Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[BlackWhiteGold]

I agree but the problem is that the coaching staff can't make Nofo any quicker. We just have to live with his faults and play him in reserve grade if we have better options.

Atm I think he makes our top team but hopefully that will change at some point.

Yeah it's going to come down to Benji, JMo, Heino & Robbie getting him to play to his strengths & work on his attitude and leadership.

I feel that unless we can move on Kepaoa or Simpkin, we may not have a position for Staines.

Knowing that I will get shot down for even suggesting this, maybe the coaching staff rejuvenate Nofa by making him back-up fullback (if no Staines) and empower him to guide the youngsters. He did used to be a fullback many moons ago.

 

[Tiger-ferret]

Unfortunately we sell ‘clicks’.

Do yourself a favour and Watch out on your social media now, any story and look at the picture. I would say 9/10 times, the player in the story is playing the tigers (even if the tigers aren’t involved in the story).

My friends and I had to make a group to send them through to as it became that ridiculous.

It’s just next level the interest in our team, even if no truth or not even involved in a story lol

i have made that observation. Same with news highlights. I guess it’s likely most players have made a break or scored tries against us. Thought it was just my own bias lol

 

[AdelaideTiger]

Given Nofoaloma has a contract guaranteeing him 500 k for 2024 and 500k for 2025 I doubt he would want to give that up - would you ?
Given that in the past he has displayed certain skills and football nous such as being good under high ball and finding a way to get to the line despite a few defenders in his path .Note almost never gets bundled into touch .
Solution is coaching staff to turn his form and maybe attitude around and actually get a return on that money . WT are a team who don't get the ball to our edges often and maybe that has to change !

I think Nofa is a classy finisher and can still be a regular 1st grade winger if he's focused and committed to playing well. He's more than capable of the physical side of the NRL and can be very effective when he plays direct and at pace.

But the mental side lets him down time and time again.
He far too often elects to go himself from dummy half, down the short side and inevitably gets bundled into touch, when he could have easily passed or taken a dirty carry up the middle instead.
While he can be capable under a high ball, I am never confident when he is 1 on 1 defending a kick. If you compare his ability under a high ball to Bula (a rookie) it's night and day.
Lastly his football IQ is well below what you expect from a 10 year NRL veteran, and not just defensive reads, which he gets roasted here for ad nauseum, it's everything. Stuff as simple as taking a quick tap when it's clearly not on, silly penalties, so on and so on, he's the definition of a coach killer with high risk low reward plays.

As I said he's a great finisher and I agree we need to get the ball to him on the end of good set plays, but for a guy who has been around as long as he has, his lack of basic fundamentals suggest he's a bloke who is either incapable of improvement or just doesn't really want to.

 

[Spartan117]

Madge tried that…

We didnt have the Squad mentally back in the Madge days, If only....

 

[Telltails]

Unusual Staines name has not been linked elsewhere given he is unsigned and offers some value to most clubs.

 

[BAGNF05]

Unusual Staines name has not been linked elsewhere given he is unsigned and offers some value to most clubs.

We took an undersized winger off the premiers hands when they had him on a bad 500K deal. Low and behold he suffers a serious injury within a month. I feel for the kid but it was a desperate play, the wests tigers way.

His replacement wins rookie of the year.

You can’t make this stuff up lol

 

[Oldman]

I think Nofa is a classy finisher and can still be a regular 1st grade winger if he's focused and committed to playing well. He's more than capable of the physical side of the NRL and can be very effective when he plays direct and at pace.

But the mental side lets him down time and time again.
He far too often elects to go himself from dummy half, down the short side and inevitably gets bundled into touch, when he could have easily passed or taken a dirty carry up the middle instead.
While he can be capable under a high ball, I am never confident when he is 1 on 1 defending a kick. If you compare his ability under a high ball to Bula (a rookie) it's night and day.
Lastly his football IQ is well below what you expect from a 10 year NRL veteran, and not just defensive reads, which he gets roasted here for ad nauseum, it's everything. Stuff as simple as taking a quick tap when it's clearly not on, silly penalties, so on and so on, he's the definition of a coach killer with high risk low reward plays.

As I said he's a great finisher and I agree we need to get the ball to him on the end of good set plays, but for a guy who has been around as long as he has, his lack of basic fundamentals suggest he's a bloke who is either incapable of improvement or just doesn't really want to.

It’s just unfortunate Adelaide Tiger that whoever put together his last contact didn’t see what 90% on here do.
Hats off to Noffa and his manager I could only imagine the bender they would have had the night they put pen to paper 📝
2 more years (time fly’s) 🥳

 

[Flippedy]

i have made that observation. Same with news highlights. I guess it’s likely most players have made a break or scored tries against us. Thought it was just my own bias lol

I think you’re both dreaming, a subconscious bias so to speak. You notice them more because it’s the team you support. It’s like when you buy a certain brand of car then all of a sudden you see the same car everywhere, whereas you didn’t really notice any much before.

 

[AdelaideTiger]

It’s just unfortunate Adelaide Tiger that whoever put together his last contact didn’t see what 90% on here do.
Hats off to Noffa and his manager I could only imagine the bender they would have had the night they put pen to paper 📝
2 more years (time fly’s) 🥳

He was hot property when he got that contract, and wingers around the league were getting some dumb deals (DWZ is supposedly still on $800k), I don't begrudge the club paying him how much they did at the time, but it sucks that they continue to pay him now (and for another 2 years).

 

[jadtiger]

He was hot property when he got that contract, and wingers around the league were getting some dumb deals (DWZ is supposedly still on $800k), I don't begrudge the club paying him how much they did at the time, but it sucks that they continue to pay him now (and for another 2 years).

