Elijah Taylor loving life at the Wests Tigers

[Cosimo_Zaretti]

It's funny how things work out. Had Taylor stayed with the Panthers another couple of weeks he'd have been a walk up to replace Segeyaro. They'd be missing him now.

It feels like the Tigers finally found a replacement for Liam Fulton. Only took two years.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

He won't be going anywhere

 

[tigerman80]

please stay elijah taylor. youve been a breath of fresh air, and so desperately needed. Wests tigers management, do whatever you can to keep this guy, defends all day and looks good with the ball in hand and so humble. best signing we have had for a very long time.

 

[andrew 474]

He will stay
Leadership role , loves the young guys and their ability , has a direct job to do , enjoying his football ( that's abig one ) seems to like the coaching staff , got a first grade gig with us , like the idea of player input , I would be very suprised if we aren't already putting something together for the next 2 years , also he may feel we are on the up , we may not make the 8 but we will be close , if we do crack a top 8 spot it will help even more as he seems to be a positive person so he may well thin top 6 next season

 

[GNR4LIFE]

He will stay
Leadership role , loves the young guys and their ability , has a direct job to do , enjoying his football ( that's abig one ) seems to like the coaching staff , got a first grade gig with us , like the idea of player input , I would be very suprised if we aren't already putting something together for the next 2 years , also he may feel we are on the up , we may not make the 8 but we will be close , if we do crack a top 8 spot it will help even more as he seems to be a positive person so he may well thin top 6 next season

I'd be surprised if there wasn't already a deal in place when he signed and it's just something the club is keeping up their sleeves for later in the yr as something they can use for more positive news. There could also be a handshake agreement that he'll stay on. I know they aren't worth anything, but in this case i think both parties would be as good as their word. There's no way the club would have signed him without a view to extend. It's not like he was a stop gap signing, the club knew what they were getting. I trust they won't let him go.

 

[andrew 474]

GRN , agree 100 percent , the club seems to be organising contracts with players we need to keep and you are spot on with further good news later in the season , would be nice to see , a , Tigers scrape into top 8 and More good news Taylor signs on for 2 or 3 more years , just loads the club up with positives

 

[fibrodreaming]

I think one of the most important reasons he will want to stay with us is that, for the first time in his NRL career, he has been encouraged by the coaching staff to fully express himself as a footballer.

Everyone knew he was a hard working lock who did the dirty hit-ups and his 40+ tackles a game, but nobody in the NRL realised what a talented ball player his is. He seems very happy with the coaching staff - and why not, given they have helped him add a new dimension to his game, and put him firmly in the sights of the NZ selectors.

Why would he risk all that for a few extra dollars and go to a club which may not value his ball playing skills as highly as the Tigers.

 

[supercoach]

I think there is probably a deal on the table,but can not be registered with the NRL till Farah has decided what he is up to in 2017\. I think if he stays our cap will be full and if he goes depending on where and what we are paying towards his contract we will be able to sign Taylor and maybe another quality player

 

[marzie]

Elijah Taylor enjoying fresh start at Wests Tigers
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MICHAEL CARAYANNIS, The Sunday Telegraph
June 25, 2016 4:39pm
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ELIJAH Taylor was unwanted at one club but became a senior player at another just days later. Now he faces the possibility of finding his third club in six months, describing the rugby league rollercoaster as “a bit of a strange world”.
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Dumped to NSW Cup and unwanted by new coach Anthony Griffin at Penrith, Taylor was welcomed with open arms by the Wests Tigers.
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But with halves Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks agreeing to rich one year deals for next season, Taylor faces the possibility of being squeezed out, having signed on at the Tigers for the remainder of 2016.
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Elijah Taylor is hoping he has found a home at Leichhardt.
“When I look back it was very frustrating,” Taylor said. “I worked really hard in the pre-season at Penrith. I played as hard as I could for the reserves. If you keep working hard you’ll get the result somewhere. This is the result.
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“Mentally it was very tough trying to get up for games and try and play as hard as you can for the reserves. It’s a bit of a strange world.
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“If someone told me last year that I’d be playing for the Tigers this year, I’d say ‘you’re crazy there is no way I’m leaving Penrith’. What’s happened to me is a great example of how something can change so quickly when there is a new coach or new agenda at a club.
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“I knew I wanted to come here and play first grade. I don’t know about any longer deals. (Joining three clubs in six months) would be pretty weird. It’s rugby league man, we all know it’s a business.”
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Taylor has been something of a lucky charm since his Tigers debut.
The Tigers have dropped just two of their five games since Taylor made his club debut in round 10\. Taylor said he felt comfortable with coach Jason Taylor’s desire to entrust him as a senior player.
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“His first message was leadership,” Elijah says of the coach. “He really wanted some more leaders in the team. That was the main point. One of my strong suits is defence.
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“We know we can attack. Defensively, mentally we need to be a bit stronger and keep turning up for each other. We do that, we can do anything in this competition.”
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The Tigers sit just two points outside the top eight. They get a chance to show if they are finals ready when they play the Storm in Melbourne on Sunday.
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“It’s going to tell us a lot about ourselves,” Taylor said. “It’s going to give us a gauge of where we are at as a playing group.”
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While Taylor has relished a return to the top grade since making his mid-season switch, the Kiwi international is struggling with Sydney’s traffic. Still living in Penrith’s heartland of Glenmore Park, he has battled with making the near daily journey to the Tigers Concord training base.
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“I leave home at 5.30 am, even if we start at 10 I’ll still leave early,” Taylor said. “I hate being late. I want to be here nice and early. I get to the tea room. Tim Grant just moved to Penrith so we’ll start car pooling.”

