Compare our middles to Melbourne Storm who are current Premiership favourites.
They have Stefano Utoikamanu who most of our supporters think was no loss and believe we have a better replacement in Terrell May.
Their other starting prop is Josh King who I really like as a player and would love someone like him wearing Wests Tigers colours, but if we are being realistic, is he any better than Fonua Pole, Sione Fainu or Alex Twal ?
Their starting lock is Trent Loliero who is very fit, mobile, has a decent passing game, high energy, aggressive and a current State of Origin representative. So yes he is a definite improvement on anyone we currently have as a 13, but if we were to swap him with Alex Twal, does it make us a significantly better team ? I would say slightly better, not significantly better.
Now go to their bench middles who are generally Tui Kamikamica, Alec McDonald and in the absence of NAS it will probably be Ativalu Lisati who is mainly a back rower.
Ask yourself the question, if we had those 3 on our bench ahead of either Pole or Sione (whichever one doesn’t start), Alex Seyfarth and Royce Hunt, would it make a massive difference to our teams success ?
Pole or Sione (whichever one doesn’t start) is at least the equal, if not better quality than Kamikamica at this stage of their careers. I don’t believe Seyfarth loses much if anything to Lisati, particularly in the work rate side of things and when close to his best as he was over the last couple of rounds, big Royce offers just as much if not more impact than Alex McDonald.
If we are including number 9’s in this argument than that’s another story as I believe Harry Grant is far and away the best number 9 in the NRL and an ageing Api doesn’t compare with him, but who does ?
Then if we want to include the starting edge back rowers, Eliesa Katoa is clearly one of the best and most dangerous ball runners in the NRL. We do not have anyone who can match him, but Sam Fainu is emerging and there is at least hope he can get somewhere near that level in 2026.
On the other edge the Storm have either Shawn Blore when at full strength or Joe Chan as his injury replacement. As of 2026 we will have KPP who I believe is at very worst comparable to Blore in terms of ability and I think he’s clearly ahead of Joe Chan in terms of consistency, work rate and overall ability.
So at worst our forward pack as it stands for 2026 is very comparable to Melbourne Storm, probably aside from the difference in class of the two respective number 9’s. The middles that a large percentage of our fans keep saying are our weakness are comparable to the current 2025 Premiership favourites.
In saying all of this I do agree we certainly need better depth in our middles, so we definitely need to recruit 2 good quality players who can either come into our top 17 or at worst provide good NRL standard depth.
Now look at our backline for strike in comparison to Melbourne Storm ?
The stike in our backline is where we are a long way behind the likes of Melbourne Storm and most other NRL clubs.
The emergence of Taylan May has certainly helped improve us quite a lot in this area and 2026 should see further progression in our young up and coming outside backs in Makasini and Laulilli. However we do not know how much they will improve over he next 6 months, so sure we can be hopeful, but we cannot bank on either of them being our saviours in regards to adding some much needed needed extra strike for 2026.
I know we have many supporters who truly believe the likes of Bula, Turuva, To’a and Skelton are elite and are up there with the top echelon of NRL outside backs, but if you are being serious the danger they present to opposing teams is very minimal compared to most other NRL clubs.
Due to Salary Cap restraints this problem is not an easy fix, but surely trying to sign one more good quality outside back is needed just as much as adding two good quality middles if we are to be genuine top 8 contenders in 2026.
Last edited:
