Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[weststigers]

That’s what we said about Marika Koroibete and Josh Addo-Carr when they were regularly scoring long range tries for us in Reserve Grade and we ended up letting them go because we didn’t believe they were good enough defenders.
That worked out really well, they both headed down to Melbourne to become stars and premiership winners.
Good coaches will work with wingers who are attacking freaks to bring their defence up to a satisfactory level,
Unfortunately not even a good coach can turn slower boring wingers into fast, exciting attacking players and try scoring freaks,

I don't think that's why Koroibete and Addo-Carr left.

 

[Tom Shines]

Yeah I get your point, Skelton doesn’t make that many, certainly doesn’t make up for defensive errors, poor ball handling, and he has no speed.

I’ll make an excuse for Skelton last week ..he scored a couple of tries against the Titans playing outside Taylan, but Benji decided to break that combination up… Skelton played outside Toa who has become the worst defender in the team of late …and the result was that side being heavily targeted

 

[weststigerman]

Outside of Benji's lack of experience his main issue is his choice of assistants. The current crop outside of Morris are very inexperienced. Don't we have additional soft cap with the transfer fees from Galvin and Tds. Why don't we spend this on some gun assistants. But this will mean that Benji needs to accept that he needs help.

You’re right but I believe a key issue is the club can’t afford to get higher level assistants.

HBG are cashed up but are only putting in the bare minimum.

At least that is what I’ve heard.

 

[Vicious]

I don't think that's why Koroibete and Addo-Carr left.

I think you will find it is, they were playing reserve grade and scoring unbelievable long range tries every week, but we would not put them in our NRL team on a regular basis because we were concerned they were not good enough defenders.
Wingers with speed who can score long range tries and keep their opponents worried about them are invaluable.

 

[Vicious]

I’ll make an excuse for Skelton last week ..he scored a couple of tries against the Titans playing outside Taylan, but Benji decided to break that combination up… Skelton played outside Toa who has become the worst defender in the team of late …and the result was that side being heavily targeted

I’m not saying Skelton is not a good player, what I’m saying is like many parts of our team line up, our balance on our wings is all wrong due to not having at least one of them who has blistering speed, can make long range line breaks, score long range tries and make our opponents think twice about condensing their defence so much when we are coming out of our danger zone.
When was the last time you saw us make a long range line break or score a long range try ?
Every other club either does it or at least threatens to do it much more regularly than us, do you not see that as a problem or do you think we should just continue the one out boring crap that we continue to dish up and wonder why we continue to lose the yardage battle ?
Our pop gun kicking game also contributes, but that doesn’t look like changing for the better anytime soon, so we need to add improvements somewhere.

 

[tigahhh]

I think you will find it is, they were playing reserve grade and scoring unbelievable long range tries every week, but we would not put them in our NRL team on a regular basis because we were concerned they were not good enough defenders.
Wingers with speed who can score long range tries and keep their opponents worried about them are invaluable.

Tyrell sloan is an exact example of that not being true

 

[Vicious]

Tyrell sloan is an exact example of that not being true

Have you missed his long range line breaks and tries, quite a few recently ?
The Dragons are not struggling as badly as us in the yardage battle week after week and their forwards generally make less metres per game than ours.
So ask yourself how that happens ?
They are not afraid and have the right type of players with speed to challenge their opposition with an early/long range shift.

 

[tigahhh]

Have you missed his long range line breaks and tries, quite a few recently ?
The Dragons are not struggling as badly as us in the yardage battle week after week and their forwards generally make less metres per game than ours.
So ask yourself how that happens ?
They are not afraid and have the right type of players with speed to challenge their opposition with an early/long range shift.

ask yourself why they are desperate to offload him 🤣 not invaluable at all

 

[Aceshigh]

Have you missed his long range line breaks and tries, quite a few recently ?
The Dragons are not struggling as badly as us in the yardage battle week after week and their forwards generally make less metres per game than ours.
So ask yourself how that happens ?
They are not afraid and have the right type of players with speed to challenge their opposition with an early/long range shift.

The Dragons should have beat the Dogs the other week also , it was clear they got shafted by the ref

 

[Vicious]

ask yourself why they are desperate to offload him 🤣 not invaluable at all

They don’t have a slow team from 1-13 like we do, therefore offloading one fast winger doesn’t make much difference to their ability to play around teams and be a long range threat.
Again when was the last time we without luck such as the To’a break where he ran 40m in about 10 seconds have we made a long range line break or scored a long range try ?
We simply don’t have the speed or calibre of players to do it and if that does not change, along with our pop gun kicking game, we will continue to limit ourselves to only being able to score tries when we are in our red zone.
Why do we want to continue to be such a slow, boring, predictable and limited team when we can simply change a handful of players to prevent that from happening?
It’s not just the singers, we are slow all over including our back row, including our halves, including our centres.
How does a limited ability slow boring team compete and beat teams with higher skill levels and much more speed ?
It’s very difficult and a lot of luck required.

