Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[pawsandclaws1]

We have a requirement for genuine pace on the wings. What is Maguire doing to address this shortcoming? Prop appears to be well covered.


I didnt think that was his job (well according to Pascoe and Hartigan's explanations on how it works). He states what we need, and other find it. He's already said we need pace.

But he is happy to be interviewed and make comment about Thompson. Double standard much?

 

[TrueTiger]

If we just go back a bit to when AD was interviewed he said he loves the club and will play where ever Madge needs him to play....so...what if...

1..Laurie
2..Noffa
3..AD
4..Gildart/Talou
5..Ken M
6..Hastings
7..Brooks
9...Simpkin/Liddle..

Young players with talent and some older experience that have leadership qualities...just my opinion,but Madge will know better than I would...

 

[Le Tiger]

Didn't Thompson get done for an eye gouge on Tamou last year?

Hope they are ready to kiss and make up

 

[the_third]

We have a requirement for genuine pace on the wings. What is Maguire doing to address this shortcoming? Prop appears to be well covered.


I didnt think that was his job (well according to Pascoe and Hartigan's explanations on how it works). He states what we need, and other find it. He's already said we need pace.

But he is happy to be interviewed and make comment about Thompson. Double standard much?

no he stated he wanted a big prop and is commenting on Thompson. Where is the double standard.

he said we wanted pace and commented on JAC

 

[tbones10]

Comments suggesting it doesn't matter as they're only reserve graders are missing the point. These players were identified by us and we made them offers. They turned us down. There is no point having a youth strategy if we're unable to sign them.

The vast majority of NRL players will resign with their current clubs. This is not an issue unique to Wests Tigers. Do you think the Wests Tigers were the only club that identified either of these guys?

They are not the only two players we've gone after. We've gone after many other players that have signed with rival clubs.

So what? We are a club that isn’t very attractive because we have spent so much time near the bottom. That won’t change overnight.

You conveniently ignore all the junior talent we have signed because we missed out on 2.

We've missed out on a lot more than two unless of course we didn't really make them an offer at all -

TPJ
JAC
LM
AJ Brimson
Lomax
Jai Arrow
HSS
Egan

Ah so now you’re changing the argument to make the list longer, sorry I didn’t realise players in their mid 20,s were classed as junior talent.

Not changing the argument at all. Egan and HSS were no doubt being recruited for our NRL side, not to sit in KOE. These are players we were linked to and have signed zero. Our miss rate is shocking.

Do you believe bringing Sheens back is an admission a cog is amiss in our recruitment wheel (note I believe Hartigan is doing a fine job)?

Hartigan is also a big piece of the recruitment team, not just Madge.

If our recruitment purportedly sucks, the blame lays with the entire team. You don't get to pick and choose who to single out.

I think whoever is identifying the talent (I imagine a mix of Hartigan and Madge) is doing a good job. They just can't close a deal. That's the issue

Yeah and you will not get an argument from me about that either. We are flush with cash so it's not about that. It's either we are refusing to pay overs to attract the talent as it appears we have had a bit of a moneyball approach of late, or they don't want to be here.

But my reply to Paws was moreso about his willingness to apportion blame toward Madge in it's entirety and absolve absolutely everyone else in the process. Never anyone else's fault but Maguire's.

It's not an unreasonable expectation the NRL coach is the No 1 cog in recruiting NRL players to a club.

Is it also unreasonable to expect your halfback to be the number 1 cog in your team?

That's the halfback who is the most marked man in the team because he poses the biggest threat to opposing teams?

You answered a question with a question and still didn’t answer my question. My point is you seem to hold the whole organisation to this amazingly high standard which you then don’t have for the halfback of our team which is the “No 1 cog” in our team.

Brooks is one of our best together with Twal. That you cannot see this is your issue.

Trent Barrett can attract JAC, Burton, TPJ, Vaughan and the Bronco's lock is now on his acquisition list. It is not an unreasonable expectation Maguire do the same for WTs. Why are you so sensitive about this? Maguire should rightly be held to account for the lack of signings to improve our roster. He is the NRL coach.

