Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Red88_Tiger]

Left field
but if hunt goes to Brisbane does anyone think that there is a chance Reynolds or Ezra mam could be looking elsewhere
From all reports Adam is settled and happy but doesn’t mam come off contract end of next year

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

Left field
but if hunt goes to Brisbane does anyone think that there is a chance Reynolds or Ezra mam could be looking elsewhere
From all reports Adam is settled and happy but doesn’t mam come off contract end of next year

No. Hunt to hooker. Gold Coast 2024 upwards on onwards. And you are right about Adam. Both he and Ezra are locked in.

 

[Mystery]

All three of those guys were at their most destructive in the centres.
We need to stop using it as a dumping ground and put specialists in there.

Totally agree that you need specialists centres and can’t keep dumping blokes like Talau and Kapoa there. All I’m saying is the days of Gidley, Lyon and Gasnier creating from the centres are gone. They mainly need to be able to defend and catch and pass. If a centre is in your top 5 highest paid players your cap is way out of whack (with Manu being the only real exception to that).

Also, to say GI and Trell were at their most destructive in the centres is nonsense

 

[Dennisspicer1]

What a waste of money that would be, weve had our fair share of injury prone players, Matt Balin from Manly being the main one, I think 2 year contract and think we maybe got three or four full matches out of him maybe not that many, Tommy Turbo is gone. ( INJURY PRONE )

May as well sign Tommy Turbo ,he can be backup for Bula.

 

[crazycat]

And what we should have done when Prince left.

We've struggled with that multiple times in our history, so I don't have a lot of confidence we won't try and turn Fainu into a 7.

Re trying to turn good players into organising halfbacks, i.e. Brooks, etc.

Benji Marshall never really Marshalled the team. Benji would find gaps and Benji would trick the opposition. Yet he would never position people nor try too. Andrew Johns once said he could fix him as a NR7 and maybe he worked with him a bit. Did not happen.

Yes lets not make Fainu into a organising 7. We can't do that as a club. Cowboys smartly imported* this and we should think the same.

*Heck Brisbane brought Adam Reynolds. You have Kevie Walters, Brizzie NR7 of lore as coach and you buy Adam Reynolds. I think that's a recognition of how difficult an organising NR7 is to come across.

 

[Vicious]

If you have Cleary or DCE as your halfback who do nearly all the general play kicking and control the game as a dominant 7 should, then a fullback who runs the ball well, but doesn’t assist in any playmaking or general play kicking would be ok.
Unfortunately in a team where the playmaking and general play kicking is a struggle, it can easily effect the balance of the teams attack when having a fullback who is predominantly a ball runner only.

 

[Pbulk]

There is some good potential over at Picton Magpies. Any scouts there?

Not really no, they've got Tautaiolefua who played in the Magpies junior system, the halfback played U20's for Penrith about 10 years ago but never made the big time. Michael Lett plays for them also

 

[851]

Putting too much pressure on an 18y.o halve playing alongside the rabble of a team we currently run out each week would be a disaster.
If you don’t believe me, wait and see on Saturday night when the Cowboys whack us by 40+ with the only real differences from the team that whacked them a few weeks back at Leichhardt will be Api and Brooks missing.
Manly want Brooks now, but he’s not an ahole like Ben Hunt and won’t leave the club he loves short of players while he’s under contract.

Api is the big out not Brooks, and the cowboys are a far different team than the one we smacked, evidenced by them smashing souths yesterday, so you are comparing apples and oranges

 

[Yossarian]

I'm a bit perplexed as to Manly's strategy here. DCE is great on his day but he's also 35 next year and his ability to produce the goods week in week out are questionable. So a Brooks/DCE halves combo kind of looks good at first glance but the more you think about, has disaster written all over it. Plus they seem to have been suckered into paying massive overs on Schuster because they've jumped at a shadow. They seem to be making the same mistakes we generally make, paying big money for potential that never comes whilst letting go of the actual talent. Maybe it'll work for them but I wouldn't like it if I was a fan. If they extend Woods then they've totally lost it.

 

[bathursttiger1]

you will forget about Brooksy very quickly when you see Latu play. he is special.

Maybe Vicious will be like Russell when Liddle left and move to the Silvertails forum.

 

[Vicious]

Maybe Vicious will be like Russell when Liddle left and move to the Silvertails forum.

I’m happy with us signing Latu Fainu if it eventuates as rumoured.
It’s not every day a club such as Wests Tigers recruits the most highly rated 18y.o in the country.
The point I’m making is we could easily make a young player in an important position look bad if we don’t quickly get the right players around him.
We need an exceptionally good halfback and in my opinion we need to add some real hard running, fast back rowers and centres to make his life a bit easier.
I always see Latu Fainu play on the left, maybe adding his brother Samuela to compete with our own Shawn Blore, Brandon Tumeth and Brandon Mansfield for the left edge forward spot and bench spot is sufficient with Papali’i on the right edge and Bateman at 13 is sufficient for the edge forwards, but still need someone to cement the left centre spot.
Naden plays like he’s capable of once in every 3-4 games, we need him at his best at least 3 out of every 4 games to be what we need. Is Tristan Reilly or Junior Tupou a better left centre option, or do we still need to recruit a class centre and/or winger.

