Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[tony soprano]

Smith is a major injury waiting to happen the way he plays. A big risk for big money. He has barely got through this year with head knocks etc. Brave but Storm have been lucky to get so many games out of him this year.

Cautious u r

 

[Don Kershane]

Smith is a major injury waiting to happen the way he plays. A big risk for big money. He has barely got through this year with head knocks etc. Brave but Storm have been lucky to get so many games out of him this year.

Cautious u r

Yes but ok for Storm with Harold as backup.

 

[tony soprano]

Flanno is a Dud. No thanks

He won a comp with a mediocre club just 5 years ago

Not to mention had them in the top 4 after that. NRL have recently started posting old finals games on YouTube, look at the 2018 sharks team that almost made the GF. Even the GF winning side was average

He's a footy nut.

I remember a reserve grade game at lidcome kyle was playing and Flanagan was there coaching Sharks at the time.

Was a tough game, we hit the lead to start, but all the code words and signals between son and coach sharks came back and beat us convincingly. Kyle is a much better player with his dad coaching. Personal opinion aside he knows his footy.

Although doubt he will be here.

 

[Demps]

Found Gus’s article about us a good read up until a certain point - it was when he expressed that fast tracking our rebuild won’t help us meanwhile he’s doing this exact thing for the Dogs.
There also appears to be little knowledge (from a lot of pundits) about our junior pathways programs, as it’s often mentioned of late and usually advised every time.

In defence of Gus, he signed on for Bulldogs after they'd done all their recent signings?


I am sure Gus would be quite concerned about all the overs the dogs have paid to stitch together a squad for 2022.When it all unravels and they are underachieving look for Gus to do a fire sale of the overpaid players.I doubt he will rebuild the team in the same haphazard way of quick fixes like they have been doing over the last few years.

They desperately need a half and a hooker.

Luke Brooks & Jacob Liddle.

 

[Demps]

Flanno is a Dud. No thanks

He won a comp with a mediocre club just 5 years ago

Not to mention had them in the top 4 after that. NRL have recently started posting old finals games on YouTube, look at the 2018 sharks team that almost made the GF. Even the GF winning side was average

He's a footy nut.

I remember a reserve grade game at lidcome kyle was playing and Flanagan was there coaching Sharks at the time.

Was a tough game, we hit the lead to start, but all the code words and signals between son and coach sharks came back and beat us convincingly. Kyle is a much better player with his dad coaching. Personal opinion aside he knows his footy.

Although doubt he will be here.

I remember that game.
Kyle showed some promise but is another struggling in grade.

He's got time on his side tho.

 

[tony soprano]

Flanno is a Dud. No thanks

He won a comp with a mediocre club just 5 years ago

Not to mention had them in the top 4 after that. NRL have recently started posting old finals games on YouTube, look at the 2018 sharks team that almost made the GF. Even the GF winning side was average

He's a footy nut.

I remember a reserve grade game at lidcome kyle was playing and Flanagan was there coaching Sharks at the time.

Was a tough game, we hit the lead to start, but all the code words and signals between son and coach sharks came back and beat us convincingly. Kyle is a much better player with his dad coaching. Personal opinion aside he knows his footy.

Although doubt he will be here.

I remember that game.
Kyle showed some promise but is another struggling in grade.

He's got time on his side tho.

Needs his dad. Kyle can play tough and gritty.

Rooster knocked his confidence, then dogs/Barrette was another bad move.

 

[Demps]

Flanno is a Dud. No thanks

He won a comp with a mediocre club just 5 years ago

Not to mention had them in the top 4 after that. NRL have recently started posting old finals games on YouTube, look at the 2018 sharks team that almost made the GF. Even the GF winning side was average

He's a footy nut.

I remember a reserve grade game at lidcome kyle was playing and Flanagan was there coaching Sharks at the time.

Was a tough game, we hit the lead to start, but all the code words and signals between son and coach sharks came back and beat us convincingly. Kyle is a much better player with his dad coaching. Personal opinion aside he knows his footy.

Although doubt he will be here.

I remember that game.
Kyle showed some promise but is another struggling in grade.

He's got time on his side tho.

Needs his dad. Kyle can play tough and gritty.

Rooster knocked his confidence, then dogs/Barrette was another bad move.

Package deal eh....