The only reason the bulldogs are attracting these players is because they are paying overs on longer term contracts, pure and simple. They have spent the last four years trying to fix their salary cap and now that its about right they are making the same mistakes all over again. This club has learnt for Ivan Cleary's mistakes, they haven't.

 

[JC99]

We have like 6 roster spots and millions to spend. We could afford a winger AND a prop, at the moment there's a good prop available who will upgrade our team so of course they will chase him

If a quality winger comes along they'll chase him too, it's not just one or the other. Maumalo has been a good signing as well anyway

 

[Geo]

Need a strike centre and another edge back rower.

We have some options. Move AD to the centres. Gildart/Talau/Roberts may do the job in the centres.

Hopefully Blore and Tuilagi come good.

I agree with you though that our edges are ordinary and need a massive improvement. It's just not that bad. I'd love to get a quality player like Thompson.

Centre is definitely weak for us.
The mentioned players are not in anyway strike players.

Weak? It doesn't exist mate....
This club hasn't bought a first grade centre to the club since Paul Whatuira in 2004.. (No that is NOT a joke)
It seems like we forget the position exists.

We also need another starting backrower, We have plenty of back ups - But we need a top tier back rower.

And for gods sake - BUY A 'KEN CENTRE

Tim Simona was a good centre.
But yeah, this has been a obvious concern for years.

I really hope it is addressed before season 2022 kick off.

All the talk from Madge leads me to believe he really likes Talau and he's in the plans going forward which doesn't fill me with much optimism...

Simona could have been the Games best winger... All his highlights are from Wing Play. He played OK at centre - But would be lucky to hold that position in any other club at that time. Fantastic Winger - OK at centre when needed.
To my point though, Tim came through 20's - We haven't bought a quality centre to the club since 04...
And haven't really developed any either..

Simona was a tremendous player. His highlight clips are outstanding.

Is this the same Simona who was betting on games and in 2017 against Canberra with the 8 on the line and booted the ball to the back fence over the deadball line

 

[BAGNF05]

Maumalo and Nofo, aren't the fastest but they definitely aren't the slowest.

Nofo, we only see run sideways usually though.

Both are tidy finishers and are capable of doing their job...

Nofo needs to get back to his best. The lengthy contract has appeared to kill his motivation and desire.

With some better centres inside them, they could both take their game to the next level.

Doing their job is not good enough. If we want to be like the Storm, we need to look at their play book. Pace, Pace and more pace.

They have Mr Reliable Kenny Bromwich out on an edge. Slow as a week of mondays. Munster isnt express. Big Papuan fella is stronger than he is fast. You need a great mix of tough footy players.

 

[earl]

Need a strike centre and another edge back rower.

We have some options. Move AD to the centres. Gildart/Talau/Roberts may do the job in the centres.

Hopefully Blore and Tuilagi come good.

I agree with you though that our edges are ordinary and need a massive improvement. It's just not that bad. I'd love to get a quality player like Thompson.

Centre is definitely weak for us.
The mentioned players are not in anyway strike players.

Gildart definitely has pace but he has issues in other areas

Facts.

Been checking him out since announced.
His attacking game a worry.

To exacerbate the issue, many want to add a snail in Hastings to the 6 jersey.

I'd play him at 6. He'll play that organizing halfback role and Brooks the running half. It'll just mean less talk about Brooks.

 

[earl]

If we just go back a bit to when AD was interviewed he said he loves the club and will play where ever Madge needs him to play....so...what if...

1..Laurie
2..Noffa
3..AD
4..Gildart/Talou
5..Ken M
6..Hastings
7..Brooks
9...Simpkin/Liddle..

Young players with talent and some older experience that have leadership qualities...just my opinion,but Madge will know better than I would...

That is how we should be lining up unless we jag another player or two. We are building nicely.

The 9 issue is a concern though. We are going to ask Brooks & Hastings to fire but they need good service plus we need a threat at dummy half.

