Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[JC99]

Cheese, the cheese, block of cheese, sick of reading about cheese. On Brandon Smith, he would be a good addition at the right dollars, sure, though I want better service from my dummy half and feel that Liddle is much superior at this, matching all others in that aspect and with Simpkin supposedly the next big thing would look elsewhere.

Similarly at lock, expecting that big Joe was brought to fill that role, but maybe upon Maguire shifting Harry there for cameo stints, maybe he is thinking that he no longer wants a prop like lock. As this is a discussion for a couple of seasons ahead, at this stage unless a big money option is a quality second rower, fullback or half, my interest is mild.

Interesting about all this talk of Liddell, how many games has he played in the last few years?

He’s certainly not played better than Brandon Smith has either

Liddle is a decent club player but he’s no Brandon Smith.

I like Liddle and if we don’t get Smith then I’m happy to keep using him, but Smith is a clear upgrade

 

[BZN]

Im going to put forward an unpopular opinion. I think Brandon Smith would be bad for the Tigers.

He is a great footballer, but as a hooker, I dont seem him as a technician, he is kind of like the Josh Reynolds (except with ability and talent) of hookers in that everthing is about effort and energy, pace. IMO at our stage of play we need a technician at 9. Good service, fast service, run when needed, get players where they need to be.

As a lock/middle forward, again all he has is effort. He is small and will never be elite in this position.

And he would cost us a lot of $$$$

Love the bloke, great player. Not for us IMO.

He would be our best player or close to it. We had an energetic hooker in Grant and he absolutely carved up. It will all depend on how are halves are doing anyway, if they aren’t smashing it then having a hooker who can create opportunities and do a lot of work will improve us greatly. If they’re going well then smith is still a fantastic hooker who’s a great defender can run the ball well and is 100% energy, don’t see how that’s a downside at all. He would improve our team no matter what I feel

He’d be our best player.

People forget how good a hooker he is because he’s been playing as a forward and because Harry is so good as well. He’s got great service, strong defender strong runner of the ball and he’s a ball of energy, only thing I haven’t seen is a kicking game but that’s fine.

He’s a great character he’s someone players want to play with and he’s the perfect fit for us. We’ve got money to spend so money isn’t an issue he just ticks all the boxes

It would be bloomin terrific to have The cheese at Wests Tigers...he's exactly the type of player Madge wants.
But...we don't 'really' need him as we have a potentially very good 9 in Liddle and a potentially excellent 9 in Simpkins.
Because of that Wests are now able to deal from a position of strength in $$$ terms.
If The Cheese 'really' wants to play for Us he will have to be prepared to accept the $$$ We offer.
Wests Tigers dont pay overs anymore!!!

 

[sleeve]

OK avo ,you have a point.my point is,we still have the worst backline in the comp with the only upgade being the Jet.We are all hoping and praying that we have a huge improvement this year , but to be realistic its a long shot.Our forwards look good with great recruitment.I know Madge is forward orientated ,but if as you say we should upgrade where possible ,half of the backline would go!

 

[avocadoontoast]

OK avo ,you have a point.my point is,we still have the worst backline in the comp with the only upgade being the Jet.We are all hoping and praying that we have a huge improvement this year , but to be realistic its a long shot.Our forwards look good with great recruitment.I know Madge is forward orientated ,but if as you say we should upgrade where possible ,half of the backline would go!

We have a lot of money to spend in 2022. Getting Smith wouldn’t mean we can’t strengthen other positions too.

 

[JC99]

Im going to put forward an unpopular opinion. I think Brandon Smith would be bad for the Tigers.

He is a great footballer, but as a hooker, I dont seem him as a technician, he is kind of like the Josh Reynolds (except with ability and talent) of hookers in that everthing is about effort and energy, pace. IMO at our stage of play we need a technician at 9. Good service, fast service, run when needed, get players where they need to be.

As a lock/middle forward, again all he has is effort. He is small and will never be elite in this position.

And he would cost us a lot of $$$$

Love the bloke, great player. Not for us IMO.

He would be our best player or close to it. We had an energetic hooker in Grant and he absolutely carved up. It will all depend on how are halves are doing anyway, if they aren’t smashing it then having a hooker who can create opportunities and do a lot of work will improve us greatly. If they’re going well then smith is still a fantastic hooker who’s a great defender can run the ball well and is 100% energy, don’t see how that’s a downside at all. He would improve our team no matter what I feel

He’d be our best player.

