Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Nonotmeagain]

It's a bit less actually. That's what newie paid him under the cap then, it's gone up a fair bit since so 750-800k is probably the current equivalent.

I'd be happy to offer 4 years at 600, 700, 800, 800, with the 800 contracts requiring a certain number of matches played and try involvements the season prior.

Not sure Ponga's games played, matches won, semi-finals appearances and comps won metrics would justify the money he's paid.

 

[Nonotmeagain]

I honestly couldn’t blame any decent young player for wanted to leave this club there is no light at the end up the tunnel. Just terrible decision after terrible decision

There is a light - it's a B-double with one broken headlight heading our way.

 

[Betterdays22]

I dont undersatnd how suddenly we're bagging Stefano and even saying he isnt that great. If he resigned today for 5 years everyone would be doing cartwheels. I dont blame the bloke for wanting to be at a successful club and having those clauses in the contract. If he walks its firmly on us, I wouldnt hold it against him. Good news is we have a year to show him the club is moving in the right direction.

Yep agreed. He's a great young prop and way ahead of most his age. We would absolutely regret losing him. Pitfalls of having young talented players is that many haven't quite worked their game out yet. If you are willing to discard players with attributes like Stef in their early 20s, then dont complain if they bite you in the bum 3-4 years later.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

I’d heard Stef was likely to leave….

In my last posts when I said things might get worse…

I didn’t know about this clause

I just assumed he’d ask for a release

Now it makes sense why I was told that

And the fact that there’s an article about it a week after I was told seems very convenient - so it must be real.
Oh well

Onwards and downwards

Jeezus if this is true, serious questions need to be asked around 'why' a future captain would want out!

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

Hard to blame Stef, if we keep losing why would young guns want to stay around.

Bula and co will be identical.

 

[Robbie's Love Child]

I’d heard Stef was likely to leave….

In my last posts when I said things might get worse…

I didn’t know about this clause

I just assumed he’d ask for a release

Now it makes sense why I was told that

And the fact that there’s an article about it a week after I was told seems very convenient - so it must be real.
Oh well

Onwards and downwards

Not bagging you but this sounds like incorrect info. Everything that has come from Stef's mouth has been positive about how the club has treated him and how he wants to win a premiership with the Tigers, and become a potential captain.

 

[Tiger-ferret]

Jeezus if this is true, serious questions need to be asked around 'why' a future captain would want out!

IMO the “captain” spiel is a manager designed smokescreen.

 

[Nounny]

Croft and Latu get it done at least have a decent pair to start season !

 

[Nounny]

Give Moses money to them too sorted !

 

[jirskyr]

A problem we could have though if big stef wanted out is that it could be easily sorted with a chat to Freddy and politis which would see stef not picked for origin regardless of form allowing the clause to come into play and rorters a free pass to stef

If that was a real concern, why did Freddy play him this year? Stefano's selection to play this year was probably earlier than we expected, but also Freddy has put him in the extended squad for a couple of years now, so he's obviously in that mix.

If Stefano's form is sufficient 2024 then he'll continue to be considered, despite whatever skulduggery people will imagine.

Lastly, if the player is actually agitating to leave or trigger clauses in their contract (whatever those clauses are) then blocking his release on a technicality (here the Origin clause) won't do us many favours. We need to continue to develop and invest in Stefano and the club such that he wants to stay, not that he's trying leverage opportunities to leave a year early. We want him to be looking at re-signing with us in 2025, and he'll only be 25 years old then.

Also, personally I'm not convinced that Roosters are in such a shape as to be able to continue to be commanding the top players based on premiership or rep opportunities. Maybe Roosters still have the financial / network pull, but I think they are facing the end of an era of dominance and there are not in any particular position to turn it around. Tedesco is aging rapidly but still their best player, they gambled and lost on Sua'ali'i, they didn't get RTS back, Keary is busted, Walker has been dropped, JWH will retire soon enough. Brandon Smith is off the rails etc. With enough losing seasons the pressure will come onto Trent Robinson, whom they have relied on for a very long time.

Anyway all these clauses seem the new way that players are negotiating, with the top-tier salaries flat-lining, they are demanding other forms of control. For example the exit clauses for Tino and Fifita based on who the coach is.

 

[stevied]

It’s awesome that we developed an Orgin level foward.But I don’t think he was ready .Klemmer was more deserving.
I agree on Api ,we need him here as long as possible.Even after he hangs the boots up,in some sort of coaching role.

I thoroughly agree that Klem was more deserving. To be honest, when I heard of Stef's selection, I was, 'what the f.........?' And to add to that, Stef has been disappointing this year. A man of his size and athletic ability should be bending the line far more.

 

[jirskyr]

I dont undersatnd how suddenly we're bagging Stefano and even saying he isnt that great. If he resigned today for 5 years everyone would be doing cartwheels. I dont blame the bloke for wanting to be at a successful club and having those clauses in the contract. If he walks its firmly on us, I wouldnt hold it against him. Good news is we have a year to show him the club is moving in the right direction.

I mostly agree except the bit about if he walks.

If he walks out, I don't care why, I will detest him. Not just for my personal love of the Tigers, but because we cannot be in an NRL era where players leave a club any time a "bigger" club comes calling, or if clubs struggle to make finals.

We have already evolved into a 3-tier system where 1/3 teams always make finals, 1/3 rarely make finals and 1/3 swing between the two. If it becomes the norm that players leave the struggling teams, we will move closer and closer to a permanent imbalance much like you see in the UK Premier League.

Part of the responsibility of signing big-name or big-potential players is to lift the quality of the squad. They have a responsibility to play to their best ability. Yes the club also has the biggest responsibility to set other conditions to allow players to flourish, but fundamentally the biggest single impact is the output of each player.

