Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[balmain boy]

Brooks hasnt been right for our past 3 coaches maybe the problem is brooks

He won halfback of the year under our previous coach… but don’t let facts get in the way.

Couldn’t this all go in one of the 17 Luke Brooks threads available?

Halfback of the Year for a team who came 9th. In 2018, Cronk had his debut year at Chooks and won a GF, Adam Reynolds got South's to Top 4 and Cleary debuted in Origin, but yeah Brooks was the best 7 in the Comp ???

He never said he was the best halfback that year, just that he was halfback of the year, which he was.

The anti Brooks brigade have become like the anti vax brigade. They aren’t interested in having rational conversation, they just want to scream in your face and dismiss any facts that don’t back their argument.

Which facts?
Any fact supports our stance that a lump of drift wood would perform better.
It amuses me that his only supporters in the whole NRL fan base are a tiny minority of Tigers men. Everyone else laughs at him trying to play.

I pointed out the FACT that Luke Brooks won halfback of the year under our previous coach, in reply to the comment that Brooks had a problem with the last 3 coaches.

You replied saying if I thought Brooks was the best halfback in the comp I knew nothing about the game.

Newcastle, a club who actually played finals this year want him. Andrew Johns wants him at the knights and believes they can make him a better player. Why can’t we?

I don’t know, why can’t we?
Many have tried, all have failed.

Brooks hasnt been right for our past 3 coaches maybe the problem is brooks

He won halfback of the year under our previous coach… but don’t let facts get in the way.

Couldn’t this all go in one of the 17 Luke Brooks threads available?

Halfback of the Year for a team who came 9th. In 2018, Cronk had his debut year at Chooks and won a GF, Adam Reynolds got South's to Top 4 and Cleary debuted in Origin, but yeah Brooks was the best 7 in the Comp ???

He never said he was the best halfback that year, just that he was halfback of the year, which he was.

The anti Brooks brigade have become like the anti vax brigade. They aren’t interested in having rational conversation, they just want to scream in your face and dismiss any facts that don’t back their argument.

Which facts?
Any fact supports our stance that a lump of drift wood would perform better.
It amuses me that his only supporters in the whole NRL fan base are a tiny minority of Tigers men. Everyone else laughs at him trying to play.

I pointed out the FACT that Luke Brooks won halfback of the year under our previous coach, in reply to the comment that Brooks had a problem with the last 3 coaches.

You replied saying if I thought Brooks was the best halfback in the comp I knew nothing about the game.

Newcastle, a club who actually played finals this year want him. Andrew Johns wants him at the knights and believes they can make him a better player. Why can’t we?

I don’t know, why can’t we?
Many have tried and failed.

Lets look at Brooks:
When he first came with Voldemort, they became known as the Turnstyles. No defense and we were conceding tries in the middle.
What we have seen is Brooks up the ante in Defense, he has gotten a lot better.

Then Coach Voldemort punts Robbie Farah because he wants a hooker who will give good early ball to nr7. This never worked for us. It was said of Des Haslier that at the dogs he changed to adapt with the players strengths and we needed that. Well Coach Voldemort had one gameplan and one only punting Pat Richards who was playing the house down.

Brooks has had Sheens, Potter, Voldemort, Cleary, McGuire. On top of this Brett Kimmorley worked as a coaching assistant with us. All of them have tried different styles, many tried different hookers and it's the same.

Brooks is a great player, but poor halfback. He is a poor halfback because he won't organise or boss the team into position. Why? He isn't that guy! He is shy and humble. Maybe Johns can coach it into him, maybe not! We can't so stop putting the square peg into the round hole.

Hopefully Brooks gells with Hastings. Either they swap positions or Hastings steers the team from 5/8. It will take 5 rounds for us to see if this works or is a total failure, they will need time to Gel. It will also be hard because Madge is inflexible too and I am unsure how Brooks+Hastings+Madge will work together.

That said, by round 10 if Brooks and Hastings has't worked PUNT BROOKS. Let him go to the knights, England wherever. Our team needs structure.

