Stefano Utoikamanu #241

Garrry said:
When stef signed his contract a couple years ago he said in a interview he wasn't leaving West's Tigers he loves it here and wanted to be a West's Tiger for ever, bwahahahaaaaaaaa hahahaaaaaaaaaaa load of crap, if his signed at the bulldog's good on gus, his theory is sign players first then work it out who leaves oct/nov, none of this rubbish too scared to sign a player cause only have 1 spot in our squad, look at the improvement at the dogs
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The dogs improvement didnt happen overnight.
They got players who wanted to be there.
Crichton signed when they came 2nd last... the same way Luai signed for us as spooners.
We'll make moves. They just wont be public,
 
No way you start him in front of a parochial crowd
3 days after saying he's not going to honor his contract.
Don't know what I would do with him 4 the rest of
the year tbh. We should have given him a week off
like Ivan gave Turuva, some say even set a deadline.
Something tells me richo/benji were monitoring
and weighing up the situation closely as well as
his performances 4 us even b4 origin and made a
decision 2 not force his hand 4 whatever reason.
They've come out on top optics wise, at least with
the fans, you would think this is another hammer
blow 4 the club but that's not the vibe I'm getting at all
 
weststigers said:
To your point, he is a 35-50 minute prop and he is asking for 80-90% of what Haas, the fittest and one of the best props in the game is asking for. He just doesn't provide that value.

Fair enough if he made his tackles and regularly broke the line, but he's just not there.

Good luck to anyone that wants to load that much cap space into him.

Frankly, Sione Fainu has been going just as good if not better.
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I think where we will see his improvement will be the offloads.
He is like that Tui Kamamika or whatever.. .except Tui offloads.
If he did that for us he would have been a lot more highly regarded.
 
Kaito said:
No way you start him in front of a parochial crowd
3 days after saying he's not going to honor his contract.
Don't know what I would do with him 4 the rest of
the year tbh. We should have given him a week off
like Ivan gave Turuva, some say even set a deadline.
Something tells me richo/benji were monitoring
and weighing up the situation closely as well as
his performances 4 us even b4 origin and made a
decision 2 not force his hand 4 whatever reason.
They've come out on top optics wise, at least with
the fans, you would think this is another hammer
blow 4 the club but that's not the vibe I'm getting at all
Click to expand...
Except he is honouring his contract
 
mtd#2 said:
The dogs improvement didnt happen overnight.
They got players who wanted to be there.
Crichton signed when they came 2nd last... the same way Luai signed for us as spooners.
We'll make moves. They just wont be public,
Click to expand...
I hope this is right and we do similar next season , nothing would be better then running around 8/9/10 th all year even pressuring for the top 8 would be fantastic , we just need Richo to come out and shock us all with at least 4 new players , we won’t move next year with Luai and the kids they are still a season or so off
 
boonboon said:
Except he is honouring his contract
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Yeah, well that's clearly not what I meant to say
in the first place but thank you, you're right boon.
They'll be upset he didn't re-sign with us though.
He'll get booed on live free to air TV by the home
crowed if benji starts him. Don't think he will haha
 
jirskyr said:
I agree and I think ESPECIALLY given the recent form of guys like Sam and Sione Fainu, Rueben Porter etc. Guys who are no-frills but are enthusiastic, play with energy and don't appear to have hit their ceiling.

I think Sione Fainu is an interesting case study, because he's already 23 and he's been on the books for a few years, so we have clearly put the effort in with him. And now in 2024 he's not only played pretty well, but scored 2 tries from almost standing starts, the kind of explosive power and tenacity that players like Klemmer and Stefano just don't have. It can't be as simple as "well his brothers are here now".

There are comments in the Benji thread about how players are not improving. But I disagree, I think some players are definitely improving and that is almost entirely centred around the juniors. I don't have an explanation for why, why most of our senior players (Api excluded) are simply not performing anywhere near the level required. I would consider it entirely reasonable to expect that senior players perform to a certain level without having to be specifically coached, and then part of your focus is bringing the juniors up to scratch.

Like my 3 kids - two of them are old enough to feed themselves, shower themselves... I'm not supposed to have to follow them around the house reminding them to wipe their arses and wash their hands. I'm supposed to be focusing on the little one. BUT if the "experienced" kids aren't behaving to the level their age would presuppose, then of course the whole shebang goes to hell.
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Good post.

Far too many tropes and 'accepted truths' are spouted re; this club, particularly with over-generalised statements (I'm not immune from this at times either).

'Players regress under Benji' as some people like to remark, is a collective statement that may have some truth to it, but misses, as you said, players like Sione, Samuela, Pole, Galvin, Porter, Da Silva, etc. and the likes, who were either unknowns and have exceeded expectation (even if to a small degree), or have seen better years this year and improvement in their game.

