Joe Ofahengaue #240

[bythebeardofzeus]

Not to be be funny or rude but us not making the 8 for over a decade is nothing to do with my opinion.

This is a fact. This fact though doesn't mean we are viewed poorly or management is incompetent.

A lot of these problems are just your perspective.

And the perspective of 99% of rugby league people I know

Who cares ? Seriously. It's just your assessment of people you know. I know plenty of people and the last thing they do is tell me how incompetent the Tigers management are. I have a lot of friends who are also Tigers supporters.

How many people realistically talk to you every day about how incompetent the Tigers are ? I think most people have the Tigers management ability pretty low on their priorities of things to discuss.

I'd question your sample assessment but I assume you are just using hyperbole.

I’ve been around the game all my life, as an average player at best, coach, and referee. So I know a few and I discuss it a lot. That ranges from NRL players to my wife who patrols the junior league canteen, it’s common knowledge WT are a rabble mate.

Mate which district ? I think this has a bearing on where an opinion is coming from . There’s a lot of bias and things said like the “the tigers are a rabble “ and when pressed on the whys , they come up with a story from 5-10 years ago . Once someone gets an idea in thier head , it’s very rare for people to truely be open to changing it .
This was my whole point about targeting players Not affected by our past mistakes .
I don’t see how you can say we are a rabble when we are one of the only profitable teams in the comp ? To me , manly are a rabble . The sharks are a rabble . The sharks have had a good team since the late 80s yet fall into financial hardship every 5 years . Seriously , if the sway of living in the shire wasn’t there , they would have folded years ago . They have to recruit flat out , and this last crop of juniors is thier first in like 10 years with actual talent .

Another team that’s a rabble , the warriors . Have a whole country to pick from , but can never field a winning team . Have been through 4 owners as far as I can remember , and almost went out of business , when they changed thier name to NZ.
The dogs - have way too many hands in the kitchen , and haven’t fielded a decent team in 5 years , next year will be no different .
Secret bad team ...... NQ. Haven’t won anything , without a certain JT in thier squad , have the most diehard region of football fans in the world to pick from , huge corporate support , yet consistently produce rubbish . Bleed money like crazy as well . This same description applies to the dragons as well

You need to look at things objectively. Just because , you’re having conversations inside your echo chamber doesn’t mean , that it’s a fact . All it means is everyone inside that bubble has the same hive mind .

The region I live is irrelevant mate because it’s not just hearsay, it’s week after week of player dramas, year after year of coaching issues (note I like Madge), year after year of losing our must win games after showing early glimpses of hope, and a relentless stream of players, player managers and other clubs treating us with no respect at all. Even in the recent case, when we wanted a meeting with the NRL, they said ‘in a few weeks’. Even the league shows us little respect. Nobody is making this stuff up.

I'm just quoting this to say that this to me doesn't constitute objective truth.

Point 1:- Week after week of player drama. The only player drama I have heard of in relation to our club is the Aloiai situation. This is not week after week of drama. It's rare. Other clubs are also in the news in relation to player drama all the time. Souths have had Sam Burgess. Penrith have a cocaine problem. Nth Qld have a player sleeping with a married staff member. We aren't alone in our player drama and it's definitey not something that occurs weekly.

So point 1 clearly isn't an objective fact.

Point 2:- Year after year of coaching issues. I don't know what you mean here. We had Cleary leave us a coupleof years ago. Do other teams lose their coaches ? Do they sack them ? How many clubs sacked their coaches this year. Did we ?

So point 2 clearly isn't an objective fact.

Point 3:- year after year of losing our must win games after showing early glimpses of hope. Yeah this sucks but to be fair you shouldn't have hope for next season.

So point 3 might be a fact but you are missing out on a key point and that is teams have finished below us every year. I don't think it's an objective fact.

Point 4:- A relentless stream of players, player managers and other clubs treating us with no respect at all.

This is clearly not an objective fact. It's a subjective opinion that says nothing about Wests Tigers. I mean can you even explain what a relentless stream of players means. I mean is this happening to us daily ? How do you explain players taking drugs, having sex with women and filming it and even being up on rape charges. All of this is played out in the media. Do those players respect their clubs ?

Point 5:- The NRL disrespects us because they ask to delay a meeting for a couple of weeks.

This is to me a little bizarre. I mean does this really offend you ?

So your argument is, we should be allowed to have drama because other clubs do to? Look it’s simple, we need to challenge the top eight sides on the field, play finals footy, hold onto our best young players and start recruiting some guys that aren’t on another teams scrap heap. Until then, my opinion is we’re a rabble. There’s facts in there if u look hard enough.

Part of being in this business means that there will be player drama. We are dealing with young kids in a lot of ways and some of those kids have rugby league as their ticked to a better life. It happens to all teams. You can't expect us to be different.

We do challenge the top 8 sides on the field. We aren't a walkover hence we are coming middle of the table. We aren't dead last every year consistently.

As for recruitment and retention it's hard but it's not all bad. I reckon LL and AD are close to top tier signings. We've signed some great young kids in Stef and Blore and maybe even Laurie.

I can definitely state we aren't a rabble. The club appears to be doing everything it can right. We won't know how things turn out but I don't expect to make the finals next year. I do expect to keep building a decent team.

We may also surprise on the upside next season.

It’s about expectations, obviously mine are different to yours. Statistically each team should make the eight one in every two years, we haven’t made it in 9. I expect more than dead last when I make the 4 hour round trip to the footy, which I do often.

We have never been DEAD last.

So I guess your expectations have been met.

