Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Still a good shout in April, 2024.

Is Kayal Iro realistic?
He's been next man up at the Sharks forever and only gets his chance when there's an injury.

James Schiller is not an option.

The rest of the list are all solid though.
The roster is incomplete with a lot of young guys learning their trade. The unbalanced roster can be fixed too many halves and older forwards can be replaced.

Douihei, Sione Fainu, Alaimalo, Kepoa, Simpkin, Sezar are off contract and I’d let them go. Tupou is leaving. Players under contract they should move on from this year Sullivan, Tumeth. That would leave us with 10 spots and it’s usually 5 kids upgraded leaving 5 recruits.

They need quality out wide not depth players Toa, Naden, Staines are solid enough for depth.
 
If what you are saying is true, maybe the problem is the club? Because look at Ice and Klemmer since they came here. Both haven’t looked like knocking the skin off pudding. Klem’s most noteworthy moment was giving Gutho the one finger salute a few weeks ago. Everyone is so fast to shit on the players when there is a clear pattern for most of them. Maybe throw Bula into one of top teams, in a better system and see how he goes.
I’m over the forwards copping unwarranted criticism. We’re holding up in the middle better than we did for years. People have forgotten the bad old days when the middle was route 66 and our edges were easier to unlock than a cable tie. Klem beats Tamou by a country mile.

Edit: Throw Reece Walsh and Cobbo into this team and nobody is knocking the forwards.
 
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You can target almost any player after a loss and more so when teams lose more than they win. In the games we won when the whole team performed well Bula completely outshone Will Kennedy and in the Parra game featured in the winning try exactly as a full back with an attacking opportunity in position should do.
Lower place teams are consistently inconsistent.
He is nowhere near the best FB but he is as hindered as any young player could be, learning his craft in a key position in a wooden spoon team.
 
Cotric is okay. More effective than both of our wingers at hitting the ball up which is pretty much all our wingers have done apart from a couple of occasions yesterday.

He’s off contract so I don’t know why we’d have to approach the raiders unless we’ve already signed him.

The leaks were supposedly fixed so this will be a good test.

Cotric is crap. He is an average nsw cup player & offers us no better than what we already have.
If we are after him it shows how desperate we really are.
 
It was that obvious and I started to count the seconds at differing times thru the game
I read we dont have a wrestling coach, yet other teams do?

WTF not if true?
Something I did notice about penriths PTB yesterday is they don't actually play it properly, they roll it before they stand up and the ref just ignores it. Good on them for getting away with it I guess
 
I’m over the forwards copping unwarranted criticism. We’re holding up in the middle better than we did for years. People have forgotten the bad old days when the middle was route 66 and our edges were easier to unlock than a cable tie.

Yep. Forwards have improved even more from last year but it’s the backs letting us down. Staines is constantly out of position on his wing and no where to be see anytime we make a break and Tupou plays with all the heart and urgency of an intellectually challenged goldfish.
 
I can assure you if we had Taafe, Tracey or Brimson playing fullback for us we wouldn’t be struggling to score tries or make line breaks.
Oh can you?

Well, as long as we're making assurances, here's one: Bula is both defensively and positionally far better than those three.

He's also learning on the run on how to attack and is 12 months almost to the day from his debut. He will improve in this area in time.

How long have those blokes been around first grade?
 
Cotric is crap. He is an average nsw cup player & offers us no better than what we already have.
If we are after him it shows how desperate we really are.

I don’t want to sign him to a new deal at the present moment … but an average NSW cup player sounds like an upgrade …
 
Oh can you?

Well, as long as we're making assurances, here's one: Bula is both defensively and positionally far better than those three.

He's also learning on the run on how to attack and is 12 months almost to the day from his debut. He will improve in this area in time.

How long have those blokes been around first grade?

This dude has been scapegoating Bula since the end of last season … seems very odd to me looking at some of the other guys running around in the Top 17 most weeks ..
 
I’m over the forwards copping unwarranted criticism. We’re holding up in the middle better than we did for years. People have forgotten the bad old days when the middle was route 66 and our edges were easier to unlock than a cable tie.
Yep. I will keep defending IPap. You can't make 47 and 48 tackles play 80 then be expected to be more impactful with ball -same with Api. It's just not realistic.
We need an edge running forward sure but those effective players are not tackle machines and rarely do they play 80. The forwards we have got this year are having a go and their effort areas should be acknowledged.
 
You can target almost any player after a loss and more so when teams lose more than they win. In the games we won when the whole team performed well Bula completely outshone Will Kennedy and in the Parra game featured in the winning try exactly as a full back with an attacking opportunity in position should do.
Lower place teams are consistently inconsistent.
He is nowhere near the best FB but he is as hindered as any young player could be, learning his craft in a key position in a wooden spoon team.
He’s been in our top five players every week, including yesterday when he ran for 224m and only made one error that I can recall. Just emotion over rational thinking I’d say.
 
Panthers Forwards 692 v 762 meters…
Post contact meters for Forwards Panthers 216 v 313 ours…
We made less ineffective tackles than the Panthers also.

Overall as a squad Panthers made 5 more meters than us for the game and we made 115mtrs post contact more than them. The backs made the meters more than ours by a margin.

We had the better field positioning during the game. We had more offloads and 80 more passes in the game than the Panthers - our halves and backs were ineffective today.
Good assessment
 
Yep. I will keep defending IPap. You can't make 47 and 48 tackles play 80 then be expected to be more impactful with ball -same with Api. It's just not realistic.
We need an edge running forward sure but those effective players are not tackle machines and rarely do they play 80. The forwards we have got this year are having a go and their effort areas should be acknowledged.
I agree with what you've said regarding IPap and Api but if some of our middles were truly having a go IPap wouldn't be topping the count every week.
 
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Yep. I will keep defending IPap. You can't make 47 and 48 tackles play 80 then be expected to be more impactful with ball -same with Api. It's just not realistic.
We need an edge running forward sure but those effective players are not tackle machines and rarely do they play 80. The forwards we have got this year are having a go and their effort areas should be acknowledged.
100%. Another thing that happens when your backline is finding space is the opposition forwards get moved around more and get tired. Opening up more opportunities for everyone including edge forwards. At the minute teams are just loading up on us as we’re not really wearing them out. Too one dimensional.
 
The complaint is how ineffective the wingers we have currently are.

Brian To'o isn't the fastest winger but his strong carries help the team in each set.

Staines can't take those hit ups because he just gets folded and pushed back.

I like Tupou but he's an incomplete product at the moment and he's leaving anyway.

Backline needs an overhaul and if the Cotric info is true, it makes sense.

1 Bula
2
3
4 Olam
5 Cotric

Just need to improve the other side also

How does Cotric on last 2yrs form improve what we already have?

His work rate is poor, his meter coverage average at best (he is outside top 30 wingers for efficiency) & he will be costly. If it happens hope I’m wrong but so think be would be a dud buy.

Tupou injury sure he is better than anyone next in line as a depth/emergency full in but I don’t think he is an upgrade on Tupou or Staines.
 

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