Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Tiger_Yoshi]

Bailey Simonsson wants out from the Eels.....should we go for him?

 

[Buttface]

Naden got slapped with a breach & the fainu’s just got a warning

So does the breach come with a fine or is it just a sterner warning?

 

[tonza]

Could have been carrying his ego.

Could be. If you watch him he is always looking at the big screens.

 

[Tom Shines]

Wayne dropped Katoa to reserve grade.

Yes he did …for Bennett’s last game there when they had to win to make the finals … he also moved the Hammer from fullback to Center …he was called out by their fans at the time , and has since taken his next team to the bottom … I think it’s fair to say Wayne ain’t what he once was

 

[2041]

It always amazes me to hear people talking about a draft as if that's something that would be positive for the Tigers - I assume it's just because we've been crap for so long that people start to assume any other system would have to be better. Literally the one advantage this club should have going for it is a massive junior catchment area, which a draft would immediately render irrelevant. All a draft would mean is that we'd be competing with the bigger, richer clubs without any edge.

The reason why the AFL draft sort of works isn't the draft itself but the incredibly restrictive contracts players coming into the league are put under. You can't be an unrestricted free agent in the AFL until you have been at a club for eight years and even then if you're in the top earners on a list your current club has the right to match any offer. People might want the NRL to introduce similar rules but it's never going to happen - for one thing, severely restricting the earnings capabilities of young league players would just reopen the talent drain to union, in Australia or offshore. The AFL doesn't have this concern.

And despite all that, the AFL still has lousy clubs down at the bottom year after year and big names more or less perpetually at the top. Yes, when players force a trade to a preferred club their current club gets draft picks. But they just get used on more young talent that then leaves.

Basically, what would happen in a draft would be a turbocharged version of what happens now. Bad teams like the Tigers would get the best talent at 18 years old (assuming we don't make a balls up of our picks, which, hmm), would give it first grade experience up until more or less exactly the point at which it starts to really flourish... and then lose it to bigger teams. The difference would be that instead of having the chance to supplement your Galvins and Makasinis - top five draft picks - with a heap of 30-50 pick equivalents, all the lower picks go to the teams that are also doing the poaching.

Basically, building a system like Penrith or Canberra would become impossible because the talent all gets artificially shared round at 18. At this point there's no purpose for a club to invest in pathways and juniors. The NRL itself has no interest in long-term planning so grassroots rugby league would get starved of funding.

Basically, a draft would be terrible for the game and terrible for clubs like the Tigers. It's a dreadful idea and one that ought to be sealed in concrete and dropped in the ocean.

 

[Demps]

Think Javon Andrews will be managed by the same manager as Luai.

 

[Vicious]

100% Greg. Doueihi didn't do anything a conventional halfback should do to lay on or score tries. He didn't win the game by orchestrating great attacking play in shape, putting the defence in two minds with deft halfback play of digging into the line, squaring up, clever passing, wonderful attacking kicking for repeat sets or points, or anything of the sort. Kikau in particular made some horrendous errors which Doueihi exposed for the first two tries. A very Wests-like performance from Kikau which we most likely won't see again for a while. By all means, Doueihi took advantage of these opportunities, but to think he's now a team-leading general after 1 game, in horrendous conditions, where the opposition made a tonne of uncharacteristic errors, is laughable. It's very Wests Tigers though to ignore the past month of putrid football and sign a player for overs for a performance in one game. Canterbury allowed Doueihi to shine. A bit like how Wests allowed Tannah Boyd to shine in his first match for the Warriors, and he's been average since.

Doueihi's try involvements v Canterbury:
1. Kikau was offside at the ruck and subsequently receives the ball. Penalty Wests. In the ensuing Goodball set, Kikau rushes out of the defensive line (and system) and slips off Doueihi due to the wet. Poor attempt at wrapping the ball allows Doueihi to offload for Skelton's try.

2. Xerri makes a legs tackle on a Skelton kick return who finds his front and a quick play the ball. Xerri is out of the play and only one marker is present. Kikau doesn't realise the situation and only has eyes for the open-side which is what a first marker does in a 2-marker system. Doueihi seizes the opportunity down the short-side, and practically bombs the try with a forward pass to Bula which wasn't called.