Yea , to me the guys saying and I’m paraphrasing , so relax if verbatim you didn’t say this ?, but the attitude of “we are the worst team in the comp” , has zero relevance to reality .
It’s like the NRL version of anti-vaxing, or flat earthers .
It’s true because I saw it on Facebook/ you tube , or my mate told me that his mate told him about this thing he saw on a website which was a link from another website . And somehow in 2020, this has become an actual point people are arguing .
Here’s the deal guys . If you saw it on net , and it wasn’t linked to something official , eg . A daily telegraph article , or , some random website . It’s probably not true .
Also , if your mate says something and they arnt a direct employee or , have had a first hand fact driven experience , it’s probably got a bit of magic dust sprinkled on the story, or , is jump hype train piling on , to continue the conversation at the pub. Most times when people say these things , and you ask them why they think that , it’s usually some anecdotal reason they heard somewhere , or complete BS. It’s rarely true . From my experience talking to people like this .
I’m not telling people how to suck eggs , or trying to be insulting , it’s everything you see and read has to be treated as crap. Especially the things that reinforce your strong opinion on something , as all social media , and some websites , have algorithms specifically designed to keep you in your echo chamber.
We all need to be mindful of this .

Mate you blokes get tied up on fact versus fiction.

Who is the club with the longest running finals drought? I’ve been paying membership for those 9 years, and I have every right to voice my concerns and expect more. As you do to voice yours.

So let’s move on.

You said we were the worst team in the comp. Many of us have come out and said that’s utter rubbish. Refuting that claim. It’s all good if you say something “yea your right we arnt the worst , I’m just frustrated “that’s fine . But you guys doubled down . Which lead to the whole debate . No ones having a go at you . Well I’m not at least . I just think that’s not true , and it’s the type of comment and perception , that we are railling against . Perception vs reality

No I said we’re a rabble. We’re not the only rabble.

Like I said earlier in another post I was paraphrasing . I actually think Trippa said that . Still even the rabble comment , has little to do with facts , and more just perception. We arnt a rabble . We are stuck in sports purgatory! Not good enough to compete for a title , yet not bad enough to suck outright , that you can bottom out and build from the ground up. There’s an easy way out by “tanking” or bottoming out and playing kids , or there’s the really hard route , which is trying to fix it on the fly . And because of the nature of the sport being fix it yesterday , coach’s ,GMs , recruitment managers , CEOs , make short sighted decisions because , they’re worried about thier job . Hence all the poor “marquee” signings over the last 5 years .
I hate losing more than most , I just watch a lot of different sports , both here , and the US , and it’s so hard to build a team . Here more so , because we don’t have any natural talent dispersion tools like a draft , and transparent salaries .

I agree with you on this. Whether it’s a rabble or purgatory or whatever name you give it, I’d love to see it end.

Do you think you are the only one?

No mate, we’re all wanting the same thing on here. Clearly just got different views on the route there.

I don't even know if it is different views on the route, I just think some people think we have started to go in the right direction where you still think we are going the wrong way.

In fairness, people have been saying we're turning things around since we got an independent board, 6 years ago. It's time to see the results.

I get that, things need to improve dramatically next year. I'm hopeful they can. What we need to avoid is the iceberg that has caused us to have to start again so many times.

I think 2021 is unrealistic mate, the top four will change not much. The Titans look to be a top eight side. We have lost our best player, who was never really ours. If we scrape into the eight it will be a Madge master stroke

Improvement is not just seen in making the 8 though which is where you are missing things. For too long we have had a very unbalanced squad, if we get to the end of next year and our squad is more balanced and we are no longer overpaying players I will be very happy.

Oh no I don’t miss things. I don’t have time to analyse the deficiencies in our squads in recent years but one thing I will point out is that when the blow torch is applied we crumble - badly. If we miss the eight but compete for 80 mins each week I’ll be on here raving about the team.

A very wise man keeps telling me that we don't win the key moments, that is onfield and off field. It is in individual games and across a season. Off field I believe we are starting to win those moments which will allow us to get the players and develop players that start to win the key moments on field. We needed to start winning off field 1st though. We need this to continue and we need to avoid the iceberg moments that have pulled us back for the last 10 years.

Very true about the key moments, I’m sure I’m not the only one on here who has a sixth sense for when WT are going to drop their bundle in games, you can almost set your watch to it.

It also manifests itself in big games, games we should win that are pivital in our season. I am confident we are rectifying that, the off field had to be sorted 1st though.

Yeah, that was real bad in 2020. In previous years we lifted for big games but crumbled against lesser teams, that was disappointing.

I hope your optimism is well found.

Adam Hartigan is an incredibly impressive individual, a lot of my optimism come from having him at the club.

Just need to get it right on the field.... we’re doing good everywhere else. Not too confident about making the 8 next year, everyone will need to be at their best for majority of the season and we’re yet to shake the inconsistency from the club.

Next year we need the risks we have taken to pay off, the risks we have taken are not likely to damage the club if they don't payoff, but if they do I believe we will make the 8. For example the club is very well protected in the deal it has with Roberts, so its not a huge problem if it doesn't pay off, but if he plays 20-24 games at centre for us in the form he is capable of then we are in a very good spot. We need things like that to workout for next year to be a success onfield.

The other thing to remember is we may have one of our kids just jump out of a box next year. Many of the younger guys have played 1 game in the last 14 months, now on the surface that should be detrimental to their development, but if for example that extra year of maturity and training has a large impact of Maddens game and he hits the ground running next year then again we are in a really great position.

There are a lot of ifs for next year, we need most of thise ifs to fall in our favour.

The good thing is if they don't fall in our favour they were low risk ifs and won't hamstring us moving forward.

Some good points here mate. Another thing which may work in our favour is that we have quite a few senior players (who haven't really been performing but have been taking up a lot of $$) who will be playing for a contract. Obviously I hope our decision makers won't be sucked in by 1 good year but it could definitely help us reach the 8 if guys like Packer, BJ, etc. really fire.

 

[SeanT]

Not to be be funny or rude but us not making the 8 for over a decade is nothing to do with my opinion.

This is a fact. This fact though doesn't mean we are viewed poorly or management is incompetent.

A lot of these problems are just your perspective.

And the perspective of 99% of rugby league people I know

Who cares ? Seriously. It's just your assessment of people you know. I know plenty of people and the last thing they do is tell me how incompetent the Tigers management are. I have a lot of friends who are also Tigers supporters.

