Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Vicious]

they have no one with speed besides sloan who they want to offload, you can say we need more speed in our side but there’s more to a winger being fast for them to be invaluable

Ok so we just continue to focus on a team full of players that are not real fast, hardly make a line bust, but make plenty of hit ups and make good yardage, is that the answer to our problems?
Every good team needs balance, so you need a certain number of those types of players, complimented by others with speed, x-factor, tackle bust, line break and long range try scoring ability.

 

[Demps]

Interesting that in the recent BTR Podcast with Laui and Api, they were asked who they were most excited to see debut...

Both said Masi.... which is Makasini.
Then Api made a special mention about Jared Heywood, mentioned he works hard and is going toe to toe at training with Luai.

Very promising.

 

[Demps]

 

[SeanT]

Tyrell sloan is an exact example of that not being true

How Sloane keeps getting a start is beyond me. A touch player at best.

 

[tigahhh]

How Sloane keeps getting a start is beyond me. A touch player at best.

has super league MOTM every week written all over him

 

[Vicious]

I’ve only seen highlights of Tyrone May since he’s been in the UK and his slight of hand and line break assist ability has never been in question, but does he have a good kicking game ?
I know he’s only been playing in the halves over there, is he showing any reason to believe he could become the ball playing 13 we are looking for ?

 

[weststigers]

I think you will find it is, they were playing reserve grade and scoring unbelievable long range tries every week, but we would not put them in our NRL team on a regular basis because we were concerned they were not good enough defenders.
Wingers with speed who can score long range tries and keep their opponents worried about them are invaluable.

If they can't defend, doesn't it negate their attacking ability?

I just wonder what you are saying here. Wingers can forget about defence and the basics of the game, like catching bombs as long as they are fast?

You're the first to criticise Skelton for his defensive misreads, yet here you are saying it's ok as a winger to be inept in defence. Can you be clear. Just seems like you don't have a clear opinion, just the alternative view of what someone puts out there to the point your view seems contradictory.

 

[Tim Sheens]

I’ll make an excuse for Skelton last week ..he scored a couple of tries against the Titans playing outside Taylan, but Benji decided to break that combination up… Skelton played outside Toa who has become the worst defender in the team of late …and the result was that side being heavily targeted

A ridiculous decision, and hopefully the coaching staff will stop more making more changes than necessary in a team already struggling with fresh combinations, whether that be spine positions or otherwise.

 

[Vicious]

If they can't defend, doesn't it negate their attacking ability?

I just wonder what you are saying here. Wingers can forget about defence and the basics of the game, like catching bombs as long as they are fast?

You're the first to criticise Skelton for his defensive misreads, yet here you are saying it's ok as a winger to be inept in defence. Can you be clear. Just seems like you don't have a clear opinion, just the alternative view of what someone puts out there to the point your view seems contradictory.

Skelton missed that crucial tackle last week as he was TOO SLOW laterally to get to his opposing winger.
Skelton does not make up for his defensive misreads or for being too slow laterally by being capable of making long range line breaks or scoring long range tries.
A GOOD CIACH can help assist and fix issues with wingers making bad defensive reads, but they can’t coach someone to be quicker and quicker laterally.
Once again Skelton has his strong points and you would assume he is still playing injured for whatever reason, but when you have him on one wing and Turuva on the other, all you get is good yardage out of our danger zone and good finishing in our red zone, nothing else.
For the 100th time, why do you want both wingers similarly restricted and your team not having anyone who has genuine speed to worry the opposition ?
It’s rugby league suicide and I cannot believe you and a few others think it’s good.

 

[hank37w]

That’s what we said about Marika Koroibete and Josh Addo-Carr when they were regularly scoring long range tries for us in Reserve Grade and we ended up letting them go because we didn’t believe they were good enough defenders.
That worked out really well, they both headed down to Melbourne to become stars and premiership winners.
Good coaches will work with wingers who are attacking freaks to bring their defence up to a satisfactory level,
Unfortunately not even a good coach can turn slower boring wingers into fast, exciting attacking players and try scoring freaks,

My recollections of Koroibete at least at that time was that he was absolutely fearless with his contact, he seemed to have very little consideration when it came to self preservation, you would have to have thought at the time that you could probably be a fair chance of turning him into a half decent sort of defender with a bit of work.

 

[tigahhh]

Skelton missed that crucial tackle last week as he was TOO SLOW laterally to get to his opposing winger.
Skelton does not make up for his defensive misreads or for being too slow laterally by being capable of making long range line breaks or scoring long range tries.
A GOOD CIACH can help assist and fix issues with wingers making bad defensive reads, but they can’t coach someone to be quicker and quicker laterally.
Once again Skelton has his strong points and you would assume he is still playing injured for whatever reason, but when you have him on one wing and Turuva on the other, all you get is good yardage out of our danger zone and good finishing in our red zone, nothing else.
For the 100th time, why do you want both wingers similarly restricted and your team not having anyone who has genuine speed to worry the opposition ?
It’s rugby league suicide and I cannot believe you and a few others think it’s good.

masi & bula are fast they just haven’t been in the team

 

[Batmans Parents]

Would rather not go there. He’s nowhere near as talented as Taylan and Terrell, was actually convicted of doing the shitty things he was accused of, and would likely just be taking up a bench spot as a utility. Would much rather that slot goes to Murray/AD or even Haywood in the second half of 2026.

