Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Flippedy]

RCG refused our approach though didn’t he?

That wouldn’t surprise me if he did refuse us. As much as I would’ve liked to see him playing for us, I don’t think he would really fit here. Don’t ask me why, he just doesn’t seem like a good fit for us, personality wise.

 

[Tigrr2]

I think people are really grasping the reality of the damage that Pascoe/Sheens really did to the club. I mean who would've thought that handing a bunch of unproven rookies NRL contracts would come back & bite the club in the ass.

Lee brought Sheens back in as the saviour but it turned out Sheens coaching and thinking was 15 years behind, hilarious but it has put the clubs direction backwards for years

 

[Tiger Morgs]

The prop we should have gone with was RCG from eels
he was a big minutes player , Ran Hard , defence was good , hardly ever injured .
these were the things we need to assist our go forward and give our young guys a couple more years to harden up .
Titans have a strong pack and Des has given him 3 years , not sure how much but I would have offered 3 years
2 years with 3 rd club option .
i think the reason we may have issues going forward is Richo won’t pay overs , fair enough , but until we start winning and moving up the ladder , overs are the only way we will get some quality .
Luai is a great singing but we paid for him , he is quality .
Hunt , we got but he is average compared to Luai .
TUrdu a was good signing , Bird good signing , Skelton is ok .
we need 3 more players of quality to give the comp a shake , this pathways stuff is ok but it should be about 2 or 3 future stars not 10:, anyways that’s my rant for Friday
2 props and a back row quality we move up the ladder by 50%

I've got a feeling RCG would not come here due to Luai already coming. No proof just opinion

 

[The Chad]

What type of middle do you think we need ? For me I think a workhorse , with strong leg drive , a quick play the ball , and a motor to cover for other tiring middles is the absolute ultimate . I know this person is wishful thinking , but Cam Murray at 13 , or Radley , even Max Plath or Cotter . That type of middle .
I don’t think we need the middle to make that initial hit up , with the backs hopefully getting through the advantage line more often . We need the guy after that , the one who gets to his belly and is up and about , causing the defence to constantly retreat .

I reckon we need a 'tone setter'.

Someone that makes the opposition look up & find where he is in the line. Like JWH, but obviously, not JWH.

I still think Jack Hetherington is the guy.

 

[jadtiger]

Lee brought Sheens back in as the saviour but it turned out Sheens coaching and thinking was 15 years behind, hilarious but it has put the clubs direction backwards for years

The crazy part for me was the fact that some on here actually believed that bringing Tim back as a coach would be a benefit to us,unfortunately they overlooked what a disaster Sheens was when he was sacked in 2012

 

[jrtiger]

I reckon we need a 'tone setter'.

Someone that makes the opposition look up & find where he is in the line. Like JWH, but obviously, not JWH.

I still think Jack Hetherington is the guy.

had a good end to the year did Hethro but he isn't getting any younger. if we managed to snag him for 2025 I'd be a little more receptive, but he wouldn't be on my list of priorities for 2026 as far as middle forwards are concerned.

 

[cqtiger]

I agreed with bringing Sheens back as Pathways/Development manager? but I didn’t agree with making him Head of Football? or taking over as Head Coach.

It was all down hill from there.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

The prop we should have gone with was RCG from eels
he was a big minutes player , Ran Hard

Describing one of a players attributes as running hard has to be one of the most redundant compliments there is.

 

[Lestronge]

I reckon we need a 'tone setter'.

Someone that makes the opposition look up & find where he is in the line. Like JWH, but obviously, not JWH.

I still think Jack Hetherington is the guy.

That’s not a bad idea . If you listen to Phil Gould he reckons he’s one of the fastest , most athletic he had at the club . Was/ is a lunatic though …

 

[Lestronge]

I agreed with bringing Sheens back as Pathways/Development manager? but I didn’t agree with making him Head of Football? or taking over as Head Coach.

It was all down hill from there.

I wonder how much that was sheens or the dynamic duo taking the easy road .

 

[The Chad]

That’s not a bad idea . If you listen to Phil Gould he reckons he’s one of the fastest , most athletic he had at the club . Was/ is a lunatic though …

He was in great form all season.

I'd prefer him to be slightly unhinged- I want the opposition to worry. Him, Bateman, Seyfarth, Sam Fainu, Klemmer...Olam...who is going to hurt the ball carrier the most?

 

[mtd#2]

When we were by far the highest bidder. I’m sure if we offered $1M for Leo he’d change his tune too.

Luai is worth the money we offered
Leo is not worth anything near 1 mill

 

[balmain boy]

how do we struggle so much to move players on, however gus can basically turn over a whole roster over in 2 years???

Almost everything Gus does is against the rules but the NRL are too scared to call him out on it.

If we did what he did the fines would be 9 figures

 

[balmain boy]

Hodgo doesn't add Zero, lets be clear.

Hodgson is a premiereship winning fullback. It was also his football smarts not great atheticism that got him through as a player.

