Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[cochise]

Stef credited finucane for his change in form from origin camp. Imagine the impact he could of made across the whole squad.

I don't believe that one bit. Tigers identify Stefano as one of the best prop talents in the game and head-hunt him from Parramatta. He does a Tigers pre-season, gets his Tigers debut, is brought along slowly by Madge, sent back to reggies once or twice, then made starting prop.

But no, he goes to Origin camp for 5 days and that's what takes him to another level, watching Dale Finucane train and do his strapping.

The biggest difference for Sefano this year was the work he put in over the off season. He was a little soft last year when playing at Parra and I had doubts about his signing. He returned after the off season in much better physical shape and that was the biggest reason for his improved form and strong finish to the season. I think being 18th man probably gave him a bit of extra confidence though, which allowed him to take advantage of the physical changes he developed over the past 12 months.

I’m not so sure about that. He was mentioned as a standout at Parramatta in the 2020 preseason training the house down. Despite that he looked soft in his 3 games in 2020. I’d say those 3 games were huge for us in context as despite leading all the numbers in the parramatta squad it was clear to him he still needed to go to another level to handle top grade on a consistent level. Seems a very disciplined athlete for his age group.

What in my post are you not sure about? You pretty much agreed with everything I said.

The part where you said he was in better physical shape than at Parramatta. Of course I didn’t see him in person at either of the two clubs but he was also spoken about to be in extremely good physical condition in the pre season prior. I’m wondering if the difference is more a mental change and going off his limited time in 2020 but also his lack of impact in those games I’m curious what he could of changed if his body was already peaking.

He wasn't in as good physical condition at Parramatta.

 

[Devon Head]

We have no leaders on the field. I personally believe it's that simple.

When the chips are down on field, there is no one there to read the riot act. No one holding others accountable. No one to stand there and say "I'm not taking this **** any longer!"

It's just players looking at each other with that stupid look. It's a mental game every bit as it is physical. Who is going to stand there and say "get your **** sorted lads!" ?

When we sort that..........

100% agree with you there. If you look back at 2019 when Tigers finished 9th we had Marshall, Farah, Lawrence and Elijah Taylor all still playing along with a number of other very experienced players. In 2020 there was Marshall, Taylor, Lawrence and Harry Grant who although being a rookie was outstanding in the way he played yet they still finished 11th.

This year none of those mentioned are left and the leaders replaced by Tamou, AD and Brooks. That's a massive part of the problem, no on field leaders or lack of.

 

[Devon Head]

We were leading that game I believe , until he came on with chee kam . That 20 min stint literally lost us the game . Turbo went through his corridor repeatedly , so the other edge tightened , and they went through there instead . I’m not in the business of blaming sole players for losses , but he should not have been playing that game . Whether it was bad management from our medical team or him not being honest with himself about where his body was at , I don’t know , but that was not ok .
Speaking of which , so much was made of Gray and his supposed game changing performance team , but I gotta say , we were better u der the previous high performance team .
He sent us backwards if anything . We looked better for the calendar , but that’s about it .

To be honest I know little about the Tigers performance team past or present however I def felt many games we looked completely gassed at times. Whether it was the 15mins before halftime or the final 15mins of the game we just looked completely underdone fitness wise. Hard to believe when Madge is such a task master with his teams being super fit.

A lot comes down to their mental state too though and mental toughness. With a large number of the team very young they possibly haven't developed the mental toughness to play for 80mins every week. I personally find it tiresome and boring as hell to run drills and laps or go for distance runs however come game day I can easily pump out 80mins without a sub even at 39 so I doubt it's a physical fitness issue.

I feel the team might be better off looking at a sports psychologist of sorts to mentally prepare the players better, to start faster instead of lumbering into matches and only switching on when down by 24. Help the players recognize and distinguish the difference/triggers of mental fatigue over physical fatigue and help them find ways to push through it even under pressure.



I was talking years ago to some Canterbury players
When Des was coach and they had that run when they keep losing and they told me that Des was flogging them at training and the more they lost the more they got flog at training and they said on game day they had nothing in the tank

Makes a lot of sense. There's a balancing act for sure. The great coaches evolve though and it seems Des has. A lot of reports suggest Madge has softened his hardline dictator like stance somewhat though.

 

[The_Patriot]

We have no leaders on the field. I personally believe it's that simple.

When the chips are down on field, there is no one there to read the riot act. No one holding others accountable. No one to stand there and say "I'm not taking this **** any longer!"

It's just players looking at each other with that stupid look. It's a mental game every bit as it is physical. Who is going to stand there and say "get your **** sorted lads!" ?

When we sort that..........

