Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[weststigerman]

I'll just say it one more time - gay men can have children, don't know why anyone suggests Ian Roberts doesn't have kids because he is famously out of the closet.

Didn’t say they couldn’t, but it’s less common and I’m fairly sure Ian Roberts doesn’t.

And just like that I’m on a wests tigers forum debating reproduction in gay men. Didn’t have that one on my bingo card.

 

[Tiger_Fanatic3]

Tigers set to pounce on young Roosters gun​

Shortly after signing Penrith Panthers second-rower Mavrik Geyer, the Wests Tigersare set to lock in another youngster of the same position.

The Daily Telegraph reports that following a back-row squeeze at the Sydney Roosters, the club has had to let one of its brightest young prospects in that position go.

The Tigers have since pounced on the young Rooster, reaching a verbal agreement with 20-year-old forward, Ethan Roberts.

Expected to join the club on a two-year deal from 2026, the Indigenous All-Star will be looking to cement a regular first-grade role under Benji Marshall.

Featuring in 12 NSW Cup games for the Roosters this year, Roberts has impressed scouts with his attacking upside, scoring two tries in his dozen appearances.

He is expected to battle it out for the Tigers' back-row spot with new 2026 recruits Geyer and Kai Pearce-Paul, as well as current second-rowers Samuela Fainu and Alex Seyfarth.

 

[Vicious]

Jack Cogger is closing in on a return to Penrith, potentially exiting Newcastle a year early to rejoin the Panthers and spark a three-club shuffle.

▪️ Brad Schneider looks set to join the Dolphins, opening the door for Cogger to head back to Penrith
▪️ Sean O’Sullivan could head to Canterbury to mentor Galvin & Woods

It’s depressing as all of them are better than Jock Madden.

 

[88]

I'm not ok with it. The deal was done last year! We were supposed to be past these brain farts.

Shame, because he started the year pretty good and he complimented a long minute prop like Terrell. Think I remember seeing some stats at one stage and his post contact metres were the best in our pack despite limited minutes and his metres run per minute on the field were high.

He offered the impact we recruited him for. The turning point seems to be when we started him for a game or two during injuries. Not suited to that role and has seemed to struggle with form and effort since. Early season Royce was handy in our rotation.

 

[jrtiger]

The Butcher brothers are rare Roosters juniors, they won’t let them go.
Foketi looks to be a very promising young edge back rower, but the Roosters know that and also won’t be letting him go anytime soon.
With the recent signings of Mavrik Geyer and Ethan Roberts, we now have too many edge back rowers in our top 30 when you add them to Samuela Fainu, KPP, Tony Sukkar and Solomone Saukuru.
I would have thought we would have been much better off signing someone like Siosifa Takakai to add his hard running and aggression as our regular number 15, but also able to add pressure and play as a starting back rower, lock or centre when required.

definitely need to look at making adjustments somewhere given that the depth chart for backrowers is now pretty healthy, Saukuru the likeliest option to be cut loose.

 

[Groundup]

Adam deserves a better deal than that on offer allegedly.

An established first grade that is in our top 17.

Yet only dragons are offering a pinch more.

 

[innsaneink]

The Butcher brothers are rare Roosters juniors, they won’t let them go.
Foketi looks to be a very promising young edge back rower, but the Roosters know that and also won’t be letting him go anytime soon.
With the recent signings of Mavrik Geyer and Ethan Roberts, we now have too many edge back rowers in our top 30 when you add them to Samuela Fainu, KPP, Tony Sukkar and Solomone Saukuru.
I would have thought we would have been much better off signing someone like Siosifa Takakai to add his hard running and aggression as our regular number 15, but also able to add pressure and play as a starting back rower, lock or centre when required.

Ethan Roberts is a rare roosters junior too... they let him go.

Now back to Cronk ...several have asked for more details on him being at WTs training which yiu continually avoid.

Why was he there?
Who saw him?
Was it in his foxsports role...or was he in training gear working with players?

Sorry to sound like an inquisition but your reluctance to reply has me curious as Cronk seems to put shit on us whenever he can

 

[Dr_Ice]

The Butcher brothers are rare Roosters juniors, they won’t let them go.
Foketi looks to be a very promising young edge back rower, but the Roosters know that and also won’t be letting him go anytime soon.
With the recent signings of Mavrik Geyer and Ethan Roberts, we now have too many edge back rowers in our top 30 when you add them to Samuela Fainu, KPP, Tony Sukkar and Solomone Saukuru.
I would have thought we would have been much better off signing someone like Siosifa Takakai to add his hard running and aggression as our regular number 15, but also able to add pressure and play as a starting back rower, lock or centre when required.

Actually the Butchers originally were Souths juniors and their Dad a past Souths player. Egan still has time but to date never lived up to his early hype

 

[Rock Hopper Steve]

Hunt is a huge albatross around our neck for two more years.

Give him another off-season G before we toss him into the shredder, we really need his big body hopefully he wakes up to himself.

 

[innsaneink]

That contract is gonna be hard to get rid of.