People forget how good a hooker he is because he’s been playing as a forward and because Harry is so good as well. He’s got great service, strong defender strong runner of the ball and he’s a ball of energy, only thing I haven’t seen is a kicking game but that’s fine.

He’s a great character he’s someone players want to play with and he’s the perfect fit for us. We’ve got money to spend so money isn’t an issue he just ticks all the boxes

It would be bloomin terrific to have The cheese at Wests Tigers...he's exactly the type of player Madge wants.
But...we don't 'really' need him as we have a potentially very good 9 in Liddle and a potentially excellent 9 in Simpkins.
Because of that Wests are now able to deal from a position of strength in $$$ terms.
If The Cheese 'really' wants to play for Us he will have to be prepared to accept the $$$ We offer.
Wests Tigers dont pay overs anymore!!!

It’s not a huge priority but if we can upgrade our team with a player of that talent we need to try. It’s impossible to know how Liddle and Simpkin will go next year too

 

[tony soprano]

Cheese, the cheese, block of cheese, sick of reading about cheese. On Brandon Smith, he would be a good addition at the right dollars, sure, though I want better service from my dummy half and feel that Liddle is much superior at this, matching all others in that aspect and with Simpkin supposedly the next big thing would look elsewhere.

Similarly at lock, expecting that big Joe was brought to fill that role, but maybe upon Maguire shifting Harry there for cameo stints, maybe he is thinking that he no longer wants a prop like lock. As this is a discussion for a couple of seasons ahead, at this stage unless a big money option is a quality second rower, fullback or half, my interest is mild.

Interesting about all this talk of Liddell, how many games has he played in the last few years?

Very Liddle.

 

[sleeve]

We all talk about balance. At the moment we have a see/saw with all the forwards up in the air , and the backs with their asses on the ground.

 

[TigerWest]

We all talk about balance. At the moment we have a see/saw with all the forwards up in the air , and the backs with their asses on the ground.

I don't see any major imbalance, the backs are quite reasonable (not great) I thought, if the forwards do there job, I'm quietly confident the backs will do there's.

 

[colinbh]

Some crazy claims on both sides around Nofa's ability in this thread. Fact is he is rated at least the 2nd best winger based only on this year's performances. He was also the Tigers best performer according to his team mates. That is also a fact.

No matter how you shape the argument to push an agenda, he is worth a lot to us, and it will be a big coup if we re-sign him long term.

Some crazy claims on both sides around Nofa's ability in this thread. Fact is he is rated at least the 2nd best winger based only on this year's performances. He was also the TigersYo best performer according to his team mates. That is also a fact.

No matter how you shape the argument to push an agenda, he is worth a lot to us, and it will be a big coup if we re-sign him long term.




The NSW SOO squad included 3 wingers. There was also Trbojevic who is injured and Papenhuyzen who could fill in if required. Why is it his value is so overstated at WTs? The squad included 27 players so he was not rated in basically two teams worth of players in NSW. Qld have their own wingers.


There is no getting around the fact better skillets are required in rep football and NSW selectors have spo ken.

And they were beaten.

 

[sleeve]

A very tentative term REASONABLE.Top 8 sides don;t have reasonable. Reasonable don;t win games.Top 8 sides only carry a couple of reasonable backs,not the whole backline.The augument was to upgrade where possible.I;M saying reasonable means we need an upgrade in the backs to the position of GOOD.

 

[fibrodreaming]

As said prevously Smith is a good footballer and so is Grant,but both play the game at a franctic pace witch to me spells injuries on the horizon.I can;t for the life of me see the benefit of buying either when hooker position is covered and we are so weak in other areas.

I believe in upgrading any position if you get the chance to

And downgrading another position at the same time ?

Smith is contracted to the Storm until end of 2023. The Storm will release him for the 2022 season contingent on getting a quality player in return - not necessarily like for like, but a quality NRL player.

As far as I'm concerned, that's a bad deal. I'm surprised people on here thought Manly would give up Sirro to get Aloiai, or that we would give up Nofo to get JAC.

And before anyone suggests we give them Liddle for 2022, the answer is we can't. He is not contracted to us for 2022. If Melbourne wanted him I assume they would be in talks with him now.

