OFFICIAL: Wests Tigers sign James Tamou

[InBenjiWeTrust]

IMHO a solid buy (not ideal, that would be Papalii, JWH, Taukeiaho or F-B), the only caution is if he carries any major injury!

 

[BalmainJnr]

Per Brent Read

The science behind Tamou

Wests Tigers have copped plenty of flak for their recruitment in recent years. Behind the scenes, changes have taken place to ensure the mistakes of the past aren’t repeated in the future.

The Tigers have taken a more analytical view of recruitment and it helps explain why they chased Penrith captain James Tamou, whose signing was officially confirmed on Friday morning.

Wests have been deadly inside the red zone — the opposition 20m area. So good, they rank among the best in the NRL.

Their issue hasn’t been scoring when they get close to the opposition line. Their challenge has been finding their way down the field so they can put themselves in a position to launch their attack.

The Tigers rank 13th in total metres and 13th post-contact ­metres this season. They needed to find more metres and Tamou has been targeted to do just that.

The Panthers skipper, who will turn 32 later this year, has been one of the most efficient forwards in the competition in 2020.

Nine frontrowers have run for more metres, but Tamou has led the way when it comes to metres per minute. No one gets close.

Not Payne Haas. Not David Klemmer. Not Josh Papalii. The quality of Tamou’s work when he is on the field has been top notch.

He has helped Penrith march down the field, belying his age and the toll on his body as he prepares to enter a 13th season in first grade.

There are other intangibles that Tamou brings as well. Leadership is the obvious one, the grizzled veteran expected to provide an example to Wests Tigers’ young pack of forwards on what it takes to be a professional.

That came into the Tigers’ thinking as well. Under the system they have now adopted, the club identifies targets using a matrix developed by the club’s recruitment analyst, Scott Woodward.

The player is then given a percentage mark where weighting is given to areas such as personality, medical record and skill. The ­Tigers will rarely consider a player unless he registers 80 per cent or more. Tamou clearly fits the bill.

“James brings a wealth of experience to our forward pack and is a player who has experienced success at every level of the game,” Tigers coach Michael Maguire said.

“He has shown throughout his career to be a player who constantly improves not only himself but those around him, and I have no doubt he will play a key role in the development of our forward pack moving forward.”

Good to hear there is some thought and dare I say it science behind our recruitment decisions now. Sounds moneyball-ish but if it helps make better decisions I am all for it. Scott Woodward was recruited from Melbourne I believe.

Adam Hartigan is very much behind this approach and it is used to identify players that meet the needs of the club.

Nice to have a couple of guys in the front office with football brains making strategic decisions to shape our squad with a plan and purpose.

 

[gallagher]

Per Brent Read

The science behind Tamou

Wests Tigers have copped plenty of flak for their recruitment in recent years. Behind the scenes, changes have taken place to ensure the mistakes of the past aren’t repeated in the future.

The Tigers have taken a more analytical view of recruitment and it helps explain why they chased Penrith captain James Tamou, whose signing was officially confirmed on Friday morning.

Wests have been deadly inside the red zone — the opposition 20m area. So good, they rank among the best in the NRL.

Their issue hasn’t been scoring when they get close to the opposition line. Their challenge has been finding their way down the field so they can put themselves in a position to launch their attack.

The Tigers rank 13th in total metres and 13th post-contact ­metres this season. They needed to find more metres and Tamou has been targeted to do just that.

The Panthers skipper, who will turn 32 later this year, has been one of the most efficient forwards in the competition in 2020.

Nine frontrowers have run for more metres, but Tamou has led the way when it comes to metres per minute. No one gets close.

Not Payne Haas. Not David Klemmer. Not Josh Papalii. The quality of Tamou’s work when he is on the field has been top notch.

He has helped Penrith march down the field, belying his age and the toll on his body as he prepares to enter a 13th season in first grade.

There are other intangibles that Tamou brings as well. Leadership is the obvious one, the grizzled veteran expected to provide an example to Wests Tigers’ young pack of forwards on what it takes to be a professional.

That came into the Tigers’ thinking as well. Under the system they have now adopted, the club identifies targets using a matrix developed by the club’s recruitment analyst, Scott Woodward.

The player is then given a percentage mark where weighting is given to areas such as personality, medical record and skill. The ­Tigers will rarely consider a player unless he registers 80 per cent or more. Tamou clearly fits the bill.

“James brings a wealth of experience to our forward pack and is a player who has experienced success at every level of the game,” Tigers coach Michael Maguire said.

“He has shown throughout his career to be a player who constantly improves not only himself but those around him, and I have no doubt he will play a key role in the development of our forward pack moving forward.”

Good to hear there is some thought and dare I say it science behind our recruitment decisions now. Sounds moneyball-ish but if it helps make better decisions I am all for it. Scott Woodward was recruited from Melbourne I believe.

Adam Hartigan is very much behind this approach and it is used to identify players that meet the needs of the club.

Nice to have a couple of guys in the front office with football brains making strategic decisions to shape our squad with a plan and purpose.

Its very encouraging isnt it.

 

[cochise]

Woodward identified Jake Simpkin..

That was the name I was trying to remember mate, seems we have a good team involved in recruitment.

 

[tony soprano]

Woodward identified Jake Simpkin..