How many people realistically talk to you every day about how incompetent the Tigers are ? I think most people have the Tigers management ability pretty low on their priorities of things to discuss.

I'd question your sample assessment but I assume you are just using hyperbole.

I’ve been around the game all my life, as an average player at best, coach, and referee. So I know a few and I discuss it a lot. That ranges from NRL players to my wife who patrols the junior league canteen, it’s common knowledge WT are a rabble mate.

Mate which district ? I think this has a bearing on where an opinion is coming from . There’s a lot of bias and things said like the “the tigers are a rabble “ and when pressed on the whys , they come up with a story from 5-10 years ago . Once someone gets an idea in thier head , it’s very rare for people to truely be open to changing it .
This was my whole point about targeting players Not affected by our past mistakes .
I don’t see how you can say we are a rabble when we are one of the only profitable teams in the comp ? To me , manly are a rabble . The sharks are a rabble . The sharks have had a good team since the late 80s yet fall into financial hardship every 5 years . Seriously , if the sway of living in the shire wasn’t there , they would have folded years ago . They have to recruit flat out , and this last crop of juniors is thier first in like 10 years with actual talent .

Another team that’s a rabble , the warriors . Have a whole country to pick from , but can never field a winning team . Have been through 4 owners as far as I can remember , and almost went out of business , when they changed thier name to NZ.
The dogs - have way too many hands in the kitchen , and haven’t fielded a decent team in 5 years , next year will be no different .
Secret bad team ...... NQ. Haven’t won anything , without a certain JT in thier squad , have the most diehard region of football fans in the world to pick from , huge corporate support , yet consistently produce rubbish . Bleed money like crazy as well . This same description applies to the dragons as well

You need to look at things objectively. Just because , you’re having conversations inside your echo chamber doesn’t mean , that it’s a fact . All it means is everyone inside that bubble has the same hive mind .

The region I live is irrelevant mate because it’s not just hearsay, it’s week after week of player dramas, year after year of coaching issues (note I like Madge), year after year of losing our must win games after showing early glimpses of hope, and a relentless stream of players, player managers and other clubs treating us with no respect at all. Even in the recent case, when we wanted a meeting with the NRL, they said ‘in a few weeks’. Even the league shows us little respect. Nobody is making this stuff up.

I'm just quoting this to say that this to me doesn't constitute objective truth.

Point 1:- Week after week of player drama. The only player drama I have heard of in relation to our club is the Aloiai situation. This is not week after week of drama. It's rare. Other clubs are also in the news in relation to player drama all the time. Souths have had Sam Burgess. Penrith have a cocaine problem. Nth Qld have a player sleeping with a married staff member. We aren't alone in our player drama and it's definitey not something that occurs weekly.

So point 1 clearly isn't an objective fact.

Point 2:- Year after year of coaching issues. I don't know what you mean here. We had Cleary leave us a coupleof years ago. Do other teams lose their coaches ? Do they sack them ? How many clubs sacked their coaches this year. Did we ?

So point 2 clearly isn't an objective fact.

Point 3:- year after year of losing our must win games after showing early glimpses of hope. Yeah this sucks but to be fair you shouldn't have hope for next season.

So point 3 might be a fact but you are missing out on a key point and that is teams have finished below us every year. I don't think it's an objective fact.

Point 4:- A relentless stream of players, player managers and other clubs treating us with no respect at all.

This is clearly not an objective fact. It's a subjective opinion that says nothing about Wests Tigers. I mean can you even explain what a relentless stream of players means. I mean is this happening to us daily ? How do you explain players taking drugs, having sex with women and filming it and even being up on rape charges. All of this is played out in the media. Do those players respect their clubs ?

Point 5:- The NRL disrespects us because they ask to delay a meeting for a couple of weeks.

This is to me a little bizarre. I mean does this really offend you ?

So your argument is, we should be allowed to have drama because other clubs do to? Look it’s simple, we need to challenge the top eight sides on the field, play finals footy, hold onto our best young players and start recruiting some guys that aren’t on another teams scrap heap. Until then, my opinion is we’re a rabble. There’s facts in there if u look hard enough.

Part of being in this business means that there will be player drama. We are dealing with young kids in a lot of ways and some of those kids have rugby league as their ticked to a better life. It happens to all teams. You can't expect us to be different.

We do challenge the top 8 sides on the field. We aren't a walkover hence we are coming middle of the table. We aren't dead last every year consistently.

As for recruitment and retention it's hard but it's not all bad. I reckon LL and AD are close to top tier signings. We've signed some great young kids in Stef and Blore and maybe even Laurie.

I can definitely state we aren't a rabble. The club appears to be doing everything it can right. We won't know how things turn out but I don't expect to make the finals next year. I do expect to keep building a decent team.

We may also surprise on the upside next season.

It’s about expectations, obviously mine are different to yours. Statistically each team should make the eight one in every two years, we haven’t made it in 9. I expect more than dead last when I make the 4 hour round trip to the footy, which I do often.

We have never been DEAD last.

So I guess your expectations have been met.

Yea , to me the guys saying and I’m paraphrasing , so relax if verbatim you didn’t say this ?, but the attitude of “we are the worst team in the comp” , has zero relevance to reality .
It’s like the NRL version of anti-vaxing, or flat earthers .
It’s true because I saw it on Facebook/ you tube , or my mate told me that his mate told him about this thing he saw on a website which was a link from another website . And somehow in 2020, this has become an actual point people are arguing .
Here’s the deal guys . If you saw it on net , and it wasn’t linked to something official , eg . A daily telegraph article , or , some random website . It’s probably not true .
Also , if your mate says something and they arnt a direct employee or , have had a first hand fact driven experience , it’s probably got a bit of magic dust sprinkled on the story, or , is jump hype train piling on , to continue the conversation at the pub. Most times when people say these things , and you ask them why they think that , it’s usually some anecdotal reason they heard somewhere , or complete BS. It’s rarely true . From my experience talking to people like this .
I’m not telling people how to suck eggs , or trying to be insulting , it’s everything you see and read has to be treated as crap. Especially the things that reinforce your strong opinion on something , as all social media , and some websites , have algorithms specifically designed to keep you in your echo chamber.
We all need to be mindful of this .