 

[momo_amp_medo]

We have like 6 roster spots and millions to spend. We could afford a winger AND a prop, at the moment there's a good prop available who will upgrade our team so of course they will chase him

If a quality winger comes along they'll chase him too, it's not just one or the other. Maumalo has been a good signing as well anyway

Can’t quite see where 6 is the number.
From our 30 we are losing BJL, Packer, Mbye, Walters and probably Chee Kaam and Amone.
We signed two from England so?

 

[JC99]

If we just go back a bit to when AD was interviewed he said he loves the club and will play where ever Madge needs him to play....so...what if...

1..Laurie
2..Noffa
3..AD
4..Gildart/Talou
5..Ken M
6..Hastings
7..Brooks
9...Simpkin/Liddle..

Young players with talent and some older experience that have leadership qualities...just my opinion,but Madge will know better than I would...

That is how we should be lining up unless we jag another player or two. We are building nicely.

The 9 issue is a concern though. We are going to ask Brooks & Hastings to fire but they need good service plus we need a threat at dummy half.

Hastings is more a 7 than a 6. He will be pushing for Brooks jersey more than Doueihi's I reckon. Doueihi clearly plays his best footy at 6, he can't defend at centre and he's our best attacking player. Scores and sets up a lot of tries

 

[BAGNF05]

Comments suggesting it doesn't matter as they're only reserve graders are missing the point. These players were identified by us and we made them offers. They turned us down. There is no point having a youth strategy if we're unable to sign them.

The vast majority of NRL players will resign with their current clubs. This is not an issue unique to Wests Tigers. Do you think the Wests Tigers were the only club that identified either of these guys?

They are not the only two players we've gone after. We've gone after many other players that have signed with rival clubs.

So what? We are a club that isn’t very attractive because we have spent so much time near the bottom. That won’t change overnight.

You conveniently ignore all the junior talent we have signed because we missed out on 2.

We've missed out on a lot more than two unless of course we didn't really make them an offer at all -

TPJ
JAC
LM
AJ Brimson
Lomax
Jai Arrow
HSS
Egan

Ah so now you’re changing the argument to make the list longer, sorry I didn’t realise players in their mid 20,s were classed as junior talent.

Not changing the argument at all. Egan and HSS were no doubt being recruited for our NRL side, not to sit in KOE. These are players we were linked to and have signed zero. Our miss rate is shocking.

Do you believe bringing Sheens back is an admission a cog is amiss in our recruitment wheel (note I believe Hartigan is doing a fine job)?

Hartigan is also a big piece of the recruitment team, not just Madge.

If our recruitment purportedly sucks, the blame lays with the entire team. You don't get to pick and choose who to single out.

I think whoever is identifying the talent (I imagine a mix of Hartigan and Madge) is doing a good job. They just can't close a deal. That's the issue

Yeah and you will not get an argument from me about that either. We are flush with cash so it's not about that. It's either we are refusing to pay overs to attract the talent as it appears we have had a bit of a moneyball approach of late, or they don't want to be here.

But my reply to Paws was moreso about his willingness to apportion blame toward Madge in it's entirety and absolve absolutely everyone else in the process. Never anyone else's fault but Maguire's.

It's not an unreasonable expectation the NRL coach is the No 1 cog in recruiting NRL players to a club.

Is it also unreasonable to expect your halfback to be the number 1 cog in your team?

That's the halfback who is the most marked man in the team because he poses the biggest threat to opposing teams?

You answered a question with a question and still didn’t answer my question. My point is you seem to hold the whole organisation to this amazingly high standard which you then don’t have for the halfback of our team which is the “No 1 cog” in our team.

Brooks is one of our best together with Twal. That you cannot see this is your issue.

Trent Barrett can attract JAC, Burton, TPJ, Vaughan and the Bronco's lock is now on his acquisition list. It is not an unreasonable expectation Maguire do the same for WTs. Why are you so sensitive about this? Maguire should rightly be held to account for the lack of signings to improve our roster. He is the NRL coach.

