We have plenty of cap space in 26 and 27, and more than enough in 25 to look after our juniors.
Do you realise that we have neglected and ignored our juniors for most of the past decade? There have been very few high quality players come through the ranks to go onto first grade, our sides have regularly finished towards the bottom of the ladders. Our juniors focus has only started the past 2 years (and that was with 16 year olds), it takes time for talent to reach first grade.
Lots to be excited about there, was bit worried about our wing depth in particular, but sounds like there could be a lot of surprises for the 2-5 positions. Glad the young forwards are putting their hand up to, think our pack will be very strong for a while to come.
obviously still early and a few guys like Ice and Star have only just come back, but Lobb definitely seems to be making an impression.
Great insight. thanks for the heads up.
Some interesting reading, thank you.
I would actually like to see play balling lock in the mould of Scott Hill. Maybe if Douhei can increase his workrate and defence, he is a good option at Lock.
Awesome update. Keep 'em coming
I'd definitely love a ballplaying lock as you say, but Doueihi isn't the answer. too soft and not enough mongrel to do a job in the middle. Kit Laulili'i is the likely answer. has plenty of ability on both sides of the ball and can cart it up and bend the line and throw a decent pass.
Miller missed the start of preseason with injury, would be very surprising for him to be pushing for first grade so soon into his nrl career given he's never played higher than Ball and only been training for a month. But he's got the size to be a real difference maker for us! Possibly part of why we dropped interest in AFB, with Pole, Utoikamanu, and Miller all coming through alongside the war horses in Klem and Twal. Tofaeno also has a similar build to AFB, albeit a bit stockier.
I don’t think Doueihi is physically robust enough for lock. Even a ball playing, link man lock forward needs to do the dirty hit ups and front line defensive load. Yeo does it and so did Brandon Smith when he played that role for Melbourne. If there is an alternative position for him I would suggest it needs to be in the centres. Trouble is, he likely gets exposed defensively in that position given how important one on one defence is at centre and the need to organize your inside and outside defenders and defensive reads.
How about Navren Willett from Taree?
It absolutely baffles me that people on here are so covinced that we've "prioritised the future" for the past decade. If that's the case, well, holy hell have we been bad at it. The amount of talent we've brought through has been dismal and the amount we've retained long enough to actually help out our club at first grade level has been nothing short of a joke. Fans have such a focus on free agent recruitment but if you give that a D grade the juniors production is an F. Thank goodness we've managed to poach a few decent kids and rejects from other systems otherwise I suspect we'd already be in Perth.
You can't have good junior development without a good coaching set up, specifically stability and continuity. How much coaching staff turnover has there been at Wests Tigers over the past 10 years - probably more than any other club I reckon. You can have the best junior catchment area, but they won't progress from under age football to senior / NRL level players if the coaching is constantly disrupted.