I'm ok with it on the basis that we have had multiple contracts in the squad like him in the past and we currently only have him draining our cap.

In saying that, an extra 600k to replace him would be nice.

If he can work hard over the off season and get to 15 GOOD minutes either side of half time, consistently...it may be ok.
I have my doubts though

 

[TheEnz]

Ethan Roberts is a rare roosters junior too... they let him go.

Now back to Cronk ...several have asked for more details on him being at WTs training which yiu continually avoid.

Why was he there?
Who saw him?
Was it in his foxsports role...or was he in training gear working with players?

Sorry to sound like an inquisition but your reluctance to reply has me curious as Cronk seems to put shit on us whenever he can

My understanding is that his attendance was related to fox sports. I used to like his commentary, however his hatred of Luai effects any semblance of balance to his words. I like to think its because of the whole QLD vs NSW thing and Luai was always the villain that QLD hated...however it seems to cut deeper than that.

 

[TheEnz]

If he can work hard over the off season and get to 15 GOOD minutes either side of half time, consistently...it may be ok.
I have my doubts though

I still hold out some hope for Big Roycey was not long ago he was changing the momentum quite regularly when he would come on for the sharks.

 

[Kelce68]

It’s depressing as all of them are better than Jock Madden.

That's probably debatable.

At the very least they're all in a similar bracket. All are reserve grade level halves capable of a handful of first grade games a year. I'd say their differences, whilst unique to each, largely cancel each other out.

 

[Vicious]

Ethan Roberts is a rare roosters junior too... they let him go.

Now back to Cronk ...several have asked for more details on him being at WTs training which yiu continually avoid.

Why was he there?
Who saw him?
Was it in his foxsports role...or was he in training gear working with players?

Sorry to sound like an inquisition but your reluctance to reply has me curious as Cronk seems to put shit on us whenever he can

I think it was Matty Johns or someone at Fox League who brought it up with him.
I’m sure I am not the only one who watched a lot of these Fox League shows, so I’m assuming quite a few others also watched it ?
tigahhh is generally very on the ball with all this stuff, did you see this ?
As for Ethan Roberts, my understanding is he is a resident in our Balmain Tigers catchment area and was more or less poached from Balmain by the Roisters at a young age.
This being the case we are really only just getting him back.
I’ve done from further digging and it seems the Roisters are not convinced he has the athleticism to be an NRL edge and are of the belief he could be more suited to the middle moving forward, so he is maybe not as quick and athletic as I thought he is.
Either way he’s a worthwhile project to see if his big frame develops into a genuine NRL player.
As raised previously I just find it a bit strange we have seemingly signed Roberts and Geyer as one of them would have been sufficient and we should have been targeting an established versatile NRL quality utility and considering we lack aggression and power running, Talakai would have been perfect.
I am really struggling to see any real theory behind our overall recruitment and retention.

 

[Vicious]

That's probably debatable.

At the very least they're all in a similar bracket. All are reserve grade level halves capable of a handful of first grade games a year. I'd say their differences, whilst unique to each, largely cancel each other out.

If we are not considering Douehi is a halfback option moving forward which seems to be the case based on our lowball offer, I would be much more confident in having Cogger or Schneider challenging for our NRL 7 jersey.

 

[Vicious]

Give him another off-season G before we toss him into the shredder, we really need his big body hopefully he wakes up to himself.

Api and Jerome hinted he loves his KFC, so that could be part of his problem.
I do recall we had an Aussie Olympic cyclist who won a Gold Medal and stated his staple diet consisted of plenty of KFC, but I don’t think too many 30 plus year olds can get away with it and be in good physical condition to play professional sport.

 

[weststigers]

If he can work hard over the off season and get to 15 GOOD minutes either side of half time, consistently...it may be ok.
I have my doubts though

I hope so too. He was great early on. Really fell off a cliff.

 

[Flippedy]

thought it was an interesting point that Matty & Cronk made that we are an emotional team, if we lean into that this team could be anything

What a dumbass comment by those two. All the teams are bloody emotional when it comes to winning or losing games. Except for Melbourne of course, who show little emotion because the coach always exhibits enough for the entire team! 😂

 

[Wiz]

Api and Jerome hinted he loves his KFC, so that could be part of his problem.
I do recall we had an Aussie Olympic cyclist who won a Gold Medal and stated his staple diet consisted of plenty of KFC, but I don’t think too many 30 plus year olds can get away with it and be in good physical condition to play professional sport.

Ryan Bayley. I remember that too. 2 gold medals.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

I still hold out some hope for Big Roycey was not long ago he was changing the momentum quite regularly when he would come on for the sharks.

Remember when he put that big chase on Zac Lomax in our round 2 win against the Eels showing his speed! I feel something happened after that win against the Sharks as his form seemed to drop after that game.

Differing reports that his fitness measures weren't up to scratch, his knee had been causing aggravation & that he had a rib problem (his own, not eating ribs), maybe all of the above.

Rather than write off a player, hopefully Benji and the S&C team can work with Royce to get whatever right for a big off & pre-season of fitness. A fit and firing Royce for 20-25 mins a game offers us something we don't have!