It also neglects to mention that every year, at every club, players improve and players regress.
 
Kaito said:
No way you start him in front of a parochial crowd
3 days after saying he's not going to honor his contract.
Don't know what I would do with him 4 the rest of
the year tbh. We should have given him a week off
like Ivan gave Turuva, some say even set a deadline.
Something tells me richo/benji were monitoring
and weighing up the situation closely as well as
his performances 4 us even b4 origin and made a
decision 2 not force his hand 4 whatever reason.
They've come out on top optics wise, at least with
the fans, you would think this is another hammer
blow 4 the club but that's not the vibe I'm getting at all
Click to expand...
honestly i have no sympathy for him. whatever he gets (obviously not malicious) I'm happy for him to cop!
 
jirskyr said:
I agree and I think ESPECIALLY given the recent form of guys like Sam and Sione Fainu, Rueben Porter etc. Guys who are no-frills but are enthusiastic, play with energy and don't appear to have hit their ceiling.

I think Sione Fainu is an interesting case study, because he's already 23 and he's been on the books for a few years, so we have clearly put the effort in with him. And now in 2024 he's not only played pretty well, but scored 2 tries from almost standing starts, the kind of explosive power and tenacity that players like Klemmer and Stefano just don't have. It can't be as simple as "well his brothers are here now".

There are comments in the Benji thread about how players are not improving. But I disagree, I think some players are definitely improving and that is almost entirely centred around the juniors. I don't have an explanation for why, why most of our senior players (Api excluded) are simply not performing anywhere near the level required. I would consider it entirely reasonable to expect that senior players perform to a certain level without having to be specifically coached, and then part of your focus is bringing the juniors up to scratch.

Like my 3 kids - two of them are old enough to feed themselves, shower themselves... I'm not supposed to have to follow them around the house reminding them to wipe their arses and wash their hands. I'm supposed to be focusing on the little one. BUT if the "experienced" kids aren't behaving to the level their age would presuppose, then of course the whole shebang goes to hell.
Click to expand...
Pole and Sione Fainu up front have done a great job. for Stefs money we can hopefully get one or 2 more of these types and we would have done well.

If Bateman does leave, that will free up some cash too. At that point, we could be looking at a decent pack for 2025 if we can add 3-4 consistent NRL players. Not a lot off contract this year, but plenty off contract next year. We may have to wait another season...book a gap year perhaps
 
weststigers said:
Pole and Sione Fainu up front have done a great job. for Stefs money we can hopefully get one or 2 more of these types and we would have done well.

If Bateman does leave, that will free up some cash too. At that point, we could be looking at a decent pack for 2025 if we can add 3-4 consistent NRL players. Not a lot off contract this year, but plenty off contract next year. We may have to wait another season...book a gap year perhaps
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Bateman isn’t.l coming back mate
 
Kaito said:
Yeah, well that's clearly not what I meant to say
in the first place but thank you, you're right boon.
They'll be upset he didn't re-sign with us though.
He'll get booed on live free to air TV by the home
crowed if benji starts him. Don't think he will haha
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I hope he does and I hope the crowd obliterate him.

There are ramifications for our decisions and the fan base have every right to feel slighted and betrayed by his decision. He was supposed to be one of the ships that we all sailed back to some form of success on. I hope it's vindictive and vitriolic. Too many people are protected from the real-world implications of their decisions these days. Give him both (metaphorical) barrels.

I don't particularly think he'll care though, he checked out months ago.
 
Kelce68 said:
I hope he does and I hope the crowd obliterate him.

There are ramifications for our decisions and the fan base have every right to feel slighted and betrayed by his decision. He was supposed to be one of the ships that we all sailed back to some form of success on. I hope it's vindictive and vitriolic. Too many people are protected from the real-world implications of their decisions these days. Give him both (metaphorical) barrels.

I don't particularly think he'll care though, he checked out months ago.
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He has been terrible...I don't think anyone is going to care.
 
weststigers said:
If you think that Penrith, Melbourne, Easts etc. need 3-4 more consistent first grade forwards in their already stacked teams, then what can I say? Fair enough
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Those teams always lose good forwards..pretty much every year.
If we are only replacing what we are losing, we arent improving the situation. Our greatest weakness is not the strongest 17. Its the other 13 that need to be called upon.
 
hsvjones said:
I think Richo gave him a deadline as it's strange it comes out already.

Great news and we can focus on other players now.

Extend Pole should be the first thing
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He would have had to notify the club at some stage about whether he was taking his option for 25 let alone the multi year extension. I’d say we’ll find out who he ends up with by the end of the week.
 
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