Is Voldemort Jason Taylor or Ivan at this point? I've lost track.

You forgot the rule, dont say his name!

Also for me its JT.
Yes I wish Ivan stayed for 4 years even just to see what the team would look like. He seemed to be a great people manager, a hopeless talent picker
A better coach then I expected.

JT 100% evil. Broke up the Wests Tigers. Did not teach anyone to kick yet was a high scoring goal kicker himself! Would have been happy to keep Mick Potter for those 2 years.

Fair enough. My view is Ivan is a good coach but an awful human being.

JT did his best but was massively out of his depth and had no idea what he was doing. I blame the board for hiring him in the first place.

I remember JT got the head coaches position over Griffin because the board were impressed with his presentation and his stated commitment to focus on junior development.

He absolutely decimated our junior pathways. We used to be fairly competitive in under 20s every year and by 2017, we were getting flogged 84 - 6. He let some talented players walk out and failed to get the best out of youngsters who were blooded under Potter. The Farah debacle was pretty horrible and was handled terribly. Tossing aside a club captain like that didn’t make the club look like an attractive option to players.

Personally my least liked coach in WT history.

Truth,

Really don't like how he outcasted sirro senior and got rid of blokes like Farah to make his job safer.

Marina go in my view was as bad as JT. Took a while to reverse her work.

Go was appointed by NRL CEO Smith, no doubt had an agenda from the NRL….to weaken the club to the point it folds

All this rubbish. Go is the best Chair went ever had. By a long way. She brought us from a small club that lost money and had a disfunctional board that argued amongst themselves constantly to be a much richer club with stability. Sure we haven't been successful and our board make poor decisions but we're in a fast better position than we were before she started.

Too bad profit and loss doesn't get us to the finals. She was terrible.

No. She was excellent. How she managed to turn a basketcase into a professional and profitable club is quite remarkable. All of our more recent off field progress and additions can were made possible by the framework she implemented.

Turn off your absurd bias.

The chairperson can not control short term outcomes, only medium-long term objectives. Obviously onfield success is the one metric that we haven't been able to improve upon, but the new COE, Sheens coming onboard, signing better quality players and gradually becoming a more desirable club to join will help us achieve that goal soon.

All her outstanding appoints have left, except pascoe. Can't agree on this one my friend.
Thank god sheens is back so someone knows what they are doing.

P.s did u check the juniors video and see the FB I was talking about?

Not sure what video you're talking about

 

[tony soprano]

Brooks hasnt been right for our past 3 coaches maybe the problem is brooks

He won halfback of the year under our previous coach… but don’t let facts get in the way.

Couldn’t this all go in one of the 17 Luke Brooks threads available?

Halfback of the Year for a team who came 9th. In 2018, Cronk had his debut year at Chooks and won a GF, Adam Reynolds got South's to Top 4 and Cleary debuted in Origin, but yeah Brooks was the best 7 in the Comp ???

He never said he was the best halfback that year, just that he was halfback of the year, which he was.

The anti Brooks brigade have become like the anti vax brigade. They aren’t interested in having rational conversation, they just want to scream in your face and dismiss any facts that don’t back their argument.

Which facts?
Any fact supports our stance that a lump of drift wood would perform better.
It amuses me that his only supporters in the whole NRL fan base are a tiny minority of Tigers men. Everyone else laughs at him trying to play.

I pointed out the FACT that Luke Brooks won halfback of the year under our previous coach, in reply to the comment that Brooks had a problem with the last 3 coaches.

You replied saying if I thought Brooks was the best halfback in the comp I knew nothing about the game.

Newcastle, a club who actually played finals this year want him. Andrew Johns wants him at the knights and believes they can make him a better player. Why can’t we?

I don’t know, why can’t we?
Many have tried, all have failed.

Brooks hasnt been right for our past 3 coaches maybe the problem is brooks

He won halfback of the year under our previous coach… but don’t let facts get in the way.

