balmain boy
Well-known member
The Hermimator, Tuipolutu, and Aho appear to be the aggressive forward leaders in this side. All three different builds too. Will be interesting to see how we run out next weekend
Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion
- Thread starter MacDougall
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Fraze23
Well-known member
It would be interesting to see how he holds up against men.
Also interesting to note that he is usually wearing a bench number in all these clips.
hank37w
Well-known member
Shame that you mentioned that, now there will be a Curtis Rona like barrage of posts demanding that we re-sign him immediately. 🤣 🤣 🤣
On a serious note, good to see him have a bit of success and I was a bit surprised that we didn't give him a bit more time because I thought he probably surprised a few people and performed better than expected at the end of last season with the 2 or 3 games of NRL that he played.
Todd Packer
Well-known member
Nof. didn't play this morning.
Salford won and their right winger was just about their best player.
Nof will really have to impress the coach with his fantastic attitude and his training excellence to crack the team.
Salford won and their right winger was just about their best player.
Nof will really have to impress the coach with his fantastic attitude and his training excellence to crack the team.
Tucker
Well-known member
Yeah I thought he had something that we could have worked with.
Did we let him go in preference if Toa and Naden? Feledy?
It would appear we favoured To’a, Naden and Feledy over him.
I thought he played really well when given an opportunity late last season and thought he would have remained in our plans, but obviously not.
I will say Feledy spoke really well in his recent Roar interview. He acknowledged he was playing too heavy and not fit or fast enough last season and has since taken the appropriate action to fix that problem,
He was smart enough to realise he was not going to steamroll decent NRL players just by piling on a few kilos and his best chance of success is to get as fit and fast as possible. Will be interested to see how the improved version of himself goes this season.
crazycat
Well-known member
I reckon that's the cost of us picking up Fainu... Reilly seemed almost greater then Feledy and I would have been happy keeping him...
We were almost building to be Eagle Tigers (and the Eagles, Tigerbirds)... A lot of crossover with Manly, which all made sense prior to us signing Luai.
Our problem though is not our recruitment, it's our traning and staff. Players are coming here and NOT improving. I don't care who we have to bring in to the coaching staff, we need:
A tackling coach
Phys conditioning coach
Running coach (partial).
Were way under trained and it shows.
BlackWhiteGold
Well-known member
Can only hope Wayne Bennett can be lured as Coaching Director to review & solve issues in coaching areas like this. Plus I’m sure Richo is reviewing everything as we go.
BlackWhiteGold
Well-known member
I agree about no external signings until we see our current team play together for 3 months.
It'll be a big 3 months for To'a, Naden, Lobb, Casey, Alaimalo, Faatape and even Doeuihi to see if they have a future in the WT outside backs. Even Feledy & Saukuru will want to show they can dominate in Flegg.
Behind-the-scenes hopefully Richo /Betsey/Benji are working hard to ensure Stefano commits long-term and we are all set up to secure both Onitoni Large & Haemasi Makasini on deals that see them progress to a Development contract next season. Both have what we lack in a combo - speed, size & football ability. And I think if they develop as we hope, one or both could be long-term centres.
And I'd be in discussions with player managers still atm re. the likes of Josh Addo-Carr & Dane Gagai (one season only) to add experience & quality to our OBs for next season, even Izaac Thompson (size & speed) as depth.
Two Sharks players (John Morris links) to monitor are Oregon Kaufusi (they have too many 1st team middles for '25, depending on future of Stefano) & Jack Williams (as backrow/lock depth for us, quality bench player, 10 times better than AJ Kepaoa). Xavier Willison (Broncos) is another I'd be in regular dialogue with his manager about.
I agree with your comments, but take into consideration Jack Williams is a middle forward with good leg speed. I agree he would be a good recruit for us, but he would not be a direct replacement for Kepaoa who plays on an edge,
It is vitally important to have edge back rowers who are fast enough and agile enough to play as a centre when injuries occur throughout a game, hence where the value in Kepaoa comes into play.
We need to recruit at least one player who is big, strong and fast enough to play as an edge back rower or a centre.
Nobody really springs to mind, although one to keep an eye on is Aaron Schoup currently with the Titans. He doesn’t look like he’ll be a regular part of their top 17 and has played all his NRL as a centre, but I recall he played 2 games of Qld Cup as an edge back rower last season and was MOM in one of them.
Xavier Willison is potentially elite and could be one of the best middle forwards in the game before too long. He’d be a great addition, but I don’t see anyone getting him away from the Broncos to be honest,
The Sharks look to be overloaded with good quality middles from 2025, so Oregon Kaufusi should be up for grabs.
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Todd Packer
Well-known member
Nathan Brown surprised me today.
I thought he'd be a dud signing.
I guess it's whether he can repeat that effort week after week.
I thought he'd be a dud signing.
I guess it's whether he can repeat that effort week after week.
He’s one of only a few players who can genuinely play at speed and still have the ability to play out the back as a 13 and rough enough defensively in the middle.
We could have signed him for a very minimal contract and chose not to.
That was a another big recruitment mistake on our behalf.
BlackWhiteGold
Well-known member
I've seen Williams play some good matches in the backrow.
I do get your comment about having a bench backrower who can also play centre. Not sure on Schoupp as I've always had a query on his defence. Others that fit this bill is the one-and-only Luke Garner (why not!) or perhaps Connelly Lemuelu (although he's contracted for another year).
innsaneink
Well-known member
It takes two to tango... Maybe he didn't wanna come back to us... Maybe Narrabeen or Collary is more appealing than Breakfast point or Rhodes
Maybe preferred Seibold over Marshall
You could be right, but the strong rumour was he approached Wests Tigers wanting to finish off his career where it started.
Buttface
Well-known member
How many errors and penalties did he give away?
Mighty_Tiger
Well-known member
Lets be real & not get carried away it’s the best 50mins of game time for him in 2-3yrs. Prior to that he wasn’t wanted by the Eels or Roosters on a minimum contract.
Far from a big recruitment mistake as it stands.
I like Brown and wouldn’t have been upset in him coming but he hasn’t been a starting 13 & well we kept Seyfarth instead.
Each to their own opinion, but having a player on a near minimum wage who can play the modern day 13 role effectively and open up the play for our halves would have been a huge plus for our attack.
Seyfarth is as close as we have, but passing the ball doesn’t look too natural for him as hard as he tries.
Matamua is the other hope, but he will need to show he’s willing to play with a lot more intent and aggression.
The bottom line is if we continue to play a 13 who has no idea how to engage the opposing defence and play out the back, then our attack will continue to be poor.
Mighty_Tiger
Well-known member
I didn’t disagree with you on above but I just don’t think he was a big recruiting mistake for us.
Also don’t buy into the he would come on next to nothing unless he was guaranteed a starting spot & not to play reggies regardless of form.
That is assuming Ice does not sign elsewhere between Nov 1, 2024 and the start of the 2025 season. 2025 won’t be a contract year then.
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