 

[Vicious]

My recollections of Koroibete at least at that time was that he was absolutely fearless with his contact, he seemed to have very little consideration when it came to self preservation, you would have to have thought at the time that you could probably be a fair chance of turning him into a half decent sort of defender with a bit of work.

Melbourne certainly did, there was very few defensive issues once he played for them and it was history repeating with Addo-Carr.
We have been fascinated with slow boring wingers for 10 years and funnily enough we have also failed to make the finals during that time.
As I keep saying it’s not just the wingers, but when in combination we have a slow back row, slow halves, slow centres and slow wingers it becomes a problem.

 

[Vicious]

masi & bula are fast they just haven’t been in the team

They will help, but will it be enough ?

 

[Demps]

Would rather not go there. He’s nowhere near as talented as Taylan and Terrell, was actually convicted of doing the shitty things he was accused of, and would likely just be taking up a bench spot as a utility. Would much rather that slot goes to Murray/AD or even Haywood in the second half of 2026.

I think the Mole is off with this info.
Old news.

We've got more important things to work out from our end.

ADs future.
Buds future.
If we're keeping Staines, Tuitupou and KMapz.

Strengthening our pack.

 

[weststigers]

Skelton missed that crucial tackle last week as he was TOO SLOW laterally to get to his opposing winger.
Skelton does not make up for his defensive misreads or for being too slow laterally by being capable of making long range line breaks or scoring long range tries.
A GOOD CIACH can help assist and fix issues with wingers making bad defensive reads, but they can’t coach someone to be quicker and quicker laterally.
Once again Skelton has his strong points and you would assume he is still playing injured for whatever reason, but when you have him on one wing and Turuva on the other, all you get is good yardage out of our danger zone and good finishing in our red zone, nothing else.
For the 100th time, why do you want both wingers similarly restricted and your team not having anyone who has genuine speed to worry the opposition ?
It’s rugby league suicide and I cannot believe you and a few others think it’s good.

Khan-Pereira with all his speed and lateral movement has a tackle efficiency of 66%. That is dog shit. He would maybe get there but probably miss the tackle.

It's why he's in reserve grade.

Turuva ain't slow btw.

Secondly, yardage was our biggest problem. You see how much we lose when Staines comes in. You're looking at moments in a highlights reel. The game goes for 80 minutes and the dirty work needs to be done too. The top teams don't have Khan-Pereiras in there.

It's not like we are getting Skelton into the clear and he's being run down. That I could understand. We wouldn't be able to give him any space to make use of his speed anyway. It's not the problem that needs fixing.

They tried this experiment in schoolboy rugby for many years. Just recruit athletes. Super fast. Didn't work. They don't have the football skills or the ticker.

 

[weststigers]

Hull KR adamant on star's future after surprise NRL transfer speculation

Hull KR half-back Tyrone May will remain with the East Hull club for the foreseeable future, despite reports linking him with a move away from Craven Park.

www.loverugbyleague.com

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Would rather not go there. He’s nowhere near as talented as Taylan and Terrell, was actually convicted of doing the shitty things he was accused of, and would likely just be taking up a bench spot as a utility. Would much rather that slot goes to Murray/AD or even Haywood in the second half of 2026.

If his last name wasn’t May, no one would care. He might look like a star over there, but lots of guys have over the years. Hastings, George Williams etc. Come over here and they get lost in the shuffle.

 

[Vicious]

Khan-Pereira with all his speed and lateral movement has a tackle efficiency of 66%. That is dog shit. He would maybe get there but probably miss the tackle.

It's why he's in reserve grade.

Turuva ain't slow btw.

Secondly, yardage was our biggest problem. You see how much we lose when Staines comes in. You're looking at moments in a highlights reel. The game goes for 80 minutes and the dirty work needs to be done too. The top teams don't have Khan-Pereiras in there.

It's not like we are getting Skelton into the clear and he's being run down. That I could understand. We wouldn't be able to give him any space to make use of his speed anyway. It's not the problem that needs fixing.

They tried this experiment in schoolboy rugby for many years. Just recruit athletes. Super fast. Didn't work. They don't have the football skills or the ticker.

If Khan-Pereira had no skills and no ticker, how is it that he is the only player in the game that is currently scoring better than a try per game, has the record for the fastest player ever to reach 50 tries ?
As for the yardage Taylan May will help with that more and more once he gets more games under his belt and if we had Makasini or Laulilli or any other centre that wasn’t lame, they would also be assisting with our yardage.
No way in the world Khan-Persira misses that tackle on Jenkins with 5m of space to work with and you can bet your bottom dollar Khan-Pereira would have scored under the sticks if he found himself in that soace To’a was in.

 

[balmain boy]

Shannon Gallant was pretty much doing the job anyway from all reports. It's just a job title change at the end of the day.

The "changes" in the recruitment area still amount to 1 recruitment guy vs the Dogs 7.

It's not enough.

Gallant was Wests Pathways advisor, Bronson was Balmain pathways advisor. If they're now both in new roles who are replacing them in pathways?