Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Tucker]

Yes it’s no guarantee the best young players become the best NRL players, but I’d much rather have them on our books, than not have them at all.
Players such as Bula, Fainu x2, Da Silva, Laulilli x2, Galvin, Miller, Faagatu and then the younger ones such as Large x2 and Makasini just to name a few, are players that would have no problem getting on the books of any of our rival 16 NRL clubs.
Even if 3 or 4 of them live up to their potential and stay with us we have done extremely well, but better judges than me strongly believe at least 6-7 of this crop will well and truly live up to their potential at NRL level.
If this assumption is correct, we will have a very good side in our hands within a couple of seasons, we just need to be patient as we cannot expect t all of them to be superstars at 18-21 years of age.

Part of their development will be mentorship.
Currently, the young forwards have a few to help bring them along.
The young backs have no one.
Additionally, I have no problem having these guys on our books. I think most are over rated but there is potential there. If we want to keep them here, we need to start seeing success before they rise.
Who wants to be the best player in a shit side at 21? Daine Laurie is the cautionary tale in this area.
We need to have a team they would be proud to walk in to. It’s not about being patient, it’s about building a side that’s rocking and rolling by the time they step up.

 

[skywalker]

From the time we had left Birchgrove and started at Leichardt oval, I never missed a game at Leichardt
And for the life of me I cant remember Leichardt oval running East to West, it always ran North to South.

I can remember. Then we played our home games at Sydney Sports Ground for 2 years I think while Leichardt oval changed and grandstand built. Geoff Starling made his first grade debut there one Friday night at Sydney sports ground.

 

[Lestronge]

2022 we had an injury riddled side, no proper stars, our coach sacked mid season, players let go mid season, an interim coach who had never performed at top level, players lent out to other clubs….they had no option but to come last, yet they still tried.
2023 we had our injured players back on deck, we had our premiership winning coach in charge, we had our two favourite sons helping him, we brought another experienced coach in to help, we had three blokes join the team who played in the previous years GF, we had an international join the team who featured for a teir 1 team in the previous years WC, we had an experienced prop join us who has done it all, we unearthed a fullback who won a heap of awards by the year’s end, …should I go on? 23 was a vastly worse year.

Now you bring up 2001 and 2002 and I laugh at you expense and utter desperation.
2001 saw us win 9 games and draw another. Big difference to this year. We scored 100 more points than this year, with a worse roster as you pointed out. 2002 saw us win 7 games. Not great but better than our 4 this year. We again managed over 100 points more than this year, despite our roster.
Uppercut yourself champ, I’m out of town.

I was there for both . And I know you weren’t , hence why you’re using stats as your argument .
And 01 and 02 were just as / if not more bleak than now .
There was no Fainu , no Galvin , no talk of the large brothers , we didn’t have TDS and Bula at the back .
The team was utter shite , really hard to support , and full of manly castaways and morally bankrupt rejects . Sure we won games, but I’ll never forget sitting on the hill listening to Hopoate songs , and generally wondering why we even bothered .
And not to mention the constant fights between wests and Balmain .
I remember a washed Michael Buettner was the only shining light we could hope for .
And if I go back further to when I was a pup in the 90s I remember after Jones lead us to nothingness , and there was real fear that we were about to fold .
But yea you’re right mate … this is definitely the worst .. actually no you’re not . At least there some glimmers of hope . There was zero in 01 and 02 , 02 especially after Hopoate . And we were being talked about like we were the embarrassment of the league . Not in “they always lose “ kind of way , but a “the team is full of westy scum , drug addicts and dead beats, only deros would follow that team “ . That’s the conversations being had around that time .

 

[Kelce68]

Once more, as has been explained to you already, we aren’t talking about who is available now. The recruitment team works all year round you realise?

That is the point being made. Where were we when the doors were still open?
You are sooking about members being upset that we haven’t signed anyone of note, yet your trump is we have to bank on juniors?
It’s a lazy answer as it can’t be proven wrong for years yet. Meanwhile, we continue to be the laughing stock of the code.

Right. So you're bemoaning our lack of recruitment from earlier in the year then? (still no names by the way).

I'm not sooking about anything and I'm not presenting a trump card. I'm saying that is what the path that's been taken is most likely to be, which is attributable to a number of factors relating to our club and why it struggles to sign high level players consistently.

Meanwhile, in the last 12 months, the club has brought in Koroisau, Papali'i, Bateman and Klemmer.

You want to talk about lazy answers, yet, despite the effort and detail that 2041 have put into our responses and the time we've taken to walk through possible signing targets, either past or present, you're yet to present a response with an outline of who we should target and how we get them here.

Crichton signed in January. Farnworth in February. So when exactly, and who exactly, are all these amazing targets that we've missed this year thus far, or, who, and from what club, are you going to miraculously extract from their current contract?

