Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Tupou could be anything, but could also not fill his potential unless he fixes his hands and defence.

Disappointing if we lose him, but at least the club will know what the offer is and probably after Luai has confirmed he's coming.
 
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disappointing we lose Tupou but Kristian Woolf must've worked overtime on him when they were in England recently for the Tonga tour. we can't bend our cap out of shape for a player who, although he has promise, is a long way off being the finished product. great player with the world at his feet, but we'll be ok. best of luck, Toops.
 
Eternal Tiger said:
I dont understand the questioning of the price tag.
We are cellar dwellers, but, for example, even if Cronulla(consistent finals side) wanted him, they would have to pay that,to entice a guy to leave a Club that's won the last 3 Grand Finals.
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It's interesting the narrative about WT paying overs for JL. As far as 5/8ths go, only Munster and possibly Cody Walker could be considered a step up from JL's level. Maybe Jack Wighton is somewhere close. But apart from these guys, JL is in front of every other 5/8th in the NRL. If he remained at Pentrith for $850-900K per season it would be re-signing for unders for sure. He's still young, has his best footy in front of him as a half, has played in 4 consecutive grand finals winning 3 of them, 7 SOO games, etc. For sure he is a $1M+ player on the open market.
If he has signed for WT for somewhere between $1.1-1.2M per season it might be a bit overs, but not massive overs. Some clubs get belted by the press constantly for player contracts and others get a rails run. Wests Tigers have made some dumb decisions in the past, playing marquee rates for average first graders (Mbye, Reynolds, Packer, etc) but I didn't read too much from Buzz or Ricchio about Sharks paying close to $1M per season for Nicho Hynes (a number 14 at the Storm) or Dale Finucane at nearly $700K per season and 4 years in the twilight of his career.
Any way you cut it, JL is a marquee player, and they don't come cheap to any club, especially a bottom 4 club.
 
TigerNeddyK said:
To me it says more about Tupou really , wanted by the club but seems to not want to be there,, shame really because he has been given a good run and had a future at Tigers IMO
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Can't blame the guy too much, footy players have short careers and wingers arnt usually paid much so an extra 50-100k is a real difference maker for them.
 
jrtiger said:
disappointing we lose Tupou but Kristian Woolf must've worked overtime on him when they were in England recently for the Tonga tour. we can't bend our cap out of shape for a player who, although he has promise, is a long way off being the finished product. great player with the world at his feet, but we'll be ok. best of luck, Toops.
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With the terrible state of our backline quality it would be interesting as to know why if he does leave.

Maybe it’s simple that the Dolphins promised him center spot and we couldn’t - which if that’s so fair enough. Would be worried if it was cash or any else.
 
The-moP said:
Let's not get excited about Luai giving notice to the Riff that he is leaving at the end of this season .. all the sports media have us as the fav's for him to join us .. but i'll feel a little more comfortable once he's signed on the dotted line .. those mongrel dogs are still sniffing around .. !! :-( the fat lady aint singing yet.

Here are some of the stand outs in pre-season so far:

Benji see's Soloman Alaimalo as more of a centre .. but will slot him in out on the wing .. dont think we'll see him from round one .. but we will see him at some stage of 24.

Lob is training the house down .. i wouldnt be surprised if he's in the top side quicker than we think .. and yes he has been practising his goal kicking and slotting some long range shots.

Bud Sullivan has been given a free pass to play game as what he see's in front of him .. dont be surprised to see him run the ball a lot.

Sezer has already taken squad under his wing with a lot of the young fellows listening an learning how he'll run the side around the park. His organisational skills will allow Api to free himself up a lot this season

Galvin and Saukuru are both impressing at training .. there is a good chance that Saukuru might be a starting centre.

Faagutu, Miller, Laulilii and Sukkar are all training well .. Millar is a possible bench starter for round 1. It's fun watching the brothers Fainu training and the two big prop brothers certainly have competitive spirit with each other.

Klemmer is looking ripped this pre-season .. he knows there are bunch of young kids knocking the door down for a prop position this season.

Naden and Ferrari are training strong .. hopefully a big season from both of these guys.

Watching the squad .. Lob and Alaimalo are two tall towers out on the field .. would be awesome to have them as our two wingers .. no one is going to out jump them .. lol
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Saukuru starting centre round 1?
 
The Wests Tigers’ roster overhaul continues to gather momentum as the club braces for the departure of winger Junior Tupou to the Dolphins and they rekindle their interest in a swap deal involving Justin Olam and Shawn Blore.

This masthead also understands that the club is growing increasingly confident they will be in position to confirm the signing of Penrith superstar Jarome Luai in coming days in a huge boost for coach Benji Marshall.

Tupou has entered the final year of his deal and has attracted a significant offer from the Dolphins, which he has indicated he will accept, making him the poster boy for the game’s new 10-day contracting window.

