Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[WT46]

Why can't we just get both?
I am sure we have the space in the cap

I reckon all in for finucane and if we don't get TPJ i don't really mind to be honest.

 

[pawsandclaws1]

!

The media are desperate for us to sign Finucane so next year they can say we have roster issues due to huge money tied up in a 30 year old player. The story writes itself.

Joeys a Wanker

Rather Pangai than another Tamou

Joeys trying to get him to Newcastle. He has a conflict of interest but that won't prevent him from having input.

 

[hobbo1]

As long as a decent deal is done with Finucane I think it's a good move. We shouldn't throw $800k at him but I read hes willing to take a little less so we should go for that.

We lack leadership out there and he'll be good for that, he's also an excellent defender. We can have Stefano, Seyfarth and Mikaele for impact if need be.

Realistically he’s a $400k player, $500k tops.

You think a player like that will take a pay cut to join a joke of a club like us? People on here are seriously delusional. He may realistciually be a 500k player, but for us he's a 6-700k player.

Do you think he's worth $700k to us? I don't.

No way ..
$400k tops

Does my head in players over the hill wanting top dollar just to top up there super .

 

[BZN]

Brent Read saying he thinks we are mulling over Finucane/TPJ and we haven't landed on a destination yet. Also says dragons are monitoring tpj situation


Sounds like rubbish, make them both an offer and if either accepts, great and if we cant afford both withdraw the other.

Pretty sure we'd have the money for both? I'd be making both an offer if we do


This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I'd be nervous about having so much $$$ tied up in second row. We have decent options there in LL, Blore Garner. Im VERY happy to spend good money on one new talented second rower but I cant justify tying up so much money in second row.

We'll sign TPJ, he'll turn out a dud and everyone in here will be cursing us losing a Tuilagi or a Simpkin once they're superstars elsewhere.

I think there's a lot more chance of TPJ being a dud for us than Finucane although TPJ has a higher ceiling. TPJ has gone missing in important games plenty of times and can lose his head but he can be brilliant when he wants to as well. Finucane will give you a good performance every week and has a great attitude.

Personally I'd prefer Finucane but either would be nice

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I think Finicane would be a bad signing for us. A more expensive Tamou. Best years behind him. Would be a mistake.

By the sounds of it
Finucane and TPJ are no good for out team because one is to old and only plays well in the Storm system and one is to hot headed and goes missing in games
Then Kikau is a flat track bully and hasn’t done much this year

Arrrrrrrr
Listen to us all on hear
We may as well re sign Packer because at least we know what we get

Really is there any player good enough for our team that we would all be happy with
Those 3 players mentioned are far better then what we have in the forwards
To many people in denial on here

Maybe that's why we haven't signed anyone of late because those who make the decisions must be reading this thread for our approval

[/QUOTE]

Very pithy.
I have very much missed your humor lately.
Are You OK?

 

[balmain boy]

As long as a decent deal is done with Finucane I think it's a good move. We shouldn't throw $800k at him but I read hes willing to take a little less so we should go for that.

We lack leadership out there and he'll be good for that, he's also an excellent defender. We can have Stefano, Seyfarth and Mikaele for impact if need be.

Realistically he’s a $400k player, $500k tops.

You think a player like that will take a pay cut to join a joke of a club like us? People on here are seriously delusional. He may realistciually be a 500k player, but for us he's a 6-700k player.

Do you think he's worth $700k to us? I don't.

No way ..
$400k tops

Does my head in players over the hill wanting top dollar just to top up there super .

He's worth 500k. But we won't get him for that. Our ONLY chance of signing quality players is paying overs.

 

[BZN]

Brent Read saying he thinks we are mulling over Finucane/TPJ and we haven't landed on a destination yet. Also says dragons are monitoring tpj situation


Sounds like rubbish, make them both an offer and if either accepts, great and if we cant afford both withdraw the other.

Pretty sure we'd have the money for both? I'd be making both an offer if we do


This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I'd be nervous about having so much $$$ tied up in second row. We have decent options there in LL, Blore Garner. Im VERY happy to spend good money on one new talented second rower but I cant justify tying up so much money in second row.

We'll sign TPJ, he'll turn out a dud and everyone in here will be cursing us losing a Tuilagi or a Simpkin once they're superstars elsewhere.

