Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Let's not get excited about Luai giving notice to the Riff that he is leaving at the end of this season .. all the sports media have us as the fav's for him to join us .. but i'll feel a little more comfortable once he's signed on the dotted line .. those mongrel dogs are still sniffing around .. !! :-( the fat lady aint singing yet.

Here are some of the stand outs in pre-season so far:

Benji see's Soloman Alaimalo as more of a centre .. but will slot him in out on the wing .. dont think we'll see him from round one .. but we will see him at some stage of 24.

Lob is training the house down .. i wouldnt be surprised if he's in the top side quicker than we think .. and yes he has been practising his goal kicking and slotting some long range shots.

Bud Sullivan has been given a free pass to play game as what he see's in front of him .. dont be surprised to see him run the ball a lot.

Sezer has already taken squad under his wing with a lot of the young fellows listening an learning how he'll run the side around the park. His organisational skills will allow Api to free himself up a lot this season

Galvin and Saukuru are both impressing at training .. there is a good chance that Saukuru might be a starting centre.

Faagutu, Miller, Laulilii and Sukkar are all training well .. Millar is a possible bench starter for round 1. It's fun watching the brothers Fainu training and the two big prop brothers certainly have competitive spirit with each other.

Klemmer is looking ripped this pre-season .. he knows there are bunch of young kids knocking the door down for a prop position this season.

Naden and Ferrari are training strong .. hopefully a big season from both of these guys.

Watching the squad .. Lob and Alaimalo are two tall towers out on the field .. would be awesome to have them as our two wingers .. no one is going to out jump them .. lol
Awesome update. Keep 'em coming
 
I would actually like to see play balling lock in the mould of Scott Hill. Maybe if Douhei can increase his workrate and defence, he is a good option at Lock.
I'd definitely love a ballplaying lock as you say, but Doueihi isn't the answer. too soft and not enough mongrel to do a job in the middle. Kit Laulili'i is the likely answer. has plenty of ability on both sides of the ball and can cart it up and bend the line and throw a decent pass.

Matamua is clearly in transition and I'm not sure if he'll ever get there. Siotame Havea is an intriguing prospect also. the only issue is the immediate future.
 
Let's not get excited about Luai giving notice to the Riff that he is leaving at the end of this season .. all the sports media have us as the fav's for him to join us .. but i'll feel a little more comfortable once he's signed on the dotted line .. those mongrel dogs are still sniffing around .. !! :-( the fat lady aint singing yet.

Here are some of the stand outs in pre-season so far:

Benji see's Soloman Alaimalo as more of a centre .. but will slot him in out on the wing .. dont think we'll see him from round one .. but we will see him at some stage of 24.

Lob is training the house down .. i wouldnt be surprised if he's in the top side quicker than we think .. and yes he has been practising his goal kicking and slotting some long range shots.

Bud Sullivan has been given a free pass to play game as what he see's in front of him .. dont be surprised to see him run the ball a lot.

Sezer has already taken squad under his wing with a lot of the young fellows listening an learning how he'll run the side around the park. His organisational skills will allow Api to free himself up a lot this season

Galvin and Saukuru are both impressing at training .. there is a good chance that Saukuru might be a starting centre.

Faagutu, Miller, Laulilii and Sukkar are all training well .. Millar is a possible bench starter for round 1. It's fun watching the brothers Fainu training and the two big prop brothers certainly have competitive spirit with each other.

Klemmer is looking ripped this pre-season .. he knows there are bunch of young kids knocking the door down for a prop position this season.

Naden and Ferrari are training strong .. hopefully a big season from both of these guys.

Watching the squad .. Lob and Alaimalo are two tall towers out on the field .. would be awesome to have them as our two wingers .. no one is going to out jump them .. lol
Miller missed the start of preseason with injury, would be very surprising for him to be pushing for first grade so soon into his nrl career given he's never played higher than Ball and only been training for a month. But he's got the size to be a real difference maker for us! Possibly part of why we dropped interest in AFB, with Pole, Utoikamanu, and Miller all coming through alongside the war horses in Klem and Twal. Tofaeno also has a similar build to AFB, albeit a bit stockier.

I dare say the emergence of Saukuru may have put a hold on Olam talks too. If he's showing enough promise to suggest he can play first grade in near future then we don't want to block him with an older player on large money.
 