Mate you blokes get tied up on fact versus fiction.

Who is the club with the longest running finals drought? I’ve been paying membership for those 9 years, and I have every right to voice my concerns and expect more. As you do to voice yours.

So let’s move on.

You said we were the worst team in the comp. Many of us have come out and said that’s utter rubbish. Refuting that claim. It’s all good if you say something “yea your right we arnt the worst , I’m just frustrated “that’s fine . But you guys doubled down . Which lead to the whole debate . No ones having a go at you . Well I’m not at least . I just think that’s not true , and it’s the type of comment and perception , that we are railling against . Perception vs reality

No I said we’re a rabble. We’re not the only rabble.

Like I said earlier in another post I was paraphrasing . I actually think Trippa said that . Still even the rabble comment , has little to do with facts , and more just perception. We arnt a rabble . We are stuck in sports purgatory! Not good enough to compete for a title , yet not bad enough to suck outright , that you can bottom out and build from the ground up. There’s an easy way out by “tanking” or bottoming out and playing kids , or there’s the really hard route , which is trying to fix it on the fly . And because of the nature of the sport being fix it yesterday , coach’s ,GMs , recruitment managers , CEOs , make short sighted decisions because , they’re worried about thier job . Hence all the poor “marquee” signings over the last 5 years .
I hate losing more than most , I just watch a lot of different sports , both here , and the US , and it’s so hard to build a team . Here more so , because we don’t have any natural talent dispersion tools like a draft , and transparent salaries .

I agree with you on this. Whether it’s a rabble or purgatory or whatever name you give it, I’d love to see it end.

Do you think you are the only one?

No mate, we’re all wanting the same thing on here. Clearly just got different views on the route there.

I don't even know if it is different views on the route, I just think some people think we have started to go in the right direction where you still think we are going the wrong way.

In fairness, people have been saying we're turning things around since we got an independent board, 6 years ago. It's time to see the results.

I get that, things need to improve dramatically next year. I'm hopeful they can. What we need to avoid is the iceberg that has caused us to have to start again so many times.

I think 2021 is unrealistic mate, the top four will change not much. The Titans look to be a top eight side. We have lost our best player, who was never really ours. If we scrape into the eight it will be a Madge master stroke

Improvement is not just seen in making the 8 though which is where you are missing things. For too long we have had a very unbalanced squad, if we get to the end of next year and our squad is more balanced and we are no longer overpaying players I will be very happy.

Oh no I don’t miss things. I don’t have time to analyse the deficiencies in our squads in recent years but one thing I will point out is that when the blow torch is applied we crumble - badly. If we miss the eight but compete for 80 mins each week I’ll be on here raving about the team.

A very wise man keeps telling me that we don't win the key moments, that is onfield and off field. It is in individual games and across a season. Off field I believe we are starting to win those moments which will allow us to get the players and develop players that start to win the key moments on field. We needed to start winning off field 1st though. We need this to continue and we need to avoid the iceberg moments that have pulled us back for the last 10 years.

Very true about the key moments, I’m sure I’m not the only one on here who has a sixth sense for when WT are going to drop their bundle in games, you can almost set your watch to it.

It also manifests itself in big games, games we should win that are pivital in our season. I am confident we are rectifying that, the off field had to be sorted 1st though.

Yeah, that was real bad in 2020. In previous years we lifted for big games but crumbled against lesser teams, that was disappointing.

I hope your optimism is well found.

Adam Hartigan is an incredibly impressive individual, a lot of my optimism come from having him at the club.

Just need to get it right on the field.... we’re doing good everywhere else. Not too confident about making the 8 next year, everyone will need to be at their best for majority of the season and we’re yet to shake the inconsistency from the club.

Next year we need the risks we have taken to pay off, the risks we have taken are not likely to damage the club if they don't payoff, but if they do I believe we will make the 8. For example the club is very well protected in the deal it has with Roberts, so its not a huge problem if it doesn't pay off, but if he plays 20-24 games at centre for us in the form he is capable of then we are in a very good spot. We need things like that to workout for next year to be a success onfield.

The other thing to remember is we may have one of our kids just jump out of a box next year. Many of the younger guys have played 1 game in the last 14 months, now on the surface that should be detrimental to their development, but if for example that extra year of maturity and training has a large impact of Maddens game and he hits the ground running next year then again we are in a really great position.

There are a lot of ifs for next year, we need most of thise ifs to fall in our favour.

The good thing is if they don't fall in our favour they were low risk ifs and won't hamstring us moving forward.

Some good points here mate. Another thing which may work in our favour is that we have quite a few senior players (who haven't really been performing but have been taking up a lot of $$) who will be playing for a contract. Obviously I hope our decision makers won't be sucked in by 1 good year but it could definitely help us reach the 8 if guys like Packer, BJ, etc. really fire.

Isnt it funny players playing hard onthere contract years. It shits me that they expect payrisees after only a few good performances over a few years.

 

[JC99]

Looks like Joffa is on his way to sydney. Hopefully we can see him at pre season on Monday

Found out they are training till the 23rd of December..

Awaits Madge trains them too hard..pussies

So they’re working until the same date as us normal people, I’m sure they’ll survive ?

 

[Geo]


Finally..honesty in a footy player

 

[cochise]

Looks like Joffa is on his way to sydney. Hopefully we can see him at pre season on Monday

Will be visiting the club today.

 

[crazycat]

You’re seeing what you want to see mate

So are you.

Matterson “I want to go to a club where I can win a premiership” 10 months later playing in a preliminary final.

He’s a flog, but I rest my case.

I'm laughing at this one. That is a pretty poor way to rest your case. That doesn't go anywhere near proving that Wests Tigers are a rabble or incompetently managed.