 

[TigerWest]

A very tentative term REASONABLE.Top 8 sides don;t have reasonable. Reasonable don;t win games.Top 8 sides only carry a couple of reasonable backs,not the whole backline.The augument was to upgrade where possible.I;M saying reasonable means we need an upgrade in the backs to the position of GOOD.

Mate, you are nitpicking a word, the backs are fine.

2021 backline: IMO

1 Mbye
2 Nofo
3 BJ
4 JTJ
5 Talau - AJ - Mansour
6 AD
7 LB

 

[TigerWest]

As said prevously Smith is a good footballer and so is Grant,but both play the game at a franctic pace witch to me spells injuries on the horizon.I can;t for the life of me see the benefit of buying either when hooker position is covered and we are so weak in other areas.

I believe in upgrading any position if you get the chance to

And downgrading another position at the same time ?

Smith is contracted to the Storm until end of 2023. The Storm will release him for the 2022 season contingent on getting a quality player in return - not necessarily like for like, but a quality NRL player.

As far as I'm concerned, that's a bad deal. I'm surprised people on here thought Manly would give up Sirro to get Aloiai, or that we would give up Nofo to get JAC.

And before anyone suggests we give them Liddle for 2022, the answer is we can't. He is not contracted to us for 2022. If Melbourne wanted him I assume they would be in talks with him now.

I would give up Nofo for JAC.

 

[avocadoontoast]

And downgrading another position at the same time ?

If you finish ahead then you do the deal IMO.

 

[pawsandclaws1]

Some crazy claims on both sides around Nofa's ability in this thread. Fact is he is rated at least the 2nd best winger based only on this year's performances. He was also the Tigers best performer according to his team mates. That is also a fact.

No matter how you shape the argument to push an agenda, he is worth a lot to us, and it will be a big coup if we re-sign him long term.

Some crazy claims on both sides around Nofa's ability in this thread. Fact is he is rated at least the 2nd best winger based only on this year's performances. He was also the TigersYo best performer according to his team mates. That is also a fact.

No matter how you shape the argument to push an agenda, he is worth a lot to us, and it will be a big coup if we re-sign him long term.




The NSW SOO squad included 3 wingers. There was also Trbojevic who is injured and Papenhuyzen who could fill in if required. Why is it his value is so overstated at WTs? The squad included 27 players so he was not rated in basically two teams worth of players in NSW. Qld have their own wingers.


There is no getting around the fact better skillets are required in rep football and NSW selectors have spo ken.

Don’t care about SOO, it’s all politics. Moylan used to get picked ahead of Tedesco, and Ennis ahead of Farah.

Here are the best players in each position in 2020: http://coupler.foxsports.com.au/api/v1/article/amp/nrl/nrl-premiership/dally-m/team-of-the-year-live-there-are-13-reasons-this-dally-m-night-is-different-from-any-in-history/news-story/7f2168a8fec8027058cfd9e2a35

I can't see politics having anything to do with JAC, Tupou or Cotric being selected. I'll also include Trbojevic as he would have been there too had it not been for injury. All deserved selection ahead of Nofoaluma.

 

[sleeve]

A very tentative term REASONABLE.Top 8 sides don;t have reasonable. Reasonable don;t win games.Top 8 sides only carry a couple of reasonable backs,not the whole backline.The augument was to upgrade where possible.I;M saying reasonable means we need an upgrade in the backs to the position of GOOD.

Mate, you are nitpicking a word, the backs are fine.

201 backline:

1 Mbye
2 Nofo
3 BJ
4 JTJ
5 Talau - AJ - Mansour
6 AD
7 LB

The only player in that group who would get a $500,000 a year contract is LB on the open market.Don;t get me wrong i like them all .The aurgument was about upgrading when you can,please read all of the posts.

 

[Magpieger]

What’s everyone’s opinion on going after Felise kafusi (not sure on the spelling)? I believe he’s off contract at the end of the season I could be wrong though. He seems like a pretty solid second rower? Who sure can win u games as he’s done it quiet a few times in the past!
Just a suggestion

Adam Blair...

 

[carltonleach]

What’s everyone’s opinion on going after Felise kafusi (not sure on the spelling)? I believe he’s off contract at the end of the season I could be wrong though. He seems like a pretty solid second rower? Who sure can win u games as he’s done it quiet a few times in the past!
Just a suggestion



Adam Blair...

