New recruitment required

[sunshine_coast_tiger]

If you look at our 20's for the last few years our recruitment of young players is better than most sides.

We have also brought in Lote and Gareth (both very good buys). Blair will be a great buy, watched him closely yesterday, he is strong in defence and in attack he takes good options ( a catch pass of his yesterday was sublime and the knocking of the ball from Fifita was very important). Our recruitment is pretty good, our retention is woeful.

For mine our problem has been paying overs for a lot of average first graders in our squad. We are losing Fifita because we are paying overs for a lot of our top 25 man squad..

Also we have been slow to develop some of our better junior talent.

Sunshine, who did we lose that you would like back? (Other than Gibbs and Fifita)

Retention maybe the wrong word. I am more disappointed with our management of the salary cap, it just seems to me we are a club that pays overs for average talent.

It would have been handy to keep: Hodgson, Prince, Laffranchi and Richards :slight_smile:

I know why the above moved on and I understand it.

I am disappointed in losing Fifita but hope the club made the right decision in going with Woods (I think they have).

For mine the current 20's have some excellent talented players ( about 3-5 are amongst the best juniors I have seen in my 30 plus years of watching Balmain/Wests Tigers), I just hope we have long term plans to keep the best and put them into the NRL team.

 

[gazroc]

We have some excellent players in the halves and fullback postions playing in the under 20's, the problem is we have a coach who doesn't see the same talent, that's why lewis brown left and he has gone on to play for the warriors and NZ after running around with Balmain-Ryde. Sometimes I get the feeling there is a bit of a click amongst Sheens and some the players and he can't do what's best for the Tigers.

 

[magpiecol]

We have some excellent players in the halves and fullback postions playing in the under 20's, the problem is we have a coach who doesn't see the same talent, that's why lewis brown left and he has gone on to play for the warriors and NZ after running around with Balmain-Ryde. Sometimes I get the feeling there is a bit of a click amongst Sheens and some the players and he can't do what's best for the Tigers.

Spot on. Sheens has his favourites alright.

We will not win any comp with the likes of McKinnon (good positional player but has lost too much pace), Brown, Moltzen and Ryan.

We need pace in the backs to compliment Benji,

Wingers :frowning: the Fijian flyer from the under 20"s) and Lote

Half back: with a good kicking game (Miller)

Centres: Lawrence and Sirenon

Fullback: Mullaney.

Now that is a backline.

Ayshford to lock.

 

[red_dogg]

We need to see our best side on the paddock….., we got ripped of in a major final last yr. and have the same squad. We can do this..... september is another competition.

 

[claws]

Agree red dogg, with the experience sitting on the sideline and a major slice of our salary cap in Lote, Chris & Todd. They play yesterday, we win. As stated last week, the young inexperienced blokes are doing a great job, but they can not replace the experience and expertise of the afore mentioned.

 

[Tigersmurf]

If you look at our 20's for the last few years our recruitment of young players is better than most sides.

We have also brought in Lote and Gareth (both very good buys). Blair will be a great buy, watched him closely yesterday, he is strong in defence and in attack he takes good options ( a catch pass of his yesterday was sublime and the knocking of the ball from Fifita was very important). Our recruitment is pretty good, our retention is woeful.

For mine our problem has been paying overs for a lot of average first graders in our squad. We are losing Fifita because we are paying overs for a lot of our top 25 man squad..

Also we have been slow to develop some of our better junior talent.

I agree that Hodgo should have been kept for as long as he wanted to stay…he was a big loss.

Who are the three to five juniors you are referring to? I haven't seen much of the 20's this year and am keen to know who I should keep an eye out for.

Sunshine, who did we lose that you would like back? (Other than Gibbs and Fifita)

Retention maybe the wrong word. I am more disappointed with our management of the salary cap, it just seems to me we are a club that pays overs for average talent.

It would have been handy to keep: Hodgson, Prince, Laffranchi and Richards :slight_smile:

I know why the above moved on and I understand it.

I am disappointed in losing Fifita but hope the club made the right decision in going with Woods (I think they have).

For mine the current 20's have some excellent talented players ( about 3-5 are amongst the best juniors I have seen in my 30 plus years of watching Balmain/Wests Tigers), I just hope we have long term plans to keep the best and put them into the NRL team.

 

[Balmain_Bug]

We need someone who can coach

 

[clontarfkid]

Im starting to think that we have a disproportionate amount of salary cap tied up in half a dozen or so key players,leaving us with mediocrity to make up the 25.
Im guessing Benji,farah,Lawrence,Ellis,Blair,Galloway & Lote…thats just 7 guys..are between them consuming minimum $350k each on average ,= $2.5 mill of the cap next year,leaving the remaining 18 guys with just $1.8 mill to share,or $100k each.That figure doesnt buy much,& leaves talented players to be cherry picked
Do we have too many marquee players(possibly),& are they in key playmaking positions(only farah & Benji)??
Dont focus on the exact numbers..theyre just a guess..but the broad underlying principle is what Im questioning.
Youd never see a Bennett or a Bellamy spend this sort of $$ in so many non playmaking or "spine"postions

 

[tiger05]

Like I said I think the major issue is Farah. He has been poor for a long time and he is burning up a large percentage of our cap.

Fix that and then make minor changes.

Focusing for instance on the coach like Bug says won't fix your problem because you have a key player on big dollars playing worse than an average NRL player in his position. That money could be spend elsewhere.

 

[TigerGene]

Yes…..all good points so far fellas, but for me, it has been (is) far too rosy in the Tigers camp!!

Been mentioned before me, but the good coaches, under the present salary cap, concentrate on "the spine"....... and no overs for the rest!!