Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Vicious said:
If you can believe what you read it has been reported his contract is somewhere around 350-400k per season which is a fair bit of money ti spend on a winger.
The Dragons have plenty of young tall, strongly built, fast wingers such as the Feagai brothers and the winger who scored 4 tries against our reserves yesterday who would all be on contracts around half or less than half of Ravalawa’s contract value. If they offload Ravalawa is allows them to spend more money recruiting in other areas, they are reportedly desperately keen to sign Daniel Saifiti and will need 800k per season to buy out his contract t from the Knights.
Wests Tigers do not have any tall, strongly built fast wingers in our ranks other than Tupou who is leaving us to play reserve grade at the Dolphins and Alaimalo but he turns like a truck and I don’t think he fits into the fast category either.
In saying this Daniel Saifiti also looks to be one of the better options for us if we need to replace Stefano.
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We can agree to disagree about his abilities… my argument is laid out already in the thread ..

I think you know as well as I do that they are only bringing in a maximum of another 2-3 new players along with Luia and Turuva …

They need these to be better players than a reserve grade winger ..even if he might be slightly better than Luke L and Staines ..
 
Vicious said:
If you can believe what you read it has been reported his contract is somewhere around 350-400k per season which is a fair bit of money to spend on a winger.
The Dragons have plenty of young tall, strongly built, fast wingers such as the Feagai brothers and the winger who scored 4 tries against our reserves yesterday who would all be on contracts around half or less than half of Ravalawa’s contract value. If they offload Ravalawa is allows them to spend more money recruiting in other areas, they are reportedly desperately keen to sign Daniel Saifiti and will need 800k per season to buy out his contract from the Knights.
Wests Tigers do not have any tall, strongly built fast wingers in our ranks other than Tupou who is leaving us to play reserve grade at the Dolphins and Alaimalo but he turns/changes direction like a truck and I don’t think he fits into the fast category either.
In saying this Daniel Saifiti also looks to be one of the better options for us if we need to replace Stefano.
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I don't care whether we get Daniel Saifiti or Royce Hunt if Stefano departs, as long as the club does its due diligence to ensure they are healthy, motivated & have the right psychological profile to lead an inexperienced forward pack, verbally & through actions on and off the field. And we don't pay overs!
 
Vicious said:
If you can believe what you read it has been reported his contract is somewhere around 350-400k per season which is a fair bit of money to spend on a winger.
The Dragons have plenty of young tall, strongly built, fast wingers such as the Feagai brothers and the winger who scored 4 tries against our reserves yesterday who would all be on contracts around half or less than half of Ravalawa’s contract value. If they offload Ravalawa is allows them to spend more money recruiting in other areas, they are reportedly desperately keen to sign Daniel Saifiti and will need 800k per season to buy out his contract from the Knights.
Wests Tigers do not have any tall, strongly built fast wingers in our ranks other than Tupou who is leaving us to play reserve grade at the Dolphins and Alaimalo but he turns/changes direction like a truck and I don’t think he fits into the fast category either.
In saying this Daniel Saifiti also looks to be one of the better options for us if we need to replace Stefano.
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The Feagai bros aren't particularly quick but they are strong. One of our issues is we throw a blanket over our outside backs believing centres can play wing. They can on occasion but WTs need specialist wingers who have genuine pace, some height and defensive nous which comes with being specialist wingers.
 
pawsandclaws1 said:
The Feagai bros aren't particularly quick but they are strong. One of our issues is we throw a blanket over our outside backs believing centres can play wing. They can on occasion but WTs need specialist wingers who have genuine pace, some height and defensive nous which comes with being specialist wingers.
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That’s correct in a perfect world, but where are and who are these types of players that could potentially be signed by Wests Tigers ?
I would be happy with Bailey Simonsson on our left wing, he has a bit of height, he’s strong and has plenty of pace.
Alternatively players such as Reimis Smith and Isaiah Tass are still available for 2025, but neither are specialist wingers and neither of them are overly fast.
 
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Vicious said:
That’s correct in a perfect world, but where are and who are these types of players that could potentially be signed by Wests Tigers ?
I would be happy with Bailey Simonsson on our left wing, he has a bit of height, he’s strong and has plenty of pace.
Alternatively players such as Reimis Smith and Isaiah Tass are still available for 2025, but neither are specialist wingers and neither of them are overly fast.
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Smith is a centre and so is Tass. I believe we should be aiming higher. We need to look at athletes who have the correct qualites - pace, height, strength. Do we have scouts in the Pacific Islands? Korobeite was another outstanding athlete. Willett is a good example of a player with great athletic ability.
 
pawsandclaws1 said:
Smith is a centre and so is Tass. I believe we should be aiming higher. We need to look at athletes who have the correct qualites - pace, height, strength. Do we have scouts in the Pacific Islands? Korobeite was another outstanding athlete. Willett is a good example of a player with great athletic ability.
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There was a couple of noticeable big, strong and fast athletes when watching the Fiji Jersey Flegg team against our Wests Tigers in round 1, whether or not they have the Rugby League IQ to progress to NRL level is another matter.
 
Wing is such an important position these days, just look at Lomax and what he’s done since shifting to wing.

I’d take Ravalawa any day. Can find the line, is a big unit (we are so undersized it’s not funny) and has played a decent amount of first grade.

Not every signing we make can be an origin rep. Were spooners, likely three in a row spooners at that. We need to fit players in that can help the likes of Api. Galvin and Luai next year and are realistically chances of coming here.
 
