Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Wiz said:
It’s fine for us to offer him a one year minimum wage deal. It’s fine for Adam to shop around and get the best deal for himself. WT need to look after its interests and Adam his.
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Very true. The club has paid him probably $1M+ in wages while he has been on the sidelines, so the club certainly doesn’t owe him anything. AD is being offered a minimum wage deal to stay, so he doesn’t owe the club anything. His move at the end of the day. Without the multiple knee injuries, he had the potential to be a solid NRL first grader. But he never had the full package to be an elite or marquee franchise player. Too slow - both off the mark and in space, missed too many one on one tackles for a guy his size, and struggled with judgement on when to run or when to just get early ball to his outside men. Dropped his head a bit too often when things weren’t going their way in a game as well. Good luck to him, but hard to see him commanding much more than minimum wage from any club at this point.
 
balmain boy said:
I was thinking this too. Comes from nowhere and he's getting more results than Bula. He supports and does things a million miles an hour. Bula still operates on cruise control too much.
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re David Armstrong..
So is that David Armstrong or Adam O'brien?

Bula is clearly a physical talent. If we are not getting the most out of him, why aren't we asking "what are the knights doing that we are not?"

Time to fix the club instead of the roster.
 
crazycat said:
re David Armstrong..
So is that David Armstrong or Adam O'brien?

Bula is clearly a physical talent. If we are not getting the most out of him, why aren't we asking "what are the knights doing that we are not?"

Time to fix the club instead of the roster.
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Agree. Benji has said more than once our attack wasn’t the focus in the preseason or during our season start. He knows it needs to be addressed but was intent on focusing on defensive effort.

If you look at our structures in attack and defensive wise you can see we haven’t practiced much on set plays.

Issue is balance. I get Benji intent but if you don’t have the ability to score 3-4 tries a game you won’t win many games regardless how good the defence is.

Teams know they will win most times because we can’t score that’s half the pre game battle right up front.
 
BirchgroveTigers said:
Watching roosters - sharks atm. My god Talakai is the perfect bench utility. Covers centre, backrow and middle forward to a solid standard. Very few players in the comp could do that.
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And he’d be our best forward and outside back. The fact they have the luxury of playing him as a utility shows how far off the pace we are.
 
balmain boy said:
I was thinking this too. Comes from nowhere and he's getting more results than Bula. He supports and does things a million miles an hour. Bula still operates on cruise control too much.
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Armstrong has it all over Bula in attack but his defence is suspect - tackling, positional play and kick disposals. His defence, however, will improve as he bulks up and gets more experience.

Another youngster on a meteoric rise is Ethan Strange. If he was a Tigers we would've anointed him as the next immortal.
 
TV Ted Ellery said:
A common refrain from Tigers fans is "X isn't first grade standard" but look at how many of our cast offs are playing in the NRL. Junior Pauga is case in point. While he's no world beater, he's doing a very respectable job for the Roosters.
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Tommy Talau did some nice things on Friday but also had a few horror moments. Costing his team tries.

Pauga played well but came up with a simple drop to kill the Roosters chances.

The guys we release to good clubs often become role players but rarely are they the game changers we are lacking to become a winning club.
 
Spartan117 said:
Adam D deserves a chance, a solid depth player who can cover a number of positions.

I would retain him on a 1 year contract.

I'm not believing the DT details.
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Freight is the obvious question considering we’ve already paid him a motsa to do FA.
 
Enmore_Tiger said:
The half back thing is just bizzare.
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Not really if you consider he views himself qs a half. Aside from centre it is probably the position he has his best chance of getting back in the side with only Sezer and Sullivan as competition. Then if he can play a few half decent games there he should get a reasonable offer from another club.

I've never been a fan of his. Even in his best year 2021 when so many others were claiming he was our best I thought he was a overated selfish player in attack and lazy in defence. But if he can get back on the field and get himself a contract even as a backup half elsewhere good luck to him.

The minimum wage offer is fair enough from the club and his rejection in hopes of earning a better one is just as fair.
 
gregjm87 said:
Not really if you consider he views himself qs a half. Aside from centre it is probably the position he has his best chance of getting back in the side with only Sezer and Sullivan as competition. Then if he can play a few half decent games there he should get a reasonable offer from another club.

I've never been a fan of his. Even in his best year 2021 when so many others were claiming he was our best I thought he was a overated selfish player in attack and lazy in defence. But if he can get back on the field and get himself a contract even as a backup half elsewhere good luck to him.

The minimum wage offer is fair enough from the club and his rejection in hopes of earning a better one is just as fair.
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I think it is bizarre he views himself as a halfback. It shows a complete lack of self awareness.

He has some good moments in the halves because he has some skills and is generally a talented footballer. However he clearly lacks vision, probably the most important part of playing in the halves. He will throw long when he needs to throw short, he throw short when he needs to throw long etc.

If he can't see he is best as a runner of the ball first, and let some skill come in naturally off the back of that then it's bizarre he can't see that he needs to play in a position that is a run first mentality.

I also disagree it's his best chance to get into the team later this year. We are struggling in the centres and backrow, the 2 spots his skillset seem most suited to. It would also allow him the opportunity to stay here long term if he committed to play in either or those spots. As a halfback he has no chance of staying.
 
BAGNF05 said:
Tommy Talau did some nice things on Friday but also had a few horror moments. Costing his team tries.

Pauga played well but came up with a simple drop to kill the Roosters chances.

The guys we release to good clubs often become role players but rarely are they the game changers we are lacking to become a winning club.
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An alternate view? All these teams are higher up the ladder than Tigers. I suppose that’s a coincidence?
We can all find fault in the players we’ve let go and are fitting in well at their new club, which is preferable to praising their efforts.
The one thing I’ve noticed is these players are highly motivated when they play us, much more so than when they wore a Tigers jersey.
They will score a double against us, while we struggled to get a lone try from their time here?
Disgruntled ex employees huh?
 
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IMO Talau is playing very similar to how he did with us. Maybe his hands have improved slightly, but that's about it.

I don't think these fringe players who leave us get better, it's just that they are in a team with some top end talent that win games, and winning games looks good. Once we get that top end talent, I'm sure our fringe players that often frustrate us will look better because we are winning. A loss brings out all our negativity and analysis of every moment.
 
TV Ted Ellery said:
Armstrong has it all over Bula in attack but his defence is suspect - tackling, positional play and kick disposals. His defence, however, will improve as he bulks up and gets more experience.

Another youngster on a meteoric rise is Ethan Strange. If he was a Tigers we would've anointed him as the next immortal.
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I feel like that is the view of a shattered Tigers supporter, and I can understand that. However if you asked 100 neutral supporters who is the better attacker, I'm willing to put money on that Bula would win the vote. I would even say most Newcastle supporters would say Bula.
 
crazycat said:
re David Armstrong..
So is that David Armstrong or Adam O'brien?

Bula is clearly a physical talent. If we are not getting the most out of him, why aren't we asking "what are the knights doing that we are not?"

Time to fix the club instead of the roster.
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Not sure mate. Armstrong was in reserves all last year tearing it up. Would O’Brien had that much of an influence then? Possibly Ponga may of had a bigger influence if he started pre-season with firsts this year.
 
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BAGNF05 said:
Freight is the obvious question considering we’ve already paid him a motsa to do FA.
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Yes, I think Richo should add up what we’ve paid him so far, plus next years offer and divide by the number of seasons he’s been here.
Then it would be a much more realistic discussion.
Let’s say $600k( or whatever he’s on) x 3 +$150k = $1.95m/ 4 = $487,500pa average.
 
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