While the Tigers wanted to keep Tupou, it is understood they are unlikely to engage in a bidding war for the 21-year-old, who had also attracted interest from Canberra and had been linked with the Sydney Roosters.

The Dolphins look to have won the day, although they face a nervous two weeks given Tupou is well within his rights to renege on any agreement over the next fortnight.

Under the new contracting guidelines, once a player indicates he is ready to accept an offer from a rival club, the deal must be lodged with the NRL.

His incumbent club then has 10 days to convince him to change his mind. Even if they can’t convince him to stay, the player can shift their stance, reject the rival offer and go back on the open market.

The Tigers are believed to be comfortable with their position given the impending arrival of Luai and the fresh interest in Olam.

The Tigers had been locked in talks with Melbourne over a deal for Olam that would have involved an immediate swap for Blore, who has agreed to join the Storm from 2025.

The negotiations went cold but it is understood it has been rekindled as the Tigers look to strengthen their backline stocks and the Storm attempt to add more punch to their forward pack heading into the upcoming season.

Olam is well down the pecking order at the Storm as Melbourne prepare to move Nick Meaney to the centres – they also have Reimis Smith and Marion Seve in their squad, while youngster Jack Howarth has played some centre as well as back row.

The big prize for the Tigers is Luai and the club is edging towards a formal announcement of his signature in a huge boost for Marshall heading into his rookie season as head coach.

While Luai won’t arrive until 2025, his signature on a $6 million deal will provide Marshall with the tactical and spiritual leader he craves as he looks to improve the club’s fortunes.

It is understood the Tigers are yet to officially lodge their offer with the NRL but hope to do so in coming days. The Bulldogs were also in the mix for Luai but it is believed the Penrith superstar has his heart set on joining the Tigers after talks with Marshall and interim chief executive Shane Richardson late last week.
 
Mighty_Tiger said:
With the terrible state of our backline quality it would be interesting as to know why if he does leave.

Maybe it’s simple that the Dolphins promised him center spot and we couldn’t - which if that’s so fair enough. Would be worried if it was cash or any else.
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Recipe for disaster promising positions before a players ever arrived, let alone at any time
Would have to be done on the hush, can yiu imagine the mood in the squad amongst those that had to work for their spot some new dude waltzes in and gets free pass... Wouldn't go down well I reckon
 
Mighty_Tiger said:
With the terrible state of our backline quality it would be interesting as to know why if he does leave.

Maybe it’s simple that the Dolphins promised him center spot and we couldn’t - which if that’s so fair enough. Would be worried if it was cash or any else.
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I don't think they would've. I think it's down to cash. there's no way they could assure him of a centre spot with Hammer, Farnworth, Averillo and Aitken there.
 
batboy said:
We did (And didn't)
Taylor stopped focus on it around 15-16, Until then we'd heavily invested (And overpaid)
on Juniors to top 30.

You'd be right in saying there's no fruits of it, But there's the likes of the
Mikaeles, Liddles, B Sironens, Lodge, Marshall-King, Browns, Jesse Sue, Santis etc. that never really kicked on...
The Moses, Brooks, C Sironen, Simonas, Nofoaluma etc. that have basically been overpaid since day dot - Not leaving us much room....

On top of a bunch of flashes in the pan that debuted and didn't do much at all...

We did prioritise the future, And have probably been bad at it....
Needs to be considered that the future we prioritised was still signed up with us until the 2017-2018 mark before it started to bleed out.
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This could easily become a "yes we did no we didn't", but I will say one more thing. Having a few mediocre juniors come through isn't the same as "prioritising the future". You have to compare what we've managed in the past decade with other clubs - and literally every single club in the comp can find a few of its own kids to put on the park. Every. single. one. I literally don't know what "prioritising the future" means in this context because it sure as hell isn't chucking in an occasional Esan Marsters or Kyle Lovett.

If you're trying to say that we prioritised the future by putting too much of our cap into juniors it doesn't really stand up to any scrutiny. Of your list, Moses and Sinonen both left to get their first big contracts so clearly weren't "overpaid since day dot", and I'm not sure whether Nofoaluma was overpaid until his current deal - which he signed aged 28 so not exactly done on potential. Obviously the club put far too much faith in Brooks but that's hardly the sign of a strategy. Most of the other decent talent we've lost has been at least in part because we didn't give them a game: Addo-Carr was getting left out for Jordan Rankin, Papenheuysen wasn't close to first grade... and honestly there aren't many others.
 
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Canadian Club said:
Losing Tupou is definitely not ideal. Having a look at outside backs off contract in 2024 to replace him, there really isn’t a whole lot of quality. Taylan May, Turuva and Tass are the only ones that standout.
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Turuva has apparently re-signed with Penrith. Tass and May absolutely worth looking at though, especially Tass if Wighton takes his spot and doesn't play in the back row.
 
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