Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Camel2281]

Agreed. It’s like watching Daniel Mortimer. Anyone who think he was good is automatically banned from commenting on this forum as you clearly have no idea. He was pretty much Luke Brooks before Luke Brooks.

Except played finals

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Except played finals

I know right. We’ve sucked

 

[Camel2281]

...a nd COVID

That was Luke Brooks BBQing Bats and Pangolin on his Weber

 

[LeichhardtTiger]

That was Luke Brooks BBQing Bats and Pangolin on his Weber

Yes, I agree. However, I question Brooks' flame management. Whilst he is ok delivering the game to the Weber and the Bats are serviced adequately, it's the Pangolin on the right edge of the Weber that suffer from a lack of attention that even under extreme Weber heatbead conditions leaves them out in the cold such that they can cause COVID like symptoms if the BBQ is operating during a Southerly in the late arvo. Back in the Day, we called him the Crematorium Chef - cos he was always burning the game! Now the bats are burning and the pangolin are SARS not seared! Oi Vay~ 🙄 🤢🤣🥃🥃🥃

 

[cqtiger]

Our defensive structure is the key. I thought our defense was pretty good till about halfway ghrough last year we just couldn’t score points. Furner was our defense coach then wasn’t he? Sheens gone so Furner gone.

Who is our defense coach this year? Morris, Heigno? Both?

It’s no good having a better attack with new halves if our defense is awful.

 

[426Tlgerland]

Our defensive structure is the key. I thought our defense was pretty good till about halfway ghrough last year we just couldn’t score points. Furner was our defense coach then wasn’t he? Sheens gone so Furner gone.

Who is our defense coach this year? Morris, Heigno? Both?

It’s no good having a better attack with new halves if our defense is awful.

Our defence should still be good this year , I feel with our new halves we will grab those points we missed with poor attack last year and this will give our defenders a bit less work load , all we did was defend last year , ore points makes it a bit easier , we will be fine , Top 8 is not out of reach we just need to make sure we win the games that are there for the taking , last year we stuffed up,at least 6 winnable games

 

[jrtiger]

Our defensive structure is the key. I thought our defense was pretty good till about halfway ghrough last year we just couldn’t score points. Furner was our defense coach then wasn’t he? Sheens gone so Furner gone.

Who is our defense coach this year? Morris, Heigno? Both?

It’s no good having a better attack with new halves if our defense is awful.

Morris is our defence coach. when Souths were leading the comp midway thru the season they had the second best defensive statistics in the league.

you can attribute many things to their demise (injuries, favouritism issues) but I don't think Bomber's defensive structures were the issue. Da Silva said in his podcast episode that Morris had already come in and changed the entire defensive mindset.

given Marshall's game plans seem to be around effort and attitude I think you'll see us improve markedly in defence.

 

[Tiger Karen]

Morris is our defence coach. when Souths were leading the comp midway thru the season they had the second best defensive statistics in the league.

you can attribute many things to their demise (injuries, favouritism issues) but I don't think Bomber's defensive structures were the issue. Da Silva said in his podcast episode that Morris had already come in and changed the entire defensive mindset.

given Marshall's game plans seem to be around effort and attitude I think you'll see us improve markedly in defence.

I think the scholars of the game thought he over-achieved at the sharks with their available cattle.

I really like the idea that Benji can bounce stuff off him at a moments notice about any aspect of his endeavours.

Also, it gives Benji some kind of respite if he chooses, bounce ideas off after a long day. He shouldn’t be alone. Sharing the load is vital, plus I’d like him to get new influences.

It was an inspired appointment in the circumstances.

 

[weststigers]

I understand it’s Monday. But clearly it was a joke or some general tongue in cheek comment. Come on lighten up

I understand he was trying to be funny, but be honest...how hard did you really laugh?

 

[gregjm87]

Morris is our defence coach. when Souths were leading the comp midway thru the season they had the second best defensive statistics in the league.

you can attribute many things to their demise (injuries, favouritism issues) but I don't think Bomber's defensive structures were the issue. Da Silva said in his podcast episode that Morris had already come in and changed the entire defensive mindset.

given Marshall's game plans seem to be around effort and attitude I think you'll see us improve markedly in defence.

Yep, im very happy with Morris being appointed defensive coach last year.

I disagree with others that our defence was good for any of last year or that poor attack was the reason for the poor defence.

Tigers overall had 50% possession and were 3rd for forced dropouts. The claims of doing nothing but defending doesn't hold up.

The first half of the season we gave up 20+ points in all but 4 games. Those 4 games include the Knights who had players dropping like flies in Rd2, a rain soaked game against Panthers (admittedly this is still impressive), the very ordinary Dragons and the thrashing of Cowboys.