I think there's a lot more chance of TPJ being a dud for us than Finucane although TPJ has a higher ceiling. TPJ has gone missing in important games plenty of times and can lose his head but he can be brilliant when he wants to as well. Finucane will give you a good performance every week and has a great attitude.

Personally I'd prefer Finucane but either would be nice

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I think Finicane would be a bad signing for us. A more expensive Tamou. Best years behind him. Would be a mistake.

I don't think his best years are behind him, I'd argue he's playing career best football. Has only started making origin squads the last few years and is there again this year.

He wouldn't have a massive impact and be a superstar for us but in a team that lacks consistency getting one of the most consistent hardest working players around would be a good move

I always knew Tamou wouldn't put up the numbers he did last year with us, Finucane of course wouldn't put up the same numbers but he doesn't play like a guy who's at the end of his career. All depends on how much and how long the contract is and there's a lack of quality around for next year

Would be happy if we signed him, wouldn't be devastated if we didn't. He'll probably stay at Melbourne

I don’t know if people are really getting the influence of strong leaders. I’ve been pretty happy with Stefano,very happy with Twal and prior to injury, Mikaele was on the rise. Is that actually the Tamou effect working as we wanted? And would Finucane do the same in the back row? If these guys are making people around them better then their own numbers aren’t as critical.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I thought our forwards were travelling pretty well, until the last 2 games, where we looked small and fragile.

IMO, we just need someone who help us hold the line and insist on commitment from the players. To me, that sounds like Finucane, but at $800k a year, is a risk at his age (we did this with Packer)? TPJ probably a bit less stabile than Finucane, but is a game breaker?

If we signed one or both, certainly some would have to go, though I don't think it would be the young blokes?

But what price is success worth to us?

Finucane and Packers resumes are worlds apart

I am referring to paying big $'s for a bloke near his end date who is more likely to get longer term injuries in the role he plays? Thus crippling our cap?

I thought Packer came here with a good rep imo, just didn't deliver.

I don’t think he’ll come here so it’ll be interesting to watch his next 3 seasons, probably a couple of series with the blues and a Clive Churchill

:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[hobbo1]

As long as a decent deal is done with Finucane I think it's a good move. We shouldn't throw $800k at him but I read hes willing to take a little less so we should go for that.

We lack leadership out there and he'll be good for that, he's also an excellent defender. We can have Stefano, Seyfarth and Mikaele for impact if need be.

Realistically he’s a $400k player, $500k tops.

You think a player like that will take a pay cut to join a joke of a club like us? People on here are seriously delusional. He may realistciually be a 500k player, but for us he's a 6-700k player.

Do you think he's worth $700k to us? I don't.

No way ..
$400k tops

Does my head in players over the hill wanting top dollar just to top up there super .

He's worth 500k. But we won't get him for that. Our ONLY chance of signing quality players is paying overs.

Not worth the risk ..
He’s just another toiler ...
We have them in spades .

 

[WT2K]

Fox News reporting we are going all in for finucane ??????

James Hooper from Fox Sports

June 25th, 2021 5:57 am

The Wests Tigers have finally seen the light and plan to push all-in on Melbourne Storm champion Dale Finucane.

Talk about a result! Besides being one of the toughest middle forwards in the NRL and a seasoned professional Finucane is also one of the most fundamentally decent blokes in rugby league.

The obvious question is why on earth would a player of Finucane’s calibre who’s won two premierships at Melbourne and played in six NRL grand finals want to join the on-field rabble that is the Wests Tigers

Big $ Hooper
Can't you work that out drongo

Hooper also said SJ was signing with the bulldogs.. Nek minute SJ officially signed with the warriors.

 

[Devon Head]

Completely off topic and not Tigers related however more to the point, rubbish sports media related. Almost all recent media surrounding Shaun Johnson had him to the Dogs as a certainty and would be announced any moment. Nek min officially signs with the Warriors on a 2yr deal that not a single person saw coming except for maybe Warriors insiders. Not even my kiwi mates who are absolute die hard Warriors fans saw it coming. Point is journos really know absolutely nothing unless it's fed to them through internal leaks from clubs or whispers from fans.

Linking this scenario back to the Tigers to avoid it being completely unrelated, why do the heavy hitters at the Tigers feel it's necessary to openly declare love and interest in any and all signing prospects? How often has declaring open intentions ended with us looking like the class clown with egg on our faces? Why can't we just zip it and let the process unfold in the shadows like smart clubs seem to do? You rarely if ever hear Melb, Roosters or Riff come out and openly declare their love and intentions to sign anyone.