 

[Alex Seyfarth's #1 Fan]

Reading through the Manly forum, never realised how much most of them truly dislike Aloiai. Always thought he was going good for them but turns out he's not very well regarded amongst supporters

Aloiai was the face of jerseygate. That incident ruined their 2022 season when they were on the cusp of finals.

 

[lathami]

It's only just been recently that Brooks is seen as 5/8th.The club always backed him as a 7 to lead the club - tried to hand him the keys. You can't blame the club because he couldn't fulfill that role - always someone's fault.
It will be good to see how he goes outside DCE but let's not rewrite what he couldn't live up to here.

No offence but that’s a rubbish call.
So what your saying is that it’s brooks fault he’s a running half and not a controlling half?!?! How can u not blame the club? It’s idiots like Maguire and Potter that have no idea calling ‘it’s his team now’! Putting the pressure on a guy that can’t handle it. He’s not smart enough for that, but I’d expect the coaches to be smart enough to recognise it!
That’s on the coaches more than the club, sheen knew it straight away, hence why he went after Moses.

 

[AdelaideTiger]

Aloiai was the face of jerseygate. That incident ruined their 2022 season when they were on the cusp of finals.

Agreed. I was disappointed when he left as he was playing some of his best footy and we had no real pack leaders.
Fast forward to now, I couldn't happier that we dodged that bullet.

 

[Jedi_Tiger]

I’m happy with us signing Latu Fainu if it eventuates as rumoured.
It’s not every day a club such as Wests Tigers recruits the most highly rated 18y.o in the country.
The point I’m making is we could easily make a young player in an important position look bad if we don’t quickly get the right players around him.
We need an exceptionally good halfback and in my opinion we need to add some real hard running, fast back rowers and centres to make his life a bit easier.

we will end up with blake taaffe at 7 not much left

 

[Nounny]

Take a titans or nz half , can’t be that hard surely !

 

[ancient_magpie]

we will end up with blake taaffe at 7 not much left

Anybody know about iversen matai halfback wise could he be the answer otherwise why did we sign him

 

[Vicious]

we will end up with blake taaffe at 7 not much left

In my opinion the best outcome we could hope for short term would be to somehow get Braydon Trindalll released from his contract with the Sharks to be our starting 7. Add the fact he mainly plays on the right and has already proven he can take on the role as dominant playmaker and dominant general play kicker at NRL level. Play Latu Fainu as our starting 6 on his favoured left side.
Recruit Blake Taafe as our regular 14 who can cover any position in the backline, be our back up 9 to add some spark when Api is tired and also keep pressure on young Fainu for the starting 5/8 position.
If Taafe is not happy with that scenario we ideally need someone who can cover a similar role.
Add Jack Cogger as our back up 7 as he too would add big pressure on the ones in front of him to perform or he would take their spot. If JC is not happy with that scenario, Adam Clune would be just as good.

 

[Telltails]

No offence but that’s a rubbish call.
So what your saying is that it’s brooks fault he’s a running half and not a controlling half?!?! How can u not blame the club? It’s idiots like Maguire and Potter that have no idea calling ‘it’s his team now’! Putting the pressure on a guy that can’t handle it. He’s not smart enough for that, but I’d expect the coaches to be smart enough to recognise it!
That’s on the coaches more than the club, sheen knew it straight away, hence why he went after Moses.

Every player has pressure to perform or they get dropped. That's why 7's get paid as much as they do - they play a key role. Maguire went for a 7 before Sheens to take the pressure off him, or allow him to be a running 5/8th . Before that Benji was bought back to fill the same role. He is not a rookie anymore and it's not on every player and coach to wear the blame for the weakneses in his game either.
Brooks needs change and so do we. I'm critical for the club for lots of things but they have backed Brooks to the hilt and it just didn't work.

 

[Spacecub]

Spacecub - pages ago you said you are from Taree
Have you seen willet play . Apparently playing fullback for Taree atm
How does he go

Spacecub - pages ago you said you are from Taree
Have you seen willet play . Apparently playing fullback for Taree atm
How does he go

Hey red yeah Navren Willet, bit hard to get a gauge on players up here, it's group 3,country footy, it's like NRL reserve grade standard Taree city bulls aren't going too great, port sharks beat them 42-10 on the weekend, he's a tall fullback, I can't see him worrying bula, but he might get a crack if bula gets injured