Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[HabboTiger]

The sun will rise tomorrow

 

[pawsandclaws1]

I will stick my neck out here, I don't think we will have any chance to make the eight next year , we are weaker across the team. was really hoping with our cap money we would have got 2-3 class forwards and a good center, but again even with cap space we come up with one back rower, and a forward who has not played for 1 year. we lose a rep center and place our hopes on a rookie with 1, 1st grade run, could only happen at the tigers. really hope madge is in England chasing some players , because to be honest he has failed to add any thing to our roster, hope iam wrong but my chin is right out there .

Our backs are the weakest in the NRL yet you want more forwards?

 

[finnzo]

We still have 1.2 or something in the cap to spend wait till the seasond starts then check the roster out then make the call weather we will make the 8 or not

 

[bptiger]

yes I want 2-3 hard heads in the forwards, that's where we fall down every season, u can get by with less experienced backs but u need hard nuts up front, most of our forwards are young they need leaders in the pack. if madge is looking for players either here or overseas ,and scores a couple of good ones then maybe are chances improve, but as it stands not getting the spoon will be a pass.

 

[earl]

yes I want 2-3 hard heads in the forwards, that's where we fall down every season, u can get by with less experienced backs but u need hard nuts up front, most of our forwards are young they need leaders in the pack. if madge is looking for players either here or overseas ,and scores a couple of good ones then maybe are chances improve, but as it stands not getting the spoon will be a pass.

Like Packer, McQueen, Taylor & Matulino ?

You need forwards that go forward that don't cost too much, playmakers that take the right options and create opportunities and outside backs who can score tries and make busts. I think we clearly need better options at hooker, fullback and centre next year.

 

[2005magic]

We get upset when we’re told the Roosters will only release him to us. We take that as a show of disrespect, that we aren’t a threat. Also us, we get offended when clubs will release players to anyone but us. There are things at play if a club will release a player to other clubs but not us. Could be the western club factor, could also be they don’t want to give us the final piece in the puzzle that could make us a threat. Regardless, instead of complaining about other clubs being unfair to us, look at our club and ask we don’t operate the same way.

Ftr, I didn't see the Roosters offering Mitchell to us as a mark of disrespect at all, I just saw it as them releasing him to anyone, but Souths because of their particular rivalry or feud or whatever it is they have with them.

If the story from our trainer is true, then I see the refusal by Penrith to release DWZ to us to be the same, due to the bad blood spilled between them and us over Cleary during last off season.

You're right though it begs the question why aren't we doing the same? We seem to just roll over and let these clubs have whoever they want, when they want them, though we did get some monetary compensation from Penrith to sign Madge. Perhaps our thinking is that if we willingly give to other clubs then we will receive something back! You know the old philosophy about what you give to the world you will get in return, what goes around comes around, blah, blah. So far, it hasn't worked too well for us.

Perhaps we need to change our philosophy and become a bit more hard nosed during these negotiations. Either that or stop signing dick heads who carry on and throw tantrums cause they want to leave, thus making it completely untenable for us to hang onto them!

Re- Penrith & Cleary- dont forget the now Cleary led Penrith dicked us around with the transfer of Packer to Penrith. All the paperwork was apparently done and then Penrith pulled out.

 

[ElleryHanley]

I will stick my neck out here, I don't think we will have any chance to make the eight next year , we are weaker across the team. was really hoping with our cap money we would have got 2-3 class forwards and a good center, but again even with cap space we come up with one back rower, and a forward who has not played for 1 year. we lose a rep center and place our hopes on a rookie with 1, 1st grade run, could only happen at the tigers. really hope madge is in England chasing some players , because to be honest he has failed to add any thing to our roster, hope iam wrong but my chin is right out there .

The roster, as it stands, has absolutely no chance of making the finals. Lacks game breakers and has fill ins at FB and 9....half the spine.

I have no problem with missing the finals though as Cleary left a complete mess and I do think we are building nicely for 2021 onwards.

I just wish the new chairman did not come out with the 'anything less than finals is a failure' hype though as fans will expect too much and be disappointed yet again. Cleary left a massive mess, it will take time.

LM, fit and motivated, would have made a big difference. So would have Arrow. So would have DWZ....and so on...but it appears like we won't be adding the class/ game breakers we need this time. So, we need to be patient.

I can see us losing a ton of close games next season and the forums full of 'Madge needs to go' type posts, which will be unfortunate as I do think he is the right coach long term.