I posed the question...

Would that package deal worth taking if it also includes Xerri and Blake Brailey?

 

[happy_tiger]

Flanno is a Dud. No thanks

He won a comp with a mediocre club just 5 years ago

Not to mention had them in the top 4 after that. NRL have recently started posting old finals games on YouTube, look at the 2018 sharks team that almost made the GF. Even the GF winning side was average

He's a footy nut.

I remember a reserve grade game at lidcome kyle was playing and Flanagan was there coaching Sharks at the time.

Was a tough game, we hit the lead to start, but all the code words and signals between son and coach sharks came back and beat us convincingly. Kyle is a much better player with his dad coaching. Personal opinion aside he knows his footy.

Although doubt he will be here.

I remember that game.
Kyle showed some promise but is another struggling in grade.

He's got time on his side tho.

Needs his dad. Kyle can play tough and gritty.

Rooster knocked his confidence, then dogs/Barrette was another bad move.

If you can only succeed under one coach who is a family member your not an NRL player ...next

 

[The_Patriot]

Looked ok under Robinson. Maybe it's Barrett's style that didn't suit him. Stuart burns through half backs at every club he is at. Sometimes it's the coaching.

Ask the Brooks fans lol.

 

[Geo]

Hiring Flanagan to have him waiting in the wings once Madge is inevitably is sacked. Planning ahead.

That would not surprise me. As long as Flanagan doesn't try to whiteant Madge, I have no problem with him as an assistant coach.

Having Flanagan in situ ready to slot in when the inevitable happens is great forward planning.

So..not so much improving the Wests Tigers at all..?

Madge is in self preservation mode. This talk of a rebuild is the recent rendering of the latest chapter of failure in detail. Besides, if he hasn't referred it to Tim for approval, it's meaningless.

Not sure what that all means but to me hiring Flanagan or whoever improves the Club is what I would be striving for 1st and foremost..

Not hoping for failure..

 

[crazycat]

Anything said about who our coach will be.

Keen to know myself... Fingers crossed we know this week

The Pom has indicated that Madge would hold his coaching position.

The Pom might be off the mark on this one.

I hope so mate, Ciraldo is the bloke we need, even though you don't like the idea of a rookie coach. He has Penrith as the best defensive team in the NRL, he has respect among the players, and he could attract some quality players. He basically is everything Madge is not, and we need

Barrett had the Panthers attack looking pretty good too…didn’t transcend to the Bulldogs.

Barrett can attract players, Madge could only dream of, and Penriths attack revolved around Cleary, Penriths defence doesn't revolve around one player, so completely different

Is it Barrett who can attract them, or the Dogs? Is it Madge who can’t attract players or is it Wests Tigers?

I think it's clearly the WT Club. The leadership, management, resources and structures of the Club; a reluctantly merged, partisan, divided and unaccountable Board that runs the joint is the problem.

Jack Manning-Bancroft got panned by many on here for exposing the artificial and convenient nature of the WT narrative since the merger. It's superficial rubbish. Three-word slogans that even Tony Abbott would baulk at.

By contrast, did you read the comments of Trent Robinson after the Roosters were booted out ingloriously at the hands of Manly? He said that the resilience, courage and efforts of the 2021 squad would strengthen the Club into the future; not the "team", not "him" as coach, but the Club.

That's what we don't have. And, it's got nothing to do with the coach.
It's the shambolic, incoherent and selfish leadership of the Chair, CEO and Board that stifles any positive future for the Club, in it's current state.

If Madge is gone, it will be interesting what the club does for the next coach I.e open the purse strings, that they never afforded Madge.

Is this a joke, he got to offer Latrell over a million a year, JAC, TPJ, Finucane got offered good coin, there were more, he had money, but no decent player wanted to play under Madge

If we had landed Latrell we would have had no money for anybody else. It would be one star (who is often lazy) surrounded by a team of minimum wagers. It's a different story now that Mbye and Packer are off the books.

I'm not sure how it is different ...we will still an inept plodder farm

What's the Easts Reserve grade? Why has Souths been able to pull a replacement for Latrell and we had to move everything to get a decent fullback in Diane Laurie?

The ability to attract top shelf players when coming 13th! Are we joking?