Couldn’t this all go in one of the 17 Luke Brooks threads available?

Halfback of the Year for a team who came 9th. In 2018, Cronk had his debut year at Chooks and won a GF, Adam Reynolds got South's to Top 4 and Cleary debuted in Origin, but yeah Brooks was the best 7 in the Comp ???

He never said he was the best halfback that year, just that he was halfback of the year, which he was.

The anti Brooks brigade have become like the anti vax brigade. They aren’t interested in having rational conversation, they just want to scream in your face and dismiss any facts that don’t back their argument.

Which facts?
Any fact supports our stance that a lump of drift wood would perform better.
It amuses me that his only supporters in the whole NRL fan base are a tiny minority of Tigers men. Everyone else laughs at him trying to play.

I pointed out the FACT that Luke Brooks won halfback of the year under our previous coach, in reply to the comment that Brooks had a problem with the last 3 coaches.

You replied saying if I thought Brooks was the best halfback in the comp I knew nothing about the game.

Newcastle, a club who actually played finals this year want him. Andrew Johns wants him at the knights and believes they can make him a better player. Why can’t we?

I don’t know, why can’t we?
Many have tried and failed.

Lets look at Brooks:
When he first came with Voldemort, they became known as the Turnstyles. No defense and we were conceding tries in the middle.
What we have seen is Brooks up the ante in Defense, he has gotten a lot better.

Then Coach Voldemort punts Robbie Farah because he wants a hooker who will give good early ball to nr7. This never worked for us. It was said of Des Haslier that at the dogs he changed to adapt with the players strengths and we needed that. Well Coach Voldemort had one gameplan and one only punting Pat Richards who was playing the house down.

Brooks has had Sheens, Potter, Voldemort, Cleary, McGuire. On top of this Brett Kimmorley worked as a coaching assistant with us. All of them have tried different styles, many tried different hookers and it's the same.

Brooks is a great player, but poor halfback. He is a poor halfback because he won't organise or boss the team into position. Why? He isn't that guy! He is shy and humble. Maybe Johns can coach it into him, maybe not! We can't so stop putting the square peg into the round hole.

Hopefully Brooks gells with Hastings. Either they swap positions or Hastings steers the team from 5/8. It will take 5 rounds for us to see if this works or is a total failure, they will need time to Gel. It will also be hard because Madge is inflexible too and I am unsure how Brooks+Hastings+Madge will work together.

That said, by round 10 if Brooks and Hastings has't worked PUNT BROOKS. Let him go to the knights, England wherever. Our team needs structure.

Is Voldemort Jason Taylor or Ivan at this point? I've lost track.

You forgot the rule, dont say his name!

Also for me its JT.
Yes I wish Ivan stayed for 4 years even just to see what the team would look like. He seemed to be a great people manager, a hopeless talent picker
A better coach then I expected.

JT 100% evil. Broke up the Wests Tigers. Did not teach anyone to kick yet was a high scoring goal kicker himself! Would have been happy to keep Mick Potter for those 2 years.

Fair enough. My view is Ivan is a good coach but an awful human being.

JT did his best but was massively out of his depth and had no idea what he was doing. I blame the board for hiring him in the first place.

I remember JT got the head coaches position over Griffin because the board were impressed with his presentation and his stated commitment to focus on junior development.

He absolutely decimated our junior pathways. We used to be fairly competitive in under 20s every year and by 2017, we were getting flogged 84 - 6. He let some talented players walk out and failed to get the best out of youngsters who were blooded under Potter. The Farah debacle was pretty horrible and was handled terribly. Tossing aside a club captain like that didn’t make the club look like an attractive option to players.

Personally my least liked coach in WT history.

Truth,

Really don't like how he outcasted sirro senior and got rid of blokes like Farah to make his job safer.

Marina go in my view was as bad as JT. Took a while to reverse her work.