 

[Geo]

Young stars inspire new leader Taylor
Chris Kennedy Sun 26 Jun, 2016, 7:00am

By Chris Kennedy ‌, National Correspondent , NRL.com

Young stars inspire new leader Taylor
Wests Tigers lock Elijah Taylor during his club debut in Round 10\. Credit: Robb Cox. Copyright: NRL Photos.
Mid-season Wests Tigers recruit Elijah Taylor says a search for more senior leadership was behind his recruitment by coach Jason Taylor, and the 10-Test veteran has a new lease on life leading the talented young stars at the club around.

The Tigers have one of the youngest rosters in the NRL – at 25 Aaron Woods is a young captain and besides him, fellow Blues Origin rep Robbie Farah and veterans Chris Lawrence and Dene Halatau, significant NRL experience is thin on the ground at Concord.

So when out-of-favour Panther Elijah Taylor became available, coach Jason Taylor put the fellers out in an effort to boost his roster's big-game know-how.

The New Zealand international has slotted in like a dream, helping guide the team's attack, adding plenty of starch to the middle and helping the club to three wins in his five starts to lift them to within a win of the top eight.

**"Before I signed, talking to 'JT' – that (leadership) was probably the main reason to get me to come to the club," Taylor said.\
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"He wanted some more leadership because obviously we've got a really young team. Really young as in NRL games each, on average. That was the first pitch, was the leadership role.\
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"It's something I'm very comfortable with. It's something that I've done over my career. I'm really excited working with the young talent here.\
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"As senior players you need to set the good example, you need to do everything right, you need to make sure you're doing everything right so hopefully they can follow**."

The new signing described the level of young talent at the Tigers as "unbelievable". Specifically, young halves Luke Brooks and Mitch Moses as well as fullback James Tedesco, who as a unit have the potential to lead the club to plenty of success for years to come.

"They've got a lot of enthusiasm and it rubs off on a lot of the boys. It's really refreshing when you see them at training. Freakish skills," Taylor said.

"Just the enthusiasm they bring and it kind of lightens the mood sometimes, you can be really focused 100 per cent at training sometimes but just the enthusiasm rubs off and it's just really good to play alongside young talent who are going to be future stars of this game."

Both young talent and old will need to be switched on when the black and golds travel south to Melbourne on Sunday in search of what would be the joint venture's second win in their 12th visit to Melbourne (across Olympic Park, Docklands and AAMI Park).

Taylor himself will be representing the club in Melbourne for the first time but has his own unhappy memories of the city.

"I went there with Penrith last year. We got pumped (52-10). It was Cameron Smith's 300th game and we got smashed so it wasn't the best memories there!"

While Smith and fellow Kangaroo Cooper Cronk rightly get plenty of plaudits, Taylor says it's the big men up front – and their Kiwi Test contingent of Jesse Bromwich, Tohu Harris and Kevin Proctor in particular – who are the reason for Melbourne's recent hot run of NRL form.

"They've got a great system down there, a great culture. I know a lot of the boys from the Kiwis in that team and that's why they're so successful," Taylor said.

"[Their Kiwi Test forwards] are why they're on top of the table, I think. They can play long minutes, they're big, they've got skills, they've got good feet. Same with [Nelson Asofa] Solomona and [Dale] Finucane. They've got a great forward pack. I think it's very underrated and it's going to be a very tough game in the middle.

"We've got to go down there, turn up defensively and work hard defensively. That's all we've been doing over the last month, just working on our defence and slowly it's getting better. We've just got to keep that going."

http://www.nrl.com/young-stars-inspire-new-leader-taylor/tabid/10874/newsid/98408/default.aspx