What concerns me is the players that do come here are not developing. No, were never going to superstar hire ourselves out of the spot were in. What we need to do is identify why we have what would be an alright forward pack crumble in so many situations. How come, after a year of fewer disturbances then other teams we still are not defending?

When we have 13 guys that are playing for each other and holding their own, then we can hire whomever we want and give them $1mil to get them. But while were a mess, players are not going to come here. They see Josh Reynolds, Mbye, Packer and think "those guys haven't developed. I am worth 1 Million now, but if I join the Tigers I will be on the scrap heap".

This club is all about names ...names from another era almost ....Roberts , BJ , Tamou ,Ballin ........they struggle with tense ....lets try something different

Instead of looking at a player and saying they have PLAYED SOO ...how about looking at players who are PLAYING SOO

If a Porsche is for sale for $5000 ...there is a reason for it ....

Happy, I agree with you and I think were making the same point.
Yet look straight at Roberts and Tamou for example.
Tamou was a massive part of the Penrith pack. He was performing, maybe not as well as Yeo and co but he was bringing the goods. He comes here and he is flat.
Likewise Roberts was doing good work as Center in Souths. I still think he is 'adjusting' to here but he hasn't performed at that level.

Flip that with Morris twins going to Easts.
Flip that with Corey Thompson being a key part of the Titans.

Were doing something wrong. To use your analogy, were buying Porsches and were buying them for $200k, when we buy the cars they are going good. A year later though the oil is black, the paintwork scratched and were selling them for $5000.
The Wests Tigers are doing something wrong.

The list of names is long, Tamou, Roberts, BJ, Reynolds, Mbye, etc. We can point to some of those and say 'we brought a kia with a Porsche badge' or 'why are you trying to hull dirt from a construction site, in a Porsche?'. But some of those names should have developed. From what I see, the people we have developed are fringe grade forwards like Twal, Stephano, Joe O. Overall our development is not working.

The review of football operations appears to have been Pascoe and Lee H going "should we sack Madge, no". Instead they need to go "how can we develop better."

 

[Devon Head]

Dragon defense coach eh?
616 against....25+ per game...sounds about our type

Last year he was coach, dragons averaged 22.6, 8th best in the comp at a time when Mary was punted as well.

If Flanno can move us from 30pts to 22.6pts per game we actually could be on the edge of the top 8. I would take that positive shift right now if offered.

We were only 4 points outside the 8 conceding over 30. If he's able to get us near 22.6 with the attack not flatlining then I'd bet well inside the 8 is achievable.

 

[Enmoretiger 0]

Anything said about who our coach will be.

Keen to know myself... Fingers crossed we know this week

The Pom has indicated that Madge would hold his coaching position.

The Pom might be off the mark on this one.

I hope so mate, Ciraldo is the bloke we need, even though you don't like the idea of a rookie coach. He has Penrith as the best defensive team in the NRL, he has respect among the players, and he could attract some quality players. He basically is everything Madge is not, and we need

Barrett had the Panthers attack looking pretty good too…didn’t transcend to the Bulldogs.

Barrett can attract players, Madge could only dream of, and Penriths attack revolved around Cleary, Penriths defence doesn't revolve around one player, so completely different

Is it Barrett who can attract them, or the Dogs? Is it Madge who can’t attract players or is it Wests Tigers?

I think it's clearly the WT Club. The leadership, management, resources and structures of the Club; a reluctantly merged, partisan, divided and unaccountable Board that runs the joint is the problem.

Jack Manning-Bancroft got panned by many on here for exposing the artificial and convenient nature of the WT narrative since the merger. It's superficial rubbish. Three-word slogans that even Tony Abbott would baulk at.

By contrast, did you read the comments of Trent Robinson after the Roosters were booted out ingloriously at the hands of Manly? He said that the resilience, courage and efforts of the 2021 squad would strengthen the Club into the future; not the "team", not "him" as coach, but the Club.

That's what we don't have. And, it's got nothing to do with the coach.
It's the shambolic, incoherent and selfish leadership of the Chair, CEO and Board that stifles any positive future for the Club, in it's current state.

If Madge is gone, it will be interesting what the club does for the next coach I.e open the purse strings, that they never afforded Madge.