Go was appointed by NRL CEO Smith, no doubt had an agenda from the NRL….to weaken the club to the point it folds

All this rubbish. Go is the best Chair went ever had. By a long way. She brought us from a small club that lost money and had a disfunctional board that argued amongst themselves constantly to be a much richer club with stability. Sure we haven't been successful and our board make poor decisions but we're in a fast better position than we were before she started.

Too bad profit and loss doesn't get us to the finals. She was terrible.

No. She was excellent. How she managed to turn a basketcase into a professional and profitable club is quite remarkable. All of our more recent off field progress and additions can were made possible by the framework she implemented.

Turn off your absurd bias.

The chairperson can not control short term outcomes, only medium-long term objectives. Obviously onfield success is the one metric that we haven't been able to improve upon, but the new COE, Sheens coming onboard, signing better quality players and gradually becoming a more desirable club to join will help us achieve that goal soon.

All her outstanding appoints have left, except pascoe. Can't agree on this one my friend.
Thank god sheens is back so someone knows what they are doing.

P.s did u check the juniors video and see the FB I was talking about?

Not sure what video you're talking about

https://www.weststigers.com.au/news/2022/01/27/all-tries-from-wests-tigers-junior-rep-trials/

He at the 50 second mark.

 

[AdelaideTiger]

Gus confirmed to a bulldogs supporter on twitter that they are signing Reece Hoffman.

Good business by the club, despite our injury woes he still wasn't going to get a shot this year.
Would much rather have the spot open for a promising junior or 'unsettled talent' elsewhere.

 

[tony soprano]

Gus confirmed to a bulldogs supporter on twitter that they are signing Reece Hoffman.

Wow

 

[balmain boy]

Hoffman wouldn't get a go at centre in NSW Cup for us. Can he transform into a back rower? thats really his only chance of making it now. We have other backrowers that we're trying to develop so again he falls down the pecking order.
He's just ok. Not fast, not overly elusive, not great in defence. He's got a big frame. He's like Lawrence was towards the end of his career. I'm ok if we're aiming higher than that. A fresh start may be the best thing for him and gives us a valuable roster spot

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Good for him. He was almost last in the pecking order here and was unlikely to see any first grade. Gives us a chance to sign someone else. Though probably someone on similar wage to what Hoffman was, so i wouldn’t hold my breath for there to any grand plans for that last spot.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

And don’t expect any formal announcement from the Dogs. Gus likes to make things offical via his twitter.

 

[batboy]

Good for him. He was almost last in the pecking order here and was unlikely to see any first grade. Gives us a chance to sign someone else. Though probably someone on similar wage to what Hoffman was, so i wouldn’t hold my breath for there to any grand plans for that last spot.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Pauga take his spot....
Hoffman must be moving to the forwards - What outside back with half a brain would go to the Bulldogs "To get a shot" They've signed a gazillion OB's this year - That's not counting the ones the already had that weren't getting a go.

 

[balmain boy]

Good for him. He was almost last in the pecking order here and was unlikely to see any first grade. Gives us a chance to sign someone else. Though probably someone on similar wage to what Hoffman was, so i wouldn’t hold my breath for there to any grand plans for that last spot.

Think we've still got a reasonable amount of cap space left. Don't imagine Tupou, Roberts or To'a are on more than 200k. Some room for a Stef upgrade in 2022 aside we'd probably have 300-350k left all up. Can get a solid player for that price.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Good for him. He was almost last in the pecking order here and was unlikely to see any first grade. Gives us a chance to sign someone else. Though probably someone on similar wage to what Hoffman was, so i wouldn’t hold my breath for there to any grand plans for that last spot.

Think we've still got a reasonable amount of cap space left. Don't imagine Tupou, Roberts or To'a are on more than 200k. Some room for a Stef upgrade in 2022 aside we'd probably have 300-350k left all up. Can get a solid player for that price.

Not many available though.

 

[balmain boy]

Good for him. He was almost last in the pecking order here and was unlikely to see any first grade. Gives us a chance to sign someone else. Though probably someone on similar wage to what Hoffman was, so i wouldn’t hold my breath for there to any grand plans for that last spot.

