Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Vicious said:
Alaimalo is improving all of the time.
I watched his first few games in NSW Cup and he was scared to catch a high ball and could not make a tackle to save his life.
He is now attack every high ball with confidence, making try saving tackles and his hit ups out of our danger zone are strong.
Charlie has unfortunately missed one on one tackles that are leading to tries too often this season, but if he can somehow fix that he has generally been very safe under the high ball and is our only player aside from Olam who regularly hits top speed with his hit ups.
Surely nobody can be blaming our wingers for our recent losses, but we do need more tackle busting line breaking ability from at least one of our wingers.
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Does Staines get any post contact metres? Seems to stop dead once he hits the defence. We really need a better option there for next year.
 
BAGNF05 said:
The injury has hurt him two-fold. He probably lost weight we he needed to be filling out and it looks to have rocked him mentally.
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Absolutely. State of the mind. Very rare injury. But in today's world people dying suddenly all the time at young ages. Staines deserves a purple heart. Warrior for sure.
 
AmericanHistoryX said:
Absolutely. State of the mind. Very rare injury. But in today's world people dying suddenly all the time at young ages. Staines deserves a purple heart. Warrior for sure.
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The last two games Staines has charged into the defence far harder than anyone in our side except Olam, so I’d say the mental scars from the injury are now behind him.
He’s far from the reason we are such a poor attacking team and cannot win a game because of it.
We do need form competition for his position, but that another story.
 
AmericanHistoryX said:
Baddabing Baddaboom. Its the older ones letting us down.
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Not really.
Ask yourself which positions in every NRL team have the most influence in their team scoring points ?
1 & 7 is your answer and all bar the two games we won, our 1 & 7 have had the direction and influence of headless chooks.
Galvin as our 6 has had some good moments, but needs help from those around him.
Very limited tackle busts or attacking threat from our edge back row, next to no impact from whoever has played right centre, not near enough from our wingers, but as previously discussed that was much better last night.
No impact from our 13 except when Papali’i played there against the Knights.
Twal played strong against the Dolphins, but doesn’t have the passing ability to be a long term 13.
Apj has mostly been good, but clearly playing more minutes than his body can handle.
Bad bench rotations from the coach, I can’t put that down to inexperience, just stupidity.
The one constant is our middles have made good metres for the majority of the season, of course we need a few more offloads from them and at times better line speed when defending.
 
I think some of us need to cool our jets a bit getting worried about this year and next year. We were never going to win more than 7 games this year like some thought. Billy Slater reckons we are in for a big improvement over the next few years. JT (Cowboys legend) said that out of Bulldogs, Dragons, Tigers if he was a young player he'd sign with Tigers based on the future. This is despite Bulldogs having great defence and improving heaps this year as well as Dragons improving heaps too. Our young guns will come good. 2 legends of the game who think we are headed in the right direction. We've hit rock bottom a few times, but this is just part of the evolution of the team. Who knows, maybe Benji will be gone by round 5 next year, and we have a new coach and we start playing great, anything can happen. It's not a permanent position
 
rugbygoated said:
I think some of us need to cool our jets a bit getting worried about this year and next year. We were never going to win more than 7 games this year like some thought. Billy Slater reckons we are in for a big improvement over the next few years. JT (Cowboys legend) said that out of Bulldogs, Dragons, Tigers if he was a young player he'd sign with Tigers based on the future. This is despite Bulldogs having great defence and improving heaps this year as well as Dragons improving heaps too. Our young guns will come good. 2 legends of the game who think we are headed in the right direction. We've hit rock bottom a few times, but this is just part of the evolution of the team. Who knows, maybe Benji will be gone by round 5 next year, and we have a new coach and we start playing great, anything can happen. It's not a permanent position
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Gus has been saying all year that our young players will all be coming good next year, he said this time next year you just wait and see
 
We have to unearth players that provide points. 2 tries a game is not good enough.

Luai will help but we need a change in our attacking structures. It’s not just the cattle, when Penrith wingers get the ball, it’s so far in field in comparison to when ours do if it even makes it out that far.

I don’t see Turuva making a huge difference. Need some X factor in the backs. Makasini/Large sound like the best candidates but they are years away and that’s if they stay.
 
weststigerman said:
We have to unearth players that provide points. 2 tries a game is not good enough.

Luai will help but we need a change in our attacking structures. It’s not just the cattle, when Penrith wingers get the ball, it’s so far in field in comparison to when ours do if it even makes it out that far.

I don’t see Turuva making a huge difference. Need some X factor in the backs. Makasini/Large sound like the best candidates but they are years away and that’s if they stay.
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Manly lose a few backs to injury and go out, sign Aaron Schoupp....

We never really try and address our issues.
Rolling out career failures like Naden and Kepoa every week is so painful.

I hope they're telling Naden he needs to find a new deal elsewhere.
 
Vicious said:
A little birdy told me that both Sam Stonestreet and Kade Dykes are getting frustrated at lack of NRL opportunities at the Sharks and would be open to a move for better NRL opportunities even though both are currently contracted until the end of the 2025 season.
Dykes has been injury prone which is not ideal, but it’s a well known fact he is one of the most talented emerging playing within the NRL system that is not currently playing regular NRL.
Equally at home at fullback, 5/8 or centre, a player with his talent would improve our attack immensely particularly if playing fullback.
Stonestreet is the prototype big, tall and fast winger who always competes hard for the high ball and regularly makes good post contact metres. He can also play centre and would be a great acquisition for a team like us.
Jeral Skelton and Grant Anderson are both off contract, they are both big, tall, fast powerful athletes who would help improve our depth and push hard for a regular NRL position.
Blake Wilson is another who is under contract with the Bulldogs, but has clearly shown he’s a more than capable NRL standard winger, very good under the high ball and a good finisher. He can’t get a look in at the Bulldogs NRL team when they are full strength, why wouldn’t he be looking elsewhere for a better opportunity?
Toby Sexton is a much more natural halfback than anyone we have, has a much better kicking game than anyone we have also. He’s off contract and I think he’d be well and truly open to a mid season switch frustrated at lack of NRL opportunities at the Bulldogs.
Matt Doorey and Billy Burns both good hole running edge back rowers that would add much needed depth and potentially become NRL regulars with us this season if they made a mid season switch.
Cooper Jenkins a big, tall and mobile prop currently dominating Qld Cuo and currently has a 2nd tier contract with the Dolphins. A definite NRL player of the future, he would definitely improve our depth and offer a prop with good leg speed and try scoring ability, something we don’t have.
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Do you know what the common dominator is in each of the above?
They have spent more than a year in reserves honing their craft.
What’s to say our own aren’t on a similar wanted list after 18months of reserve grade.
 
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