Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

If we are being fair dinkum, so does the rest of our NRL forward pack most of the time, so why are they all excused from being scrutinised.
Not one of them would have busted a grape against the Titans.
The one forward we have who runs hard every time is Asitasi James and they don’t select him for NRL for some reason.

James not being selected is interesting off the bench he could add something outside of Pole if he is on the bench could offer. His lateral defensive side though is a concern maybe at training he gets walked past or something. He looks to be a clear bench style player.
 
Other teams have match winners,
West Tigers have match losers,
Watching that game tonight was sooo much like watching them play last year.

And that B----D that hit Api with the forearm did it again twice and not pinged by the ref, we lose Api ref puts him on report for a forearm to the chin, but?,

No 10min In bin or sendoff.

BUT WE HAVE TO DEFINATELY LET BROOKS. TALOU. WAKEHAM. NOFO. AND SIMPKIN IS PRETTY BAD AS WELL.

SO IT IS DEFINATELY STARTING TO LOOK LIKE OUR SECOND WOODEN SPOON COMING UP.
Tino getting away with it, I blame on all the bleeding hearts. These things were never sorted by the ref's or judiciaries. They were sorted on the field by the players. Guaranteed after Tino hit Marney he never would have lifted his "bumpers" up again if the players were allowed to sort it. Easy solution, next game tell Pole to take it from the back fence straight at him and lift his "bumper" just before he hits Tino. He's protecting himself no charge from the judiciary.
 
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We have a new recruitment guy but its still Wests Tigers, don’t kid yourself about signing a decent halves player. Our best option is probably still Benji.
Proof of that is the same old garbage they pulled to hire him, by undermining the guy they brought in to take responsibility for the football department who they made into our coach who will move back to our director of football in two years.
Days of our lives couldn't come up with a better script.
 
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James not being selected is interesting off the bench he could add something outside of Pole if he is on the bench could offer. His lateral defensive side though is a concern maybe at training he gets walked past or something. He looks to be a clear bench style player.
I’d say you are right that they are concerned about his lateral defence, it can be the only reason he hasn’t played NRL as yet.
That to me is like when our coach at the time stated Josh Addo-Carr was not being selected for our NRL side as he was worried about his defence, even though he was scoring length of the field tries every week for our reserve team.
I believe the impact James would add would far outweigh any defensive liability.
 
I’d say you are right that they are concerned about his lateral defence, it can be the only reason he hasn’t played NRL as yet.
That to me is like when our coach at the time stated Josh Addo-Carr was not being selected for our NRL side as he was worried about his defence, even though he was scoring length of the field tries every week for our reserve team.
I believe the impact James would add would far outweigh any defensive liability.

Agree. Considering we are bottom of the ladder & have a massive amount of roster spots opening we should be giving some of these guys a crack to see what they’re made of.
 
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Having a look at our team I think we need 3 players for next season , and one player I would like us to sign , so here’s my 3 , and I want class , so we need to spent good money on these 3 .
We have great strength in the front row , KLEMMER , stepo , pole and twal so no , players need there .
Backrow , papa and Bateman all class , but I would love a work horse backrower , to take the pressure of the other two .
But my big spent is on a class lock , we really need one
Then what we all know what we need is a 1/2 back who can get us around the field .
I think we can get by with what we have in the centres and wingers and bula picks himself.
How for my jack in the box , can cover fullback , wing and centre, is bevan French , he is a player with great speed and just makes thing happen , with these 3 or 4 I think we could be a top 8 next year
Bevan French is worth considering even to play 5/8 with his xfactor. Is he off contract?
 
I'll add, I don't know why no coaches have players alternate positions for different parts of the game anymore.

I wouldn't mind Bateman swapping between edge (always in defence) and middle at different stages in attack.

There was a time when such interchanging was common. As was young outside backs slotting into ball playing roles in attacking situations or hiding smaller halves on the wing in defence. Now it seems you are assigned your position and you adapt or you're gone.
Agree I think this would work well
 
Despite our thirst for a good signing, I have to commend the club for not making any rash signings due to perceived fan & media pressure.

They are playing the long game, making sure there is a pathway for our elite 16-19yos & not paying overs that managers are trying to squeeze from us.

I am more confident than ever that players we eventually recruit in fit the club’s culture model, fill a need & will not hold up our juniors.
 
Despite our thirst for a good signing, I have to commend the club for not making any rash signings due to perceived fan & media pressure.

They are playing the long game, making sure there is a pathway for our elite 16-19yos & not paying overs that managers are trying to squeeze from us.

I am more confident than ever that players we eventually recruit in fit the club’s culture model, fill a need & will not hold up our juniors.
Good luck with that, they will continue to leave to ‘better’ teams. I’m already concerned about junior tupo, pole and our star fullback gaining interest from Roosters bulldogs etc etc
 
Tino getting away with it, I blame on all the bleeding hearts. These things were never sorted by the ref's or judiciaries. They were sorted on the field by the players. Guaranteed after Tino hit Marney he never would have lifted his "bumpers" up again if the players were allowed to sort it. Easy solution, next game tell Pole to take it from the back fence straight at him and lift his "bumper" just before he hits Tino. He's protecting himself no charge from the judiciary.
Amen!
Knowing our luck I’m surprised Api didn’t get charged with attacking another player’s forearm.
 
Despite our thirst for a good signing, I have to commend the club for not making any rash signings due to perceived fan & media pressure.

They are playing the long game, making sure there is a pathway for our elite 16-19yos & not paying overs that managers are trying to squeeze from us.

I am more confident than ever that players we eventually recruit in fit the club’s culture model, fill a need & will not hold up our juniors.
Long game is right 😂😂 all outbound no inbound
 
Sure he can make tackles but he is a forward often in the middle which requires him to make meters which at NRL level he is just terrible at doing. He doesn’t make decent amount of post contact meters in his nrl stints he just gets tossed around.

Re his defensive efforts yes he works hard but he is often 3rd man in which leads to compressed defensive structures that teams have exposed (darts at dummy half) and penalties/set restarts.

I can see why people like him because of the effort but his output just isn’t NRL standard.

He is 24, played 37 games and averages 38mtrs a game (this year he is below his actual NRL averages across the park at 34mtrs a game). He played 17 games last year and just hasn’t kicked on. Time for us to move on.

If we want to play finals he just isn’t a bench player at NRL level and he isn’t a NRL starter either.
I’m happy enough for him to be in the top 30 on an appropriate fraction of the salary cap. You don’t need to move on from every player who isn’t a gun. Still need players to fill rolls in your top 30 and if there aren’t young forwards banging the door down happy to resign him on a short term deal. He is fine as depth but we aren’t moving too far up the table if he is in the best 17. Still time for him to improve, though.
 
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I’d say you are right that they are concerned about his lateral defence, it can be the only reason he hasn’t played NRL as yet.
That to me is like when our coach at the time stated Josh Addo-Carr was not being selected for our NRL side as he was worried about his defence, even though he was scoring length of the field tries every week for our reserve team.
I believe the impact James would add would far outweigh any defensive liability.
Twal, Klemmer, Utoikamanu and Pole are all doing well. Who would you replace to put him in the 17?
 
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Twal, Klemmer, Utoikamanu and Pole are all doing well. Who would you replace to put him in the 17?
None of them. Joffa was mostly coming on and playing prop, so James could in effect take over that role vacated by Joffa.
We constantly select Keparoa and only play him for 10-15 minutes at best.
 

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