % of 84% last year - Much better then Olam or Naden (last yr or this yr) also better then the likes of Bradman Best and Kotoni Staggs. Think people go off personal opinions that just arent real a lot of the time here
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When your team is routinely conceding over 30 points, I think you need to look deeper than individual tackle efficiency stats though.
 
boonboon said:
A few times on here I have seen critcism of Toa based on his defence and missing tackles. The problem is the facts don't back that up. He had an effective tackle % of 84% last year - Much better then Olam or Naden (last yr or this yr) also better then the likes of Bradman Best and Kotoni Staggs. Think people go off personal opinions that just arent real a lot of the time here
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I have long been a supporter of Toa and what he potentially could do while acknowledging the flaws many of his detractors point out. For me it's the easy tackles that Toa just doesn't show up for that is the concern. The ones where even the average centre make comfortablely he throws in a terrible miss, letting the team down dearly. Olam does not miss those, nor does Naden.
 
king_sirro said:
I have long been a supporter of Toa and what he potentially could do while acknowledging the flaws many of his detractors point out. For me it's the easy tackles that Toa just doesn't show up for that is the concern. The ones where even the average centre make comfortablely he throws in a terrible miss, letting the team down dearly. Olam does not miss those, nor does Naden.
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I have Naden a long way in front of Toa, if Nado can get a good injury free run at centre, he will become a crowd favourite
 
851 said:
I have Naden a long way in front of Toa, if Nado can get a good injury free run at centre, he will become a crowd favourite
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Not concerned that he looks really skinny these days? And not in a good way like the rangy Storm outside backs.
 
851 said:
I have Naden a long way in front of Toa, if Nado can get a good injury free run at centre, he will become a crowd favourite
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Naden is a big body, good in the air, faster than most and can make a break. On the other side of the coin he can have a shocker, brain snap or just go walk about. You never know what Naden is going to show up. In saying the above I thought he was very good last week
 
With Turuva officially locked up that leaves us 3 spots left in our 30 for next year. I imagine the next priority will be trying to re-sign Stefano. Good job by the club to pull this off as well as retaining Richo. I think we’re heading into a positive direction for the first time in a long time.
 
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