Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

We will end up with no further signings , but maybe we should jump in now and sign Lodge , he is the best that I think we can do and will be cheap . Our club is pathetic, should have had forwards all signed up by now . We will be back on the 5 year building crap over the next 25 years
 
upthetigers said:
As much as Ice cops it on here I reckon we're gonna miss him next season. Should have just played him in the middle. Yes he was unsure that he really wanted to come to the tigers, but you can't say he dogged it.
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I agree with you. And i believe it was a poor decision to let him go, we were never struggling with the cap.

He played his heart out for the Kiwis.
Won’t be surprised if we wins the dallyM next year.
 
Modman said:
Lol He'll Disintegrate at 13. He barely played and got thru games at centre.
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Bird played 14 games last season as a centre & 5/8.

And people on here want him at #13.

I think he upgrades our centre options dramatically, while minimising the damage on his body. It's Bird, Doueihi or Staines. I know who I'd RATHER have play. Well, if not Latu that is...
 
gregjm87 said:
Don't want to turn it into another back and forth but not wanting your best forward doesn't convince me he is making sound coaching decisions.
Anyways, I think we more agree than disagree. Pushing back on the "he's shit and cooked" statements is fair enough but most the comments I've seen are rightfully critical of his time thus far and his initial appointment. Again you are right to say he's here now let's hope for the best but hoping for the best whilst fully expecting the worst isn't death riding Marshall. It's just difficult to be optimistic when all the evidence thus far suggest Marshall probably won't be a capable coach.
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He was out of form at the time . But yea I agree , it was puzzling , I didn’t get it at the time and still don’t . Maybe they thought they had someone else ?
Or they thought Matamua and Lualiii would come on more ?
Maybe , they saw his value as an edge , which to be fair he didn’t provide much ? It’s not until we moved him into lock that he lifted his performances .there were multiple Adam Blair comparisons in the first half of the season .
 
Think what you like about Benji & his ability to coach.

The 2024 record was better than 2023 & 2022.

If there is improvement again in 2025, there's an argument to be made that we are seeing progress.

For mine, it's clear that the coaching staff needs to work on defence. In only 2 seasons since Ivan Cleary was here (including the Cleary season) the club has only scored more points than Benji's 2024 points tally twice.

Our defence was the worst it has been EVER, including the Terry Lamb years.

We cut the points scored by a third- we are off the bottom of the table. Cut it by half- we are talking the Golden Years of 9.

500 points against. The absolute focus should be on staying below 500 points against for the season.
 
The Chad said:
Think what you like about Benji & his ability to coach.

The 2024 record was better than 2023 & 2022.

If there is improvement again in 2025, there's an argument to be made that we are seeing progress.

For mine, it's clear that the coaching staff needs to work on defence. In only 2 seasons since Ivan Cleary was here (including the Cleary season) the club has only scored more points than Benji's 2024 points tally twice.

Our defence was the worst it has been EVER, including the Terry Lamb years.

We cut the points scored by a third- we are off the bottom of the table. Cut it by half- we are talking the Golden Years of 9.

500 points against. The absolute focus should be on staying below 500 points against for the season.
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Morris needs to lift , and figure out where the breakdowns were last year . I thought they played well in the first half this year .
I’ll give the WTF podcast a rap here , because someone there said that , they were concerned that when the wins didn’t come the defensive performance would fall away dramatically . That’s pretty much exactly what happened .
 
bptiger 0 said:
We will end up with no further signings , but maybe we should jump in now and sign Lodge , he is the best that I think we can do and will be cheap . Our club is pathetic, should have had forwards all signed up by now . We will be back on the 5 year building crap over the next 25 years
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wouldn;t suprise me at all if the Dogs have got something going with Lodge,and no complaints from me if he signed here on something short term ,low $$$
 
426Tlgerland said:
How about we go hard for Ben Hunt and Trell May
Bulla 1
Skelton 2
Galvin 3
Olam 4
Staines 5
Luai. 6
Hunt. 7

May , API , Klemmer
Sam , Bird , Seyfarth

res - Hunt , Pole , TDS , Twal
Spare - Sione

May 3 year deal
Hunt 2 year deal
if Jack want in. 2 years @ 350 py
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No Teruva?
Also, pretty sure Luai came to the club to run the show, not to play Robin to Hunt’s Batman.
 
Kelce68 said:
Yep.

Fitness is a cop out. That's not to say it's (obviously) not fundamentally important, but it's (more often than not) not the key reason teams struggle.

Execution x talent wins football games.

Execution plays into defence just as much as attack. It's a jammer being covered on the sweep, it's the centre making the correct read, it's harmonious connection between the entire edge, it's a unified line both during the set and on kick-chase, it's diffusing the vast majority of kicks, it's a blocker or escort not missing their assignment, it's knowing when to pressure playmakers and when to hold off, it's being effective at first contact, it's controlling the player on the way to ground effectively in order to get your markers and defensive line set etc.

And in attack, it's the obvious stuff. Be better connected, take your chances, make sure passes stick, decoys hitting side shoulders, etc., all that good stuff we know. But it includes discipline as you mentioned.

The fittest teams can fail to execute and go longer without it affecting the game as much. But the best teams tilt the game in their favour through execution on both sides of the ball and rarely need to dig deep in order to stay in the game. It seemed a weekly occurrence from us.

All NRL preseasons do a sufficient job at preparing their players for the rigours of the season-proper. Then, once we're 6-8 rounds in, match fitness takes over and teams (not individuals) are largely congruent in their overall fitness levels.

If that wasn't the case, we would expect to see teams who have no ball and are run ragged in the early rounds, start to dominate from a fitness perspective as the season wears on, simply due to the fact that they'd have been asked to do so much more in-game work than other sides, therefore improving their fitness.

But we don't.

Execution x talent wins football games.
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Maybe it’s fitness in specific areas. Like defensive line speed for the full 80. Or players backing up through the middle to take advantage of half chances.
 
innsaneink said:
I just call it as I see it.
He put his hand up to do the job with the roster available.
I see others including Benji himself excusing his failures
Benji: "I'm not coaching for results I'm coaching for the future"
Others here: "He doesn't have the roster, he doesn't have leaders, half the squad is kids"

It's just buying more time it's all this club ever seems to do... While every other club is fighting for a premiership next year we're still looking to the future.... We rarely get that far though as its a results driven business and people (coaches) get the flick
Our good players take off elsewhere and who, can blame them... The cycle then repeats.
Give credit when it's due and if they prove us all wrong next year I'll be first saying we'll done...
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There’s two or three clubs fighting for the NRL comp next year, be realistic.
 
bptiger 0 said:
We will end up with no further signings , but maybe we should jump in now and sign Lodge , he is the best that I think we can do and will be cheap . Our club is pathetic, should have had forwards all signed up by now . We will be back on the 5 year building crap over the next 25 years
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This is how every Justin Pascoe recruitment meeting started.
 
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Lestronge said:
He was out of form at the time . But yea I agree , it was puzzling , I didn’t get it at the time and still don’t . Maybe they thought they had someone else ?
Or they thought Matamua and Lualiii would come on more ?
Maybe , they saw his value as an edge , which to be fair he didn’t provide much ? It’s not until we moved him into lock that he lifted his performances .there were multiple Adam Blair comparisons in the first half of the season .
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The days of paying guys who don’t want to be at the club twice the prime minsters wage are over.
 
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