Tigers hierarchy need to seriously think hard about how they conduct their player negotiations to avoid us looking like bumbling idiots when we fail to get our man. For once I'd love to read that we were the secret smoky to swoop in under the radar and snap up some awesome talent.

 

[BZN]

So did we miss out on TPJ ? Because it’s been nearly a week after that crap show ,and you guys are still going with the negativity .
How much wrist slitting are you going to do ? You guys need to step away from the forum and the footy . I love bye week , it gives me a chance to take a breath .
Some of you , really ,really need to do the same .
2 weeks ago we were singing thier praises , now we want to string them up , and burst them like a piñata.
The WHOLE NRL is , not named the storm , are dealing with this touch footy masquerading as a professional sports competition.

And unless the storm are clairvoyant, which I don’t think they are , they lucked in hugely with these rule changes . They’re whole system is built around guys who work . And it’s less around game breakers , especially in the forwards . There’s no Fifita , no TPJ ,No Kikau , No Luci leilua ,yet they bust teams open .

Thier edges are litterally quick and strong in first contact / collision . Teams , like us took a risk , and now we are going to have to chase different body types. Unless the NRL comes back down to earth and realises they’ve jumped the shark here.

My point is ... relax !!! The team is young , they do young dumb things , The guy who you all claim is the most experienced dude in the world , brooks , who should be the leader right ? He’s 26 . I was still coming back to reality at 6 in the morning after nights out at 26 . Doing all kinds of reckless man child things . He’s just not the dude you want him to be . And that’s fine .

Hastings apparently is . And AD is as well . So is Blore , if he can beat his injury curse .

The rest of the season is the real indicator . If we can get to 10 wins I would call that a successful season . 12 and we are playing semis . The season isn’t lost . And in some ways getting hammered like that , and not playing well for 65 minutes then losing 30-16 or something like , might be a good thing .

It’s not going to get worse than that . That’s it . That’s rock bottom .

Seriously , my advice is to find something else to do for 1 week till next Sunday . You’ll feel better for it . Because what I’m reading is a bunch of guys way too invested ,to a extremely toxic level .
But you do you .

Excellent post as usual @Strongee
Whatever you write comes straight from the heart :+1:

 

[Elderslie_Tiger]

The Warriors have scored a massive signings coup with one of their favourite sons, Shaun Johnson, returning to the club in 2022.

Warriors CEO Cameron George on Friday revealed the long-time fan favourite has agreed on terms to return to the club on a two-year deal from next season.

 

[BZN]

When Ivan Cleary was the coach, we beat the storm twice in one season, our defence was decent and we scored the most points in NRL history to not qualify for the top 8. I know he made some bad signings we are finally seeing the end of. I don’t like the man but maybe he could coach, Brooks was the Daly M half back of the year, we were competitive in just about every game. Now we can only dream of beating sides like the Storm, Parra and a full strength panthers. I thought Madge was a defensive coach? Our defence is the worst it has ever been, I don’t think the players are responding to his methods, he can’t attract a star signing that will make others think I want to play at the Wests Tigers. I

That points scored stat was actually when Madge coached us in 2019. Ivan got us to 14th in his first year and 9th in his second. He lost us a lot of young talent and signed a bunch of guys who, sure, did alright to start but after a year and a half were completely useless and on massive coin.

Ivan achieved nothing with us, I don't know why people look back on him as if he did some good with us. Sure we beat Melbourne and roosters that year, we also lost to the wooden spooners, the bulldogs, Newcastle, titans and Canberra who were all in the bottom 8 that season.

Sure he got us the closest we've been in a decade but going close doesn't mean anything

:+1: :+1: :+1:

 

[Goanna57]

If we sign, we paid overs for an over the hill workhorse, if we miss - its another sign NOBODy wants to come to the WT…

In the medias eyes we are going to cop it. Stuff them. We should just look at the figures and ignore what those morons are stating.

We gotta stop the emotional marquee purchases.

Marquee purchases have I missed something since when

 

[Newtown]

As long as a decent deal is done with Finucane I think it's a good move. We shouldn't throw $800k at him but I read hes willing to take a little less so we should go for that.

We lack leadership out there and he'll be good for that, he's also an excellent defender. We can have Stefano, Seyfarth and Mikaele for impact if need be.

