sounds to me he's close to Stef and may want to follow him.Very similar to this one on Stef in February.
‘I want to stay’: Why Utoikamanu’s committed to Tigers despite get-out clause
NSW representative is free to leave the Tigers at the end of the season if the club fails to make the finals, but insists he’s in for the long haul.www.smh.com.au
“I’m trying to focus on making the top eight, that’s what I want to do – I want to stay at the Tigers,” Utoikamanu told this masthead.
“I’ve loved every minute I’ve been here. They’ve given me my big opportunity to become the player I am now.
“I want to give back to the club. We’ll see what happens. I haven’t listened [to speculation]. Benji is big on ‘team first’, and putting others before yourself, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”
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Moral of the story, ignore everything players say in the media.
Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion
- Thread starter MacDougall
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I don't know if anyone's turning on him.
In attack Pole has been good enough for a struggling team.
But unfortunately for Pole, his defensive flaws have been exposed in the back end of the season - and it wasnt just one or two missed tackles. There were some really bad and consistent decisions.
Now I don't think that's all on Pole.... There's a systematic issue with the Tigers defense which will no doubt help improve Pole's defence as an individual contributor.
I think we need to boot John Morris as defensive coach. After the sharks game I thought John Morris must have been a defensive genius, but it unravelled way too quickly and never improved again.
The Tigers need to add a workhorse to their pack, the likes of David Stagg and Dallas Johnson over the years who would do 40+ tackles a game. Someone that takes 5-10 runs a match, but is primarily a defensive workhorse.
TSP
Well-known member
More loyal than me at the moment.
The spoon bowl loss was a real thump to the head.
We all got our hopes up to “reach for the stars” and secure second last place but once again fate intervenes.
In some ways, it would have been kinder on us if we hadn’t have had to go through the drama of spoonbowl and had secured the spoon a few rounds ago and had no hope at all.
Instead we’ve had to face the additional trauma of dealing with some excitement followed by the let down of complete and utter catastrophe.
It seems we can never take one lousy trick. I know this is wt life and we all signed up for it, but…
Anyway, it’s going to weeks for me to get over it at this rate, maybe months.
BlackWhiteGold
Well-known member
I'm not sure whether John Morris should be made the total scapegoat for our defence.
Our team must have had the most changes to both edges out of any team this season and arguably some of the poorest or weakest defenders in these positions (AD, Faataape, Naden, To'a, Staines in strength, Galvin strength & experience, Sullivan, Alaimalo, Samuela in experience etc etc). And the edges were where probably 80%+ of tries were scored against us (that's a gut feel figure too).
I'm also not sure who is to blame for a poor line speed, winning the collision & the whole stop/hold wrestle in the middle. Whether it is Morris, Benji's overall strategy, strength & conditioning, wrestling coach or all of the above.
The spoon bowl let a lot of us down, cant disagree there!
But it was also a stark reminder of where we are as a club and playing group.
In hindsight, though, I'm glad we lost. Those who truly want to be part of the rebuild will use it as motivation during preseason and for the 2025 season.
We took a family photo with spoons in our hands, so that when we win the Grand Final one day we can share it on socials that we have been here through the tough times 🙂
Sorry mate I am not just calling for Morris's head, I'm just not sure the inner workings of the coaching team so not sure who else's head to put on the chopping block 🙂
TSP
Well-known member
BlackWhiteGold
Well-known member
It'll be interesting what changes are made to the football dept after their internal reviews. That'll give us some indication where they have seen the issues. From the outside looking in, they can make improvements in all areas lol
I would say that they don't either. It's a mess.
851
Well-known member
There gone
Nope . Betsy pretty much gave it away , in the BTR podcast . Said we weren’t strong enough , led to retreating defenders which led to poor play , like infinite penalties / sin bins , lazy defence etc .
Said they’d figured out to quantify effort areas , and that when the guys were hitting thier targets on the effort areas , we’re winning or putting in good performances .
If that’s not a shot across the bow , towards the high performance team , than I’m not here .
And he’s 💯 right . We looked too weak at times , and because of that we were getting tired out earlier than most teams . We couldn’t stay in the arm wrestle because we weren’t strong enough .
I also know I heard a player give an interview where they alluded to the fact that the reason we play soo expansive out of our end was because we didn’t have the thrust and power in the back 3 , so we had to manufacture ruck speed .
There’s that word again Power / strength . I think they got it wrong this year . That’s Peter Moussa and his team . South’s by the way , suffered from the same thing . They looked to be outmatched physically .
Sully
Well-known member
100% correct
We were not strong in defence and that would lead to more players needed in the tackles and even then we could not get them on the ground and led to six again calls, penalties or breaks being made around the ruck as we had gaps in the defensive line trying to retreat.
Royce Hunt is supposedly one of or if not the strongest at the Sharks and hopefully he can improve the strength of the team with his training efforts along with a new S&C teams. If we can hold the teams in defence along with the improvement of the back three making good return metres then we should see improvement.
Jerome Luai will know how to close out games which we couldn't do well for many games this year and talks non stop which our team needs to remain focused.
Rest up fellow Wests Tiger Tragic's and fingers crossed we can look forward to possible additional signings before the start of Pre-season in November.
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AmericanHistoryX
Well-known member
Luai cant tackle for 12 other players.
AmericanHistoryX
Well-known member
Bullshit. No one in their right mind thought that
BAGNF05
Well-known member
Quote from Richo I believe
Start doing what the fans want you to and it won’t be long before you’re sitting with them.
AmericanHistoryX
Well-known member
What's that supposed to mean?
Buttface
Well-known member
Roycey is gunna do that.
GNR4LIFE
Well-known member
Hopefully for more than 30 mins a game.
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