I don't view Matterson leaving as being about the club being incompetently managed. If anything he just proves to me how hard it is to manage contracts within the NRL.

One point that I would agree with is that if you are a winning footy team it's easier to hold onto the players that you want too. That doesn't mean you get it right. If you look at Penrith they are a winning footy team but let's see how they manage their success going forward.

Just to expand, for a relatively young guy to make an assertion that WT are not heading towards success after an already very long run of poor performance, I have to conclude that there are some issues within the club.

...and you do understand that WT is in the business of winning football games? Our competence in this area is surely in question.

You gotta get some better ammo. What issues ? Why does Matterson stating that mean anything at all other than he wants more money.

Yes we have to win footy games. I get that. That isn't the problem. The problem is that you and others keep asserting that management is incompetent or there are some big issues but you can't articulate those issues clearly, rationally and objectively.

We agree completely that the more games we win the better.

Earl, You are DEAD SET RIGHT!
When you have a player like Matterson who wants money (not judging) and breaks his contract early you have a situation.
A situation that isn't regularly seen in league before. Coach and Board make a decision not to upgrade a player under contract, which has consequences good and bad. Matterson was worth more, sure. But I get it totally that if we give him more we expose a weakness in salary negotiation, it could have opened the flood gates to future bad deals.

The board isn't at fault for a player being greedy. Aloiai likewise this time broke a contract. The board is handed the situation. I would have kept him lawn mowing, but that would have lead to team disruption. Signing Joe O with money flowing our way is the best recovery of the situation the Board was handed.

Our Board is probably one of the better ones in Rugby League. They are just handed a team without a fixed home ground, a crowded Sydney basin, passionate fans flowing both ways, an unfair salary cap and competition who do them a disservice. (as well as the Rupert terrorgraph that kicks us every chance it gets. )

IMHO we should be looking out for more forwards. I think that most forwards don't like being a bashing post for a team. If you had a choice of running up against say Jason Taumololo or playing with JT, I think most forwards would choose playing with the bigger pack. Luke Lewis went to Cronulla probably to play with Gallen and not be the center of attention at that team (which then developed a good culture of strong forwards). I digress.

The board isn't responsible for players getting greedy. That's Rugby League. What the board can do is make the best of the situation before it.

 

[hank37w]

Wests Tigers boss says club is no soft touch

BRENT READ
6:05PM NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Josh Aloiai slipped into a Manly jersey on Monday as Wests Tigers chair Lee Hagipantelis insisted the club had shown they were no longer a soft touch with their handling of his controversial move to the Sea Eagles.

Hagipantelis had threatened to make Aloiai mow the lawns at Leichhardt and Campbelltown unless the club reached an agreement with Manly that was acceptable to the Tigers.

The Tigers eventually allowed him to leave, but only after they received financial compensation from the Sea Eagles and signing Brisbane and Queensland forward Joe Ofahengaue to fill the void created by Aloiai’s departure.

The Tigers have been branded pushovers in the past, but Hagipantelis insists they showed with their handling of Aloiai that they would no longer be an easy mark.

“I said we would not be releasing him unless there was an advantageous outcome for the Wests Tigers,” Hagipantelis said.

“At the end of the day if a player comes to you and asks to be released in the manner Josh approached the club, his remaining at the club comes untenable.

“It wasn’t simply a matter of the player approaching the club and asking for the release. There was another level introduced into it — it was publicly reported that he threatened to never pull on the jersey again.

“The jersey has a certain intrinsic value that every supporter understands. It became clear from the outset that him remaining at the Tigers was untenable.

“What we have done is release a player who did not want to play for the Wests Tigers, we have secured a player who does want to play for the Wests Tigers, and there has been a financial accommodation with two of the clubs which serves the interest of the Wests Tigers.

“So we held firm and we fulfilled out expectations as to how it was going to pan out. I think from a Wests Tigers fan and member perspective you should be proud with the way the club dealt with this situation.”

Aloiai was at Manly’s Narrabeen headquarters on Monday, having made an immediate switch to the Sea Eagles after being released fro the final year of his contract with the Tigers.

Ofahengaue, whose deal will be paid in part by the Brisbane Broncos, is yet to begin training with the Tigers, although he is expected to join his new teammates later this week.

“Did Josh get what he wanted? Yes, he got released,” Hagipantelis said.
“Did the Wests Tigers set the conditions on which the release would be granted? Yes we did. Were those conditions fulfilled? Yes, they were.

“We had a player that made it very clear he didn’t want to play with us. I ask rhetorically, why would any fan or member want that player to remain?”

Asked wether he had a parting message for Aloiai, Hagipantelis said: “I just wish Josh all the very best. I hope he takes a moment to think about some of the more intemperate remarks he made about the Wests Tigers and that he may think better of them moving forward.

“I would hope he cherishes his time at the Wests Tigers and this incident hasn’t soured any of that.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/wests-tigers-boss-says-club-is-no-soft-touch/news-story/2ea652a1c82931799bd3aee962cf171b

So not only are we a snowflake team we now hand out instruction manuals - “how to leave Wests Tigers if you are disgruntled”. What happens next time Lee when no props are available? Is it untenable then?

You can paint this result anyway you choose but in the end .... it’s the WT club, the Board its Chairman and the coaching staff that received the compensation and replacement player which they wanted. So satisfactory result as far as I can see.
Nothing to throw mud about.

I don’t hate the outcome but I’m disappointed in the way it leaves us open to Adam Douehi or LL doing the exact same thing.

Well so is the rest of the clubs in the league. Nothing will change until the NRL puts some effort into this problem and implements some serious rules and penalties to prevent this situation in the future.
And don’t get me started about that other elephant in the room (salary cap and player payments) that is always in too hard basket for the NRL, the clubs and the players association to get serious about.
They have these cast of thousands committees forever banging on about one or two referees and what not whilst ignoring these two priorities areas which turn ..... fans of the game like us ..... from the game in increasing numbers.