 

[Telltails]

Not really sure how this team will go. Ive under sold them two years in a row now, and recruitment has not provided anything so far to suggest that things will be much different next year. Alot will depend on attitude and astute coaching both of which seems to been have been pretty good in recent times.However that won't translate to reach the level needed to be there at the end with the far superior squads imo.

 

[2005magic]

Dunno, we have consistently had a lack of mental toughness, ability to close out a match and loosing to teams we should win against. If, with a full off season behind him and, a season of games behind him to assess our players strengths and weaknesses, Madge can get the main 17- 21 players in the squad to address these issues we can certainly make the 8. I'm not writing them off yet. I'm a tragic WT suporter till the end.

 

[Tigers_Tigers]

any rumours going around?

 

[Tiger_Steve]

any rumours going around?

I think someone mentioned we were interested in Latrell Mitchell

 

[Goanna57]

I will stick my neck out here, I don't think we will have any chance to make the eight next year , we are weaker across the team. was really hoping with our cap money we would have got 2-3 class forwards and a good center, but again even with cap space we come up with one back rower, and a forward who has not played for 1 year. we lose a rep center and place our hopes on a rookie with 1, 1st grade run, could only happen at the tigers. really hope madge is in England chasing some players , because to be honest he has failed to add any thing to our roster, hope iam wrong but my chin is right out there .


The roster, as it stands, has absolutely no chance of making the finals. Lacks game breakers and has fill ins at FB and 9....half the spine.

I have no problem with missing the finals though as Cleary left a complete mess and I do think we are building nicely for 2021 onwards.

I just wish the new chairman did not come out with the 'anything less than finals is a failure' hype though as fans will expect too much and be disappointed yet again. Cleary left a massive mess, it will take time.

LM, fit and motivated, would have made a big difference. So would have Arrow. So would have DWZ....and so on...but it appears like we won't be adding the class/ game breakers we need this time. So, we need to be patient.

I can see us losing a ton of close games next season and the forums full of 'Madge needs to go' type posts, which will be unfortunate as I do think he is the right coach long term.

You seriously think that after missing the finals for 8 straight years the fans will expect too much,surprise surprise surprise

 

[supercoach]

It all starts with the no9 and we basically don’t have one. The Benji experiment and other stop gap plans will not get you any where near the eight.

 

[Aceshigh]

penrith and bulldogs have always been closely affiliated I remember back in 88 after a game against riff that Blocker gets wiped out for 4 games inc the Grandfinal , louie Mortimer wanted to go judiciary in blockers defence but the riff refuse to let him do so . The game back then was dictated by bullfrog and then to rib salt in Farrar and Lamb take Ellery out of the game and nobody sees it 😂😂

 

[tiger05premier]

any rumours going around?

I think someone mentioned we were interested in Latrell Mitchell

Is he any good?

 

[TCL]

any rumours going around?

I think someone mentioned we were interested in Latrell Mitchell

Is he any good?

Another 48hrs, the sequel, staring Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte and a guest appearance by a WTF signing.

 

[TieDye]

‘Sign Hard - in 48 Hours‘ Starring Bruce Justin Pascoe. Or 90’s sitcom ‘Signfeldt’ With a tall man who has funny hair and can finish 😉

 

[BalmainJnr]

How do you rebuild an NRL club if you can't sign – and keep – players?

By Neil Breen
December 28, 2019 — 1.00pm

The evidence is in: despite a salary cap and an even distribution of grants, the NRL operates on a haves and have-nots basis.

And, until it is somehow equalised, thoughts of expansion by adding a second Brisbane team are folly. The existing house needs order first.

All the evidence we need was laid bare in the contract wrangling over Jai Arrow and Latrell Mitchell.

Mitchell is unhappy at the Roosters and, in turn, the Roosters are unhappy with him for being unhappy with them. So a parting of the ways is on.

The biggest offer for Mitchell came from Wests Tigers. He basically didn’t even return their phone call.

Now he’s interested in playing for the Rabbitohs on way less than the Tigers offered. Maybe even less than the Roosters’ offer of $800,000 a season.

Arrow is the type of player you could build a club around – so that’s what South Sydney will do with all their spare Sam Burgess cash. He’s signed with them for $800,000 a season from 2021-25 (plus third-party deals). But expect him to be there next year as well. He’s on less than $500,000 at the Titans for 2020 and the Rabbitohs will offer someone up and get him early.

The Titans wanted to build the club around him to them lift off the bottom of the pile.

