Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Hmm]

Gagai or Olam plus Treacy would automatically make us a much better team, that defensive frailty we have out wide especially in the centres makes me wanna cry every time a team goes out wide.

 

[weststigerman]

I think the difficulty is supporters see signings of other lowly clubs and the tigers aren’t even going close to matching them

Signings aren’t going to change anything for us. We signed Papali’i, Api, Klemmer, and Bateman and we went backwards. No doubt they are all on overs to come here. Bulldogs are in the same mess.

The junior pathways is the only hope that we can unearth a couple of stars and hope they don’t leave.

 

[tigertuff]

Signings aren’t going to change anything for us. We signed Papali’i, Api, Klemmer, and Bateman and we went backwards. No doubt they are all on overs to come here. Bulldogs are in the same mess.

The junior pathways is the only hope that we can unearth a couple of stars and hope they don’t leave.

Patience is key. We have always had the kids, holding on to the good ones has been our biggest issue.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

Signings aren’t going to change anything for us. We signed Papali’i, Api, Klemmer, and Bateman and we went backwards. No doubt they are all on overs to come here. Bulldogs are in the same mess.

The junior pathways is the only hope that we can unearth a couple of stars and hope they don’t leave.

I disagree. I believe all 4 of those recruits have really steeled our forward pack. We really needed to recruit in the halves to bring some structure & better attack to our backline which we have done (hopefully well). A key recruit is John Morris who will assist Benji greatly with structure so we'll see some better flow & combinations in both A & D.

 

[Kelce68]

U are so short sighted, we don’t need that calibre of player we need to pick up solid players just like the warriors have done , yes it would have been nice to pick up that type of class , but all we need is some grunt in the forwards and there’s plenty around in the nsw cup and a few in the super league, Bevan French would be a gun signing and he has said I want to come back , just contact me

Bevan French would be a gun signing?

Ah, ok. Can't see how anyone missed that one.

 

[tigerbenji]

I remember the days when it was 1st grade 2nd grade and 3rd grade, Leichhardt Oval ran east/west and the grand final was played Saturday arvo.Change can be but is not always a good thing

I can remember the same thing mate, you must be my vintage.

 

[426Tlgerland]

Patience is key. We have always had the kids, holding on to the good ones has been our biggest issue.

That’s the one , keeping them , but I still feel we are 2 players short of a bit more success , these players only need to be like Olam , Tracy , we could not score , we have secured the pack and Half’s now , just need to get centres , kids will stay if they see a competitive team for them to look forward to joining , not wooded spooners

 

[2041]

I think the difficulty is supporters see signings of other lowly clubs and the tigers aren’t even going close to matching them

Dragons: Kyle Flanagan and Hame Sele.
Bulldogs: Stephem Crichton, Jaeman Salmon, Bronson Xerri, Blake Taafe.
Titans: Keenan Palasia.
Dolphins: Jake Averillo, Herbie Farnworth, Thomas Flegler.
Manly: Luke Brooks, Aitasi James, Jaxson Paulo, Tommy Talau.
Cowboys: Jake Clifford, Viliami Vailea.
Parra: nobody.

That's the bottom half of the ladder and I'll give you two clubs we could perhaps be envious of. The Dolphins I think are a bit of a special case given their combination of cap room, the Queensland factor and Wayne Bennett. With the Dogs we're talking about one player, aren't we? I'd rather have anyone we've signed than the second best player they've signed.

So what you're saying basically comes down to "I wish we'd signed Stephen Crichton". Even there, isn't the story that he wants to play fullback - which we don't need?

 

[Tucker]

Who should we have signed then, we tried for Moses, Haas and Munster, also Pearce, they didn't want to come, who are these players we could have got that reach your high standard

Brisbane and Penrith just lost 5 or 6 blokes combined who played the GF. That’s a beginning. There were heaps available that we as fans only heard about after deals were signed. Our people in recruitment should have been aware and had a crack.
We need better props and centres. Brisbane and Penrith proved on Sunday you are screwed without them.
Our props are ok but have no mongrel.
Our centres are terrible.
Our wingers are pretty shit too.
These new halves are on a hiding to nothing currently.
Maybe we should bring Madge and Sheens back as a recruitment managers…They are the only guys who landed proper talent here in over a decade….and then we sacked them.