Think we've still got a reasonable amount of cap space left. Don't imagine Tupou, Roberts or To'a are on more than 200k. Some room for a Stef upgrade in 2022 aside we'd probably have 300-350k left all up. Can get a solid player for that price.

Not many available though.

To'a wasn't available, Hoffman technically isn't available.

Lots of players are potentially available if the circumstances are right.

 

[weststigerman]

Good job releasing Hoffman if true. Is a waste of a roster spot. Kei is probably in the same boat.

 

[Cobarcats]

Good job releasing Hoffman if true. Is a waste of a roster spot. Kei is probably in the same boat.

Apparently Hoffy is a nice young man however he is too slow for my liking, probably not on the clock slow, just not explosive. I wish him the best in his new adventure.
He reminds me of Luke Garner, hair and body similarities. Garner was also a centre.
Whilst talking about Garner, his dad and I were having a great old chat in Brisbane in the stands when Luke scored a try and we went onto win.
His dad said he was so proud of Luke and that Luke is capable of bigger things.
Whilst we've seen glimpses of this, he is yet to have that 'big year' This year maybe?

 

[paul wright]

Good job releasing Hoffman if true. Is a waste of a roster spot. Kei is probably in the same boat.

To be honest i prefer Hoffman to Kei,Kei has shown nothing afaic

 

[JC99]

Releasing Hoffman makes plenty of sense like others have mentioned. He's way down the pecking order in a position we have quite a few players in so we may as well free up some cash and a roster spot. Worst case we promote a rookie who has more shot of making it with us

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

Free up a roster spot Is a good move

 

[batboy]

Free up a roster spot Is a good move

If Hoffman is released, I'd be 80-90% sure Pauga will be promoted....
Pauga played 2 games last year, Hoffman 0
Pauga is still with us....
He's not here to play reserves (He can do that back home in QLD)

I'm no mathematician, But that's how it calculates to me.

 

[Tim Sheens]

Good for him. He was almost last in the pecking order here and was unlikely to see any first grade. Gives us a chance to sign someone else. Though probably someone on similar wage to what Hoffman was, so i wouldn’t hold my breath for there to any grand plans for that last spot.

Think we've still got a reasonable amount of cap space left. Don't imagine Tupou, Roberts or To'a are on more than 200k. Some room for a Stef upgrade in 2022 aside we'd probably have 300-350k left all up. Can get a solid player for that price.

Pretty well my thoughts. Didn't Sheens mention something like 'we have a bit of space, maybe not as much as some believe, but enough' shortly upon arrival at Concord?

 

[batboy]

Good for him. He was almost last in the pecking order here and was unlikely to see any first grade. Gives us a chance to sign someone else. Though probably someone on similar wage to what Hoffman was, so i wouldn’t hold my breath for there to any grand plans for that last spot.

Think we've still got a reasonable amount of cap space left. Don't imagine Tupou, Roberts or To'a are on more than 200k. Some room for a Stef upgrade in 2022 aside we'd probably have 300-350k left all up. Can get a solid player for that price.

Pretty well my thoughts. Didn't Sheens mention something like 'we have a bit of space, maybe not as much as some believe, but enough' shortly upon arrival at Concord?

I didn't believe him...
I've never heard anyone running a business say
"we've got or we make more money than you think we do"
Any potential negotiations, You're already on the back foot.

I think we've got as much (Or more) cap space as the numbers being floated...

 

[bathursttiger1]

Funny - I recall the Marina Go years as some of the most embarrassing and depressing years of the clubs history. While I don't hold her responsible for the debacle that we were, there is nothing about her tenure that I would want to revisit. Not sure she would want to either.

We went from over $1M in the red to in the black. Sponsorship increased significantly as did memberships. We also became one of the highest ranked clubs in player welfare which we were terrible in before and set up a lot of the community programs that are now in place.

On field we were terrible, off field we improved significantly.

Spot on.