Yes, the defence got much worse after the midway point but we should not kid ourselves that it started strongly.

 

[Tiger Karen]

Our fat lipped, Robbie rouser, Jason Taylor he said the modern day game is more mentally focused.

That the deviation amongst player skills and fitness is less pronounced than it used to be.

And the approach to player/s should be on an intense individual as well as group.

When I met him, he seemed friendly enough. They all do lol!

Now Benji had his bad Madge days, but I think they made up, just before we punted Benji.

Madge went into bat for him apparently.

Benji wasn’t happy reading about his axing in the paper. Understandable, we used to leak like a sieve!

 

[AdelaideTiger]

Yep, im very happy with Morris being appointed defensive coach last year.

I disagree with others that our defence was good for any of last year or that poor attack was the reason for the poor defence.

Tigers overall had 50% possession and were 3rd for forced dropouts. The claims of doing nothing but defending doesn't hold up.

The first half of the season we gave up 20+ points in all but 4 games. Those 4 games include the Knights who had players dropping like flies in Rd2, a rain soaked game against Panthers (admittedly this is still impressive), the very ordinary Dragons and the thrashing of Cowboys.

Yes, the defence got much worse after the midway point but we should not kid ourselves that it started strongly.

Those stats are surprising and they don't necessarily match how the games through the year felt to me watching them.

Api made a huge difference though our middle defensively and once Bateman got into his groove a bit I thought our edge defence was far far better than it has been the past 3 or 4 years.

I think the middle period of the year when we had a decent run with health and we were starting to establish some combinations it looked like anything could happen.

Then once Api went down followed by Brooks and some of the middles (and with Doueihi already being out for the year) everyone realised it was a lost year and some guys noticeably took the foot off the pedal.

The first 2 games of the year really hurt us, narrow loses that really should have gone the other way, it set the tone and we didn't have enough belief in the squad that they could turn it around.

I think this year the senior guys get a bit more influence in the squad and really help to build some belief in the young kids.

 

[fibrodreaming]

The best part about that was that it was against a cocky and confident Souffs when no one really gave Balmain a chance.

I think it would be true to say that Balmain beating Souths is the biggest grand final upset since I have been following the game. Souths were the quintessential glamour team and all the experts were convinced that they would wipe the floor with Balmain. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

Speaking of George Reubener, whenever I hear his name mentioned (which is almost never) I can't help but remember watching Balmain on the telly commentated by the inimitable Ron Casey (if people think today's commentaters are bad they should have heard Ron).

Laurie Morashi was playing centre and at one point he passes the ball to Reubener. Poor old Ron got a bit tongue tied trying to describe this and it came out:

"...and the ball goes from Morashi to Maroubra." A long pass indeed.

It's funny how stupid little things stick in one's mind.

 

[Feline Carrier]

I understand he was trying to be funny, but be honest...how hard did you really laugh?

If it got a cheap chuckle the joke did what I set out for it to do.

Stay away from the Ricky Gervais special.

 

[rusted-on]

You'd be marching to a different tune if your father, son, uncle or friend was on the receiving end.

What Fa'álogo did was atrocious. Right up there with Danny Williams on Mark O'Neill and Ben Flower on Lance Hohaia. Fair enough if you don't rate his time with us, but to say that behaviour should be rewarded is just wrong.

I'm not one that thinks he should have been rewarded, but to say his hit was up there with what Williams and Flower did is ridiculous imo

 

[Feline Carrier]

Those stats are surprising and they don't necessarily match how the games through the year felt to me watching them.

Api made a huge difference though our middle defensively and once Bateman got into his groove a bit I thought our edge defence was far far better than it has been the past 3 or 4 years.

I think the middle period of the year when we had a decent run with health and we were starting to establish some combinations it looked like anything could happen.

Then once Api went down followed by Brooks and some of the middles (and with Doueihi already being out for the year) everyone realised it was a lost year and some guys noticeably took the foot off the pedal.

The first 2 games of the year really hurt us, narrow loses that really should have gone the other way, it set the tone and we didn't have enough belief in the squad that they could turn it around.

I think this year the senior guys get a bit more influence in the squad and really help to build some belief in the young kids.

The forwards got the job done last year, we just could not capitalise within the opposition 20.

Even if the defence improves marginally and our attack actually threatens inside the 20 we will win those types of games we let slip last year (and the year before, the one before that etc etc...)

 

[Buttface]

Here’s a mole article, you can tell the mole has no idea about football and he proves it here when he says Douhie is all class.

'Pesky' problem threatens 'shielded' Benji's baptism

Issues facing rookie coach

wwos.nine.com.au

 

[Needaname]

First of all did you just respond to yourself?

