Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[SwervinMervin]

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

 

[TigerNeddyK]

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?

 

[2041]

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.

 

[SwervinMervin]

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.

 

[Tiger Stripes]

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.

 

[Harvey]

Junior Tupou to the dolphins apparently. Behind a locked code sports article.

Shows we can still screw things up royally

 

[nrlsurvivor]

Junior Tupou to the dolphins apparently. Behind a locked code sports article.

Shows we can still screw things up royally

Telegraph also reported this and said the swap deal with Olam and Blore is back on the cards

 

[Pascoes_barber]

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.

 

[Pascoes_barber]

LOL where's the Pom now that it's been announced in the mass media

 

[weststigerman]

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.

 

[Fingers83]

LOL where's the Pom now that it's been announced in the mass media

You are one of the blokes that drove him out of here and you are proud of it?

Very strange flex.

 

[jrtiger]

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.

 

[SwervinMervin]

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.

 

[TigerNeddyK]

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

 

[Pascoes_barber]

You are one of the blokes that drove him out of here and you are proud of it?

I am?

 

[Dino]

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.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

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.

With the terrible state of our backline quality it would be interesting as to know why if he does leave.

Maybe it’s simple that the Dolphins promised him center spot and we couldn’t - which if that’s so fair enough. Would be worried if it was cash or any else.

 

[KCTiger2]

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

Saukuru starting centre round 1?

 

[Curaeus]

Tupou did ok for us in a few games and not so good in quite a few others. Always nice to keep the young guys with promise but his leaving, if it happens, is an otherwise minor blip on the WT landscape.

 

[Tiger_Fanatic3]

The Wests Tigers’ roster overhaul continues to gather momentum as the club braces for the departure of winger Junior Tupou to the Dolphins and they rekindle their interest in a swap deal involving Justin Olam and Shawn Blore.

This masthead also understands that the club is growing increasingly confident they will be in position to confirm the signing of Penrith superstar Jarome Luai in coming days in a huge boost for coach Benji Marshall.

Tupou has entered the final year of his deal and has attracted a significant offer from the Dolphins, which he has indicated he will accept, making him the poster boy for the game’s new 10-day contracting window.

While the Tigers wanted to keep Tupou, it is understood they are unlikely to engage in a bidding war for the 21-year-old, who had also attracted interest from Canberra and had been linked with the Sydney Roosters.

The Dolphins look to have won the day, although they face a nervous two weeks given Tupou is well within his rights to renege on any agreement over the next fortnight.

Under the new contracting guidelines, once a player indicates he is ready to accept an offer from a rival club, the deal must be lodged with the NRL.

His incumbent club then has 10 days to convince him to change his mind. Even if they can’t convince him to stay, the player can shift their stance, reject the rival offer and go back on the open market.

The Tigers are believed to be comfortable with their position given the impending arrival of Luai and the fresh interest in Olam.

The Tigers had been locked in talks with Melbourne over a deal for Olam that would have involved an immediate swap for Blore, who has agreed to join the Storm from 2025.

The negotiations went cold but it is understood it has been rekindled as the Tigers look to strengthen their backline stocks and the Storm attempt to add more punch to their forward pack heading into the upcoming season.

Olam is well down the pecking order at the Storm as Melbourne prepare to move Nick Meaney to the centres – they also have Reimis Smith and Marion Seve in their squad, while youngster Jack Howarth has played some centre as well as back row.

The big prize for the Tigers is Luai and the club is edging towards a formal announcement of his signature in a huge boost for Marshall heading into his rookie season as head coach.

While Luai won’t arrive until 2025, his signature on a $6 million deal will provide Marshall with the tactical and spiritual leader he craves as he looks to improve the club’s fortunes.

It is understood the Tigers are yet to officially lodge their offer with the NRL but hope to do so in coming days. The Bulldogs were also in the mix for Luai but it is believed the Penrith superstar has his heart set on joining the Tigers after talks with Marshall and interim chief executive Shane Richardson late last week.