Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

liltiger said:
Maybe Hunt as well possibly leaving BWG. There was talk about him being able to look around earlier, you think he might be a chance of moving on aswell?
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I don’t think he will unless he’s lost motivation & agrees to a retirement payout. I doubt any other club would pick him up anyway especially on the dollars he’s apparently on with us. I just hope he gets his body right in the off-season & rips and tears in pre-season training.
 
Vicious said:
Compare our middles to Melbourne Storm who are current Premiership favourites.
They have Stefano Utoikamanu who most of our supporters think was no loss and believe we have a better replacement in Terrell May.
Their other starting prop is Josh King who I really like as a player and would love someone like him wearing Wests Tigers colours, but if we are being realistic, is he any better than Fonua Pole, Sione Fainu or Alex Twal ?
Their starting lock is Trent Loliero who is very fit, mobile, has a decent passing game, high energy, aggressive and a current State of Origin representative. So yes he is a definite improvement on anyone we currently have as a 13, but if we were to swap him with Alex Twal, does it make us a significantly better team ? I would say slightly better, not significantly better.
Now go to their bench middles who are generally Tui Kamikamica, Alec McDonald and in the absence of NAS it will probably be Ativalu Lisati who is mainly a back rower.
Ask yourself the question, if we had those 3 on our bench ahead of either Pole or Sione (whichever one doesn’t start), Alex Seyfarth and Royce Hunt, would it make a massive difference to our teams success ?
Pole or Sione (whichever one doesn’t start) is at least the equal, if not better quality than Kamikamica at this stage of their careers. I don’t believe Seyfarth loses much if anything to Lisati, particularly in the work rate side of things and when close to his best as he was over the last couple of rounds, big Royce offers just as much if not more impact than Alex McDonald.
If we are including number 9’s in this argument than that’s another story as I believe Harry Grant is far and away the best number 9 in the NRL and an ageing Api doesn’t compare with him, but who does ?
Then if we want to include the starting edge back rowers, Eliesa Katoa is clearly one of the best and most dangerous ball runners in the NRL. We do not have anyone who can match him, but Sam Fainu is emerging and there is at least hope he can get somewhere near that level in 2026.
On the right the Storm have either Shawn Blore when at full strength or Joe Chan as his injury replacement. As of 2026 we will have KPP who I believe is at very worst comparable to Blore in terms of ability and I think he’s clearly ahead of Joe Chan in terms of consistency, work rate and overall ability.
So at worst our forward pack as it stands for 2026 is very comparable to Melbourne Storm, probably aside from the difference in class of the two respective number 9’s. The middles that a large percentage of our fans keep saying are our weakness are comparable to the current 2025 Premiership favourites.
In saying all of this I do agree we certainly need better depth in our middles, so we definitely need to recruit 2 good quality players who can either come into our top 17 or at worst provide good NRL standard depth.
Now look at our backline for strike in comparison to Melbourne Storm ?
The stike in our backline is where we are a long way behind the likes of Melbourne Storm and most other NRL clubs.
The emergence of Taylan May has certainly helped improve us quite a lot in this area and 2026 should see further progression in our young up and coming outside backs in Makasini and Laulilli. However we do not know how much they will improve over he next 6 months, so sure we can be hopeful, but we cannot bank on either of them being our saviours in regards to adding some much needed needed extra strike for 2026.
I know we have many supporters who truly believe the lines of Bula, Turuva, To’a and Skelton are elite and are up there with the top echelon of NRL outside backs, but if you are being serious the danger they present to opposing teams is very minimal compared to most other NRL clubs.
Due to Salary Cap restraints this problem is not an easy fix, but surely trying to sign one more good quality outside back is needed just as much as adding two good quality middles if we are to be genuine top 8 contenders in 2026.
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Christ mate …I ain’t reading all that …

all I know is Melbourne win about as many games in 1 year as we do in 3..

But this is a discussion about whether we spend our remaining money on Burton …
 
Spartan117 said:
Holidays / off season for the players.

Skeleton staff till it all ramps back up a week before November 1st
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Must be!