The only reason the bulldogs are attracting these players is because they are paying overs on longer term contracts, pure and simple. They have spent the last four years trying to fix their salary cap and now that its about right they are making the same mistakes all over again. This club has learnt for Ivan Cleary's mistakes, they haven't.

I’m sorry but Burton and JAC won’t be Packer McQueen Reynolds BJ like failures

 

[earl]

If we just go back a bit to when AD was interviewed he said he loves the club and will play where ever Madge needs him to play....so...what if...

1..Laurie
2..Noffa
3..AD
4..Gildart/Talou
5..Ken M
6..Hastings
7..Brooks
9...Simpkin/Liddle..

Young players with talent and some older experience that have leadership qualities...just my opinion,but Madge will know better than I would...

That is how we should be lining up unless we jag another player or two. We are building nicely.

The 9 issue is a concern though. We are going to ask Brooks & Hastings to fire but they need good service plus we need a threat at dummy half.

Hastings is more a 7 than a 6. He will be pushing for Brooks jersey more than Doueihi's I reckon. Doueihi clearly plays his best footy at 6, he can't defend at centre and he's our best attacking player. Scores and sets up a lot of tries

I agree. I don't care about this either but I think they will call Brooks the halfback but Hastings will be the organizing halfback.

I just think you can move Doueihi to the centres and he will kill it there. He should be captain, our key strike weapon on the edge and our goalkicker.

 

[avocadoontoast]

If we just go back a bit to when AD was interviewed he said he loves the club and will play where ever Madge needs him to play....so...what if...

1..Laurie
2..Noffa
3..AD
4..Gildart/Talou
5..Ken M
6..Hastings
7..Brooks
9...Simpkin/Liddle..

Young players with talent and some older experience that have leadership qualities...just my opinion,but Madge will know better than I would...

That is how we should be lining up unless we jag another player or two. We are building nicely.

The 9 issue is a concern though. We are going to ask Brooks & Hastings to fire but they need good service plus we need a threat at dummy half.

the only issue with that is that I think AD is our best half, so i'd want him playing there.

 

[avocadoontoast]

Comments suggesting it doesn't matter as they're only reserve graders are missing the point. These players were identified by us and we made them offers. They turned us down. There is no point having a youth strategy if we're unable to sign them.

The vast majority of NRL players will resign with their current clubs. This is not an issue unique to Wests Tigers. Do you think the Wests Tigers were the only club that identified either of these guys?

They are not the only two players we've gone after. We've gone after many other players that have signed with rival clubs.

So what? We are a club that isn’t very attractive because we have spent so much time near the bottom. That won’t change overnight.

You conveniently ignore all the junior talent we have signed because we missed out on 2.

We've missed out on a lot more than two unless of course we didn't really make them an offer at all -

TPJ
JAC
LM
AJ Brimson
Lomax
Jai Arrow
HSS
Egan

Ah so now you’re changing the argument to make the list longer, sorry I didn’t realise players in their mid 20,s were classed as junior talent.

Not changing the argument at all. Egan and HSS were no doubt being recruited for our NRL side, not to sit in KOE. These are players we were linked to and have signed zero. Our miss rate is shocking.

Do you believe bringing Sheens back is an admission a cog is amiss in our recruitment wheel (note I believe Hartigan is doing a fine job)?

Hartigan is also a big piece of the recruitment team, not just Madge.

If our recruitment purportedly sucks, the blame lays with the entire team. You don't get to pick and choose who to single out.

I think whoever is identifying the talent (I imagine a mix of Hartigan and Madge) is doing a good job. They just can't close a deal. That's the issue

Yeah and you will not get an argument from me about that either. We are flush with cash so it's not about that. It's either we are refusing to pay overs to attract the talent as it appears we have had a bit of a moneyball approach of late, or they don't want to be here.

But my reply to Paws was moreso about his willingness to apportion blame toward Madge in it's entirety and absolve absolutely everyone else in the process. Never anyone else's fault but Maguire's.

It's not an unreasonable expectation the NRL coach is the No 1 cog in recruiting NRL players to a club.

Is it also unreasonable to expect your halfback to be the number 1 cog in your team?

