Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Doesn't Pepper Money sponsor Benji

Yeah maybe ….I love it when one person here says something ( about a sponsor paying Benji’s salary) and then people start running with it like it’s fact .. I would be very surprised if the club is not paying Benji’s salary…. Perhaps he has a sponsor arrangement elsewhere though.. I doubtthis would be “hidden” as originally claimed 👍
 
We only have one development spot left and there are 3 players I would want on development for next year who I feel are the highest risk of being poached by another club if we don't.

1. Logan Deininger. Has probably been our pathways standout success story so far this year having been scouted out of Far North QLD in the off season and playing SG Ball for Balmain before taking over as the full time Flegg fullback. Yesterday he single handledly won us the game with a huge defensive play followed up by scoring a try nobody in our roster could have scored. He is an elite talent at a premium position and should get upgraded if we don't want to lose him.

2. Josese Lanyon. Josese played most of the Flegg season at 9 but has moved to 13 since Haywood got promoted to Flegg and has probably been consistently our best player since. That Havili type of utility player is something we desperately lack. At a club who needs a quality option at 13 with utility value he is one I expect to go on to play NRL so we should be developing him with priority. Josese is also an external recruit that is in his first year with us. His younger brother James had a fantastic Harold Matthews season and appears to be a premium outside back.

3. Tino Tavana. Tino has been in our pathways now for years and has been a standout on many occasions. He is a freakish match winner who can play fullback, wing and centre well plus kick goals. Everyone knows about him.

Other Flegg grade players I would hope we can keep on second tier contracts are Iverson Matai, Max Liles, Marc Tannous, Mitchell and Max Taotua and Elijah Mataale. I would like to keep Feledy around if we could do so without him being on top 30 but it seems unlikely. All of these players have potential to become quality NRL players in time.

In terms of NSW cup level players the unsigned ones who have NRL depth upside are Solomona Faataape, Brent Naden, Jaxson Rahme, Alex Lobb, Isaac Tuitupou, Luke Jack, Elie El-Zackhem and Kurt Falls. I would hope we could retain as many of them as possible on NSW cup contracts as they would offer useful depth post round 11.

I would say despite the results going our way as often as we would like you can tell that the pathways program has taken a leap this year. Both SG Ball sides just missed the 8, Flegg and NSW cup started poorly but once they found their best rosters are competing with the best sides. And now we are beginning to see the "good problem" of genuinely good young players not being able to progress due to not being better than others. When we lose good players from our pathways not because they want to go to greener pastures but because we simply don't have the room, that's when it's working. I am afraid we will see quite a lot more of this!
 
At times it seems you have nothing but disdain for Wests Tigers; have a look at your past posts. Whether they are in response to others is irrelevant imho - your thoughts are yours.
I do appreciate your comments on juniors and can clearly see you have a genuine interest in them, which I applaud.
I'm over people (not just you and apologies if it does seem I'm just targeting you as I am really not intending to) who just bring negativity to the forum when it comes to the NRL team. It's really boring.
Interesting.
So apparently I’m charged with having “utter disdain” for a club I’ve followed for half a century. And this view gets the big tick from the moderator.

Based on what (please share)?

I’ve regularly attempted to defend organisations and people who I see being routinely dissed on here and apparently that’s being negative. I mean you all know the script - we lose three games in a row and all the toys get chucked - time to rip into Wests Ashfield, Denny Burgess, Campbelltown, NSW Cup branding, Lachie Galvin’s parents ... blah blah (not to mention certain contributors)

Buck that trend and apparently your being negative
Viva la mob mentality baby 👍
 
Pathways recruitment priority has to be prototype forwards. We lack it in the NRL squad and we lack it throughout the pathways. We have good emerging 9s, halves and a plethora of outside backs talent but as a club we are missing size. We have Fonua Pole model forwards coming out of our ears but we need to develop prototypes closer to the AFB/Junior Paulo types as they are so important for building set momentum through post contact metres. Peter Taateo is an alright start. Kit Laulili runs hard but he is small. Royce Hunt was that for us earlier in the season and imo it is no surprise we were winning more games when he was match fit and firing. The best quality players of that prototype don't get released by NRL clubs though they get developed and retained so we need to figure out what it is about our pathways that's meaning we aren't unearthing the Loko Pasifiki Tonga's and fix it by recruiting the younger ones that look like that and making a point of identifying them.

Maybe the problem is Gallant is so short he can't tell the difference between 6ft and 6ft 5.
 
One more thing to note is that it is on the record that the Tigers in their present strategy don't do a lot of external recruitment at the pathways level and rely on the catchment to produce. This is all well and good but of all the names I mentioned above a LOT of them are among the very few external recruits. Deininger, Lanyon, Matai, Liles, Taotua brothers are all scouted from outside catchment and even Mataale was a returnee. Every one of the NSW cup players is an external recruit.

Should we be investing more in pathways scouting as it does appear to be paying off? I think so. Not by robbing Peter to pay Paul though. These are just the areas that highlight where lack of funding can really hurt us.
 
Its posts like yours that reveal who you really are , and are the reason many on here have no time for anyone advocating what you do
Yeah and I love you too ❤️
Now let’s put my post into its proper context 👇
 

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One more thing to note is that it is on the record that the Tigers in their present strategy don't do a lot of external recruitment at the pathways level and rely on the catchment to produce. This is all well and good but of all the names I mentioned above a LOT of them are among the very few external recruits. Deininger, Lanyon, Matai, Liles, Taotua brothers are all scouted from outside catchment and even Mataale was a returnee. Every one of the NSW cup players is an external recruit.