Tiger in boots 🐅 said:
Unfortunately that’s not what the Coaches & Trainers see each day and that’s all that really counts. More importantly what are we going to do to build a better Culture and a supportive one so we can see a new West Tigers evolve. Any positive Suggestions or ideas?
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What the coaches and trainers see is the problem. They can't identify hidden gems, X factors. Whether it is desire to be the best, size, height, fitness, offload, speed, communications etc
All important factors to consider and be impartial to outside pressures from management.
 
What I am hoping for is Richo can match Gould & Bennett and orchestrate the clean out we need at year’s end.
If we have the same pack of forwards next year I don’t see our new half being able to make much difference.
I suppose we will have to wait and 🤞 he is in there league.
 
Tom Shines said:
I’m sure the forum will get behind Brooks in the finals
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I think any of these journos talking about some kind of "transformation" of Brooks must have never watched him play footy. He's playing more or less the same output as at the Tigers, he just has some much better players around him to take up his slack.

For example The Mole here says it's great that Brooks can take pressure of DCE, but actually the opposite is true, that DCE takes pressure of Brooks who can focus on the strengths of his running game.

Mole then talks about Blore, which is really the same deal. Always been a willing player who had a terrible run of injuries at Penrith and Tigers, never really got enough game time to max out his performances. I still think he's rather average at Storm but he does his job and Storm aren't looking for stars, they are looking for willing contributors to an already excellently-coached system. Mole says "Tigers may regret letting him go" which is a massive oversight of the fact that actually Panthers were the first to let Blore go.

The problem with Tigers is we can't only recruit and hold onto average honest first-graders. We need game breakers to help convert those willing performances into wins. For many games of the past few rounds Tigers have been well in contention for the win, to be let down by inexperience, ill-discipline and dumb play. We have a lot of guys who haven't played much first grade. Shawn Blore doesn't change that equation at all, which is why at least I think the signings of Luai and Turuva are very encouraging for Tigers.
 
Tigerdazz2 said:
Staines doesn't get enough good ball, he is under utilised in my honest opinion. He takes the ball up strongly when he comes infield to give the forwards a break.

He is lightning fast, if he could get his hands on the ball more often and I mean good ball not hospital passes or passes below his knees or above his shoulders (like he seems to cop a lot) he and the team would be a lot more potent in attack.
He is also a damn good defender for his size especially considering he suffered that perforated bowel, others coming back from injuries haven't been as "brave" as he has, Adam Douehi is a good example.
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Are you referring to Bula's passes?
 
Tigerdazz2 said:
Staines doesn't get enough good ball, he is under utilised in my honest opinion. He takes the ball up strongly when he comes infield to give the forwards a break.

He is lightning fast, if he could get his hands on the ball more often and I mean good ball not hospital passes or passes below his knees or above his shoulders (like he seems to cop a lot) he and the team would be a lot more potent in attack.
He is also a damn good defender for his size especially considering he suffered that perforated bowel, others coming back from injuries haven't been as "brave" as he has, Adam Douehi is a good example.
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In addition to this post, can someone explain what Bula does as a fullback that Staines could not do better ?
 
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jirskyr said:
I think any of these journos talking about some kind of "transformation" of Brooks must have never watched him play footy. He's playing more or less the same output as at the Tigers, he just has some much better players around him to take up his slack.

For example The Mole here says it's great that Brooks can take pressure of DCE, but actually the opposite is true, that DCE takes pressure of Brooks who can focus on the strengths of his running game.

Mole then talks about Blore, which is really the same deal. Always been a willing player who had a terrible run of injuries at Penrith and Tigers, never really got enough game time to max out his performances. I still think he's rather average at Storm but he does his job and Storm aren't looking for stars, they are looking for willing contributors to an already excellently-coached system. Mole says "Tigers may regret letting him go" which is a massive oversight of the fact that actually Panthers were the first to let Blore go.

The problem with Tigers is we can't only recruit and hold onto average honest first-graders. We need game breakers to help convert those willing performances into wins. For many games of the past few rounds Tigers have been well in contention for the win, to be let down by inexperience, ill-discipline and dumb play. We have a lot of guys who haven't played much first grade. Shawn Blore doesn't change that equation at all, which is why at least I think the signings of Luai and Turuva are very encouraging for Tigers.
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I do laugh a little bit that all the ex Tigers doing well at Manly is because they are playing in some super team or something … they came 12th last year … and i still think they are likely to be one and done this year …

the most frustrating thing I found with Brooks at the Tigers was his kicking game … his bombs were ineffectual …land in the in goal or didn’t have enough height so the chasers couldn’t provide pressure … he also can’t put a grubber in without it hitting the back fence … he doesn’t need to worry about that now with DCE who is still one of the best general kickers in the game

It’s still an issue for him..as we saw a few weeks ago when DCE was on origin duty …

I think he is playing better this year … not that he is going to win the Dally M otr anything … maybe he just needed to be more relaxed …

Blore is playing well…Bellamy ain’t going to be starting duds …I actually thought he played well here when he wasn’t injured … why they let him go when he wanted to stay here I’ll never know … Benji was all over that call too..

But the biggest improvement I have seen is Talau …. Not that Madge is going to be picking him in Origin next year …. But he is a solid competent first grader …. Never saw that side of him here ..and neither did Sheens or Benji last year apparently …
 
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