 

[tigahhh]

They don’t have a slow team from 1-13 like we do, therefore offloading one fast winger doesn’t make much difference to their ability to play around teams and be a long range threat.
Again when was the last time we without luck such as the To’a break where he ran 40m in about 10 seconds have we made a long range line break or scored a long range try ?
We simply don’t have the speed or calibre of players to do it and if that does not change, along with our pop gun kicking game, we will continue to limit ourselves to only being able to score tries when we are in our red zone.
Why do we want to continue to be such a slow, boring, predictable and limited team when we can simply change a handful of players to prevent that from happening?
It’s not just the singers, we are slow all over including our back row, including our halves, including our centres.
How does a limited ability slow boring team compete and beat teams with higher skill levels and much more speed ?
It’s very difficult and a lot of luck required.

they have no one with speed besides sloan who they want to offload, you can say we need more speed in our side but there’s more to a winger being fast for them to be invaluable

 

[Vicious]

they have no one with speed besides sloan who they want to offload, you can say we need more speed in our side but there’s more to a winger being fast for them to be invaluable

Ok so we just continue to focus on a team full of players that are not real fast, hardly make a line bust, but make plenty of hit ups and make good yardage, is that the answer to our problems?
Every good team needs balance, so you need a certain number of those types of players, complimented by others with speed, x-factor, tackle bust, line break and long range try scoring ability.

 

[Demps]

Interesting that in the recent BTR Podcast with Laui and Api, they were asked who they were most excited to see debut...

Both said Masi.... which is Makasini.
Then Api made a special mention about Jared Heywood, mentioned he works hard and is going toe to toe at training with Luai.

Very promising.

 

[Demps]

 

[SeanT]

Tyrell sloan is an exact example of that not being true

How Sloane keeps getting a start is beyond me. A touch player at best.

 

[tigahhh]

How Sloane keeps getting a start is beyond me. A touch player at best.

has super league MOTM every week written all over him

 

[Vicious]

I’ve only seen highlights of Tyrone May since he’s been in the UK and his slight of hand and line break assist ability has never been in question, but does he have a good kicking game ?
I know he’s only been playing in the halves over there, is he showing any reason to believe he could become the ball playing 13 we are looking for ?

 

[weststigers]

I think you will find it is, they were playing reserve grade and scoring unbelievable long range tries every week, but we would not put them in our NRL team on a regular basis because we were concerned they were not good enough defenders.
Wingers with speed who can score long range tries and keep their opponents worried about them are invaluable.

If they can't defend, doesn't it negate their attacking ability?

I just wonder what you are saying here. Wingers can forget about defence and the basics of the game, like catching bombs as long as they are fast?

You're the first to criticise Skelton for his defensive misreads, yet here you are saying it's ok as a winger to be inept in defence. Can you be clear. Just seems like you don't have a clear opinion, just the alternative view of what someone puts out there to the point your view seems contradictory.

 

[Tim Sheens]

I’ll make an excuse for Skelton last week ..he scored a couple of tries against the Titans playing outside Taylan, but Benji decided to break that combination up… Skelton played outside Toa who has become the worst defender in the team of late …and the result was that side being heavily targeted

A ridiculous decision, and hopefully the coaching staff will stop more making more changes than necessary in a team already struggling with fresh combinations, whether that be spine positions or otherwise.

 

[Vicious]

If they can't defend, doesn't it negate their attacking ability?

I just wonder what you are saying here. Wingers can forget about defence and the basics of the game, like catching bombs as long as they are fast?

You're the first to criticise Skelton for his defensive misreads, yet here you are saying it's ok as a winger to be inept in defence. Can you be clear. Just seems like you don't have a clear opinion, just the alternative view of what someone puts out there to the point your view seems contradictory.

Skelton missed that crucial tackle last week as he was TOO SLOW laterally to get to his opposing winger.
Skelton does not make up for his defensive misreads or for being too slow laterally by being capable of making long range line breaks or scoring long range tries.
A GOOD CIACH can help assist and fix issues with wingers making bad defensive reads, but they can’t coach someone to be quicker and quicker laterally.
Once again Skelton has his strong points and you would assume he is still playing injured for whatever reason, but when you have him on one wing and Turuva on the other, all you get is good yardage out of our danger zone and good finishing in our red zone, nothing else.
For the 100th time, why do you want both wingers similarly restricted and your team not having anyone who has genuine speed to worry the opposition ?
It’s rugby league suicide and I cannot believe you and a few others think it’s good.