Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Mighty_Tiger said:
I could buy into the team needs time argument if key established players were at least on par with their previous years & showing something.

Each week we looks worse.

Interesting that those more settled & experiencedSG players who have been at the club for a min 2 seasons (AD, Stef, Nofo, Brooks, Laurie, Joffa) are actually performing at their worst.

Whilst our new recruits are our best performers each week.

We didn’t see the Sharks, Manly, Bulldogs regress with new coaches & recruits. So the time to gel aspect aligned to how bad we are performing is just an excuse to buy them more time to fix a very ugly hole they are in.
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SG ball wests play with better attacking structures. Granted easier comp.

But the problem is the spine and outside backs.

We need more squad changes. The focus really needs to be on players and CEO for more change.
 
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tony soprano said:
SG ball wests play with better attacking structures. Granted easier comp.

But the problem is the spine and outside backs.

We need more squad changes. The focus really needs to be on players and CEO for more change.
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Disagree with that. Every time I watch them I don’t see any structure at all. See a lot of brilliant individual play but not much play organising / play making.
 
Needaname said:
How do they have the roster spots?
They were supposed to start the season with 29.
Released Herbert and have signed Lemming, Maumalo and now Mikaele?
That’s 31 by my count.
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Based on NRL website lists, they've got 28 now with Herbert out and Maumalo in.
 
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Mikaele one of the only forwards who could get over the advantage line. Terrible hands but always showed enough that he could slot into another system.
 
Lukic said:
Hastings is a good halfback. He'll never be elite, but he controls the game well, strong leader on the field (questions about him off the field), good kicking game and rarely takes the wrong option in attack. Despite how slow he is, his running game isn't terrible either and he's a passable ball-player. Again, he's not Cleary or Nicho Hynes, but he could well be the 8th or so best halfback in the league which is perfectly fine.

So not even in considering the fact Hastings is miles ahead of Brooks as a footballer, keeping someone like that is integral for developing a winning culture at the club. We don't have to go from spooners to premiers in one year. That isn't going to happen obviously. But hey, maybe with Hastings with come 10th ... maybe we come 7th. Ok we don't win a premiership with him, but we at least show the club is heading in the right direction. Which means:

- When a promising youngster comes through our ranks, they think they have a chance to play finals and rep footy by staying with us instead of going to the Roosters/Storm.
- A player who's stuck behind a rep level player at another club will sign with us thinking they can take the next step and star in a team with finals aspiration.
- Players who are on the team will fight harder knowing there's a goal in mind to win a comp, rather than just going through the motions.
- We won't have to pay overs for rep quality players because they won't fear leaving their current club and losing their origin spot because the club team they're in sucks.

Unless there were really significant off the field issues with Hastings that basically made his position untenable (apart from Sheens being a prick and forcing him into the 13), it was a completely moronic move with no logic. It's set our rebuild back further because no one in the league will take our team with Brooks at 7 seriously and now we're in a position where the only halfback option we've got for next year is George Williams who's going to be able to bend us over backwards in negotiations knowing this. Complete bottle job from our club.
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Oh I am so close to agreeing with this, but the problem is fundamentally I don't agree that you can get the job done if you have one of the worst sides in the comp, then you add the "8th best halfback" to the roster.

Hastings did play halfback in 2022 and we came last. I can't see any way to argue around that - he was a key participant in our worst ever season, and he was purchased precisely to help turn things around. But things weren't turned around, the coach got the axe and everything fell apart.

Of course it's not Hastings fault that Madge was already on tenter hooks when he signed up, but Hastings was signed up to provide a ballast for Brooks, and it absolutely didn't work out. I think you need to pair Hastings with a very dynamic 5/8th, to make up for his shortcomings, and which Newcastle would love to do, if they could only keep Ponga on the field.

I happen to agree with Sheens that I think Hastings is a better lock, but I also would not have released him if we could have avoided it, because any injury to the halves and Hastings goes back in, especially with the departure of Madden.

But if Hastings doesn't want to play lock, what then? And if you are offered a trade for a quality prop, that does make some sense.

Unfortunately Tigers need to aim higher than "8th best" to get us competitive. Guys like Koroisau, Bateman, IP, Klemmer - all moves in the right direction and probably our best players on average over 4 rounds. But now we need the rest of the side to rise up with them, in the way guys like Junior Tupou and Kepaoa are doing so far. Unfortunately we cannot afford other key players going backwards, which is what we have been seeing over 4 rounds - Brooks, Douiehi, Stefano, Laurie.

If those "old core" players could get somewhere back to their better footy, suddenly we are competitive across the park and those 6-12 point losses fall our way half the time.
 
Jedi_Tiger said:
so Hastings is not getting 900k from Newcastle in 2023??
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Your guess is is good as mine… but I seriously doubt it.
Love to see you prove otherwise though.
If you did I’d be happy for Hastings though.
One report had him now on $580,000.
Same story had Bateman on $520,000.
 
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