Interesting

 

[watersider]

Just depends on the contract for me. If it's 350 that's fine, 500 would be too much, somewhere in between also okay. I'm not excited about supposed new ways of signing new players unless the players we buy are good. All good to say doing 'analytics' and that sort of mumbo jumbo but when front rowers lose it they're absolutely useless and Penrith obviously not interested in signing him if he's coming to us for $350k. So we're taking a big gamble on him. I reckon at some point in the next two years he's going to hit that front rower wall, let's just hope it's near the end of year two rather than halfway through next year. Recent examples: Matulino, Keith galloway, James Graham. It just looks miserable when you see them trying but not able to do it anymore. At least it's not a 4 year contract.

 

[JC99]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

 

[cochise]

Just depends on the contract for me. If it's 350 that's fine, 500 would be too much, somewhere in between also okay. I'm not excited about supposed new ways of signing new players unless the players we buy are good. All good to say doing 'analytics' and that sort of mumbo jumbo but when front rowers lose it they're absolutely useless and Penrith obviously not interested in signing him if he's coming to us for $350k. So we're taking a big gamble on him. I reckon at some point in the next two years he's going to hit that front rower wall, let's just hope it's near the end of year two rather than halfway through next year. Recent examples: Matulino, Keith galloway, James Graham. It just looks miserable when you see them trying but not able to do it anymore. At least it's not a 4 year contract.

It is an incredibly team friendly deal.

 

[cochise]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

Yes we do

 

[Geo]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

We do now..led by front office staff head hunted from the Storm and Rorters

 

[JC99]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

Yes we do

I hope they keep it up. 2022 will be the big year for recruitment and hopefully they are already thinking about it

 

[WT2K]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

We do now..led by front office staff head hunted from the Storm and Rorters

Good to know :+1:

 

[Guest]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

Yes we do

I hope they keep it up. 2022 will be the big year for recruitment and hopefully they are already thinking about it

They are.

 

[JC99]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

We do now..led by front office staff head hunted from the Storm and Rorters

Is Woodward from storm? I know hartigan was from roosters. Gonna be massive for us

 

[cochise]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

Yes we do

I hope they keep it up. 2022 will be the big year for recruitment and hopefully they are already thinking about it

They are already looking that far ahead, we have the least amount of players on contract for 2022 of all the teams. They are already planning for 2023.

 

[cochise]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

We do now..led by front office staff head hunted from the Storm and Rorters

Is Woodward from storm? I know hartigan was from roosters. Gonna be massive for us

Yes Woodward and Hartigan will be massive for us.

 

[JC99]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

Yes we do

I hope they keep it up. 2022 will be the big year for recruitment and hopefully they are already thinking about it

They are.

Considering we’ve got barely anyone signed for 2022 they’ll have to be. For once I’m actually confident that we can make some smart decisions recruitment wise.

 

[JC99]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

We do now..led by front office staff head hunted from the Storm and Rorters

Is Woodward from storm? I know hartigan was from roosters. Gonna be massive for us

Yes Woodward and Hartigan will be massive for us.

Can’t wait to see what they do. The investment in youth is a good decision and I hope we can find some more guys like Luciano waiting to get their shot

 

[cochise]

Do we actually Have a recruitment team that thinks things though and looks at stats and numbers instead of just throwing overs at any half okay player on the market? I hope so.

Yes we do

I hope they keep it up. 2022 will be the big year for recruitment and hopefully they are already thinking about it

They are.

Considering we’ve got barely anyone signed for 2022 they’ll have to be. For once I’m actually confident that we can make some smart decisions recruitment wise.

I am incredibly confident in the people we now have in recruitment

 

[Chipofftheoldblock]

Per Brent Read

The science behind Tamou

Wests Tigers have copped plenty of flak for their recruitment in recent years. Behind the scenes, changes have taken place to ensure the mistakes of the past aren’t repeated in the future.

The Tigers have taken a more analytical view of recruitment and it helps explain why they chased Penrith captain James Tamou, whose signing was officially confirmed on Friday morning.

Wests have been deadly inside the red zone — the opposition 20m area. So good, they rank among the best in the NRL.

Their issue hasn’t been scoring when they get close to the opposition line. Their challenge has been finding their way down the field so they can put themselves in a position to launch their attack.

The Tigers rank 13th in total metres and 13th post-contact ­metres this season. They needed to find more metres and Tamou has been targeted to do just that.

The Panthers skipper, who will turn 32 later this year, has been one of the most efficient forwards in the competition in 2020.

Nine frontrowers have run for more metres, but Tamou has led the way when it comes to metres per minute. No one gets close.

Not Payne Haas. Not David Klemmer. Not Josh Papalii. The quality of Tamou’s work when he is on the field has been top notch.

He has helped Penrith march down the field, belying his age and the toll on his body as he prepares to enter a 13th season in first grade.

There are other intangibles that Tamou brings as well. Leadership is the obvious one, the grizzled veteran expected to provide an example to Wests Tigers’ young pack of forwards on what it takes to be a professional.

That came into the Tigers’ thinking as well. Under the system they have now adopted, the club identifies targets using a matrix developed by the club’s recruitment analyst, Scott Woodward.

The player is then given a percentage mark where weighting is given to areas such as personality, medical record and skill. The ­Tigers will rarely consider a player unless he registers 80 per cent or more. Tamou clearly fits the bill.

“James brings a wealth of experience to our forward pack and is a player who has experienced success at every level of the game,” Tigers coach Michael Maguire said.

“He has shown throughout his career to be a player who constantly improves not only himself but those around him, and I have no doubt he will play a key role in the development of our forward pack moving forward.”

Did they use this approach when they recruited Joey Leilua because it has not worked. I actually like this signing of Tamou (the only downside is age) but he has proven he is a metre eater still and is still going strong.