That's the halfback who is the most marked man in the team because he poses the biggest threat to opposing teams?

You answered a question with a question and still didn’t answer my question. My point is you seem to hold the whole organisation to this amazingly high standard which you then don’t have for the halfback of our team which is the “No 1 cog” in our team.

Brooks is one of our best together with Twal. That you cannot see this is your issue.

Trent Barrett can attract JAC, Burton, TPJ, Vaughan and the Bronco's lock is now on his acquisition list. It is not an unreasonable expectation Maguire do the same for WTs. Why are you so sensitive about this? Maguire should rightly be held to account for the lack of signings to improve our roster. He is the NRL coach.

The only reason the bulldogs are attracting these players is because they are paying overs on longer term contracts, pure and simple. They have spent the last four years trying to fix their salary cap and now that its about right they are making the same mistakes all over again. This club has learnt for Ivan Cleary's mistakes, they haven't.

I’m sorry but Burton and JAC won’t be Packer McQueen Reynolds BJ like failures

Other than commentary on this forum there also hasn't been any proof of them paying overs. We're just assuming they're paying overs to make us feel better for missing out imo.

 

[tigerman 0]

WHY WHY WHY is it public knowledge that we have made an offer to this bloke?
Are we slow learners or something?
If he stays at the Dogs or goes elsewhere the media will be all over us again.
Can’t we just keep everything in-house? Drives me insane

 

[JC99]

If we just go back a bit to when AD was interviewed he said he loves the club and will play where ever Madge needs him to play....so...what if...

1..Laurie
2..Noffa
3..AD
4..Gildart/Talou
5..Ken M
6..Hastings
7..Brooks
9...Simpkin/Liddle..

Young players with talent and some older experience that have leadership qualities...just my opinion,but Madge will know better than I would...

That is how we should be lining up unless we jag another player or two. We are building nicely.

The 9 issue is a concern though. We are going to ask Brooks & Hastings to fire but they need good service plus we need a threat at dummy half.

Hastings is more a 7 than a 6. He will be pushing for Brooks jersey more than Doueihi's I reckon. Doueihi clearly plays his best footy at 6, he can't defend at centre and he's our best attacking player. Scores and sets up a lot of tries

I agree. I don't care about this either but I think they will call Brooks the halfback but Hastings will be the organizing halfback.

I just think you can move Doueihi to the centres and he will kill it there. He should be captain, our key strike weapon on the edge and our goalkicker.

Doueihi has a lot to learn at centre. I don't like moving our best attacking option to centre where he won't see much footy and can't defend. Be interesting to see what they do

 

[JC99]

Comments suggesting it doesn't matter as they're only reserve graders are missing the point. These players were identified by us and we made them offers. They turned us down. There is no point having a youth strategy if we're unable to sign them.

The vast majority of NRL players will resign with their current clubs. This is not an issue unique to Wests Tigers. Do you think the Wests Tigers were the only club that identified either of these guys?

They are not the only two players we've gone after. We've gone after many other players that have signed with rival clubs.

So what? We are a club that isn’t very attractive because we have spent so much time near the bottom. That won’t change overnight.

You conveniently ignore all the junior talent we have signed because we missed out on 2.

We've missed out on a lot more than two unless of course we didn't really make them an offer at all -

TPJ
JAC
LM
AJ Brimson
Lomax
Jai Arrow
HSS
Egan

Ah so now you’re changing the argument to make the list longer, sorry I didn’t realise players in their mid 20,s were classed as junior talent.

Not changing the argument at all. Egan and HSS were no doubt being recruited for our NRL side, not to sit in KOE. These are players we were linked to and have signed zero. Our miss rate is shocking.

Do you believe bringing Sheens back is an admission a cog is amiss in our recruitment wheel (note I believe Hartigan is doing a fine job)?

Hartigan is also a big piece of the recruitment team, not just Madge.

If our recruitment purportedly sucks, the blame lays with the entire team. You don't get to pick and choose who to single out.