100% agree with you there. If you look back at 2019 when Tigers finished 9th we had Marshall, Farah, Lawrence and Elijah Taylor all still playing along with a number of other very experienced players. In 2020 there was Marshall, Taylor, Lawrence and Harry Grant who although being a rookie was outstanding in the way he played yet they still finished 11th.

This year none of those mentioned are left and the leaders replaced by Tamou, AD and Brooks. That's a massive part of the problem, no on field leaders or lack of.

It was telling. We went into the season with the necessary experience to compete when the proverbial hit the fan.

 

[Devon Head]

We have no leaders on the field. I personally believe it's that simple.

When the chips are down on field, there is no one there to read the riot act. No one holding others accountable. No one to stand there and say "I'm not taking this **** any longer!"

It's just players looking at each other with that stupid look. It's a mental game every bit as it is physical. Who is going to stand there and say "get your **** sorted lads!" ?

When we sort that..........

Too many blokes like Brooks and M'Bye who are only there to collect a paycheck. And they've both spent time as Captain

Wonder who picked those blokes every week and made them captain ?

Sadly if you look down the list of players that were available the last few rounds that Brooks was made captain there literally was no one with any sort of experience that could have been Captain with the exception of maybe Luciano, Twal or Joffa. Personally any of those 3 were better options.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Elijah Taylor should have been given another year. Shame that Madge wasn’t much of a fan.

 

[Devon Head]

We have no leaders on the field. I personally believe it's that simple.

When the chips are down on field, there is no one there to read the riot act. No one holding others accountable. No one to stand there and say "I'm not taking this **** any longer!"

It's just players looking at each other with that stupid look. It's a mental game every bit as it is physical. Who is going to stand there and say "get your **** sorted lads!" ?

When we sort that..........

agree 100% You add 2-3 real leaders to this team this year and we make the 8..
Everyone keep saying Juniors are our way out of this and yes I agree to an extent but without leaders WHO is leading them and showing them what right or wrong..
Who are they -- IDK but we need to buy some before we lose some of these exciting juniors to other clubs as we lack leadership they crave.

But who out there currently is a leader ? Sims would literally be the only one. We really missed the boat not signing finucane, absolute joke he wasn’t top priority.

IDK to be honest but for me adding a few with true leadership is a must.. Finucane would of been good but I think he wanted 4 years but surely there is others out there.

Yeah agree didn't look too good against Penrith.

Still his presence in training and impact on players would’ve made him worth it. Like what a kick in the guts it was when Stef returned from origin camp and the first player he mentions is finucane

Not for 4 years it wouldn't.

He won’t play 4 years at Cronulla and he certainly won’t sit out still getting paid, I don’t believe he’s that type of person

He was asking for 4 years.

Finucane has played in 6 grand finals and played semi finals every year of his career across bulldogs and storm

Stef credited finucane for his change in form from origin camp. Imagine the impact he could of made across the whole squad.

To me he's the type of player that can change club culture and send us in a new direction. And for that I would of taken the hit of 4 years. If he's not up to it in year 4 he can teach the young players in Reggie's. Would of been huge value for the club

Look at the improvement in Stef spending a couple of weeks with Finucane, imagine the improvement in him and the rest of the pack spending 3 or 4 years with him.

 

[Devon Head]

Elijah Taylor should have been given another year. Shame that Madge wasn’t much of a fan.

Def feel with the lock role evolving the way it has he would have played that role well.

 

[Devon Head]

Could be Thommo.

I would probably entertain a thomo for Musgrove swap.

I agree, I definitely would be down for that. With Thommo what you see is what you get. Mus is largely and unknown and has so far failed to live up to any hype. Seems to have regular long term injury woes which have prevented him hitting any real form. Thommo is quality, hard hitting and hard running.

I would like thommo as a strong experienced first leader.

But don't think the club would swap Musgrove. He only signed a long term deal last year, apparently for understanding what dragons offered him because he wanted to play under madge.

He had that shocker against Parramatta but had a sesson ending injury from that game so assume he was injured affected.

Would like to see Musgrove with a full preseason and a string of games to establish himself. He's strong and aggressive which is what we need

Musgrove is the forgotten man. If he can get past this foot injury for good, he's a mainstay in this pack. He's a fantastic prop.

His last game for us (I think it was vs Manly) was one of the worst performances i've ever seen from an NRL player.

Couple of lazy arm grab attempts up the middle and Tommy/Cherry absolutely carved us up.

Must have been an isolated incident - haven't seen Turbo carve up many ruck defences in 2021...

Certainly not isolated but seriously you can't convince me he actually made a legit effort to make those tackles.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

 looks like we're gonna have to wait awhile til we have any signings

Which clubs?

Exactly same thing said last couple of years as rz and teams find ways to get rid of crap players and still get the good ones. Surely they've learnt that.