I'd definitely love a ballplaying lock as you say, but Doueihi isn't the answer. too soft and not enough mongrel to do a job in the middle. Kit Laulili'i is the likely answer. has plenty of ability on both sides of the ball and can cart it up and bend the line and throw a decent pass.

Matamua is clearly in transition and I'm not sure if he'll ever get there. Siotame Havea is an intriguing prospect also. the only issue is the immediate future.
I don’t think Doueihi is physically robust enough for lock. Even a ball playing, link man lock forward needs to do the dirty hit ups and front line defensive load. Yeo does it and so did Brandon Smith when he played that role for Melbourne. If there is an alternative position for him I would suggest it needs to be in the centres. Trouble is, he likely gets exposed defensively in that position given how important one on one defence is at centre and the need to organize your inside and outside defenders and defensive reads.
He’s a good player whose development has been cruelled by injury, but unfortunately he is probably the guy that is surplus to requirements if JL is coming in 2025
 
Let's not get excited about Luai giving notice to the Riff that he is leaving at the end of this season .. all the sports media have us as the fav's for him to join us .. but i'll feel a little more comfortable once he's signed on the dotted line .. those mongrel dogs are still sniffing around .. !! :-( the fat lady aint singing yet.

Here are some of the stand outs in pre-season so far:

Benji see's Soloman Alaimalo as more of a centre .. but will slot him in out on the wing .. dont think we'll see him from round one .. but we will see him at some stage of 24.

Lob is training the house down .. i wouldnt be surprised if he's in the top side quicker than we think .. and yes he has been practising his goal kicking and slotting some long range shots.

Bud Sullivan has been given a free pass to play game as what he see's in front of him .. dont be surprised to see him run the ball a lot.

Sezer has already taken squad under his wing with a lot of the young fellows listening an learning how he'll run the side around the park. His organisational skills will allow Api to free himself up a lot this season

Galvin and Saukuru are both impressing at training .. there is a good chance that Saukuru might be a starting centre.

Faagutu, Miller, Laulilii and Sukkar are all training well .. Millar is a possible bench starter for round 1. It's fun watching the brothers Fainu training and the two big prop brothers certainly have competitive spirit with each other.

Klemmer is looking ripped this pre-season .. he knows there are bunch of young kids knocking the door down for a prop position this season.

Naden and Ferrari are training strong .. hopefully a big season from both of these guys.

Watching the squad .. Lob and Alaimalo are two tall towers out on the field .. would be awesome to have them as our two wingers .. no one is going to out jump them .. lol
How about Navren Willett from Taree?
 
Do you realise that we have neglected and ignored our juniors for most of the past decade? There have been very few high quality players come through the ranks to go onto first grade, our sides have regularly finished towards the bottom of the ladders. Our juniors focus has only started the past 2 years (and that was with 16 year olds), it takes time for talent to reach first grade.
It absolutely baffles me that people on here are so covinced that we've "prioritised the future" for the past decade. If that's the case, well, holy hell have we been bad at it. The amount of talent we've brought through has been dismal and the amount we've retained long enough to actually help out our club at first grade level has been nothing short of a joke. Fans have such a focus on free agent recruitment but if you give that a D grade the juniors production is an F. Thank goodness we've managed to poach a few decent kids and rejects from other systems otherwise I suspect we'd already be in Perth.
 
It absolutely baffles me that people on here are so covinced that we've "prioritised the future" for the past decade. If that's the case, well, holy hell have we been bad at it. The amount of talent we've brought through has been dismal and the amount we've retained long enough to actually help out our club at first grade level has been nothing short of a joke. Fans have such a focus on free agent recruitment but if you give that a D grade the juniors production is an F. Thank goodness we've managed to poach a few decent kids and rejects from other systems otherwise I suspect we'd already be in Perth.
You can't have good junior development without a good coaching set up, specifically stability and continuity. How much coaching staff turnover has there been at Wests Tigers over the past 10 years - probably more than any other club I reckon. You can have the best junior catchment area, but they won't progress from under age football to senior / NRL level players if the coaching is constantly disrupted.
 
Let's not get excited about Luai giving notice to the Riff that he is leaving at the end of this season .. all the sports media have us as the fav's for him to join us .. but i'll feel a little more comfortable once he's signed on the dotted line .. those mongrel dogs are still sniffing around .. !! :-( the fat lady aint singing yet.