If Nof's contract had expired at the end of this year i would have had few problems with it,the issue is our loudmouthed Chairman got involved in it big noted himself as usual and gave Nof 2 more years than he should have.
As i have said many times it is the board with the power they wield and the way it is appointed that is our biggest issue and has been since the JV started

 

[KCtiger]

He was hot property when he got that contract, and wingers around the league were getting some dumb deals (DWZ is supposedly still on $800k), I don't begrudge the club paying him how much they did at the time, but it sucks that they continue to pay him now (and for another 2 years).

DWZ was put on 800k at dogs cause he was meant to play fullback then dogs payed half for him to go to wahs

 

[WestsEffTheRest]

We took an undersized winger off the premiers hands when they had him on a bad 500K deal. Low and behold he suffers a serious injury within a month. I feel for the kid but it was a desperate play, the wests tigers way.

His replacement wins rookie of the year.

You can’t make this stuff up lol

This is false. Staines was moved back to the wing & Nofa was dropped in Bulas debut game but he unfortunately suffered that unlucky Bowel injury.

 

[AdelaideTiger]

DWZ was put on 800k at dogs cause he was meant to play fullback then dogs payed half for him to go to wahs

Yeah I know it wasn't a completely fair comparison.
There were others though, I think Sivo got a pretty big deal around then, Cotric, even Staines got a big contract not long after that. Finishers were in demand, now they are not.
With our luck they will probably be back in fashion by the time Nofa's contract ends in '25.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

I do think that if we offer to pay half of his freight that a club would take a punt on Nofoaluma, but that's not to say it'll happen.

@kade7 had some mail regarding Tumeth being shopped, but he might be able to shed more light on that. Kepaoa could be offered up somewhere potentially. Doueihi as you say is a possibility but I'm not entirely sure given his injury status. Reilly was reportedly being shopped around as per the DT. there might be a little more going on than we anticipate.

Paying half for Nofa would be double a minimum player cost for both us and another team. It would be close to $500k. On the form he has dished up now one will take him on that.

If we lose more than 2 people before the start of the season I will be amazed (excluding AD who if lost would no doubt be signed on a contract for season after as goodwill offer to get us out of a jam because no one else can be moved)

 

[The-moP]

10 boys at rookie camp, would have been more if the Fainus were back early too!

There was about 30 lads at rookie camp .. this was just a pic of some of the better known lads.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

Paying half for Nofa would be double a minimum player cost for both us and another team. It would be close to $500k. On the form he has dished up now one will take him on that.

If we lose more than 2 people before the start of the season I will be amazed (excluding AD who if lost would no doubt be signed on a contract for season after as goodwill offer to get us out of a jam because no one else can be moved)

Doing some maths here.

Thing is we have to make room for 5 of our rookies into the top 30 in 2025 - Faagutu, Kit L, Luke L, Solo Saukuru & Tony Sukkar.

We have Kepaoa, Simpkin, Reilly, Blore, Doueihi, Sione Fainu & Mansfield off-contract & also Sezer, Uto & Tumeth with options. That is 7 with 3 options.

So maybe and a big MAYBE the plan is to keep Kepaoa, Simpkin, AD this season so we have spots free for next season for our upgrades.

 

[teddy23]

Heard something today from someone close to the club that they believe Justin Olam will be here come round 1 next year. Take of that what you will.

They also said something about a kid by the name of Israel Leota from Brisbane - apparently he’s one of the brightest winger prospects in the QLD cup. He’s contracted til end of 2025 but may be pushing for a release for a more likely FG opportunity here in 2024-2025. Could be one to look out for as he has all of Cobbo, Arthars, Oates, Staggs and Mariner in front of him.

Regarding the Luai situation, the situation has always been the same. The club would like to see how both Sullivan and Fainu are throughout preseason before officially putting forward an offer. All the talk that a deal is done I can confidently say are false. However, that’s not to say the club aren’t intrigued. Far from it actually.

 

[Tigerstigerstigers]

Given Nofoaloma has a contract guaranteeing him 500 k for 2024 and 500k for 2025 I doubt he would want to give that up - would you ?
Given that in the past he has displayed certain skills and football nous such as being good under high ball and finding a way to get to the line despite a few defenders in his path .Note almost never gets bundled into touch .
Solution is coaching staff to turn his form and maybe attitude around and actually get a return on that money . WT are a team who don't get the ball to our edges often and maybe that has to change !

You forgot to mention his rushing in field leaving two unmarked men on his outside giving the opposition half 2 glorious Oportunities to put a man in untouched .
And yeah I know you can blame his inside men and our defensive structures but it’s been going on since back when he was suppose to be good .

 

[hank37w]

I’d say the hunch is wrong. It’s not like he’s out of favour. He‘s good mates with the chairman isn’t he?

They can both piss off somewhere together.

 

[hank37w]

Heard something today from someone close to the club that they believe Justin Olam will be here come round 1 next year. Take of that what you will.

They also said something about a kid by the name of Israel Leota from Brisbane - apparently he’s one of the brightest winger prospects in the QLD cup. He’s contracted til end of 2025 but may be pushing for a release for a more likely FG opportunity here in 2024-2025. Could be one to look out for as he has all of Cobbo, Arthars, Oates, Staggs and Mariner in front of him.

Regarding the Luai situation, the situation has always been the same. The club would like to see how both Sullivan and Fainu are throughout preseason before officially putting forward an offer. All the talk that a deal is done I can confidently say are false. However, that’s not to say the club aren’t intrigued. Far from it actually.

If he does manage to get here I hope he has a bit of Cobbo, Arthars, Oates, Staggs and Mariner in him.