Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

A seemingly reliable ITK with Manly on Twitter has alluded to Fulton securing some of Manly's top SG Ball talent to us for next season (one being centre Roy Quiroz-Mapasua from Westfields) in positions/qualities we are lacking depth in. I speculate some other outside backs particularly with speed & size.
For reference though, they only won one game this season, don't think I saw them play but results would suggest they're not exactly dripping in talent
 
So with the change to the salary cap structure next season, Development player contracts to be replaced by “Supplementary list”. $650,000 cap for at least four, maximum six players, can play from Round 1.

The way I understand that then is that Kit, Faaugutu, Solomone & Sukkar can play Round 1 and could potentially be earning the same as the bottom earners of our top 30

So really we have a Top 34.
So do so all clubs though.
And 10/34 of ours are youngsters with little chance for first grade. And the rest have got the wooden spoon 2 years running.
We still definitely have the weakest roster on paper in 2024, very little proven quality, relying on potential to blossom to climb the ladder
 
So with the change to the salary cap structure next season, Development player contracts to be replaced by “Supplementary list”. $650,000 cap for at least four, maximum six players, can play from Round 1.

The way I understand that then is that Kit, Faaugutu, Solomone & Sukkar can play Round 1 and could potentially be earning the same as the bottom earners of our top 30

So really we have a Top 34.
This is good.

Top 30 is too tight. Heck we ended up playing Will Smith
 
Jai Field just got man of the match again in one of his quieter displays. Between him and Bevan French they win man of the match for Wigan just about every game.
Yet we are reportedly not looking at either of them but instead we're looking at Cade Cust, who can't even make the team.
Say it isn't so.
 
Penrith has just qualified for its fourth grand final in a row - how often during a season do we hear from the Chairman or CEO of the Panthers- reckon there’s a significant message there for our own Chairman and CEO that they will of course ignore
100% correct , you don’t hear from Unca Nick or Panthers bosses hardly at all , even when roosters were heading south this season , Lee loves the lime light , I’ve been on boards , and you don’t get involved with the day to day running of the club , Lee wants to be face and centre of this club and it’s not good
 
Penrith has just qualified for its fourth grand final in a row - how often during a season do we hear from the Chairman or CEO of the Panthers- reckon there’s a significant message there for our own Chairman and CEO that they will of course ignore
Being on top of the competition the Panthers Chairman and CEO never get criticised, therefore there is no need to hear from them.
Our Wests Tigers fans understandably frustrated with long term lack of success love to throw the toys out of the cot and blame anyone and everyone, therefore our Chairman and CEO are constantly on the back foot trying to respond to all the criticism that comes their way.
Of course they hold vitally important positions within the organisation and need to be held accountable for lack of on field success, but if you dig deeper into the real reasons behind the long term lack of success and use a bit of common sense, you will find they have been let down by most of the coaches and football club staff they have employed.
Should they have made better decisions in who they employed ?
Maybe so, but the majority of them seemed to be good choices at the time, but didn’t work out mainly due to terrible decision making with recruitment and retention.
So our Chairman and CEO sick of the poor results, sick of the criticism, make the decision to hire their own choice of recruitment manager and still get criticised for it.
Anyone in their position would have done the same thing, not saying it necessarily had to be Scott Fulton, but something had to change, they made the change and now the blood will be on their hands if it doesn’t work out.
Same with hiring Benji as the coach and surrounding him with a coaching staff who have Wests Tigers at heart. When all the other outsiders have not worked out and seemingly didn’t care about the club, it was well and truly time to get people involved who do genuinely care about the club.
Again this is the Chairman and CEO’s decision, so if it doesn’t work out and Wests Tigers do not become a force within 3 years, they will be gone, no if’s and buts about it.
Let’s see how the next 3 years pan out, I don’t believe we will improve in 2024, it will likely be a 3rd straight wooden spoon and all the doom and gloom from fans will just get louder, but anyone with common sense will realise to heavy investment in youth is not a realistic chance of paying dividends until 2025/2026.
It’s a simple case of short term pain for long term gain and with no proven superstar NRL players wanting to sign with the club, there is no other choice other than to develop from within.
After all it worked out ok back in 2005.
 
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The huge concern is that Fulton has been able to recruit no one but players from Manly and Super League.
True but based on our past results it is not an easy job in recruiting proven NRL talent, most simply refuse to sign with a club who have been struggling as badly as us.
The only way forward is to ideally recruit a few hidden gems to go with our own pathways talent that we have heavily invested in.
2024 will be another write off, but we should see big improvement from 2025 onwards.
Not forgetting the young emerging talent 16-19 year olds know who the best emerging young talent is and know a lot of them have signed with Wests Tigers.
That means this age group see a big light at the end of the tunnel with a club such as Wests Tigers.
 
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True but based on our past results it is not an easy job in recruiting proven NRL talent, most simply refuse to sign with a club who have been struggling as badly as us.
The only way forward is to ideally recruit a few hidden gems to go with our own pathways talent that we have heavily invested in.
2024 will be another write off, but we should see big improvement from 2025 onwards.
Not forgetting the young emerging talent 16-19 year olds know who the best emerging young talent is and know a lot of them have signed with Wests Tigers.
That means this age group see a big light at the end of the tunnel with a club such as Wests Tigers.

I just hope the spankings we are going to see next season don’t do irreparable damage to the confidence of these up and comers.
 
Disagree. He was given a terrible roster and a worse club environment in his short stint with the men. The NRLW team were favourites for the spoon in the preseason. Started out playing above expectations before injuries halted their season.
However he achieved excellent results in the Harvey Norman Premiership with a strong but by no means stacked team.
100%

Kimmorley was thrown a hospital pass and god knows why.

The Bulldogs had the right idea in picking a more experienced assistant.

Now Kimmorley did what he could and got some great performance out of some games. You also saw some score blowouts and that's where putting Kimmorley in wasn't a good idea. Defense was the issue and Kimmorley is far more focused on the halves. IMHO it was a horrible tactic to pull on Kimmorley, but it worked. Sheens got a clean start without the reputation of loosing half a season.
 
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