But as soon as Arrow was able to negotiate with other clubs – a ridiculous 12 months out from the end of his existing deal – he was shopped everywhere and is gone.

The Titans have had issues in the past – most notably when many in the team were more focused on buying cocaine than winning an NRL match – but that is in the distant past.

They have new, passionate owners – Gold Coast locals and top-class business people like Rebecca Frizelle – a top, vastly experienced chairman in Dennis Watt, formerly a long-term News Corp executive who himself was a first-grader at Norths in the Brisbane competition back in the Joe Kilroy days. Watt stamped himself as a top league executive when handed the job of cleaning up News Corp’s mess in the wake of the Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal.

None other than Immortal Mal Meninga is the club’s head of football and culture. They've also got a new coach, with no baggage, in Justin Holbrook.

The challenge for clubs such as the Titans and the Tigers, perennial bottom-eight teams, is enticing players to the club who are good enough to drive you into the top eight. Then you have to get them to stick around.

Arrow is an interesting case. A Gold Coast native, he played juniors for Burleigh Bears before being scooped up into the Broncos’ system. Wayne Bennett handed him a first-grade debut in 2016 and, after 25 top-grade matches, he decided to head home to the Gold Coast.

In his two seasons there, the Titans finished 14th and last, and now he’s out of there, enticed by the culture and prospect of long-term success at the Rabbitohs, a club that, ironically, has won one premiership in the past 48 seasons.

A club with as many premierships in that time, Wests Tigers, also made a big play for Arrow and came up with nothing – as they did with Mitchell.

Why do the Tigers struggle to sign these players? It’s a question the club has to answer honestly after looking hard in the mirror.

Is it the lack of a home: training at Concord, playing at Leichhardt, ANZ Stadium, Campbelltown and Bankwest, club headquarters at Ashfield …

Yes, there’s a centre of excellence coming, but the Titans have one, too. Most clubs do, including Penrith. How’s that going for them?

The basic fact is that players see these clubs as non-winners and career crushers. They look at what’s happened to good players who have gone there – in the case of the Gold Coast, Tyrone Peachey, Bryce Cartwright, Ash Taylor – and don’t like what they see.

They look at the list of top players who left the Tigers – James Tedesco, Aaron Woods, Mitch Moses, Josh Addo-Carr – and wonder what drove them out.

How can Meninga and Holbrook at the Titans, and premiership-winning coach Michael Maguire at Wests Tigers, create a winning culture without being able to retain and recruit players who can give them success?

Fans of those clubs will be entitled to scratch their heads if Arrow and Mitchell (and Addo-Carr) drive the Rabbitohs to the top with excess Burgess funds in 2020 and 2021 while they languish at the bottom again.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/how-do-you-rebuild-an-nrl-club-if-you-can-t-sign-and-keep-players-20191227-p53n4z.html

 

[Spud_Murphy]

We get upset when we’re told the Roosters will only release him to us. We take that as a show of disrespect, that we aren’t a threat. Also us, we get offended when clubs will release players to anyone but us. There are things at play if a club will release a player to other clubs but not us. Could be the western club factor, could also be they don’t want to give us the final piece in the puzzle that could make us a threat. Regardless, instead of complaining about other clubs being unfair to us, look at our club and ask we don’t operate the same way.

Ftr, I didn't see the Roosters offering Mitchell to us as a mark of disrespect at all, I just saw it as them releasing him to anyone, but Souths because of their particular rivalry or feud or whatever it is they have with them.

If the story from our trainer is true, then I see the refusal by Penrith to release DWZ to us to be the same, due to the bad blood spilled between them and us over Cleary during last off season.

You're right though it begs the question why aren't we doing the same? We seem to just roll over and let these clubs have whoever they want, when they want them, though we did get some monetary compensation from Penrith to sign Madge. Perhaps our thinking is that if we willingly give to other clubs then we will receive something back! You know the old philosophy about what you give to the world you will get in return, what goes around comes around, blah, blah. So far, it hasn't worked too well for us.

Perhaps we need to change our philosophy and become a bit more hard nosed during these negotiations. Either that or stop signing dick heads who carry on and throw tantrums cause they want to leave, thus making it completely untenable for us to hang onto them!

Re- Penrith & Cleary- dont forget the now Cleary led Penrith dicked us around with the transfer of Packer to Penrith. All the paperwork was apparently done and then Penrith pulled out.