Realistically he’s a $400k player, $500k tops.

You think a player like that will take a pay cut to join a joke of a club like us? People on here are seriously delusional. He may realistciually be a 500k player, but for us he's a 6-700k player.

If he thinks he is not a 500k player then he is a joke , not the club. Be strong Wests tigers not pushovers on and off the field, Having said that the club needs to be proactive and not twiddle their thumbs.

 

[tiger_one]

Who dictates player recruitment?
I thought it would be Wests Tigers senior staff .
But reading/listening the media over the last weeks, every man and his dog has an opinion, with all their sensational agendas and limited knowledge.
No one outside our club is aware of the salary cap constraints we have and the balance we need, the vision to improve the roster, which young ones/seniors are priority, where we are looking to spend the $$$ in one position over another etc etc.
Any club success is the result of many ingredients - there is not one answer, and certainly not one player answer.
For me, Hartigan etc are on the money - change doesn't happen overnight, nor does success come yesterday.

 

[hsvjones]

As long as a decent deal is done with Finucane I think it's a good move. We shouldn't throw $800k at him but I read hes willing to take a little less so we should go for that.

We lack leadership out there and he'll be good for that, he's also an excellent defender. We can have Stefano, Seyfarth and Mikaele for impact if need be.

Realistically he’s a $400k player, $500k tops.

You think a player like that will take a pay cut to join a joke of a club like us? People on here are seriously delusional. He may realistciually be a 500k player, but for us he's a 6-700k player.

If he thinks he is not a 500k player then he is a joke , not the club. Be strong Wests tigers not pushovers on and off the field, Having said that the club needs to be proactive and not twiddle their thumbs.

Our Management have not overpaid for the last 18 months and don't see them starting now..
However if people think he would change clubs or any top player would change clubs to us for the average wage you are kidding yourselves. We have heaps of talented young players who might or might not turn out to be stars but they need leadership for which we don't have. We are not a preferred choice to players and for us to get the ball rolling we need to invest into 1 or 2 Top line players that will help guide our club along and that means paying some overs.. Not every high prices player is a Packer / Reynolds etc.. It like anything in life if it doesn't work you try again and not just sit there hoping our luck changes because it won't.
Also add to the fact there is not many top line players around as the top clubs find ways to hold onto them. For Me Funicane is a great start to building this culture up.

 

[tony soprano]

@THE_POM any update on signings?

 

[TYGA]

Finucane and Pangai should be signed we need an edge forward that can hurt and a forward leader that plays long minutes. I don’t care about age with Finucane he will be like Gallen play until he’s 35 at a high level.

 

[Tiger5150]

Who dictates player recruitment?
I thought it would be Wests Tigers senior staff .
But reading/listening the media over the last weeks, every man and his dog has an opinion, with all their sensational agendas and limited knowledge.
No one outside our club is aware of the salary cap constraints we have and the balance we need, the vision to improve the roster, which young ones/seniors are priority, where we are looking to spend the $$$ in one position over another etc etc.
Any club success is the result of many ingredients - there is not one answer, and certainly not one player answer.
For me, Hartigan etc are on the money - change doesn't happen overnight, nor does success come yesterday.

Agreed.
I am worried about the Media agenda wrt Finucane. There seems to be a purpose to it.

 

[earl]

TPJ is the signing we need as he provides impact. Having TPJ allows LL to be used in shorter periods. We have to get this signing finalised. He will also attract other players.

I think TPJ is much more likely to have an impact on our team compared to Finucane. It all depends on the dollars but if Finucane is our marquee signing I think we are screwed again.

I agree Earl. When you look at him as a player he's a solid hard working lock who is almost 30 and playing in the best system in the game, surrounded by elite talent.

We signed Tamou for his leadership but he's been a disappointment on the field. I don't think spending big money on an intangible like leadership is sensible. This would be a bad signing.

When I hear he provides leadership I want to know how you quantify that. It's like a business. You can buy good will but what does that mean ?

Tamou is our captain and he provides that leadership. I reckon it's worth next to nothing. It's even possibly worth negative dollars because maybe a better player is being held back.

We need to be targetting players who give us a lot more tackle busts, offloads, better tackle efficiency and metres per carry etc.

We've given this sort of money out recently to Mbye, Reynolds and Packer. Those 3 signings have been some of the worst in the clubs history.

When we are talking marquee dollars we should be talking about elite level players.