 

[Tucker]

Exactly. This club is in a deep, deep hole and it's not going to turn round overnight. The people who are being unrealistic are the ones who think a handful of free agent signings is going to make everything ok. It's always the same spoiled kid nonsense: "Why don't we just sign a bunch of players who aren't on the market?" "Why don't we sign all the players who decided they wanted to go elsewhere?" "I don't want to do another rebuild." (waa).

As it happens, I complete agree that the club is run by idiots and TBH I don't hold out a great deal of hope on that basis. But I'm equally sure that "let's balls up our salary cap for the next half decade, again, by blowing it on anyone who'll sign for us" isn't going to improve that situation.

We’ve made the finals 3 times in 24 years.
This isn’t overnight…you been having a nanna nap for the past 12 years?

 

[2041]

Patience is key. We have always had the kids, holding on to the good ones has been our biggest issue.

We actually haven't produced much talent for a long time: Moses debuted in 2014 and between him and Bula there's not a single Tigers junior who played his first game for the club who is a difference making talent. The best we've done is players who came through who we thought were going to be good but ended up disappointing: Liddle, Suli, Marsters, Talau and Simpkin, for instance. Compare our list to what the Raiders or Panthers have brought through in the same period and it's screamingly obvious where the problems lie: we're perpetually trying to build a roster out of cast offs.

 

[Telltails]

You cant overlook the role of managers when signing talent. We are the last option unless the player is looking for the last big pay out and trading on past achievements. Still can't believe we got Api and Papi - it was a possible turning point - but our actions/results since then have demonstrated to others exactly why those type of players dont see us as a good option.

 

[WesternSuburbsBoy]

Gagai or Olam plus Treacy would automatically make us a much better team, that defensive frailty we have out wide especially in the centres makes me wanna cry every time a team goes out wide.

Olam is past it i’m afraid… watch the semi against Penrith they exposed the f out of him

 

[851]

Brisbane and Penrith just lost 5 or 6 blokes combined who played the GF. That’s a beginning. There were heaps available that we as fans only heard about after deals were signed. Our people in recruitment should have been aware and had a crack.
We need better props and centres. Brisbane and Penrith proved on Sunday you are screwed without them.
Our props are ok but have no mongrel.
Our centres are terrible.
Our wingers are pretty shit too.
These new halves are on a hiding to nothing currently.
Maybe we should bring Madge and Sheens back as a recruitment managers…They are the only guys who landed proper talent here in over a decade….and then we sacked them.

Yes we need a good centre as a priority, and a winger if we could manage the squad numbers

 

[jadtiger]

I can remember the same thing mate, you must be my vintage.

I am 70

 

[Tucker]

You cant overlook the role of managers when signing talent. We are the last option unless the player is looking for the last big pay out and trading on past achievements. Still can't believe we got Api and Papi - it was a possible turning point - but our actions/results since then have demonstrated to others exactly why those type of players dont see us as a good option.

Madge brought Koroisau and Papali’i in.
Sheens likely leveraged their signatures to get Klemmer, Bateman and Staines.
If we leveraged these guys properly plus Bula and Steph, a Crichton or a Farnworth may have strengthened our centres as an example.
Our current strategy of chasing young unproven talent (Sezer excepted) is going to waste the good work done by others.

 

[Telltails]

Madge brought Koroisau and Papali’i in.
Sheens likely leveraged their signatures to get Klemmer, Bateman and Staines.
If we leveraged these guys properly plus Bula and Steph, a Crichton or a Farnworth may have strengthened our centres as an example.
Our current strategy of chasing young unproven talent (Sezer excepted) is going to waste the good work done by others.