Parra enforced the Utoikamanu contract
Penrith are enforcing the Laurie contract
Dragons didn’t let Saab go this year
Gold Coast enforced Jai Arrow
Penrith are keeping Burton
Frizell stayed at Stgeorge
Melbourne / Josh Addo Carr
Etc

Why are we the snowflakes??

Edit: also agree with your salary cap commentary, I enjoy watching the NFL more these days with the draft-transfer rules being much more equitable.

We achieved a positive outcome. You seem to have difficulty comprehending that.

1. I’m calling the outcome satisfactory until it plays out but on this occasion the club managed to secure a decent prop - lucky there was one available.

2. I’m unhappy because I still think it will happen again, potentially when AD or LL get sick of whatever it is going wrong at the place. Lee has basically stated that in the media today, if you say you don’t want to play for the jersey we’ll release you (no matter how much you’re needed because it’s untenable).

3. People seem to get upset on here when I criticise the club, we’ve missed finals for going on a decade, questions have to be asked.

You obviously have inside info on AD and Lucy wanting to sook and ask for a release. You keep mentioning these two players only.

Don't think you could have picked two worse players to fit your scenario myself.

I'll tell you what is wrong with the place, Simple: Sooky little players that come here, put in one a half a good year, get a swelled head and want more money at all costs.

How do you stop it? At club level you can't, it's an NRL problem.

We can get rid of the sooks though, when it is to our advantage. In both those cases we came out better off.

We’re always the victim aren’t we.

I Picked those 2 players as I enjoy watching them play - as I did with Matto and Aloiai.

FYI - That’s why other clubs chase them too

Is Aloiai worth $600k?

No, I’d say 500. Outcome on this whole situation was ok in my view. Just didn’t stand our ground and hence I believe it’ll happen again.

How did we not stand our ground? Manly paid up to get him.

JA got exactly what he wanted. If Roosters or any other club want one of our performing players at the end of 21, I don’t doubt their ability to pull one over us.

Getting paid to let a player go who doesn't want to be here and then being able to replace him with a better player is smart business.

I think we were just lucky the Broncos didn’t want Ofahengaue and were happy to release him, otherwise I reckon we still would’ve let Aloiai walk and got squat in return, just like we did with Matterson.

We got Stef and Lucy by letting Matterson walk. JA we got a very healthy payout from Manly.

Partially correct.

You can argue that we got Lucy with Matterson's cap money, but what did that have to do with us getting Stef.

We released Matterson early from his contract to Parramatta but the scum didn't release Stef early to us.

In hind sight it was probably a good thing that we did release Matterson because otherwise Big Russ wouldn't have been able to knock him senseless when we played Parramatta.

 

[bathursttiger1]

Wests Tigers boss says club is no soft touch

BRENT READ
6:05PM NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Josh Aloiai slipped into a Manly jersey on Monday as Wests Tigers chair Lee Hagipantelis insisted the club had shown they were no longer a soft touch with their handling of his controversial move to the Sea Eagles.

Hagipantelis had threatened to make Aloiai mow the lawns at Leichhardt and Campbelltown unless the club reached an agreement with Manly that was acceptable to the Tigers.

The Tigers eventually allowed him to leave, but only after they received financial compensation from the Sea Eagles and signing Brisbane and Queensland forward Joe Ofahengaue to fill the void created by Aloiai’s departure.

The Tigers have been branded pushovers in the past, but Hagipantelis insists they showed with their handling of Aloiai that they would no longer be an easy mark.

“I said we would not be releasing him unless there was an advantageous outcome for the Wests Tigers,” Hagipantelis said.

“At the end of the day if a player comes to you and asks to be released in the manner Josh approached the club, his remaining at the club comes untenable.

“It wasn’t simply a matter of the player approaching the club and asking for the release. There was another level introduced into it — it was publicly reported that he threatened to never pull on the jersey again.

“The jersey has a certain intrinsic value that every supporter understands. It became clear from the outset that him remaining at the Tigers was untenable.

“What we have done is release a player who did not want to play for the Wests Tigers, we have secured a player who does want to play for the Wests Tigers, and there has been a financial accommodation with two of the clubs which serves the interest of the Wests Tigers.

“So we held firm and we fulfilled out expectations as to how it was going to pan out. I think from a Wests Tigers fan and member perspective you should be proud with the way the club dealt with this situation.”

Aloiai was at Manly’s Narrabeen headquarters on Monday, having made an immediate switch to the Sea Eagles after being released fro the final year of his contract with the Tigers.

Ofahengaue, whose deal will be paid in part by the Brisbane Broncos, is yet to begin training with the Tigers, although he is expected to join his new teammates later this week.

“Did Josh get what he wanted? Yes, he got released,” Hagipantelis said.
“Did the Wests Tigers set the conditions on which the release would be granted? Yes we did. Were those conditions fulfilled? Yes, they were.

“We had a player that made it very clear he didn’t want to play with us. I ask rhetorically, why would any fan or member want that player to remain?”

Asked wether he had a parting message for Aloiai, Hagipantelis said: “I just wish Josh all the very best. I hope he takes a moment to think about some of the more intemperate remarks he made about the Wests Tigers and that he may think better of them moving forward.

“I would hope he cherishes his time at the Wests Tigers and this incident hasn’t soured any of that.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/wests-tigers-boss-says-club-is-no-soft-touch/news-story/2ea652a1c82931799bd3aee962cf171b

So not only are we a snowflake team we now hand out instruction manuals - “how to leave Wests Tigers if you are disgruntled”. What happens next time Lee when no props are available? Is it untenable then?

You can paint this result anyway you choose but in the end .... it’s the WT club, the Board its Chairman and the coaching staff that received the compensation and replacement player which they wanted. So satisfactory result as far as I can see.
Nothing to throw mud about.

I don’t hate the outcome but I’m disappointed in the way it leaves us open to Adam Douehi or LL doing the exact same thing.