3. Doueihi pounces on a loose-ball for a try.

To think that 'we've found the blue-print' when you actually drill down to how those tries came about is laughable. If you look at the stats, Canterbury still win carry metres, average set metres, tackle efficiency, and all with less total possession. The biggest variable in this match was the weather and the errors Canterbury made because of it.

If Doueihi wants to make a decision now, and take what Dragons are offering, then good luck to him. He needs to show that he can produce actual NRL half back standard performances before Richo upgrades the dollars in his deal. So far, he's shown absolutely nothing. And I haven't even talked about the history of his defensive efforts.

Decisions need to be made on a body of work, not an outlier.

Ok let him go and let Latu Fainu and Jock Madden battle it out to be our regular starting 7, that will be much better,
Are we trying to make the top 8 or trying to win more wooden spoons ?

 

[jirskyr]

Look I’ve been very vocal on this as I cannot believe the lack of common sense in Richo or any of our fans thinking it’s a good idea to make a lowball offeri to Doueihi and it will be ok if he goes because of it.
If anyone doesn’t believe me, have a listen to Cooper Cronk’s recent comments and he’s supposedly been working with us recently, so I’d say he would have a fair idea on what we need,
For those who cannot find it, he said Latu Fainu still has a lot of growing to do in regards to being a 7 and leading a team around the park and thinks he is a good 18 months away from being at that required level.

I try not to listen to Cooper Cronk's comments, bloke is supremely arrogant.

 

[Vicious]

I try not to listen to Cooper Cronk's comments, bloke is supremely arrogant.

He may be arrogant, but knows what he is talking about.
Would you seriously take the opinion of supporters on a forum over his opinion when it comes to halfback play and who is ready or not ready ?

 

[jirskyr]

It always amazes me to hear people talking about a draft as if that's something that would be positive for the Tigers - I assume it's just because we've been crap for so long that people start to assume any other system would have to be better. Literally the one advantage this club should have going for it is a massive junior catchment area, which a draft would immediately render irrelevant. All a draft would mean is that we'd be competing with the bigger, richer clubs without any edge.

The reason why the AFL draft sort of works isn't the draft itself but the incredibly restrictive contracts players coming into the league are put under. You can't be an unrestricted free agent in the AFL until you have been at a club for eight years and even then if you're in the top earners on a list your current club has the right to match any offer. People might want the NRL to introduce similar rules but it's never going to happen - for one thing, severely restricting the earnings capabilities of young league players would just reopen the talent drain to union, in Australia or offshore. The AFL doesn't have this concern.

And despite all that, the AFL still has lousy clubs down at the bottom year after year and big names more or less perpetually at the top. Yes, when players force a trade to a preferred club their current club gets draft picks. But they just get used on more young talent that then leaves.

Basically, what would happen in a draft would be a turbocharged version of what happens now. Bad teams like the Tigers would get the best talent at 18 years old (assuming we don't make a balls up of our picks, which, hmm), would give it first grade experience up until more or less exactly the point at which it starts to really flourish... and then lose it to bigger teams. The difference would be that instead of having the chance to supplement your Galvins and Makasinis - top five draft picks - with a heap of 30-50 pick equivalents, all the lower picks go to the teams that are also doing the poaching.

Basically, building a system like Penrith or Canberra would become impossible because the talent all gets artificially shared round at 18. At this point there's no purpose for a club to invest in pathways and juniors. The NRL itself has no interest in long-term planning so grassroots rugby league would get starved of funding.

Basically, a draft would be terrible for the game and terrible for clubs like the Tigers. It's a dreadful idea and one that ought to be sealed in concrete and dropped in the ocean.

I don't know if it's a terrible idea for NRL but I appreciate your analysis compared to the AFL, to show how their circumstances are different.

 

[jirskyr]

He may be arrogant, but knows what he is talking about.
Would you seriously take the opinion of supporters on a forum over his opinion when it comes to halfback play and who is ready or not ready ?

Sometimes yes, because I interact with the forum every day and I've never met Cooper Cronk.