For example with Tigers, the club is spending more on Football Ops than ever, they've constructed the CoE, there is a dedicated Pathways team. They stuck with Madge for 3.5 seasons despite worsening results. They've attempted to sign top-tier players and they've implemented two decent and stable coaching strategies (firstly targeting Ciraldo, then the Sheens/Benji combo).

The club must be making other errors in strategy (I'm not clear what they are), but fundamentally we also need our players doing better. Stefano is a good footballer but he needs to be playing better. IP needs to be playing better. It's an embarrassment to some of these guys that someone like Jahream Bula comes in, very little experience and not much time at the club, and he's more consistent than many of his team-mates.

 

[tiger05premier]

If that was a real concern, why did Freddy play him this year? Stefano's selection to play this year was probably earlier than we expected, but also Freddy has put him in the extended squad for a couple of years now, so he's obviously in that mix.

If Stefano's form is sufficient 2024 then he'll continue to be considered, despite whatever skulduggery people will imagine.

Lastly, if the player is actually agitating to leave or trigger clauses in their contract (whatever those clauses are) then blocking his release on a technicality (here the Origin clause) won't do us many favours. We need to continue to develop and invest in Stefano and the club such that he wants to stay, not that he's trying leverage opportunities to leave a year early. We want him to be looking at re-signing with us in 2025, and he'll only be 25 years old then.

Also, personally I'm not convinced that Roosters are in such a shape as to be able to continue to be commanding the top players based on premiership or rep opportunities. Maybe Roosters still have the financial / network pull, but I think they are facing the end of an era of dominance and there are not in any particular position to turn it around. Tedesco is aging rapidly but still their best player, they gambled and lost on Sua'ali'i, they didn't get RTS back, Keary is busted, Walker has been dropped, JWH will retire soon enough. Brandon Smith is off the rails etc. With enough losing seasons the pressure will come onto Trent Robinson, whom they have relied on for a very long time.

Anyway all these clauses seem the new way that players are negotiating, with the top-tier salaries flat-lining, they are demanding other forms of control. For example the exit clauses for Tino and Fifita based on who the coach is.

Hope you are right

In regards to Fittler already playing he gave him 12 minutes than rested him from game 3

Maybe he only just found out about the origin clause

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

All good.

Heard it from a player agent - direct.

And he’s one of the top 3 guys who manages best talent.

and that was last week before this article.

I’m hoping it’s incorrect

But can’t blame Steff if he did want out

Players want to play semis

He won’t want to be at a club as a future rep player for 5 yrs with no semis

Who would lol

He said to me “Steff will probably leave… and a lot of juniors too… the club has no vision… and the dynamics with sheens benji Fulton is a sh*t show… and Scott could walk too”

Don’t shoot the messenger

Thanks for the info @tigermate

Did he say the root cause of the issue in his opinion? I would highly doubt that Benji would have no long term vision of success.

It's so disappointing to hear manager's attitudes of the club like this. It probably means none of his clients will be signing with us while whatever 'behind-the-scenes' power battles are going on!

I actually hope now that managers express these feelings to the media to further up the pressure on the club for change. This can't go on!

 

[426Tlgerland]

The clubs real major problem is purchasing players , we need to fix this asap , Our current players won’t re sign if they can’t see some good players added to our roster , club needs to get going on this now and go hard , eg , Trindall keep working on him and his manager , a first grade NRL starting spot will push a player , no point watching first grade win a comp they want to play in it , Sharkswin comp means zero for Trindal if he isn’t in first grade , we are only about 4 players short of being very competitive
Centre , Half’s ,
Croft and Trindal could be enough plus add Taafe
then go a centre or 2

 

[jirskyr]

Hope you are right

In regards to Fittler already playing he gave him 12 minutes than rested him from game 3

Maybe he only just found out about the origin clause

We all just found out?

People really reckon Brad Fittler would drop or not pick players just in case they could then activate a release clause to leave Tigers in 18 months, not even necessarily to the Roosters? Highly doubtful.

Freddy's first and primary concern is winning Origins. As it stands, not only is he not even guaranteed to be the 2024 coach due to losing this year's series (his contract would have been auto-extended if NSW won the series), he's not even guaranteed to re-apply to be the coach in 2024.

 

[jirskyr]

Payne Haas has decided to test the market come Nov 2023.

Add to that the potential Tino and Fifita release clause, it's rapidly become the biggest front-row open market in years.

Slight advantage for Tigers is that many clubs do not have a lot of salary cap space to spend big on props.

 

[Fainu Brothers]

All good.

Heard it from a player agent - direct.

And he’s one of the top 3 guys who manages best talent.

and that was last week before this article.

I’m hoping it’s incorrect

But can’t blame Steff if he did want out

Players want to play semis

He won’t want to be at a club as a future rep player for 5 yrs with no semis

Who would lol

He said to me “Steff will probably leave… and a lot of juniors too… the club has no vision… and the dynamics with sheens benji Fulton is a sh*t show… and Scott could walk too”

Don’t shoot the messenger

All this stuff goes away if we start winning

 

[bathursttiger1]

Two words...Isaac Moses

Sounds like there’s a whole lot of rotten apples in the Moses barrel.

 

[bathursttiger1]

I dont undersatnd how suddenly we're bagging Stefano and even saying he isnt that great. If he resigned today for 5 years everyone would be doing cartwheels. I dont blame the bloke for wanting to be at a successful club and having those clauses in the contract. If he walks its firmly on us, I wouldnt hold it against him. Good news is we have a year to show him the club is moving in the right direction.

It’s also up to players like Stef to get us towards being a better club, in saying that there needs to be a lot of changes at the top of the tree.
Along with some halves and of couple of backs.