Is this a joke, he got to offer Latrell over a million a year, JAC, TPJ, Finucane got offered good coin, there were more, he had money, but no decent player wanted to play under Madge

If we had landed Latrell we would have had no money for anybody else. It would be one star (who is often lazy) surrounded by a team of minimum wagers. It's a different story now that Mbye and Packer are off the books.

I'm not sure how it is different ...we will still an inept plodder farm

What's the Easts Reserve grade? Why has Souths been able to pull a replacement for Latrell and we had to move everything to get a decent fullback in Diane Laurie?

The ability to attract top shelf players when coming 13th! Are we joking?

What concerns me is the players that do come here are not developing. No, were never going to superstar hire ourselves out of the spot were in. What we need to do is identify why we have what would be an alright forward pack crumble in so many situations. How come, after a year of fewer disturbances then other teams we still are not defending?

When we have 13 guys that are playing for each other and holding their own, then we can hire whomever we want and give them $1mil to get them. But while were a mess, players are not going to come here. They see Josh Reynolds, Mbye, Packer and think "those guys haven't developed. I am worth 1 Million now, but if I join the Tigers I will be on the scrap heap".

This club is all about names ...names from another era almost ....Roberts , BJ , Tamou ,Ballin ........they struggle with tense ....lets try something different

Instead of looking at a player and saying they have PLAYED SOO ...how about looking at players who are PLAYING SOO

If a Porsche is for sale for $5000 ...there is a reason for it ....

Happy, I agree with you and I think were making the same point.
Yet look straight at Roberts and Tamou for example.
Tamou was a massive part of the Penrith pack. He was performing, maybe not as well as Yeo and co but he was bringing the goods. He comes here and he is flat.
Likewise Roberts was doing good work as Center in Souths. I still think he is 'adjusting' to here but he hasn't performed at that level.

Flip that with Morris twins going to Easts.
Flip that with Corey Thompson being a key part of the Titans.

Were doing something wrong. To use your analogy, were buying Porsches and were buying them for $200k, when we buy the cars they are going good. A year later though the oil is black, the paintwork scratched and were selling them for $5000.
The Wests Tigers are doing something wrong.

The list of names is long, Tamou, Roberts, BJ, Reynolds, Mbye, etc. We can point to some of those and say 'we brought a kia with a Porsche badge' or 'why are you trying to hull dirt from a construction site, in a Porsche?'. But some of those names should have developed. From what I see, the people we have developed are fringe grade forwards like Twal, Stephano, Joe O. Overall our development is not working.

The review of football operations appears to have been Pascoe and Lee H going "should we sack Madge, no". Instead they need to go "how can we develop better."

Madge was recently on Big Sports Breakfast radio (not totally sure here), the interesting thing that he said about future signings was that we need to develop our own players to play SOO before we can bring in current SOO players. I think this is the correct thinking, we drag us up internally. Stephano on this years form will be a part of next years SOO. He will drag some others in the pack up to new levels of form.
Our previous efforts of throwing big money at players on the down slid has been rubbish, keep thinking long term.

 

[Devon Head]

Hiring Flanagan to have him waiting in the wings once Madge is inevitably is sacked. Planning ahead.

That would not surprise me. As long as Flanagan doesn't try to whiteant Madge, I have no problem with him as an assistant coach.

Having Flanagan in situ ready to slot in when the inevitable happens is great forward planning.

So..not so much improving the Wests Tigers at all..?

Madge is in self preservation mode. This talk of a rebuild is the recent rendering of the latest chapter of failure in detail. Besides, if he hasn't referred it to Tim for approval, it's meaningless.

Where is the recent talk of the rebuild that isn't in the media? Maguire has said, from day one, that he is trying to drag the club into being a powerhouse and that is where the rebuild started. It didn't start last week after the review was announced.

And before you say how long does it take to rebuild? Well, If a tree hits your roof and you have some tiles to fix, doesn't take long. If your house was in Pompeii when it was obliterated by a volcano that wasn't your fault, may take a bit longer - and you don't blame the builder coming into to fix it.

Great analogy there and 100% agree. Even Gus at Riff said he had a 5yr plan, It's now been 7 or 8 since that claim and sure they're now a quality club on the cusp however the rebuild still took 5+ years. Madge is only 3yrs in and beginning to see some light after clearing out all the deadwood. It'll be the next 24months that define how successful that rebuild was.