Secondly I don't buy into all this "keep all your juniors" stuff. Or at least buy into the idea that clubs are not doing it or are indifferent to their junior bases. Of course clubs with decent junior bases should and will try to develop those regions. It's not as if Tigers don't do it and it's not as if Tigers lose tonnes of Macarthur juniors to other clubs.

I don't believe Penrith did anything magic in development to build a 3-peat team. They had the fortune of having a bunch of top-tier junior talent all come through together, all at once, having played in junior teams together. But what they did do was manage to bond all those players together, keep them going through the system with a clear pathway from juniors to seniors. It's not that they developed more juniors, it's that they were able to keep so many of them in a single and clearly-defined system - something Tigers have been replicating the past few years.

But Penrith also specifically unearthed some generational talent - they don't win the 2023 GF without Cleary.

Penrith also happen to sit on the biggest league base in the country, much bigger participation than Macarthur, so if any club is going to see a wide number of juniors it's them.

So if the argument was simply "teams get good by investing in their juniors and develop their talent" then teams like Roosters would never do well, which is clearly not true. There's a delicate balance with the larger junior bases and the funding is not infinite.

Even look at Tigers - got a good crop coming through Macarthur like Da Silva, Galvin, Miller, Large brothers, Laulli'i bros etc. But some of the most prominent juniors we have we headhunted - Faagutu from QLD and Fainu brothers from Parra juniors via Manly. Josh Feledy is from Manly.

So to me it's pretty clear Tigers have been consistently mining Macarthur for players for many years, but that top-level talent does not always eventuate. Some of that will be the general lack of talent, some will be Tigers inability to coach those kids to the next level. But I can barely think of a Macarthur junior who didn't end up in the Tigers juniors system, even if he was eventually headhunted by another club; I don't think it's so dire and I don't think we needed any part of the independent review to look at juniors (it wasn't part of their remit and it makes sense they didn't issue regional recommendations).

I think you’ll find the Roosters have relied on their ‘juniors’ a lot more than it seems. Sure they buy the best to play for them but only if there isn’t a kid within their system capable of doing the job better than a recruit. They may not necessarily be local to the area but Manu, Butcher brothers, Collins, Tupou and the back up forward pack, Wong, White, Baker (Broncos) have all been recruited as young players and brought up in the Roosters system.
Same as we are doing with Feledy, Faagatu, Pole.

Also it’s worth mentioning that the retained core at Penrith i.e the group on the big dollars and longest serving players were all recruited into the club. By chance prehaps? But JFH was picked up from NZ and brought into the Penrith system. Yeo, Edwards and Martin were of the benefit of the Panthers expanding their reach out to Bathurst and the western regions.
And finally the prodigal Cleary only came to Penrith because his Dad was recruited as a coach.
The players that have been offered modest contracts and all left for greener pastures including the soon to be Tiger Luai were all ‘from the area’ a term developed for the local boys that have progressed from the local schools into first grade. This is the important part as it seems that the the local boys are now providing the depth that has become an important part of the panthers remaining competitive despite losing nearly a whole first 17 over the past 3 years.

The best of best get. Identified and developed further by being included into the Penrith panthers JETs program (Junior Elite Training Scheme).

“Panthers established the JETS program in 2013 as a tool to 'fast track' select players with specialist coaching, mentoring and physical development.

The players, aged between 16 and 18, have been identified as standout performers in the club's Harold Matts, SG Ball and development squads.”

Note# Apologies I had to re-edit after reviewing this post as I got some of my points a bit muddled.

 

[Needaname]

Our defensive structure is the key. I thought our defense was pretty good till about halfway ghrough last year we just couldn’t score points. Furner was our defense coach then wasn’t he? Sheens gone so Furner gone.

Who is our defense coach this year? Morris, Heigno? Both?

It’s no good having a better attack with new halves if our defense is awful.

I think round 14 vs the Raiders was start of the end for our season even though we lost Api early in the Titans game round 15 it seemed as though the heads dropped after that narrow loss.

 

[Go_You_Good_Things]

I think the scholars of the game thought he over-achieved at the sharks with their available cattle.

I really like the idea that Benji can bounce stuff off him at a moments notice about any aspect of his endeavours.

Also, it gives Benji some kind of respite if he chooses, bounce ideas off after a long day. He shouldn’t be alone. Sharing the load is vital, plus I’d like him to get new influences.

It was an inspired appointment in the circumstances.

Karen, you seem to have a great passion for our team. You've dropped in from nowhere, and have taken to posting like a natural. Quality thoughts, as well !
It's refreshing to read some new opinions, otherwise it's just The Same People posting. 😉
Welcome .