Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion
- Thread starter MacDougall
- Start date
miss tackles or poor defensive reads are on the current coaching staff to rectify not on administrations past or present. This poor run is on Benji and his Team.
Tom Shines
Well-known member
Newcastle have and the Warriors did in 2023 ..: big improvements are not impossible
Tom Shines
Well-known member
They have been flogged 4 out of 5 games …
WestsEffTheRest
Well-known member
Benji has done well to recruit & build the squad he has. But he is not a good coach & his record shows this. Just tell me how Foran has managed to lead Manly to the top 4 with Brooks, Simpkin, Feledy & Wakeham all playing regular footy for them. Players who contributed to spoons at WT's & were deemed not good enough by the club & its fans. He would be a good Head of Football or Head of Recruitment but a good coach he is not.
This is the one that separates us from the rest of this year. If we want different results, our coaching staff has to bring real change. Time will tell if Benji is prepared to make hard decisions.
Tom Shines
Well-known member
If you are talking hard decisions regarding team selections … i don’t like his options this week
The decision to sign Jarome for 1.2 million per season and let him make a decision to suit himself 2 years into a 5 year deal certainly didn’t help.
His 1.2 million dollar wage for 2027 would most certainly be making it very hard to find the cap space to improve our playing roster.
Those who made the decision to re-sign a clearly busted Starford To’a also haven’t helped.
As decent Patrick Herbert has been for us and you would assume we need him on our starting line up to be named this afternoon, was it necessary to extend his contract t for the 2027 season ? There are far young, bigger, stronger, faster and better options available, that we might not be able to fit in due to poor recruitment and retention decisions.
Are we making our recruitment and retention decisions and then developing our players in the right positions that suit their physical attributes? Wingers have to be tall and good in the air as well as fast enough to finish off half chances and not be a defensive liability.
It was quite obvious that we could not afford 2 short and smaller wingers and quite obvious that we need at least one winger with plenty of speed. When was the last time we got this combination right ? As soon as we signed Turuva who was obviously going to be a lock for one winger slot, emerging players of similar stature such as Luke Laulilli should have been developed in a different position such as centre.
It’s been obvious for 12 months that Heath Mason is going on struggle to be a regular NRL player as a fullback, but has demonstrated he has good speed off the mark and is willing to run the ball fearlessly.
No idea why he has not been tried as a holler or as an interchange 13 which he showed some potential in the trials.
We have too many edge back rowers that do not have explosive speed and athleticism aka Dylan Lucas, Jacob Preston, Hudson, Young, Briton Nikora, Tallis Duncan just to name a few. Surely we can develop or recruit one or two that have this attribute.
We have finally found one high quality albeit injury prone centre in Taylan May. It’s quite obvious his strength and physicality are his main strengths, so we need tj be mindful that our other centre really needs tj have plenty of speed. This makes the potent signing of Jake Averillo quite smart, but we still need another NRL quality right centre option to cover for injuries with Makasini challenging for the starting left wing spot and being the first call up at left centre if/when Taylan May is injured.
While we have some good emerging forward prospects in particular Ethan Roberts, Tony Sukkar if we keep him, Christian Taupau-Moors, Jared Haywood, Phoenix Godinet and Archie Duncombe, there is no guarantee how many of them will be ready tj be genuine NRL contenders come 2927, so it is clear we need one, preferably two much more experienced and NRL quality forward depth options for 2027.
Then we need to work out if we have suitable emerging back up/depth hooker option from within, or if we need to recruit somebody.
Ideally it would be nice tj have a real hard nosed, aggressive hooker who demonstrates good line speed and whacks his opponents when defending.
We have one within our ranks who fits that description in Lune Jack, but he has not been played at hooker all season and I’m assuming he is now on the outter being left out of our NSW Cup 17 on Sunday.
All in all, player take talent identification which goes hand in hand with recruitment and retention is ultimately what makes or breaks a club.
The good news is we don’t need a total overhaul, just 4-6 smart signings which would be mainly low cost depth signings will go a long way to helping us have a much more successful 2027 season.
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The style of play we have adopted this year fast, offloads and high intensity defence was working with a full squad. These players filling in can’t maintain this and the squad hasn’t played this way for a season either.
They’ve hit a wall however moving forward we either have to play a system which all players can play or recruit depth. It’s become obvious we just can’t get players to step into roles as cover. Injuries are inevitable.
They’ve hit a wall however moving forward we either have to play a system which all players can play or recruit depth. It’s become obvious we just can’t get players to step into roles as cover. Injuries are inevitable.
Where the hell are we going to find the money for 4-6 signings
Samuela and Makasinis upgrade along with the Averillo signing already burnt through Luais money
mtd#2
Well-known member
Neither is winning powerball.
Why are you so quick to dismiss where the rot at this club stems from?
Tom Shines
Well-known member
A few too many points here to address so I’ll concentrate on your first and last …
They should try to find a way to move Luai on next year to free up some money … Perth comes to mind to give them a bit of publicity for 2027..
I agree they need 4-6 players for near year … hopefully there is a plan because it’s likely rinse repeat otherwise
Our only chance is if we can offload a few players that don’t do much to make us a better team.
Recent media reports suggest that is what we are trying to do.
This could be good providing we definitely replace them with better players.
Tom Shines
Well-known member
weststigers
Well-known member
We tend to go through this every year. Huge angst if there is no player signing news every month.
1. I think with the Bears coming in, they have mopped up a few ok players.
2. Players holding out for the PNG money and don't want to detour to another club for 1 year
3. Because of 1 and 2, clubs are holding onto players for fear they'll be difficult to replace in a tight player market.
4. The off season tends to reveal some existing discontent and agitation to move clubs - a bit early yet.
5. We have tapped a few guys on the shoulder - once they've found a club, it frees up space for us to go shopping. We need to wait for that to eventuate.
6. We have been locking up the nucleus of the squad (May boys, Twal, Fainus, Bula etc.) - new signings want to know that the team they signed for doesn't have the best players jumping ship after a signature.
I wouldn't say nothing is being done. There isn't a hell of a lot of movement from any club and not much available other than a bunch of Dragons players.
Tom Shines
Well-known member
Luai is still here being paid for 2027
About time you have agreed with me.
I agree we should be trying to send Luai to Perth for a year as not only does it make managing our salary cap so much easier, but it would also make it so much easier to play and develop Latu Fainu in the halves alongside Adam Doueihi to really know if we can pin our hopes on Latu long term. Not forgetting we woukd still have Jock Madden and an emerging Javon Andrews as back up if it wasn’t working out.
Tom Shines
Well-known member
we go through it every year .. and not much changes and we tend to suck the following year ..
… if you think all is being done .. fine … I mean neither of us know at the end of the day what they are doing …I can only base my opinions on the results .. perhaps that’s not entirely fair because we obviously are not the destination club
Having said that - The Dragons have done a good job with their recruitment to date for 2027 …
Tom Shines
Well-known member
I will agree on the need for players ..: I often disagree with the guys you suggest who are often NSW Cup level .. we need better
mtd#2
Well-known member
So your strategy is to keep doing the same thing over and over but are expecting different results?
Lets move onto our 9th coach in 14 years, that should do the trick! Even though madge and ivan - 6 premierships between them, couldnt do it.
Instead of calling out the obvious, lets continue to blame the scapegoats.