But often I dismiss both.

I'll tell you why specifically for Cronk: not only is he a blow-hard, but he never played in a bad side. He had an immense career, I'm not going to deny that he was a good footballer, but Cronk only ever played in sides immensely stacked (sometimes illegally stacked) with talent.

Not just good sides, I mean disproportionally stacked sides. Roosters won the 2018 GF in spite of Cronk's broken shoulder, not because of it.

So when Cronk starts to talk about what the Tigers or Knights need to do, I don't actually believe Cronk has sufficient experience to comment. Cronk knows what to do when your team-mates are Slater and Smith, or Tedesco and Latrell and Joey Manu, or QLD Origin.

What does Cronk really know about playing with a sub-par roster? What happens when "taking control" and "kicking to the corners" doesn't cut it because your roster is sub-standard and you can't rely on your blokes to make their tackles every match.

 

[Tom Shines]

It always amazes me to hear people talking about a draft as if that's something that would be positive for the Tigers - I assume it's just because we've been crap for so long that people start to assume any other system would have to be better. Literally the one advantage this club should have going for it is a massive junior catchment area, which a draft would immediately render irrelevant. All a draft would mean is that we'd be competing with the bigger, richer clubs without any edge.

The reason why the AFL draft sort of works isn't the draft itself but the incredibly restrictive contracts players coming into the league are put under. You can't be an unrestricted free agent in the AFL until you have been at a club for eight years and even then if you're in the top earners on a list your current club has the right to match any offer. People might want the NRL to introduce similar rules but it's never going to happen - for one thing, severely restricting the earnings capabilities of young league players would just reopen the talent drain to union, in Australia or offshore. The AFL doesn't have this concern.

And despite all that, the AFL still has lousy clubs down at the bottom year after year and big names more or less perpetually at the top. Yes, when players force a trade to a preferred club their current club gets draft picks. But they just get used on more young talent that then leaves.

Basically, what would happen in a draft would be a turbocharged version of what happens now. Bad teams like the Tigers would get the best talent at 18 years old (assuming we don't make a balls up of our picks, which, hmm), would give it first grade experience up until more or less exactly the point at which it starts to really flourish... and then lose it to bigger teams. The difference would be that instead of having the chance to supplement your Galvins and Makasinis - top five draft picks - with a heap of 30-50 pick equivalents, all the lower picks go to the teams that are also doing the poaching.

Basically, building a system like Penrith or Canberra would become impossible because the talent all gets artificially shared round at 18. At this point there's no purpose for a club to invest in pathways and juniors. The NRL itself has no interest in long-term planning so grassroots rugby league would get starved of funding.

Basically, a draft would be terrible for the game and terrible for clubs like the Tigers. It's a dreadful idea and one that ought to be sealed in concrete and dropped in the ocean.

One other thing you haven’t mentioned …. A draft is a pipe dream in the NRL because if a young player isn’t happy with where he gets picked , he has the option of going and playing Rugby Union either here of overseas … what’s an AFL player going to do ? They have no other options..

Edit - sorry you did mention this point and I missed it 👍😎

 

[jirskyr]

One other thing you haven’t mentioned …. A draft is a pipe dream in the NRL because if a young player isn’t happy with where he gets picked , he has the option of going and playing Rugby Union either here of overseas … what’s an AFL player going to do ? They have no other options..

Ah actually he did specifically mention that.

 

[Tom Shines]

Ah actually he did specifically mention that.

Yes he did,,. I gotta work on my attention span on these longer posts 👍

 

[tigahhh]

i think latu needs to play 6 and luai 7, will help unlock latu’s running game. 7 might be too much pressure atm

 

[balmain boy]

He is not a lock, he’s a 6 or 7 who would be a very good 14 if we have a 6 and 7 who are both playing better than him.
Currently that is not the case.

Thing is, he is a lock moving forwards. He had to be able to make the dirty hitups, make covering tackles etc. He hasn't shown he can do that. Or he's a backup half.
He's not a 14, we need a 14 who can give Api a spell, and that's not AD.

