Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Roar_Power said:
Must mean Best is no chance...
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I think he’s no chance wether we’re showing interest in Suli or not.

As much as I’m loathed to say it, i think we should have thrown the kitchen sink at Luai. Probably not feasible now that we have invested heavily in two unproven rookies, but as a dim witted simpleton who once captained this team once said, it is what it is.
 
My take on the last few days re-signings is a bit mixed and will depend if we can offload a player or 2.

Signing Twal on a reduced rate and not getting Keppie is a win in my opinion. I saw nothing in Keppie to get excited about and he was good for errors and penalties. Twal you know you get consistency, work rate and he will drive standards at training for the young blokes. He also looked like he can offer a little more in attack this year too.

I thought it meant Seyfarth wouldn't have been retained though. I hope that Benji puts Seyfarth into a backrow position and lets him train there over the pre season. If he trains as a back up 2nd rower or maybe a ball playing lock he could potentially add some value if needed to be called upon. I dont think he can be another prop in rotation. If we had a few more spots I would have been fine with it.

Having all 30 spots gone and no obvious back up for Bula and/or extra outside backs just seems strange with the squad balance. Staines for mine is a must, as he can be the back up fb for Bula and also a starting winger. I don't know if there is too much else out there available at the moment. But at least 1 spot should be available in case some outside back of quality also becomes available too. I wouldn't be surprised to see that Alex Lobb from Dragons pop up on a Dev Contract for further depth that are now eligible to play from round 1.

I would expect some of Mansfield, Tumeth, Simpkin, Nofa (if takers) could be released to free up spots.
 
TigerSJ said:
Thanks for the team list Earl.

When you look at the current squad like this you start to see the weaknesses. Obvious lack of NRL experience outside our first 13 so any injuries will hurt us. We need a genuine lock option and Twal must be in the prop rotation, or find another quality prop. Outside backs are weak and need big improvements.
Depth wise we fall off a cliff from 18th man onwards. Lots of young guys with plenty of work to do to be NRL players.
Carrying 5-6 players with little or no future upside to us and ideally we need to upgrade them for NRL players with winning attitudes. Clearly not so easy and may unfortunately take another season.
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So business as usual? I’m expecting all players whose surname finishes with a ‘u’ to have a great season.
 
Telltails said:
You have to wonder why Staines has not been resigned here and or anywhere at this point. A handy player that has speed - a bit odd.
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I think it's about the dollar figure. Staines has been overpaid. I'm not sure if he is worth $500k and I expect that is what he is after. Hopefully they get the money right and retain him.
 
GNR4LIFE said:
Think Charlie probably ends up back at Penrith. Probably sent him to us for a year as a practical joke.
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Penrith won’t pay him anywhere near the money he’s looking for.
It comes down to us against the Eels, Dragons and Bulldogs for his signature, he’ll go to the highest bidder.
 
jadtiger said:
There is no way i could see AD switching to a T&T contract from the contract that he signed for 2024,we will have to wear that one unless he decides to take medical retirement if he possible can.Simpkin hopefully will look around and try to get another contract as he does not have a defined career path with us in the future imho
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Potentially we could resign him for 25-26 on a first grade contract with incentives and restructure his current contract to a T and T to allow for that extra roster spot for the start of this year. I was really hoping we would resign Staines up and long term. He is the winger we don’t have!
 
Tigers_Wests said:
My take on the last few days re-signings is a bit mixed and will depend if we can offload a player or 2.

Signing Twal on a reduced rate and not getting Keppie is a win in my opinion. I saw nothing in Keppie to get excited about and he was good for errors and penalties. Twal you know you get consistency, work rate and he will drive standards at training for the young blokes. He also looked like he can offer a little more in attack this year too.

I thought it meant Seyfarth wouldn't have been retained though. I hope that Benji puts Seyfarth into a backrow position and lets him train there over the pre season. If he trains as a back up 2nd rower or maybe a ball playing lock he could potentially add some value if needed to be called upon. I dont think he can be another prop in rotation. If we had a few more spots I would have been fine with it.

Having all 30 spots gone and no obvious back up for Bula and/or extra outside backs just seems strange with the squad balance. Staines for mine is a must, as he can be the back up fb for Bula and also a starting winger. I don't know if there is too much else out there available at the moment. But at least 1 spot should be available in case some outside back of quality also becomes available too. I wouldn't be surprised to see that Alex Lobb from Dragons pop up on a Dev Contract for further depth that are now eligible to play from round 1.

I would expect some of Mansfield, Tumeth, Simpkin, Nofa (if takers) could be released to free up spots.
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It's been suggested on here that Benji is looking to free up 3 spots. IMO, if that backline isn't addressed, we are in for a rough 2024.
 
Just seen are squad and I fear another wooden spoon is on the way , if benji can’t see that this group is no better than last years then he is not the coach I was hoping for , we need two more forwards with experience and two backs with speed ??????????
 
bptiger 0 said:
Just seen are squad and I fear another wooden spoon is on the way , if benji can’t see that this group is no better than last years then he is not the coach I was hoping for , we need two more forwards with experience and two backs with speed ??????????
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We’d be in trouble if Benji had already given up. It’s his job to have faith in his squad. We as supporters have the freedom to see what the squad for what it is though.
 
It is becoming clear Benji will stay loyal to players who work hard and spill blood for the jersey.
I like it and am very optimistic we will see some of these players give everything they have for their coach and reach higher standards because of it.
Don’t forget it’s these stock standard hard working players that have been the core of many successful teams and allow the flashy players the opportunities to score points and win games.
Yes we don’t have many of any of these flashy match winning type players, the key to our success is done emerging to be those type of players that we need.
 
On Staines, i am thinking that the club is working on a way to keep him and he’s sitting tight waiting for things to pan out. I believe he wants to stay if possible.
If the talk of Suli is true, Benji must think he can get the right attitude out of him, because if he can, then a fit and firing Suli would certainly add some attack to our outside backs.
As for AJ Kepaoa, i think it may be difficult to move him on but he definitely can not play in our NRL backline any more. At best he converts completely to a middle in reggies who may get a bench call up. Not sure about Mansfield but AJ would be ahead of Tumeth in this regard.
 
TigerSJ said:
On Staines, i am thinking that the club is working on a way to keep him and he’s sitting tight waiting for things to pan out. I believe he wants to stay if possible.
If the talk of Suli is true, Benji must think he can get the right attitude out of him, because if he can, then a fit and firing Suli would certainly add some attack to our outside backs.
As for AJ Kepaoa, i think it may be difficult to move him on but he definitely can not play in our NRL backline any more. At best he converts completely to a middle in reggies who may get a bench call up. Not sure about Mansfield but AJ would be ahead of Tumeth in this regard.
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Suli would be an interesting one.
He’s very tight with the Fainu boys, so it could be a bit of a plan to have him Running his hard line outside of Latu Fainu on the left, considering one of young Fainu’s main strengths is his ability to straighten up engage the defenders and put his centre through a gap or get them one on one at the very least.
Don’t write Mansfield and Tumeth off if they remain with us as if either of them have a big off-season and get themselves fitter, faster, stronger than ever they certainly could surprise.
 
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