Maguire urges Tigers to play the imitation game

[Spud_Murphy]

Tigers need to sign manu from the roosters asap

Yeah....never gonna happen.

 

[Mr_Magpie]

*"Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire has told his players they need to aspire to be like Sydney Roosters ".*
**Yeah but first you need the cattle which we clearly don't.
But, in saying that, I still we can finish in lower half of top eight.
Two big losses have stuffed our points differential in what's really a close comp (disregarding the stand out teams).
Certainly not the worst team running around.**

 

[momo_amp_medo]

@momo_amp_medo
Good commentary.

We also need, frankly, to produce some more quality juniors and bring them through. That used to be a strength for Tigers, but they were almost all attacking players, such that our attack was terrific and our defence not.

Who is the last really good junior to come through? Marsters is doing alright, Twal has come on and we pinched him from Eels. Mikaele has potential and has been managed well.

But the last proper talent to come in was Tedesco and he's been Top 3 best fullbacks for several years now. And Roosters bought him off us.

Whether or not that's coaching instability or lack of success or lack of money/TPAs/enticements, the last top-level quality footballer we produced was just bought up by someone else.

But we haven't a choice. I haven't seen Tigers compete legitimately on elite player contracts for decades. The only time we sign anyone of elite standing is when we bring them from UK - everyone else is bargain purchasing. When we do identify a bargain player and he comes good, like Marty Taupau, the price rockets and we get outbid again.

So that's it. We buy a bunch of solid bargins and hope they all upswing at the same time and then hope some quality juniors come in at the same time, before they are poached from us.

The idea that we'd have any chance of ever bidding and winning for a guy like Latrell is laughable.

Agree 100%.
I’ve been banging on for ages about poor performance by our lower grades.
It all starts there and brings confidence and long term options to a Club.
As I said before we have a large junior catchment area but having two teams we may be spreading talent too thinly?
Whatever the reason this needs to be addressed as matter of priority.

 

[TheDaBoss]

@Harvey

We have sort of done that.... e.g. cinci... madden....

 

[WeHaveCheeKam]

@WeHaveCheeKam He’s the first that comes to mind. I’d throw Twal in there too though.

Matterson and Twal I would say.

Aloiai, Liddle and Mikaele probably have the potential to be. Noone else.

 

[TheDaBoss]

Prehaps we should push for laurie Daley again and see if we r allowed him this time.....

 

[Furious1]

@momo_amp_medo

The was a time when we were very strong in the lower grades and it wasn't too long ago either. It never transferred to first grade though, which probably was a result of instability in coaches and admin.

 

[851]

Masters was terrible, massively over rated on 2019 form, MBye made some horrible mistakes, Aloia still has issues, I could go on, but when we have Masters and MBye playing so poorly, 2 of our so called stars, we are in deep poo.
Madge has to do a Bellamy and tell them straight up, this is not good enough, if you can't perform I will get someone who can, now that is what a good coach does

 

[tigerap]

@851 did you see where Packer was playing today...?

 

[851]

@851 did you see where Packer was playing today...?

Yes, but what I am saying is some players seem to miss the spray or retribution, lets wait till Tuesday to see what happens, 2 floggings in 3 games, someone has to pay

 

[tigerap]

@851 the problem is our reserve grade team is full of plodders too....no skill or athleticism there unfortunately

 

[Sco77y]

@851 If Mbye continues on this path, for sure he’ll need to be dropped at some point, probably sooner rather than later. Being captain throws a spanner in the works though.. But we do have better options currently that can cover that position.

 

[851]

@tigerap I agree, but at least if the player is dropped, he might actually realise the coach is fair dinkum, if the coach picks and chooses who he drops, we get a huge run of bad games like Marsters and Mbye are churning out right now, there are others who deserve it as well. Short term pain for long term gain.
Bellamy has put Melbourne players on notice after a 2 point loss, saying they will be tapped on the shoulder and told to look elsewhere, that is the hard love we need, and Melbourne don't have a star studded roster like the roosters either.

 

[Furious1]

Sometimes it's hard to get a good read on reserve grade players. It's often the case of playing like a reserve grader when you're surrounded by them and when opportunity knocks in the top grade some players take it with both hands and surprise everyone. They asked a handful of coaches on The Fan ( i think) about when you know a player is ready for first grade and pretty much they all said you never do until you put them in there.

 

[maggies63]

@Spud_Murphy. It also helps when the refs stop the game 3 times because Latrelle was tired.

 

[jirskyr]

Also let's not forget that this is not Madge's team, it's Ivan's team that he's trying to do his best with.

If we trust that Madge has the ability to mould and coach a decent side, then the realistic fruits of that effort start to come when he gets to make the recruitment decisions.

So 1-2 years we get more the side Madge wants. 3-4 years we have precisely the cattle Madge wants.

 

[innsaneink]

Wonderful... Until he gets punted, quits or runs off to join the circus and then the next bloke's s left with Madges team

 

[Demps]

Money-ball style recruitment in full effect.

Like in the past when we signed lowkey players such as - Blake Austin (Panthers), Martin Taupau (Bulldogs), Josh Addo-Carr (Sharks NYC), Kevin Naiqama (Penrith ISC / Journeyman) and we've done it again with players like Ryan Matterson (Roosters), Luke Garner (Manly NYC, Roosters ISC) & Alex Twal, Josh Aloiai (Parra NYC) and you can possible throw Michael Che-Kam on the list too.

These are extremely SMART signings.
Splashing cash (McQueen, Packer, Matulino, Reynolds, Mbye, Etc) is the opposite = STUPID. FAILURE.

I got laughed down for suggesting we sign Michael Liicha now the roosters are wanting to sign him...

 

[TIGERAURA]

Wonderful... Until he gets punted, quits or runs off to join the circus and then the next bloke's s left with Madges team

😂

 

[Kev]

Ho hum ...another 4 years and what then? Thats right, rebuild and repeat. Our club has a loser mentality in its backwards thinking.

Comps are won and lost these days over a 2 year period. You dont grow talent, you purchase it. You dont do it by the rules either. You look for a player's pinch point and you exploit it. Does a players wife want to do a law degree? Fund it off the books. A young up and comer's father has cancer? We'll unofficially look after his treatment. A player is sending a large portion of his money back home to support his family? We'll take care of that mate, you get yourself a nice place on the coast.

This is how its done. We are too chicken turd to do it. Rugby League is not a sport. Its an entertainment business and we are poor at it. We cant imitate an organisation operating on a different plain like the Roosters, Mebourne, Souths, Broncs etc anymore than Bob's Building Services can imitate Lendlease.

Its a fallacy thats laughable. We havent got a core group that can form the foundations of a dynasty at all. We have a bunch of 6/10 players who on their day hit 7.5/10. We need to buy/pinch/steal half a dozen blokes who give you 8/10 as a base every week. If they fail then you throw them away and get some more. Players are not family, not your mates...they are professional commodities - tools used to win comps. Expendable.