Yeah I’d forgotten that actually. Cleary really must have a bee in his bonnet to be so spiteful towards us since leaving. Can’t think why he would be since he was the one who wanted to leave AND we let him go! If anything we’re the ones who should be pissed off, but no, we’re all forgive and forget while others continue to wipe the floor with us.

Gotta be more to his fallout with Pascoe for him to be like this surely? Pascoe hasn’t been the same since either, imo. Never looks happy these days and he doesn’t seem like the same confident guy that first took us over a few years back.

 

[tony soprano]

How do you rebuild an NRL club if you can't sign – and keep – players?
Neil Breen
By Neil Breen
December 28, 2019 — 1.00pm

The evidence is in: despite a salary cap and an even distribution of grants, the NRL operates on a haves and have-nots basis.

And, until it is somehow equalised, thoughts of expansion by adding a second Brisbane team are folly. The existing house needs order first.

All the evidence we need was laid bare in the contract wrangling over Jai Arrow and Latrell Mitchell.

Mitchell is unhappy at the Roosters and, in turn, the Roosters are unhappy with him for being unhappy with them. So a parting of the ways is on.

The biggest offer for Mitchell came from Wests Tigers. He basically didn’t even return their phone call.

Now he’s interested in playing for the Rabbitohs on way less than the Tigers offered. Maybe even less than the Roosters’ offer of $800,000 a season.

Arrow is the type of player you could build a club around – so that’s what South Sydney will do with all their spare Sam Burgess cash. He’s signed with them for $800,000 a season from 2021-25 (plus third-party deals). But expect him to be there next year as well. He’s on less than $500,000 at the Titans for 2020 and the Rabbitohs will offer someone up and get him early.

The Titans wanted to build the club around him to them lift off the bottom of the pile.

But as soon as Arrow was able to negotiate with other clubs – a ridiculous 12 months out from the end of his existing deal – he was shopped everywhere and is gone.

The Titans have had issues in the past – most notably when many in the team were more focused on buying cocaine than winning an NRL match – but that is in the distant past.

They have new, passionate owners – Gold Coast locals and top-class business people like Rebecca Frizelle – a top, vastly experienced chairman in Dennis Watt, formerly a long-term News Corp executive who himself was a first-grader at Norths in the Brisbane competition back in the Joe Kilroy days. Watt stamped himself as a top league executive when handed the job of cleaning up News Corp’s mess in the wake of the Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal.

None other than Immortal Mal Meninga is the club’s head of football and culture. They've also got a new coach, with no baggage, in Justin Holbrook.

The challenge for clubs such as the Titans and the Tigers, perennial bottom-eight teams, is enticing players to the club who are good enough to drive you into the top eight. Then you have to get them to stick around.

Arrow is an interesting case. A Gold Coast native, he played juniors for Burleigh Bears before being scooped up into the Broncos’ system. Wayne Bennett handed him a first-grade debut in 2016 and, after 25 top-grade matches, he decided to head home to the Gold Coast.

In his two seasons there, the Titans finished 14th and last, and now he’s out of there, enticed by the culture and prospect of long-term success at the Rabbitohs, a club that, ironically, has won one premiership in the past 48 seasons.

A club with as many premierships in that time, Wests Tigers, also made a big play for Arrow and came up with nothing – as they did with Mitchell.

Why do the Tigers struggle to sign these players? It’s a question the club has to answer honestly after looking hard in the mirror.

Is it the lack of a home: training at Concord, playing at Leichhardt, ANZ Stadium, Campbelltown and Bankwest, club headquarters at Ashfield …

Yes, there’s a centre of excellence coming, but the Titans have one, too. Most clubs do, including Penrith. How’s that going for them?

The basic fact is that players see these clubs as non-winners and career crushers. They look at what’s happened to good players who have gone there – in the case of the Gold Coast, Tyrone Peachey, Bryce Cartwright, Ash Taylor – and don’t like what they see.

They look at the list of top players who left the Tigers – James Tedesco, Aaron Woods, Mitch Moses, Josh Addo-Carr – and wonder what drove them out.

How can Meninga and Holbrook at the Titans, and premiership-winning coach Michael Maguire at Wests Tigers, create a winning culture without being able to retain and recruit players who can give them success?

Fans of those clubs will be entitled to scratch their heads if Arrow and Mitchell (and Addo-Carr) drive the Rabbitohs to the top with excess Burgess funds in 2020 and 2021 while they languish at the bottom again.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/how-do-you-rebuild-an-nrl-club-if-you-can-t-sign-and-keep-players-20191227-p53n4z.html

Did he say woods top player?