Mate. I'm with you on the frustration. I wish we were better. I wish we could sign better players. I understand the lament that we haven't, and don't. But to turn your vitriol on people making conservative or low-key acquisition suggestions and refer to them as idiots just doesn't add up to me and I fail to see what that adds to the conversation.

 

[Kelce68]

You’d think a solid first grade player like Taas isn’t gonna be happy to play Reggie’s next year + with Munro coming through doubt he would get extended, solid first grader that prob wouldn’t be on much coin… I could see him asking for a release

Ethan Ferguson coming through there too. They've got a bit of a squeeze coming up.

 

[TV Ted Ellery]

I was there for both . And I know you weren’t , hence why you’re using stats as your argument .
And 01 and 02 were just as / if not more bleak than now .
There was no Fainu , no Galvin , no talk of the large brothers , we didn’t have TDS and Bula at the back .
The team was utter shite , really hard to support , and full of manly castaways and morally bankrupt rejects . Sure we won games, but I’ll never forget sitting on the hill listening to Hopoate songs , and generally wondering why we even bothered .
And not to mention the constant fights between wests and Balmain .
I remember a washed Michael Buettner was the only shining light we could hope for .
And if I go back further to when I was a pup in the 90s I remember after Jones lead us to nothingness , and there was real fear that we were about to fold .
But yea you’re right mate … this is definitely the worst .. actually no you’re not . At least there some glimmers of hope . There was zero in 01 and 02 , 02 especially after Hopoate . And we were being talked about like we were the embarrassment of the league . Not in “they always lose “ kind of way , but a “the team is full of westy scum , drug addicts and dead beats, only deros would follow that team “ . That’s the conversations being had around that time .

While 2001-2002 were bleak years for the senior team, it was a golden period for Wests juniors with guys like Hoffman and Hopoate who signed elsewhere, along with Collis, Ben Roberts, De Gois, Fulton and Gibbs coming through together.

 

[Tucker]

I was there for both . And I know you weren’t , hence why you’re using stats as your argument .
And 01 and 02 were just as / if not more bleak than now .
There was no Fainu , no Galvin , no talk of the large brothers , we didn’t have TDS and Bula at the back .
The team was utter shite , really hard to support , and full of manly castaways and morally bankrupt rejects . Sure we won games, but I’ll never forget sitting on the hill listening to Hopoate songs , and generally wondering why we even bothered .
And not to mention the constant fights between wests and Balmain .
I remember a washed Michael Buettner was the only shining light we could hope for .
And if I go back further to when I was a pup in the 90s I remember after Jones lead us to nothingness , and there was real fear that we were about to fold .
But yea you’re right mate … this is definitely the worst .. actually no you’re not . At least there some glimmers of hope . There was zero in 01 and 02 , 02 especially after Hopoate . And we were being talked about like we were the embarrassment of the league . Not in “they always lose “ kind of way , but a “the team is full of westy scum , drug addicts and dead beats, only deros would follow that team “ . That’s the conversations being had around that time .

You don’t know jackshit about me so stop right there with that line of garbage.
You replied to me champ. I said this was our worst season given the amount of positives attached to it. I said nothing about outlooks to the future, nothing about juniors coming through. I said this is our worst season yet and you tried to smugly discredit this by pointing to a season where we weren’t beat in 10 games. Newsflash…we won 4 games this year and came last with 19 losses. Luckily there were 3 byes or we likely would have lost over 20 games.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

He would help us use our cap?

Clubs have to spend 95% of the salary cap each year. I’d say we are well under that looking at our list so either we front load a lot of contracts or can secure some more higher value players for their position. That is where signing Gagai may help as well.

 

[ancient_magpie]

The GF was a good case study in the value of good halves, no matter what their age. The 32 year old veteran was very good, the 25 year old a superstar and the 20 year old was MOM with 5 minutes to go. We don't know how good ours will be next year so it's unfortunately wait and see. One has played in a GF, the others....? One or two good ones could ignite the current backline which, if we can get field position like we did this year, could quite easily get us into the eight.

I'm not sure he would survive our club culture.

Fainu and Sullivan are our future.

I watched Aidan Sezers highlights and if his short kicking game is still as good were in for a big improvement in last tackle options next year

 

[Tucker]

Right. So you're bemoaning our lack of recruitment from earlier in the year then? (still no names by the way).

I'm not sooking about anything and I'm not presenting a trump card. I'm saying that is what the path that's been taken is most likely to be, which is attributable to a number of factors relating to our club and why it struggles to sign high level players consistently.

Meanwhile, in the last 12 months, the club has brought in Koroisau, Papali'i, Bateman and Klemmer.