Well so is the rest of the clubs in the league. Nothing will change until the NRL puts some effort into this problem and implements some serious rules and penalties to prevent this situation in the future.
And don’t get me started about that other elephant in the room (salary cap and player payments) that is always in too hard basket for the NRL, the clubs and the players association to get serious about.
They have these cast of thousands committees forever banging on about one or two referees and what not whilst ignoring these two priorities areas which turn ..... fans of the game like us ..... from the game in increasing numbers.

Parra enforced the Utoikamanu contract
Penrith are enforcing the Laurie contract
Dragons didn’t let Saab go this year
Gold Coast enforced Jai Arrow
Penrith are keeping Burton
Frizell stayed at Stgeorge
Melbourne / Josh Addo Carr
Etc

Why are we the snowflakes??

Edit: also agree with your salary cap commentary, I enjoy watching the NFL more these days with the draft-transfer rules being much more equitable.

We achieved a positive outcome. You seem to have difficulty comprehending that.

1. I’m calling the outcome satisfactory until it plays out but on this occasion the club managed to secure a decent prop - lucky there was one available.

2. I’m unhappy because I still think it will happen again, potentially when AD or LL get sick of whatever it is going wrong at the place. Lee has basically stated that in the media today, if you say you don’t want to play for the jersey we’ll release you (no matter how much you’re needed because it’s untenable).

3. People seem to get upset on here when I criticise the club, we’ve missed finals for going on a decade, questions have to be asked.

You obviously have inside info on AD and Lucy wanting to sook and ask for a release. You keep mentioning these two players only.

Don't think you could have picked two worse players to fit your scenario myself.

I'll tell you what is wrong with the place, Simple: Sooky little players that come here, put in one a half a good year, get a swelled head and want more money at all costs.

How do you stop it? At club level you can't, it's an NRL problem.

We can get rid of the sooks though, when it is to our advantage. In both those cases we came out better off.

We’re always the victim aren’t we.

I Picked those 2 players as I enjoy watching them play - as I did with Matto and Aloiai.

FYI - That’s why other clubs chase them too

Is Aloiai worth $600k?

No, I’d say 500. Outcome on this whole situation was ok in my view. Just didn’t stand our ground and hence I believe it’ll happen again.

How did we not stand our ground? Manly paid up to get him.

JA got exactly what he wanted. If Roosters or any other club want one of our performing players at the end of 21, I don’t doubt their ability to pull one over us.

Getting paid to let a player go who doesn't want to be here and then being able to replace him with a better player is smart business.

I think we were just lucky the Broncos didn’t want Ofahengaue and were happy to release him, otherwise I reckon we still would’ve let Aloiai walk and got squat in return, just like we did with Matterson.

We got Stef and Lucy by letting Matterson walk. JA we got a very healthy payout from Manly.


Partially correct.

You can argue that we got Lucy with Matterson's cap money, but what did that have to do with us getting Stef.

We released Matterson early from his contract to Parramatta but the scum didn't release Stef early to us.

In hind sight it was probably a good thing that we did release Matterson because otherwise Big Russ wouldn't have been able to knock him senseless when we played Parramatta.

In hindsight we should have held on to Matterson as a bit of leverage to get Stef this year.
The club didn’t want to pay Matterson a cent that’s why he was let go before November 1.

 

[sleeve]

I think we will be better then 12th.bIgger tougher forwards,faster backs,the inclusion of talented young guys like Simkins,Cini etc,plus the incentive that a few players know if they do not perform they are on their way out..Either way we know we won;t win the comp,its the year after that we are aiming at

 

[sleeve]

Start of 2022 i think Moses,J Leilua,and Doeihi will fnd it hard to make the run on 13.

 

[SeanT]

Start of 2022 i think Moses,J Leilua,and Doeihi will fnd it hard to make the run on 13.

Not so sure about Doeihi. He has good game awareness. Speed and defence need to be improved but im interested to see hiw he goes at 5/8th.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

Start of 2022 i think Moses,J Leilua,and Doeihi will fnd it hard to make the run on 13.

J Leilua has a year in the clubs favour for 2022, so he may well not even be here.

Doueihi will be there somewhere I think. Moses is the other question mark.

 

[sleeve]

Perfect bench player,can fill 1,6,3and4.But i think they will have someone else in the top13.I hope that i;m wrong cause hes a champion kid.

 

[jirskyr]

Force the NRL to make the necessary changes due to the media circus that would have ensued.

Talk about extreme fantasy. Force the NRL?

I’ve found PVL very proactive so far.

Proactivity is the opposite of being forced, mate.

 

[cochise]

Wests Tigers boss says club is no soft touch

BRENT READ
6:05PM NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Josh Aloiai slipped into a Manly jersey on Monday as Wests Tigers chair Lee Hagipantelis insisted the club had shown they were no longer a soft touch with their handling of his controversial move to the Sea Eagles.

Hagipantelis had threatened to make Aloiai mow the lawns at Leichhardt and Campbelltown unless the club reached an agreement with Manly that was acceptable to the Tigers.

The Tigers eventually allowed him to leave, but only after they received financial compensation from the Sea Eagles and signing Brisbane and Queensland forward Joe Ofahengaue to fill the void created by Aloiai’s departure.

The Tigers have been branded pushovers in the past, but Hagipantelis insists they showed with their handling of Aloiai that they would no longer be an easy mark.

“I said we would not be releasing him unless there was an advantageous outcome for the Wests Tigers,” Hagipantelis said.

“At the end of the day if a player comes to you and asks to be released in the manner Josh approached the club, his remaining at the club comes untenable.

“It wasn’t simply a matter of the player approaching the club and asking for the release. There was another level introduced into it — it was publicly reported that he threatened to never pull on the jersey again.

“The jersey has a certain intrinsic value that every supporter understands. It became clear from the outset that him remaining at the Tigers was untenable.

“What we have done is release a player who did not want to play for the Wests Tigers, we have secured a player who does want to play for the Wests Tigers, and there has been a financial accommodation with two of the clubs which serves the interest of the Wests Tigers.