Apparently our U16 cubs played the Titans yesterday up the north coast which they have for the past few years at this time of year. Any story or post from the club … No! 🤬

Just saw a post from Stephen Isdale that we lost 28-32 with son Iszak man of the match. Very talented young fullback!

C’mon WT including our new Comms Director, you can do better!
 
BlackWhiteGold said:
Must be!

Apparently our U16 cubs played the Titans yesterday up the north coast which they have for the past few years at this time of year. Any story or post from the club … No! 🤬

Just saw a post from Stephen Isdale that we lost 28-32 with son Iszak man of the match. Very talented young fullback!

C’mon WT including our new Comms Director, you can do better!
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i only knew they were doing that because the boys made a tiktok account for their program! our youngins are better at making content themselves than the club 🤦🏻‍♀️
 
Tom Shines said:
Christ mate …I ain’t reading all that …

all I know is Melbourne win about as many games in 1 year as we do in 3..

But this is a discussion about whether we spend our remaining money on Burton …
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Exactly right about Melbourne Storm winning many more games than us each season and that is why I’ve made our player comparison with them.
In summary Melbourne Storm and the other top quality teams in the NRL are top quality teams because their top tier players are far superior to ours.
Many of our fans keep clutching at straws wanting to blame the likes of Alex Twal and Alex Seyfarth for us not being a top 8 team, this is so far off the mark it’s not funny.
 
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Vicious said:
Except right.
I will summarise it for you, Melbourne Storm and the other top quality teams in the NRL are top quality teams because their top tier players are far superior to ours.
Many of our fans keep clutching at straws wanting blame the likes of Alex Twal and Alex Seyfarth for us not bro g a top 8 team, this is so far off the mark it’s not funny.
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Can we afford Burton or not with the current cap situation ? The original comment I responded to also wants to play him at 13… according to you we can’t have our general play kicker playing that position …

I’ll say this again …I don’t believe Sayfarth belongs in our Top 17…. But he is still in that situation if they don’t add to the squad …Twal is fine …improved out of sight this year …
 
Tom Shines said:
Can we afford Burton or not with the current cap situation ? The original comment I responded to also wants to play him at 13… according to you we can’t have our general play kicker playing that position …

I’ll say this again …I don’t believe Sayfarth belongs in our Top 17…. But he is still in that situation if they don’t add to the squad …Twal is fine …improved out of sight this year …
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I’ll say it again, yes it would be nice to have a better quality player than Seyfarth in our top 17, but he is not the reason we are not making the top 8.
Put him on the bench for any of the 5 teams currently still alive in the 2025 competition and they would still be in the same position they are now.
I’m not sure where the Matt Burton question comes from, but one things for certain, he won’t be happy playing centre for too long, so whoever potentially signs him from the Bulldogs would have to do so with plans to play him as their 5/8.
If he leaves the Bulldogs I would say it will be to the Perth Bears.
 
Vicious said:
I’ll say it again, yes it would be nice to have a better quality player than Seyfarth in our top 17, but he is not the reason we are not making the top 8.
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There are probably several reasons …but I don’t think he helps much either … he gets dominated on both sides of the ball …opposition teams pick out the weakest players to exploit… like what happens when Naden and Toa are playing poorly …


Vicious said:
I
I’m not sure where the Matt Burton question comes from, but one things for certain, he won’t be happy playing centre for too long, so whoever potentially signs him from the Bulldogs would have to do so with plans to play him as their 5/8.
If he leaves the Bulldogs I would say it will be to the Perth Bears.
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The question comes from people in the thread specualting that the Tigers should sign him…it seems you don’t have an opinion on that which is unusual…

I can see him with Perth in 2027 as well…but that means he might be elsewhere in 2026…I don’t think the Bulldogs want him next year and might need his money freed up to spend elsewhere
 
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weststigerman said:
This place has descended into fairyland again.

It might be fun to speculate about star players under contract coming to our destination club to play in their non-preferred position but it’s just a dream.
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Ha, I don't know mate, maybe we could put 10kg of muscle on Burton over the summer and turn him from a 5/8 into to a beast of a prop, can you dig it, I'm sure he's busting his arse to get over here.
 
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