Reflecting on the 2025 NRL Season

For mine, season 2025 was a year where most weekends any team could win. The top 4 were not hugely dominant.
Despite that, we still lost 15 games out of 24 starts.
3rd or 4th worst attack (depending on Parra tomorrow), and 4th worst defence.
Another miserable failure of a year.
 
Agreed.
Especially if we have aspirations of finals
24 X 80 minute games plus finals, he'll be cooked
Yea, but flip it...

He is playing 80 minutes with us. I vastly prefer Api as an 80 minute player slowing to 60 then a 40 minute player ramping up. I don't know if Bird, Hope or Mason will be taking up the slack...

Lets hope Benji changes his bench rotation. He is burning our forward bench and hooker.
 
Melbourne game was an outlier and hurt our For and Against.
We were unable to win a few games that we could or should have, which was disappointing.
We were definitely a better side this season than the past 4-5 years but we lacked consistency snd sustained effort.
Our D is still weak and our A in the red zone looks disorganised.
We need some hard tough middles to improve our go forward and contact.
 
I'm notoriously a half-full guy, so this will no doubt get a few rolling eyes.

2025 was an improvement. I would argue at times significant. We really had 3 games where there was a significant score difference, which blew the F&A for us- R5 Broncos 46 Tigers 24, R10 Storm 64 Tigers 0, R21 Panthers 36 Tigers 2- and a couple of near 20 point losses to Parra & Manly.

5 games in 24 that we were out of the contest is a massive upgrade from the last 3 years.

On the downside, we lost to Parra, Titans, Souths & the Cowboys twice. This is VERY typical of the Tigers. It's also why we missed the finals- not winning games that should be won. This is what needs to change next season- the number of 'should wins' needs to be converted better.

Not much recruitment left to be done unless players get moved on. Some of the new recruits add depth we lacked at times this season. Our major signing spree happened last season. From here it's fine tuning & progression of younger players to elevate the squad.

The development of players like Latu, Sam & Sione Fainu, Pole, Taylan May, Makasini & Bula will be big parts of any success. We hopefully see some further development (but have less impact on our results) from Sukkar, Mason, Saukuru, Kit & Luke Lualili'i. Ideally they will have little impact on the squad & have minimal exposure to 1st grade unless earned.

KPP, Geyer & Roberts additions should mean more limited time for guys like Charlie Murray & Sukkar. Depth is important because when stretched, we didn't have the quality to bring in that was 1st grade ready.

We win 2/3rds of those winnable games & reduce the blowout scores by even 1, the Tigers should be in the running for finals next season.

Consistency in defensive structures (particularly through the middle) would be my priority on field improvement. After that it is obviously development of attacking running schemes & tactical kicking.
 
We have improved but we are still need more competition for spots.
We need to use the bench better. May should be playing around 60mins a game.
API needs to start dropping back to around 60mins a game.
 
I'm notoriously a half-full guy, so this will no doubt get a few rolling eyes.

2025 was an improvement. I would argue at times significant. We really had 3 games where there was a significant score difference, which blew the F&A for us- R5 Broncos 46 Tigers 24, R10 Storm 64 Tigers 0, R21 Panthers 36 Tigers 2- and a couple of near 20 point losses to Parra & Manly.

5 games in 24 that we were out of the contest is a massive upgrade from the last 3 years.

On the downside, we lost to Parra, Titans, Souths & the Cowboys twice. This is VERY typical of the Tigers. It's also why we missed the finals- not winning games that should be won. This is what needs to change next season- the number of 'should wins' needs to be converted better.

Not much recruitment left to be done unless players get moved on. Some of the new recruits add depth we lacked at times this season. Our major signing spree happened last season. From here it's fine tuning & progression of younger players to elevate the squad.

The development of players like Latu, Sam & Sione Fainu, Pole, Taylan May, Makasini & Bula will be big parts of any success. We hopefully see some further development (but have less impact on our results) from Sukkar, Mason, Saukuru, Kit & Luke Lualili'i. Ideally they will have little impact on the squad & have minimal exposure to 1st grade unless earned.

KPP, Geyer & Roberts additions should mean more limited time for guys like Charlie Murray & Sukkar. Depth is important because when stretched, we didn't have the quality to bring in that was 1st grade ready.

We win 2/3rds of those winnable games & reduce the blowout scores by even 1, the Tigers should be in the running for finals next season.

Consistency in defensive structures (particularly through the middle) would be my priority on field improvement. After that it is obviously development of attacking running schemes & tactical kicking.
Great summary of where we are at.
 
I'm notoriously a half-full guy, so this will no doubt get a few rolling eyes.

2025 was an improvement. I would argue at times significant. We really had 3 games where there was a significant score difference, which blew the F&A for us- R5 Broncos 46 Tigers 24, R10 Storm 64 Tigers 0, R21 Panthers 36 Tigers 2- and a couple of near 20 point losses to Parra & Manly.

5 games in 24 that we were out of the contest is a massive upgrade from the last 3 years.

On the downside, we lost to Parra, Titans, Souths & the Cowboys twice. This is VERY typical of the Tigers. It's also why we missed the finals- not winning games that should be won. This is what needs to change next season- the number of 'should wins' needs to be converted better.

Not much recruitment left to be done unless players get moved on. Some of the new recruits add depth we lacked at times this season. Our major signing spree happened last season. From here it's fine tuning & progression of younger players to elevate the squad.

The development of players like Latu, Sam & Sione Fainu, Pole, Taylan May, Makasini & Bula will be big parts of any success. We hopefully see some further development (but have less impact on our results) from Sukkar, Mason, Saukuru, Kit & Luke Lualili'i. Ideally they will have little impact on the squad & have minimal exposure to 1st grade unless earned.

KPP, Geyer & Roberts additions should mean more limited time for guys like Charlie Murray & Sukkar. Depth is important because when stretched, we didn't have the quality to bring in that was 1st grade ready.

We win 2/3rds of those winnable games & reduce the blowout scores by even 1, the Tigers should be in the running for finals next season.

Consistency in defensive structures (particularly through the middle) would be my priority on field improvement. After that it is obviously development of attacking running schemes & tactical kicking.
I think we still have more recruitment to be done....urgently.
Im not confident it will be....i still het a sense we arent a desirable club to join.
We need two Taylan May type forwards..when i say TM type i mean slotting in seaamlessly and having immediate impact.
Doubt it will happen
 
Last edited:
I wonder what the plan is for the off season. Last year it was a hard ass boot camp that was meant to toughen them up and teach them how to stay in the battle. I think that could be seen in a few players this year but not wholly as a team. At the core of it we are still soft in many areas and most times we rely on teams to play badly in order to get a win. We lack the killer instinct. Is there a boot camp for that?
 
Last edited:
I'm left wondering how different our season would have been without the dog. In the period when we persisted with fido, we could have spent building connections and structures in the way we did after he was taken to the pound. Basically, the team lost time gelling through a disrupted season. Not making excuses just looking at the woulda, coulda, shoulda.
 

Latest posts

Staff online

Back
Top