Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Tigerscout said:
W

coaching staff won’t stop until we let go of everyone we worked so hard to prepare for the league, looks like we need to add Sukkar to the lineup of players we let go

Between Tedesco, addo Carr, stefano and Moses, that lineup would probably win the league

we have had players like Sukkar, sakuru and Heath in our junior systems since they bought their first pair of cleats and now that they are playing rep footy and earning their stripes our coaching staff feels the need to start fresh with players who use our club as a stepping stone to gain bigger club notoriety

Save our juniors, don’t let them go

We need to cultivate our pathways and support our boys that showed us loyalty
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I 💯 agree with this.
I think we have far too many fans who under estimate the importance of developing a reasonable amount of our local juniors, particularly ones such as these 2 who we no doubt put on top 30 contracts a little before they were really ready for it, but now have good NSW Cup and NRL experience which will likely see them improve in leaps and bounds over the next couple of years.
I think the 2 contract negotiations are quite different with Sukkar likely wanting well above the minimum contract value to be comparative with what he could get in the UK Super League, where I’d say Heath simply wants a minimum top 30 deal where we are more leaning towards a Train and Trial deal for him.
Edge back row is no doubt an area where we are again very thin in quality of depth, which will only become worse if we do not re-sign Sukkar.
 
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Vicious said:
I 💯 agree with this.
I think we have far too many fans who under estimate the importance of developing a reasonable amount of our local juniors, particularly ones such as these 2 who we no doubt put on top 30 contracts a little before they were really ready for it, but now have good NSW Cup and NRL experience which will likely see them improve in leaps and bounds over the next couple of years.
I think the 2 contract negotiations are quite different with Sukkar likely wanting well above the minimum contract value to be comparatively what he could get in the UK Super League, where I’d say Heath simply wants a minimum top 30 deal where we are more leaning towards a Train and Trial deal for him.
Edge back row is no doubt an area where we are again very think in quality of depth, which will only become worse if we do not re-sign Sukkar.
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All very romantic and the latest buzz words - is - keep n edumacate your juniors
Need very shrewd operators for all the cards to fall into place
 
wastedyears said:
The point is the club's strike rate from pathways and development has been awful in recent seasons.

A quick search, the last player to come from the club's pathways to still be a consistent week-to-week NRL player for WT is Sione Fainu debut 2024. Before him, Bula in 2023, and Pole in 2022. So just 3 players in 5 seasons? Off the top of my head, I can think of that many for both the roosters and knights (Grand Finalists) in the past couple of seasons. Toia, Foketi, Savala, Wong - McEwan, Hopwood, Crouch, Sharpe, Hunt.

Where is it falling over? Is it talent ID in the pathways? Pathways recruitment? Pathways development? Will the coaching director finally fix this?

The club can't keep going to market to entice established players for overs, or unwanted players at other clubs way past their prime to make up for the failure in this area. That's not how you build premiership rosters.
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The Raiders have a very good strike rate when it comes to progressing players from the development system in the NRL.
 
Vicious said:
What are the chances Izaac Tago ends up with us?
The Panthers are needing to create cap space for their big name players and I’m sure they would ideally like to offload Izaac’s 700k contract even if they contribute 100-200k towards it.
The sticking point would be we have Jake Averillo to play predominantly right centre, but it’s much better to have one too many in each position, rather than not enough.
I’ve also heard some player is trying to get out of a Perth Bears deal to sign with us.
Logically it could be Kit Laulilli, but I have a sneaky suspicion it could be Josh Curran?
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Curran is a work horse , hits the line hard and is a very good defender, great signing he would be
 
vlad said:
all the hand wringing about sukkar probably leaving

All the other nrl clubs could’ve signed him anytime this year

It’s not like Isaac Moses would’ve been shy in offering him around

Maybe he isn’t that good .
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Then why bring him through the Pathways? If what you write is true, it is a reflection on our poor identification of talent with the system. Personally, I believe he did well under difficult circumstances.
 
wastedyears said:
The point is the club's strike rate from pathways and development has been awful in recent seasons.

A quick search, the last player to come from the club's pathways to still be a consistent week-to-week NRL player for WT is Sione Fainu debut 2024. Before him, Bula in 2023, and Pole in 2022. So just 3 players in 5 seasons? Off the top of my head, I can think of that many for both the roosters and knights (Grand Finalists) in the past couple of seasons. Toia, Foketi, Savala, Wong - McEwan, Hopwood, Crouch, Sharpe, Hunt.

Where is it falling over? Is it talent ID in the pathways? Pathways recruitment? Pathways development? Will the coaching director finally fix this?

The club can't keep going to market to entice established players for overs, or unwanted players at other clubs way past their prime to make up for the failure in this area. That's not how you build premiership rosters.
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Talent identification retention and development are the core of our problem
 
clontarfkid said:
Talent identification retention and development are the core of our problem
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Also, apart from usual clubs picking up our lower grade players, we now have Perth and PNG, adding to the competition for players to fill squads. It will be harder and harder to keep our lower grade talent when other clubs are offering them progression without holding them whilst they develop. This 'old school' approach of holding talent to properly develop will pretty much become extinct soon.
 
Vicious said:
What are the chances Izaac Tago ends up with us?
The Panthers are needing to create cap space for their big name players and I’m sure they would ideally like to offload Izaac’s 700k contract even if they contribute 100-200k towards it.
The sticking point would be we have Jake Averillo to play predominantly right centre, but it’s much better to have one too many in each position, rather than not enough.
I’ve also heard some player is trying to get out of a Perth Bears deal to sign with us.
Logically it could be Kit Laulilli, but I have a sneaky suspicion it could be Josh Curran?
Click to expand...
Holidays or more to it? Fonue Pole has been in Perth training with the Lauliliis the past week or 2 going by his Insta stories.
 
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