Should we be investing more in pathways scouting as it does appear to be paying off? I think so. Not by robbing Peter to pay Paul though. These are just the areas that highlight where lack of funding can really hurt us.

Mate.. they don’t have the staff to assess their own junior catchment let alone others ..
 
Interesting.
So apparently I’m charged with having “utter disdain” for a club I’ve followed for half a century. And this view gets the big tick from the moderator.

Based on what (please share)?

I’ve regularly attempted to defend organisations and people who I see being routinely dissed on here and apparently that’s being negative. I mean you all know the script - we lose three games in a row and all the toys get chucked - time to rip into Wests Ashfield, Denny Burgess, Campbelltown, NSW Cup branding, Lachie Galvin’s parents ... blah blah (not to mention certain contributors)

Buck that trend and apparently your being negative
Viva la mob mentality baby 👍
They want a hive mind mentality on here, imagine how boring that will be….
 
a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush ! if the tigers survived on their own , they almost certainly would have ended up at Gosford , considering that was the original singo plan, only for the timelibes to not match up re. blue tongue stadium. even norths really, should have stayed, for they met nearly all criteria , and were totally screwed in the last season because when they committed to gosford , building was delayed so badly, it messed their backpocket significantly .
Its posts like yours that reveal who you really are , and are the reason many on here have no time for anyone advocating what you do
Interesting fact is that Balmain tried to relocate to Gosford back in the 1970s. The Central Coast Rugby League (in hindsight, rather stupidly) knocked them back.
 
Interesting.
So apparently I’m charged with having “utter disdain” for a club I’ve followed for half a century. And this view gets the big tick from the moderator.

Based on what (please share)?

I’ve regularly attempted to defend organisations and people who I see being routinely dissed on here and apparently that’s being negative. I mean you all know the script - we lose three games in a row and all the toys get chucked - time to rip into Wests Ashfield, Denny Burgess, Campbelltown, NSW Cup branding, Lachie Galvin’s parents ... blah blah (not to mention certain contributors)

Buck that trend and apparently your being negative
Viva la mob mentality baby 👍
Perhaps "the moderator" was liking this part of the comment:
"I do appreciate your comments on juniors and can clearly see you have a genuine interest in them, which I applaud."

But carry on.
 
Attached is a good article about Taylan May. Note Marshall's comments about him and I believe it provides a good understanding of his empathy for his players.

‘I never doubted his hunger’: Taylan May returns after 436 days out of NRL​


I'm interested to see how he pulls up

He was a good player at the Panthers.
Hopefully he works out for us [and himself]

Very exciting game today.
🔥 🔥 🔥
 
Interesting.
So apparently I’m charged with having “utter disdain” for a club I’ve followed for half a century. And this view gets the big tick from the moderator.

Based on what (please share)?

I’ve regularly attempted to defend organisations and people who I see being routinely dissed on here and apparently that’s being negative. I mean you all know the script - we lose three games in a row and all the toys get chucked - time to rip into Wests Ashfield, Denny Burgess, Campbelltown, NSW Cup branding, Lachie Galvin’s parents ... blah blah (not to mention certain contributors)

Buck that trend and apparently your being negative
Viva la mob mentality baby 👍
Most people will believe just about anything they are told as long as it is told to them by someone they trust. As a random voice on the internet you are not that. And unfortunately most people are unequipped to determine who to trust. Most people don't understand that it is those who stand to gain when they win your trust who should be viewed with the most scepticism and invite the most critical responses.

Unfortunately those who stand to gain spend the most time influencing thought and so most people's worldviews ultimately are little more than a mirror of the perspectives that the people running the operation want them to have.

When you go through life acknowledging that before engaging at least you won't be caught off guard by how confident people are in their barely thought through opinions. Even then you get caught off guard from time to time. A place like a football forum is probably the worst distillation of this because it's easily influenced people being influenced by incompetent people whose agenda can easily be seen through yet still they will argue the toss.
 
At times it seems you have nothing but disdain for Wests Tigers; have a look at your past posts. Whether they are in response to others is irrelevant imho - your thoughts are yours.
I do appreciate your comments on juniors and can clearly see you have a genuine interest in them, which I applaud.
I'm over people (not just you and apologies if it does seem I'm just targeting you as I am really not intending to) who just bring negativity to the forum when it comes to the NRL team. It's really boring.
It is a forum for a club that has three consecutive wooden spoons.

People who have passion in something that is failing finding success are forced to confront and challenge the things causing it. Criticism is often the most loving thing someone can give. And accepting that criticism with an open mind is often the quickest path to positive transformation.

It is very unlikely anyone who spends significant time on a Tigers forum don't ultimately want them to succeed and the critical ones are just as passionate if not moreso than those who are endlessly faithful.

You are not the club, Benji, Richo or the players so why take offence on their behalf? It's a sports team not a religion and you are a fan not a zealot? They are just simple men not Gods.
 
I'm interested to see how he pulls up

He was a good player at the Panthers.
Hopefully he works out for us [and himself]

Very exciting game today.
🔥 🔥 🔥
Super happy for him and I believe he will be the centre we have been looking to add , Toa , May Jnr , Makasini are solid for 2026
May to score a double today I just can feel a good win and a great game by him coming up
 
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