I think whoever is identifying the talent (I imagine a mix of Hartigan and Madge) is doing a good job. They just can't close a deal. That's the issue

Yeah and you will not get an argument from me about that either. We are flush with cash so it's not about that. It's either we are refusing to pay overs to attract the talent as it appears we have had a bit of a moneyball approach of late, or they don't want to be here.

But my reply to Paws was moreso about his willingness to apportion blame toward Madge in it's entirety and absolve absolutely everyone else in the process. Never anyone else's fault but Maguire's.

It's not an unreasonable expectation the NRL coach is the No 1 cog in recruiting NRL players to a club.

Is it also unreasonable to expect your halfback to be the number 1 cog in your team?

That's the halfback who is the most marked man in the team because he poses the biggest threat to opposing teams?

You answered a question with a question and still didn’t answer my question. My point is you seem to hold the whole organisation to this amazingly high standard which you then don’t have for the halfback of our team which is the “No 1 cog” in our team.

Brooks is one of our best together with Twal. That you cannot see this is your issue.

Trent Barrett can attract JAC, Burton, TPJ, Vaughan and the Bronco's lock is now on his acquisition list. It is not an unreasonable expectation Maguire do the same for WTs. Why are you so sensitive about this? Maguire should rightly be held to account for the lack of signings to improve our roster. He is the NRL coach.

The only reason the bulldogs are attracting these players is because they are paying overs on longer term contracts, pure and simple. They have spent the last four years trying to fix their salary cap and now that its about right they are making the same mistakes all over again. This club has learnt for Ivan Cleary's mistakes, they haven't.

I’m sorry but Burton and JAC won’t be Packer McQueen Reynolds BJ like failures

Other than commentary on this forum there also hasn't been any proof of them paying overs. We're just assuming they're paying overs to make us feel better for missing out imo.

$500k for each apparently. That's a good deal

 

[Tim Sheens]

The club needs 1 or 2 Origin calibre players if they want to go to the next level.

I don't think anyone would disagree with you: the team lacks strike, whether that be pace out wide, a game breaking half, a monster edge foward or whatever. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the foundations are being built. Stick a couple of marquees in our team for most of the past decade and we'd be at best where the Knights or Titans are now. What I hope is being built at the moment is a setup where those star signings are the last thing needed to turn the roster into a legit contender - and we're doing it without burning all the cap room we'll need to make those signings when they're available.

I know it's frustrating that we've missed on a bunch of signings, but it doesn't mean we ought to throw up everything else that is going in the right direction and give up. This is a legit, proper, root and branch rebuild that's been going on quietly in the background for a couple of years now. I'd rather it had led to more success at first grade level already but equally I don't want to see it ruined by chucking a bunch of money at bad contracts for ageing "stars" looking for a last payday done with the primary goal of hauling ourselves into 7th position for a year or two.

Absolutely brilliant post!
They are building to get a premiership in a few years, not to make the 8 next year like the Bulldogs look like.

Are they though ? That bulldogs team looks like it’s going nowhere . Look how the broncos have gone with a team of guns and no first grade level half or 9 .

Building and buying are two different strategies.
If we look at the players that we have let go not players that walked but players we let go we would have that strike and X factor.
Addo Carr
Paps
Even Tedesco could have been retained if we handled right.
Taupau
All these guys were brought through our pathways.
I’m happy to not pay overs if that means losing another crop of rising stars.

I could be wrong but I believe Taupau and Addo Carr we’re not juniors but I understand what your saying

And to be pedantic Paps was originally a Parra Junior but yes came through our junior pathways.

Yea , but once again that was all Teddy/ uncle Isaac . They had no intentions on sticking around , and if they were honest and gave 2 fifths of a you know what about the club that made him , they would have been honest so we naturally would have Locked up the gun fullback who was offered coin by the storm , but wanted to stay .
There was a multitude of kids we let go that year because we were about to tie our future up in the big 4 . It was diabolically selfish

At the start of the 2019 season the Storm were trying to ofload Paps, but there were no takers.

How quickly some forget.

I have my suspicions as to how he produced the body that he built and no lament.