As a coach, I hope he will improve Bula's game. Particularly in reading the plays, tactics around the high ball and getting off ones line and try assists. Hodgson could do some awesome try assists in his day and really supported the dynamic play of Benji Marshall. Offloads were Brett's speciality and he could often get the ball out in a tackle.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want him as an assistant coach at all. We are far too inbred, we need to work on basic skills and structure. We clearly need to improve our defense and tackling.

^Hodgson adds very little to most of what we need.


Brett Hodgson brings a skillset of things we don't desperately need. His offloads are a nice to have and I am glad to have a fullback working with Bula. However we need stronger tackling and grit in our game if we are to start to climb the ladder. Brett won't be bringing that or satisifying our immeadiate coaching needs.

Hodgo brings something here, some useful skills but not what we need.

FYI, a coach doesn't teach players to play like they did. They develop training programs to implement the strategies, vision and game plan developed by the head coach, to which they might be able to provide some input.
Benji never coached anyone in doing flick passes.
If anything Hodgo could fire Bula up to get his fitness up to scratch so he can try replicate Hodgos support play

 

[upthetigers]

They were both poor in that game, Galvin slightly better.
That should have zero bearing on end of year rep sides.
One made it to the second week of the finals, the other got the spoon.
On rep game day, the young bloke played like someone way out of his depth and the experienced guy ripped and geared and had them worried.
It was terrible coaching from Fitler, who is a terrible coach fullstop.

Fitler just buttering him up to get him to the Roosters

 

[innsaneink]

I reckon we need a 'tone setter'.

Someone that makes the opposition look up & find where he is in the line. Like JWH, but obviously, not JWH.

I still think Jack Hetherington is the guy.

We are running outta options it seems... That crap in the tunnel with Reed Mahoney really turned me off him... Though with a strong coach that aggro can be harnessed & used wisely
His onfield footy seems OK I guess haven't followed closely... Tho the last thing we need is an ill disciplined player

 

[Demps]

We are running outta options it seems... That crap in the tunnel with Reed Mahoney really turned me off him... Though with a strong coach that aggro can be harnessed & used wisely
His onfield footy seems OK I guess haven't followed closely... Tho the last thing we need is an ill disciplined player

He's the opposite off the field, believe it or not.
Proper nice guy.

Had some people around me have some dealings with him too and their feedback was the same.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

We are running outta options it seems... That crap in the tunnel with Reed Mahoney really turned me off him... Though with a strong coach that aggro can be harnessed & used wisely
His onfield footy seems OK I guess haven't followed closely... Tho the last thing we need is an ill disciplined player

I could see both sides to that incident. On one hand, what happens on the field, stays on the field. So Hetherington shaping up in the tunnel was a poor look and made him look like a bit of a lunatic. On the other, Mahoney is probably the biggest pest since Michael Ennis, most likely safe in the knowledge players aren’t allowed to throw a punch these days, plus constantly surrounded by his teammates. So to see him visibly uncomfortable with being confronted when he had no mates around was oddly satisfying.

 

[Needaname]

Almost everything Gus does is against the rules but the NRL are too scared to call him out on it.

If we did what he did the fines would be 9 figures

I think it might be unethical but not necessarily illegal.

They say Gus cleaned out a whole squad within 2 years; but that’s just a convenient statement. The reality is that the one player left from 2022 season Joseph Tapine is still listed in their Top 30 squad on NRL.com pending a court settlement.

Have a closer look at our Top 30 squad, we’ve gone through a huge roster turn over in a similar timeframe.
We moved Nofa on only paying a small portion of his salary on our cap. About 5 on contract players have headed to other clubs.

I remember Gus moved Bondi Biodi Odo out of their Top 30 whilst he recovered from an ACL but he was back in their Top 30 the following year.
Guess what; Dragons did the same thing with Corey Allen. So these roster shuffles that occur aren’t something only Gus has the power to orchestrate.

 

[851]

This should probably be in the Luai thread, but it gives us hope that this signing is more than a one player improvement to the squad.

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

l.facebook.com

Penrith’s quest for a three-peat looked dead in the water in April last year when they were upset by a Wests Tigers side that ended up with the wooden spoon.
It left the two-time reigning premiers in 10th spot - the lowest they’ve been in their past five years.
Enter Jarome Luai.
“After it we had a bus ride home and one of the things that really stood out for me was he pulled me aside, we had a conversation,” back-rower Scott Sorensen says.
“He said, ‘We need to be better. That wasn’t good enough. I need to take more responsibility. I need to lead the left edge, I need to get my hands on the ball more and be more of an attacking threat. Our connection needs to be built and we need to be better’.
“That lit a fire in my belly. For him to do that and own that, and speak about himself wanting to be better, wanting to be a better playmaker, leader on the edge, that was inspiring.
“For me, I had so much more respect for him. He understood he needed to be more responsible and more of a leader. For that I take my hat off to him.”

Where critics saw classless arrogance and poor sportsmanship, Panthers teammates saw an authentic fire and proud toughness. They told us some brilliant stories about the real Jarome Luai