Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Vicious said:
Back on topic in regards to potential recruitment options.
When you consider we have made it pretty clear young Simpkin is not really in our long term plans, we can’t just let him go without a suitable replacement who could be a tough tackling NRL dummy half if Api misses any games.
Da Silva is a special talent, but is not ready to play 80 minutes at NRL level yet.
I believe Jazz Tavaga is on the outter at the Warriors and at age 28 still potentially has a couple of good NRL seasons left in him.
A player like him who doesn’t take a backward step and would also be a 13 option would be ideal for our bench when we are full strength. I think he’d be interested in coming now if we showed interest.
Mat Croker and Trey Mooney are young, mobile props with their best years ahead of them, both off contract at the end of 2024 and would add much needed competition to our front row stocks.
We need a solid edge back row back up option. Matt Doorey currently at the Eels played a few solid games for them at NRL last season, but he’s now well down their pecking order. It is likely he’d jump at the chance to move now with a much better chance of getting on the bench on a more regular basis.
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Don’t be silly , they are the sort of players we need , but it will not happen , we get rid of them type of player , big JOE just to mention one . I hope ur right 🤔
 
W.Boland_c said:
Thinking ahead…if Luai makes the club more attractive to other players, I wonder who aloud who those players might be specifically? The obvious thought is compadres from the riff. But what kind of player ideally compliments him across the park?
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And "fits" our player weak spots.
 
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Bones said:
Is stef one of our best forwards? He still has a long way to go to being a top level prop imo. He hasn't even cemented himself as a permanent starter.

That's not to say he won't get there, but one of the issues we've had is paying guys like they are stars before they are.
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I agree. But all the signs are there he would go to the Roosters and be an absolute monster. Props generally peak at 26-30 so I would like to keep him.
 
W.Boland_c said:
Thinking ahead…if Luai makes the club more attractive to other players, I wonder who aloud who those players might be specifically? The obvious thought is compadres from the riff. But what kind of player ideally compliments him across the park?
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Luai made his name with Kikau running off him. We won’t get Kikau but he’s not a bad prototype.
 
Conbat07 said:
Maybe Luai could unlock Papallai like Moses did. In the highlights of the Bulldogs vs Parra game Moses put Pensini in a great hole, nearly scored early in the game
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Our back rowers are international class. Involving them in our attacking plays must be in Benji’s thinking. Surely. I have a theory that teams rush our red zone attack because they aren’t scared of our edges.
 
BAGNF05 said:
Our back rowers are international class. Involving them in our attacking plays must be in Benji’s thinking. Surely. I have a theory that teams rush our red zone attack because they aren’t scared of our edges.
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100 percent we must be the worst attacking team in the redzone, we get there enough. Hopefully we improve a lot
 
This issue of our poor attack in the red zone…there’s a pretty simple solution to it. Start actually running some shape for the set of tackles, guys moving off the ball, running angles and decoys. Make the opposition defenders make decisions.
We are so predictable and obvious, we throw up absolutely nothing.
I don’t get it - are we not fit enough such that most of the players are standing there watching the guy with the ball run one out??? What do we practice at training??
 
W.Boland_c said:
Thinking ahead…if Luai makes the club more attractive to other players, I wonder who aloud who those players might be specifically? The obvious thought is compadres from the riff. But what kind of player ideally compliments him across the park?
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Turuva - off contract next year, Apis cousin and we need outside backs
 
bbobb said:
I thought Galvin (admittedly only a short stint against the Dragons) looked like he may be able to help in putting the back rowers and centres into gaps
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He did look to have some good instincts and soft hands.
 
TigerSJ said:
This issue of our poor attack in the red zone…there’s a pretty simple solution to it. Start actually running some shape for the set of tackles, guys moving off the ball, running angles and decoys. Make the opposition defenders make decisions.
We are so predictable and obvious, we throw up absolutely nothing.
I don’t get it - are we not fit enough such that most of the players are standing there watching the guy with the ball run one out??? What do we practice at training??
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Our problems generally start when we’re attacking about 10-15 metres away from the try line. We normally work to the middle and then inevitably teams lay all over us. This lets them set their defensive line and race up and cut off our shift before it gets to those players you mentioned should be in motion / running shapes. Maybe they aren’t deep enough or are missing their assignments. Teams do a lot of work on defending patterns.

But I tend to think we just run the shift even if the PTB is too slow. We’re better off working the same way again until we get a faster PTB and/or a numerical advantage. An old adage in rugby league is you need to earn the right to play footy, for mine we don’t really do that.

One solution I would try is to chuck Lobb on a wing and kick across to him the first time we are on the attack. You probably don’t score, but their outside men might not be racing up as quickly next time you’re down there.

Also, a lot of tries come from simple one on one tackles where the attacking player is just too hard to handle. We have a real lack of those guys who can create something out of nothing. Long post, but that’s how I view our red zone struggles.
 
TigerSJ said:
This issue of our poor attack in the red zone…there’s a pretty simple solution to it. Start actually running some shape for the set of tackles, guys moving off the ball, running angles and decoys. Make the opposition defenders make decisions.
We are so predictable and obvious, we throw up absolutely nothing.
I don’t get it - are we not fit enough such that most of the players are standing there watching the guy with the ball run one out??? What do we practice at training??
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Nothing u mentioned, Is what we do at training. No shape, no angles just opposed sessions and simple training drills. It’s worried me for a while now, maybe they just do it on days I don’t get to their training??
It’s also the intensity doesn’t seem enough to me, but I haven’t been to other teams training. I almost want to see players get into a fight, ti show some passion!
 
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