He's also got to show he can maintain form and fitness after signing a contract, something he's never been able to do in his career to date.

 

[balmain boy]

i think latu needs to play 6 and luai 7, will help unlock latu’s running game. 7 might be too much pressure atm

Luai is not a 7. He's not the dominant half, no matter how much he says he could be. Nicho Hynes for his faults still went to the Sharks and became their main main without a shadow of a Doubt. Luai still wants others to do that for him.

 

[Vicious]

Luai is not a 7. He's not the dominant half, no matter how much he says he could be. Nicho Hynes for his faults still went to the Sharks and became their main main without a shadow of a Doubt. Luai still wants others to do that for him.

So we are likely heading into 2026 with two 6’s and Jock Madden as our only genuine 7.

 

[HowDugWT]

It always amazes me to hear people talking about a draft as if that's something that would be positive for the Tigers - I assume it's just because we've been crap for so long that people start to assume any other system would have to be better. Literally the one advantage this club should have going for it is a massive junior catchment area, which a draft would immediately render irrelevant. All a draft would mean is that we'd be competing with the bigger, richer clubs without any edge.

The reason why the AFL draft sort of works isn't the draft itself but the incredibly restrictive contracts players coming into the league are put under. You can't be an unrestricted free agent in the AFL until you have been at a club for eight years and even then if you're in the top earners on a list your current club has the right to match any offer. People might want the NRL to introduce similar rules but it's never going to happen - for one thing, severely restricting the earnings capabilities of young league players would just reopen the talent drain to union, in Australia or offshore. The AFL doesn't have this concern.

And despite all that, the AFL still has lousy clubs down at the bottom year after year and big names more or less perpetually at the top. Yes, when players force a trade to a preferred club their current club gets draft picks. But they just get used on more young talent that then leaves.

Basically, what would happen in a draft would be a turbocharged version of what happens now. Bad teams like the Tigers would get the best talent at 18 years old (assuming we don't make a balls up of our picks, which, hmm), would give it first grade experience up until more or less exactly the point at which it starts to really flourish... and then lose it to bigger teams. The difference would be that instead of having the chance to supplement your Galvins and Makasinis - top five draft picks - with a heap of 30-50 pick equivalents, all the lower picks go to the teams that are also doing the poaching.

Basically, building a system like Penrith or Canberra would become impossible because the talent all gets artificially shared round at 18. At this point there's no purpose for a club to invest in pathways and juniors. The NRL itself has no interest in long-term planning so grassroots rugby league would get starved of funding.

Basically, a draft would be terrible for the game and terrible for clubs like the Tigers. It's a dreadful idea and one that ought to be sealed in concrete and dropped in the ocean.

I think it would be good if you were able to lock down 3-6 of your juniors in the "class" then the rest can go to the draft.
I think it would be good for teams that go of players early, for example TDS we could've gotten a few draft picks for him as well as a bit of money that we received. Incentivising teams to let go of players and removing the "one way street" narrative that is created when players leave mid season.
Just gets murky when we debut kids at 18 to 21, when do you draw the boundaries on the draft class.
I have actually come around to the idea but only under the condition I stated at the start so we don't lose Makasinis and Galvins (did it anyway lol).
Drafts are fun and create a buzz around junior grades as well as beginning the season like it does in the NFL.
I believe the RLPA are staunchly against it which is a bit of a shame but they seem to get in the way of most good ideas.

 

[Vicious]

Cronk works as a halves consultant with the Roosters which ends this season. It's one of the reasons they've gone for DCE. He'll be a player and a halves mentor. You're making a deliberately false statement in order to assist your argument.

Yes, we all know Latu is raw. He hasn't had any consistency in the halves to develop his game, both at training or in games. He needs a pre-season as the general at training, and he needs development as a half back. This bloke will win more games for Wests Tigers as a halfback, with first-class half back play, than what Doueihi ever will.

I'm happy to keep Doueihi, but Richo has done the numbers and that's what he's worth. They've offered him an extra year. As long as Latu gets 90% of the first-team half back reps in the pre-season, and develops as the club's long-term halfback.

Cronk was seen at Wests Tigers training very recently, nothing false about it.