Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[AmericanHistoryX]

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

 

[hsvjones]

Hoping to hear/read something offical with talau and fainu soon. We as supporters need something positive

Hope so too.. Don't want to get excited for nothing.
Hoops on his Fox chat said it was done in his comments today

 

[Tiger-ferret]

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.

Problem is specialist centres want spine money. As long as there is and under supply of elite spine players then this trend will continue.

 

[Halbrowne61]

Hoping to hear/read something offical with talau and fainu soon. We as supporters need something positive

Fainu to us and TT to Manly, there you go !

 

[Mystery]

Ah kinda no.

Yes they have a little more impact, both as a roaming fullback make the team about them (similar with Munster).

I honestly think GI's biggest impact was at Winger for QLD. WHY? no one watching him so he would casually make an intercept at a key moment.

Which is exactly why we should avoid this craze of making it all about the fullback. Once it is all about one player they are marked. We want to create opportunities.

Sorry mate, I don’t understand the point you are trying to make.

The ‘craze’ of making it all about your fullback is because they touch the ball the most. You can’t base your attack on feeding a centre lots of ball and hoping they create. Having one player marked is going to happen in any position if they are your best player but it is much easier to defend a great centre than a great fullback.

 

[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.

 

[Asu Kepaoa'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