Yeh true mate. He’s also abit like gagai they put on the qld jersey and are invincible but for club footy they are just another player on the field I guess

 

[Tim Sheens]

Im going to put forward an unpopular opinion. I think Brandon Smith would be bad for the Tigers.

He is a great footballer, but as a hooker, I dont seem him as a technician, he is kind of like the Josh Reynolds (except with ability and talent) of hookers in that everthing is about effort and energy, pace. IMO at our stage of play we need a technician at 9. Good service, fast service, run when needed, get players where they need to be.

As a lock/middle forward, again all he has is effort. He is small and will never be elite in this position.

And he would cost us a lot of $$$$

Love the bloke, great player. Not for us IMO.

He would be our best player or close to it. We had an energetic hooker in Grant and he absolutely carved up. It will all depend on how are halves are doing anyway, if they aren’t smashing it then having a hooker who can create opportunities and do a lot of work will improve us greatly. If they’re going well then smith is still a fantastic hooker who’s a great defender can run the ball well and is 100% energy, don’t see how that’s a downside at all. He would improve our team no matter what I feel

He’d be our best player.

People forget how good a hooker he is because he’s been playing as a forward and because Harry is so good as well. He’s got great service, strong defender strong runner of the ball and he’s a ball of energy, only thing I haven’t seen is a kicking game but that’s fine.

He’s a great character he’s someone players want to play with and he’s the perfect fit for us. We’ve got money to spend so money isn’t an issue he just ticks all the boxes

It would be bloomin terrific to have The cheese at Wests Tigers...he's exactly the type of player Madge wants.
But...we don't 'really' need him as we have a potentially very good 9 in Liddle and a potentially excellent 9 in Simpkins.
Because of that Wests are now able to deal from a position of strength in $$$ terms.
If The Cheese 'really' wants to play for Us he will have to be prepared to accept the $$$ We offer.
Wests Tigers dont pay overs anymore!!!

It’s not a huge priority but if we can upgrade our team with a player of that talent we need to try. It’s impossible to know how Liddle and Simpkin will go next year too

That's where most of us here land, though it should also be remembered that Maguire was happy to go into this season with Liddle at nine prior to Talau smashing his knee ligaments.

The other point is the form of post storm system players, as they almost always turn out to be square edge types trying to fit rounds elsewhere. Again, at appropriate dollars yes interested, otherwise we move on.

 

[Russell]

Im going to put forward an unpopular opinion. I think Brandon Smith would be bad for the Tigers.

He is a great footballer, but as a hooker, I dont seem him as a technician, he is kind of like the Josh Reynolds (except with ability and talent) of hookers in that everthing is about effort and energy, pace. IMO at our stage of play we need a technician at 9. Good service, fast service, run when needed, get players where they need to be.

As a lock/middle forward, again all he has is effort. He is small and will never be elite in this position.

And he would cost us a lot of $$$$

Love the bloke, great player. Not for us IMO.

He would be our best player or close to it. We had an energetic hooker in Grant and he absolutely carved up. It will all depend on how are halves are doing anyway, if they aren’t smashing it then having a hooker who can create opportunities and do a lot of work will improve us greatly. If they’re going well then smith is still a fantastic hooker who’s a great defender can run the ball well and is 100% energy, don’t see how that’s a downside at all. He would improve our team no matter what I feel

He’d be our best player.

People forget how good a hooker he is because he’s been playing as a forward and because Harry is so good as well. He’s got great service, strong defender strong runner of the ball and he’s a ball of energy, only thing I haven’t seen is a kicking game but that’s fine.

He’s a great character he’s someone players want to play with and he’s the perfect fit for us. We’ve got money to spend so money isn’t an issue he just ticks all the boxes

I haven't forgotten how good a hooker he is - I just don't think he is that good a hooker. Someone suggested that he was a Reynolds with more energy and talent - I think that is a good summation.

He is not a great hooker, certainly not in the class of Cam Smith, Grant, Hodgson or Koroisau. He is not a great lock, certainly not in the class of Murray, Radley, Trbojevic, Taumalolo, Tarpine, Finucane, Yeo or Brown.

So a lot of money to pay for a player that is "just a ball of energy" - do we really want another Reynolds - we just got rid of him. we have the best two young hookers in the NRL - that people want to replace.

For the money he expects and demands to play hooker - I would want a much better DH, one that can organise the attack (not sure he can do that) and has a really good kicking game.

I don't think he ticks all the boxes by a long shot.