 

[cochise]

Flanno is a Dud. No thanks

He won a comp with a mediocre club just 5 years ago

Not to mention had them in the top 4 after that. NRL have recently started posting old finals games on YouTube, look at the 2018 sharks team that almost made the GF. Even the GF winning side was average

He's a footy nut.

I remember a reserve grade game at lidcome kyle was playing and Flanagan was there coaching Sharks at the time.

Was a tough game, we hit the lead to start, but all the code words and signals between son and coach sharks came back and beat us convincingly. Kyle is a much better player with his dad coaching. Personal opinion aside he knows his footy.

Although doubt he will be here.

I remember that game.
Kyle showed some promise but is another struggling in grade.

He's got time on his side tho.

Needs his dad. Kyle can play tough and gritty.

Rooster knocked his confidence, then dogs/Barrette was another bad move.

Package deal eh....

I posed the question...

Would that package deal worth taking if it also includes Xerri and Blake Brailey?

No

 

[earl]

Our previous efforts of throwing big money at players on the down slid has been rubbish, keep thinking long term

Big money signings simply don't work for us. We need to rinse and repeat but the problem is we also need to be patient.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

Found Gus’s article about us a good read up until a certain point - it was when he expressed that fast tracking our rebuild won’t help us meanwhile he’s doing this exact thing for the Dogs.
There also appears to be little knowledge (from a lot of pundits) about our junior pathways programs, as it’s often mentioned of late and usually advised every time.

In defence of Gus, he signed on for Bulldogs after they'd done all their recent signings?


I am sure Gus would be quite concerned about all the overs the dogs have paid to stitch together a squad for 2022.When it all unravels and they are underachieving look for Gus to do a fire sale of the overpaid players.I doubt he will rebuild the team in the same haphazard way of quick fixes like they have been doing over the last few years.

They desperately need a half and a hooker.

Luke Brooks & Jacob Liddle.

Who plays hooker if Liddle goes?
Can’t see us starting the year with our only 6/7 option being Madden/Hastings (if Hastings can actually get here).

 

[Aceshigh]

I thought Liddle went ok and will only get better

 

[jadtiger]

Found Gus’s article about us a good read up until a certain point - it was when he expressed that fast tracking our rebuild won’t help us meanwhile he’s doing this exact thing for the Dogs.
There also appears to be little knowledge (from a lot of pundits) about our junior pathways programs, as it’s often mentioned of late and usually advised every time.

In defence of Gus, he signed on for Bulldogs after they'd done all their recent signings?


I am sure Gus would be quite concerned about all the overs the dogs have paid to stitch together a squad for 2022.When it all unravels and they are underachieving look for Gus to do a fire sale of the overpaid players.I doubt he will rebuild the team in the same haphazard way of quick fixes like they have been doing over the last few years.

They desperately need a half and a hooker.

Luke Brooks & Jacob Liddle.

They could sign Lichaa again,we need Liddle.

 

[Tiger Tarl]

Brandon Smith open to offers from Nov 1.
Wests Tigers please have a $1m x 4 year offer on 12.01am November 1.

https://www.zerotackle.com/storm-star-speaks-out-about-future-contract-after-meeting-with-rival-club-110260/amp/

“Smith hinted that he'd be unlikely to trade success for mediocrity when acknowledging the clubs he had been linked with, with the Storm just 80 minutes away from yet another grand final - a campaign Smith has had a major hand in.

“I’ve been linked with the Titans, the Tigers and the Bulldogs ... geez, they are all going great at the moment," Smith said.”

That answers that. What other options are there?

I think $1m a year would make him.reconsider.

If I was WT I'd being making him a priority and going all in - have no idea how the other clubs could compete for dollars with us given they all have marquee players

Id be paying him $700k for his playing ability and $300k for his 'will to win which this club desperately needs.

Make it $1m for 5 years.

He’s not going to come here as a Lone Ranger, same reason we have failed to land a plethora of marquee guys. We need to find 3-4 good value players in their prime at around 500-600 that will actually play above that salary. Finding them is the huge ask.

I'd love Harry Grant back. Talks highly of Madge and the Tigers, whereas Brandon Smith throws shade.

For our club, and the young guys coming through, Grant > Smith.

Grant, Douehi, Stefano, Laurie... A few experienced players around them... Would be a bright future.