Here are some of the stand outs in pre-season so far:

Benji see's Soloman Alaimalo as more of a centre .. but will slot him in out on the wing .. dont think we'll see him from round one .. but we will see him at some stage of 24.

Lob is training the house down .. i wouldnt be surprised if he's in the top side quicker than we think .. and yes he has been practising his goal kicking and slotting some long range shots.

Bud Sullivan has been given a free pass to play game as what he see's in front of him .. dont be surprised to see him run the ball a lot.

Sezer has already taken squad under his wing with a lot of the young fellows listening an learning how he'll run the side around the park. His organisational skills will allow Api to free himself up a lot this season

Galvin and Saukuru are both impressing at training .. there is a good chance that Saukuru might be a starting centre.

Faagutu, Miller, Laulilii and Sukkar are all training well .. Millar is a possible bench starter for round 1. It's fun watching the brothers Fainu training and the two big prop brothers certainly have competitive spirit with each other.

Klemmer is looking ripped this pre-season .. he knows there are bunch of young kids knocking the door down for a prop position this season.

Naden and Ferrari are training strong .. hopefully a big season from both of these guys.

Watching the squad .. Lob and Alaimalo are two tall towers out on the field .. would be awesome to have them as our two wingers .. no one is going to out jump them .. lol
Thanks for your report card.
Sounds like Benji has put them all on notice. Form gets you into the 1-17 spots.
 
hey guys just heard from my mate mike who works at newscorp, some of you might remember he had some early mail on peachy jumping ship.

anyway met up for a few off the wood and he relayed the below:

- luai and his management apparently teeing up another meeting at belmore. who knows what this could mean.
- tupou and links to the dolphins have not gone away. mike couldn't tell me if he was signing there or purely driving up his price at WTs but mike seemed to think he was happy at WTs from what he has heard (lunches with some prominent slimeball journos and managers).

mike's a diehard sharks fan (c.unt lol) but doesn't mind benji so always has an ear to the ground. hopefully not on the money with these rumours after the good week we've just had.


WTF, someone with accurate 'mail' and not just big-noting BS? This was from Thursday last week LOL.
 
Tupou could be anything, but could also not fill his potential unless he fixes his hands and defence.

Disappointing if we lose him, but at least the club will know what the offer is and probably after Luai has confirmed he's coming.
 
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disappointing we lose Tupou but Kristian Woolf must've worked overtime on him when they were in England recently for the Tonga tour. we can't bend our cap out of shape for a player who, although he has promise, is a long way off being the finished product. great player with the world at his feet, but we'll be ok. best of luck, Toops.
 
I dont understand the questioning of the price tag.
We are cellar dwellers, but, for example, even if Cronulla(consistent finals side) wanted him, they would have to pay that,to entice a guy to leave a Club that's won the last 3 Grand Finals.
It's interesting the narrative about WT paying overs for JL. As far as 5/8ths go, only Munster and possibly Cody Walker could be considered a step up from JL's level. Maybe Jack Wighton is somewhere close. But apart from these guys, JL is in front of every other 5/8th in the NRL. If he remained at Pentrith for $850-900K per season it would be re-signing for unders for sure. He's still young, has his best footy in front of him as a half, has played in 4 consecutive grand finals winning 3 of them, 7 SOO games, etc. For sure he is a $1M+ player on the open market.
If he has signed for WT for somewhere between $1.1-1.2M per season it might be a bit overs, but not massive overs. Some clubs get belted by the press constantly for player contracts and others get a rails run. Wests Tigers have made some dumb decisions in the past, playing marquee rates for average first graders (Mbye, Reynolds, Packer, etc) but I didn't read too much from Buzz or Ricchio about Sharks paying close to $1M per season for Nicho Hynes (a number 14 at the Storm) or Dale Finucane at nearly $700K per season and 4 years in the twilight of his career.
Any way you cut it, JL is a marquee player, and they don't come cheap to any club, especially a bottom 4 club.
 
Junior Tupou to the dolphins apparently. Behind a locked code sports article.

Shows we can still screw things up royally
To me it says more about Tupou really , wanted by the club but seems to not want to be there,, shame really because he has been given a good run and had a future at Tigers IMO
 
To me it says more about Tupou really , wanted by the club but seems to not want to be there,, shame really because he has been given a good run and had a future at Tigers IMO
Can't blame the guy too much, footy players have short careers and wingers arnt usually paid much so an extra 50-100k is a real difference maker for them.
 
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