“So we held firm and we fulfilled out expectations as to how it was going to pan out. I think from a Wests Tigers fan and member perspective you should be proud with the way the club dealt with this situation.”

Aloiai was at Manly’s Narrabeen headquarters on Monday, having made an immediate switch to the Sea Eagles after being released fro the final year of his contract with the Tigers.

Ofahengaue, whose deal will be paid in part by the Brisbane Broncos, is yet to begin training with the Tigers, although he is expected to join his new teammates later this week.

“Did Josh get what he wanted? Yes, he got released,” Hagipantelis said.
“Did the Wests Tigers set the conditions on which the release would be granted? Yes we did. Were those conditions fulfilled? Yes, they were.

“We had a player that made it very clear he didn’t want to play with us. I ask rhetorically, why would any fan or member want that player to remain?”

Asked wether he had a parting message for Aloiai, Hagipantelis said: “I just wish Josh all the very best. I hope he takes a moment to think about some of the more intemperate remarks he made about the Wests Tigers and that he may think better of them moving forward.

“I would hope he cherishes his time at the Wests Tigers and this incident hasn’t soured any of that.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/wests-tigers-boss-says-club-is-no-soft-touch/news-story/2ea652a1c82931799bd3aee962cf171b

So not only are we a snowflake team we now hand out instruction manuals - “how to leave Wests Tigers if you are disgruntled”. What happens next time Lee when no props are available? Is it untenable then?

You can paint this result anyway you choose but in the end .... it’s the WT club, the Board its Chairman and the coaching staff that received the compensation and replacement player which they wanted. So satisfactory result as far as I can see.
Nothing to throw mud about.

I don’t hate the outcome but I’m disappointed in the way it leaves us open to Adam Douehi or LL doing the exact same thing.

Well so is the rest of the clubs in the league. Nothing will change until the NRL puts some effort into this problem and implements some serious rules and penalties to prevent this situation in the future.
And don’t get me started about that other elephant in the room (salary cap and player payments) that is always in too hard basket for the NRL, the clubs and the players association to get serious about.
They have these cast of thousands committees forever banging on about one or two referees and what not whilst ignoring these two priorities areas which turn ..... fans of the game like us ..... from the game in increasing numbers.

Parra enforced the Utoikamanu contract
Penrith are enforcing the Laurie contract
Dragons didn’t let Saab go this year
Gold Coast enforced Jai Arrow
Penrith are keeping Burton
Frizell stayed at Stgeorge
Melbourne / Josh Addo Carr
Etc

Why are we the snowflakes??

Edit: also agree with your salary cap commentary, I enjoy watching the NFL more these days with the draft-transfer rules being much more equitable.

We achieved a positive outcome. You seem to have difficulty comprehending that.

1. I’m calling the outcome satisfactory until it plays out but on this occasion the club managed to secure a decent prop - lucky there was one available.

2. I’m unhappy because I still think it will happen again, potentially when AD or LL get sick of whatever it is going wrong at the place. Lee has basically stated that in the media today, if you say you don’t want to play for the jersey we’ll release you (no matter how much you’re needed because it’s untenable).

3. People seem to get upset on here when I criticise the club, we’ve missed finals for going on a decade, questions have to be asked.

You obviously have inside info on AD and Lucy wanting to sook and ask for a release. You keep mentioning these two players only.

Don't think you could have picked two worse players to fit your scenario myself.

I'll tell you what is wrong with the place, Simple: Sooky little players that come here, put in one a half a good year, get a swelled head and want more money at all costs.

How do you stop it? At club level you can't, it's an NRL problem.

We can get rid of the sooks though, when it is to our advantage. In both those cases we came out better off.

We’re always the victim aren’t we.

I Picked those 2 players as I enjoy watching them play - as I did with Matto and Aloiai.

FYI - That’s why other clubs chase them too

Is Aloiai worth $600k?

No, I’d say 500. Outcome on this whole situation was ok in my view. Just didn’t stand our ground and hence I believe it’ll happen again.

How did we not stand our ground? Manly paid up to get him.

JA got exactly what he wanted. If Roosters or any other club want one of our performing players at the end of 21, I don’t doubt their ability to pull one over us.

Getting paid to let a player go who doesn't want to be here and then being able to replace him with a better player is smart business.

I think we were just lucky the Broncos didn’t want Ofahengaue and were happy to release him, otherwise I reckon we still would’ve let Aloiai walk and got squat in return, just like we did with Matterson.

We got Stef and Lucy by letting Matterson walk. JA we got a very healthy payout from Manly.


Partially correct.

You can argue that we got Lucy with Matterson's cap money, but what did that have to do with us getting Stef.

We released Matterson early from his contract to Parramatta but the scum didn't release Stef early to us.

In hind sight it was probably a good thing that we did release Matterson because otherwise Big Russ wouldn't have been able to knock him senseless when we played Parramatta.


In hindsight we should have held on to Matterson as a bit of leverage to get Stef this year.
The club didn’t want to pay Matterson a cent that’s why he was let go before November 1.

The club requested Stef as a swap for Matterson and the Eels said no, a swap for Lucy was very close as well but Matterson said no so we released Matterson and signed both players.

 

[BAGNF05]

Force the NRL to make the necessary changes due to the media circus that would have ensued.

Talk about extreme fantasy. Force the NRL?

I’ve found PVL very proactive so far.

Proactivity is the opposite of being forced, mate.

Ok, replaced forced with influenced. My bad.

 

[JC99]

 

Big Joe in his new colours 🔥

 

[TigerWest]

 

Big Joe in his new colours 🔥

Big bloke

 

[TheDaBoss]

 

Big Joe in his new colours 🔥

The red head sticks out like a sore thumb 😂

He looks 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🧨

 

[TigerWest]

 

Big Joe in his new colours ?

The red head sticks out like a sore thumb ?

He looks ??????

Do we know his name yet?