You want to talk about lazy answers, yet, despite the effort and detail that 2041 have put into our responses and the time we've taken to walk through possible signing targets, either past or present, you're yet to present a response with an outline of who we should target and how we get them here.

Crichton signed in January. Farnworth in February. So when exactly, and who exactly, are all these amazing targets that we've missed this year thus far, or, who, and from what club, are you going to miraculously extract from their current contract?

Mate. I'm with you on the frustration. I wish we were better. I wish we could sign better players. I understand the lament that we haven't, and don't. But to turn your vitriol on people making conservative or low-key acquisition suggestions and refer to them as idiots just doesn't add up to me and I fail to see what that adds to the conversation.

I don’t know how many times I have to explain this to you.
You don’t wait for them to come onto the market!
You actively enquire about them well ahead of that. Good recruitment begins way before they come on the market. Don’t give me this crap about following rules either. Every club does it. We are the only ones who seem to sit around waiting our turn to talk to them.

 

[Kelce68]

I don’t know how many times I have to explain this to you.
You don’t wait for them to come onto the market!
You actively enquire about them well ahead of that. Good recruitment begins way before they come on the market. Don’t give me this crap about following rules either. Every club does it. We are the only ones who seem to sit around waiting our turn to talk to them.

OK, so you can't tell us who we should chase, or who they play for, or what you'd offer them, just more of a 'do better' kinda feel.

That, and cheat the system.

This, despite the fact that the Dolphins were fined $50k last month for doing that exact thing with Deine Mariner at the Broncos..

Got it.

 

[lathami]

Of the Magpies sure but not really a big name for most Tigers fans, Balmain or Wests.

Your not really a wests fan if u don’t know Trev!

 

[tigerbenji]

I am 70

So am I mate. Lol.

 

[CornerPost]

Tass would be a great buy. Toa the other centre, Naden and tupou on the wings.. might be something for Benji and Morris to work with.

 

[Tucker]

OK, so you can't tell us who we should chase, or who they play for, or what you'd offer them, just more of a 'do better' kinda feel.

That, and cheat the system.

This, despite the fact that the Dolphins were fined $50k last month for doing that exact thing with Deine Mariner at the Broncos..

Got it.

Why the hell is up to me?
I’m the same as you and that other dimwit. By the time we were made aware that certain players are on the market, the ink is drying on their new contracts.
Our recruitment team however should have their ear to the ground and be aware that a move is afoot. We are missing out on these guys due to mistakes made LAST YEAR.

 

[lathami]

Yes it’s no guarantee the best young players become the best NRL players, but I’d much rather have them on our books, than not have them at all.
Players such as Bula, Pole, Fainu x2, Da Silva, Laulilli x2, Galvin, Miller, Faagatu, Mason and then the younger ones such as Large x2 and Makasini just to name a few, are players that would have no problem getting on the books of any of our rival 16 NRL clubs.
Even if 3 or 4 of them live up to their potential, become elite NRL players on their position and stay with us we will have done extremely well.
Better judges than me strongly believe at least 6-7 of this crop will well and truly live up to their potential at NRL level.
If this assumption is correct, we will have a very good side in our hands within a couple of seasons, we just need to be patient as we cannot expect t all of them to be superstars at 18-21 years of age.

I like the idea been run lately put large and Galvin at centre and with Feledy in the mix. Old flipper tupou can also be there if he gets his hands write?!
It’s good to have a player like large or Galvin cut their teeth in first grade without to much pressure. Once they establish themselves in first grade if their skills are up to it they can move to the halves. I like large but in lower grades if u have any vision they put u in the halves, doesn’t make u an automatic first grade half though!

 

[Kelce68]

Why the hell is up to me?
I’m the same as you and that other dimwit. By the time we were made aware that certain players are on the market, the ink is drying on their new contracts.
Our recruitment team however should have their ear to the ground and be aware that a move is afoot. We are missing out on these guys due to mistakes made LAST YEAR.

Well, it is a signing suggestions thread.

I'd assume with such strong critique of our recruitment process, you'd have a suggestion or two as to who we should sign.

 

[Tucker]

Well, it is a signing suggestions thread.

I'd assume with such strong critique of our recruitment process, you'd have a suggestion or two as to who we should sign.

I don’t partake in fantasy crap.
I’ll leave that to you guys.

 

[lathami]

Tass would be a great buy. Toa the other centre, Naden and tupou on the wings.. might be something for Benji and Morris to work with.

I don’t know about toa, two good games this year, the rest below average! Prefer someone/anyone better…

 

[Roar_Power]

I don’t know about toa, two good games this year, the rest below average! Prefer someone/anyone better…

Toa is a depth player only. Anyone thinking he is consistent first grade material isn't shooting high enough.