Agree. Unfortunately you got Api K watching the grand final after joining our club from the stands with the spoon, while a bloke like Luke Garner gets a ring after leaving the club - who is the more content player?. We really needed to consolidate this year on the back of those signings and we did nothing.

 

[tigertragic]

Dragons: Kyle Flanagan and Hame Sele.
Bulldogs: Stephem Crichton, Jaeman Salmon, Bronson Xerri, Blake Taafe.
Titans: Keenan Palasia.
Dolphins: Jake Averillo, Herbie Farnworth, Thomas Flegler.
Manly: Luke Brooks, Aitasi James, Jaxson Paulo, Tommy Talau.
Cowboys: Jake Clifford, Viliami Vailea.
Parra: nobody.

That's the bottom half of the ladder and I'll give you two clubs we could perhaps be envious of. The Dolphins I think are a bit of a special case given their combination of cap room, the Queensland factor and Wayne Bennett. With the Dogs we're talking about one player, aren't we? I'd rather have anyone we've signed than the second best player they've signed.

So what you're saying basically comes down to "I wish we'd signed Stephen Crichton". Even there, isn't the story that he wants to play fullback - which we don't need?

I think I’m saying more than Crichton and you need to consider these other clubs (titans, manly, cowboys and Parra) existing player rosters, they don’t need substantial roster change.
The bulldogs have performed worse than the tigers over the past 5 years but have still managed to acquire about 6 quality/game breaking first grade players in the last 2 years ( Crichton , Burton, Xerri, Mahoney, addo Carr, TPJ (although boxing now) and are looking for more
Bateman and Klemmer bring experience but aren’t game changers, whilst Ice and API are in any team.
We were lucky to ‘find’ Bula given he ‘by chance’ rocked up to training with one of our existing juniors and we just gave him an opportunity
I doubt the dolphins cap room would be any better than the tigers ( but QLD/bennett are attractions)

Most experts suggest you need at least 4 top quality players to be competitive, I would think we have 1 in API. Check out most of the teams in the top 8.

Nothing will change with our current roster trajectory and there is no guarantee our ‘good’ juniors won’t follow in the footsteps of teddy, Moses, etc

I hope I’m wrong, but I think we need more than hope our juniors perform and stay because Klemmer/Bateman will be done in 2 years.

 

[Tucker]

Agree. Unfortunately you got Api K watching the grand final after joining our club from the stands with the spoon, while a bloke like Luke Garner gets a ring after leaving the club - who is the more content player?. We really needed to consolidate this year on the back of those signings and we did nothing.

100%.
This year was an unforgivable abortion of a campaign. Easily our worst season ever. Totally wasted that talent. Those recruits are now all a year older…maybe a bit jaded. What will their 2024 look like?
Unprofessional performance from all coaches and trainers this year. They bottled it completely.

 

[TigerSJ]

It’s impossible to put our plight down to just one issue - it is a whole bunch of factors that range from the top down. Management and Admin right through to coaching and player roster, the latter being a major problem of course.
Many Posters may not agree, but I actually think we were generally a better team this season than last. We were in the match for the most part, apart from a handful of games where we caved, and we mostly played with more desire and hunger than in past years. Certainly our forwards were not as badly manhandled as they have been in the past.
Through injury we were without our first preference halves as well as some of our strongest players for a large chunk of games and had no quality depth to fill in. We definitely have blatant issues in certain positions and were exposed because of them. We also have no genuine match winners or strike players (apart from Api) and in this score we are probably the worst endowed team in the comp. Note that even the best teams are average when you take out their rep quality players.
So are we a handful of key elite players away from success? They would certainly help us to win more games. Maybe we could scrape into the eight, but until we address all our other issues and get the whole club united and moving forward together with one goal, with quality people in all positions of management and coaching, I don’t see us reaching and then maintaining the level of the top 4 clubs.
How long could that take?? Who knows - maybe you start with the easy fixes and other problems start to come together, maybe it’s these juniors that can bring the desire and culture through, start winning and then everybody pitches in and rides the wave together. Let’s hope so.