Storm situation interesting tho do the strongest club on and off the field put up with their star players acting like gooses. My guess minimum of 1 will go.

They have lost JAC, Dale and Nico already whilst getting Coates & Meaney. They didn’t make the GF so bonuses for next years cap will be alot lower. They will be fine.

Manly will be a team struggling, Garner player swap could be on the cards.

 

[happy_tiger]

We had Madge earlier in the year advising he was fielding enquiries from players wanting to be at WTs. Now according to Brent Read we are waiting until 1 November to see what talent is forced out of other clubs due to salary cap constraints. Is anyone in a position to provide clarification?

Whatever suits the current situation ...if we sign some good players ..we have forgotten the youth policy ...if we can't sign anyone ...we are reliant on the youth policy .....

 

[pawsandclaws1]

We had Madge earlier in the year advising he was fielding enquiries from players wanting to be at WTs. Now according to Brent Read we are waiting until 1 November to see what talent is forced out of other clubs due to salary cap constraints. Is anyone in a position to provide clarification?

Whatever suits the current situation ...if we sign some good players ..we have forgotten the youth policy ...if we can't sign anyone ...we are reliant on the youth policy .....

Excellent and just the right % of cynicism.

 

[426Tlgerland]

Still can’t believe we have signed nobody except for the 2 OS players , Gould wants to complete his roster by this weekend with 2 more signings and we haven’t started , either playing a very shrewd game or nobody wants to come

 

[Lee's fedora]

Clubs that may be squeezed for cap would be : Dogs , parra (depending on gutho) ,dragons and lastly manly out of those clubs id be talking to dogs about Luke Thompson
Parra Nathan Brown or Waqa blake dragons Tariq sims or Lomax
manly id try and get Sipley or Karl (Karlos) Lawton

 

[Needaname]

Stef credited finucane for his change in form from origin camp. Imagine the impact he could of made across the whole squad.

I don't believe that one bit. Tigers identify Stefano as one of the best prop talents in the game and head-hunt him from Parramatta. He does a Tigers pre-season, gets his Tigers debut, is brought along slowly by Madge, sent back to reggies once or twice, then made starting prop.

But no, he goes to Origin camp for 5 days and that's what takes him to another level, watching Dale Finucane train and do his strapping.

The biggest difference for Sefano this year was the work he put in over the off season. He was a little soft last year when playing at Parra and I had doubts about his signing. He returned after the off season in much better physical shape and that was the biggest reason for his improved form and strong finish to the season. I think being 18th man probably gave him a bit of extra confidence though, which allowed him to take advantage of the physical changes he developed over the past 12 months.

I’m not so sure about that. He was mentioned as a standout at Parramatta in the 2020 preseason training the house down. Despite that he looked soft in his 3 games in 2020. I’d say those 3 games were huge for us in context as despite leading all the numbers in the parramatta squad it was clear to him he still needed to go to another level to handle top grade on a consistent level. Seems a very disciplined athlete for his age group.

What in my post are you not sure about? You pretty much agreed with everything I said.

The part where you said he was in better physical shape than at Parramatta. Of course I didn’t see him in person at either of the two clubs but he was also spoken about to be in extremely good physical condition in the pre season prior. I’m wondering if the difference is more a mental change and going off his limited time in 2020 but also his lack of impact in those games I’m curious what he could of changed if his body was already peaking.

He wasn't in as good physical condition at Parramatta.

Good to hear he went to even another level.

 

[ConePuncher]

The fella on League Unlimited is reporting that we signed the unknown forward last night. Hope it's not a load of bull.

 

[JD Tiger]

The fella on League Unlimited is reporting that we signed the unknown forward last night. Hope it's not a load of bull.

Well, we'll know soon enough, if we have another signing or not.

To keep it light, I'm guessing yes we signed a forward, and his name is Adam Elliott.

 

[tony soprano]

 looks like we're gonna have to wait awhile til we have any signings

Which clubs?

Exactly same thing said last couple of years as rz and teams find ways to get rid of crap players and still get the good ones. Surely they've learnt that.

Storm situation interesting tho do the strongest club on and off the field put up with their star players acting like gooses. My guess minimum of 1 will go.

They have lost JAC, Dale and Nico already whilst getting Coates & Meaney. They didn’t make the GF so bonuses for next years cap will be alot lower. They will be fine.

Manly will be a team struggling, Garner player swap could be on the cards.

Muster and Smith are not Storm type players it's an issue they need to address.

 

[Newtown]

Today is the day which Michael Clarke advised the unknown player to join Wests tigers will be announced. He said the player would fill a position which the club desperately needs to bolster.

 

[tony soprano]

The fella on League Unlimited is reporting that we signed the unknown forward last night. Hope it's not a load of bull.

Must be true some guy on the internet said so