Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Canadian Club said:
Canadian Club said:
So are we turning on Pole now without actually knowing any facts about what is going on behind the scenes?

Think we need to relax and not jump to conclusions about what is or isn’t happening behind close doors.
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So are we turning on Pole now without actually knowing any facts about what is going on behind the scenes?

Think we need to relax and not jump to conclusions about what is or isn’t happening behind close doors.
Click to expand...
I don't know if anyone's turning on him.

In attack Pole has been good enough for a struggling team.

But unfortunately for Pole, his defensive flaws have been exposed in the back end of the season - and it wasnt just one or two missed tackles. There were some really bad and consistent decisions.

Now I don't think that's all on Pole.... There's a systematic issue with the Tigers defense which will no doubt help improve Pole's defence as an individual contributor.

I think we need to boot John Morris as defensive coach. After the sharks game I thought John Morris must have been a defensive genius, but it unravelled way too quickly and never improved again.

The Tigers need to add a workhorse to their pack, the likes of David Stagg and Dallas Johnson over the years who would do 40+ tackles a game. Someone that takes 5-10 runs a match, but is primarily a defensive workhorse.
 
Buttface said:
He’s got the year facing up so you can see it’s up for renewal. I bet he’s loyal.
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More loyal than me at the moment.

The spoon bowl loss was a real thump to the head.

We all got our hopes up to “reach for the stars” and secure second last place but once again fate intervenes.

In some ways, it would have been kinder on us if we hadn’t have had to go through the drama of spoonbowl and had secured the spoon a few rounds ago and had no hope at all.

Instead we’ve had to face the additional trauma of dealing with some excitement followed by the let down of complete and utter catastrophe.

It seems we can never take one lousy trick. I know this is wt life and we all signed up for it, but…

Anyway, it’s going to weeks for me to get over it at this rate, maybe months.
 
mtd#2 said:
I don't know if anyone's turning on him.

In attack Pole has been good enough for a struggling team.

But unfortunately for Pole, his defensive flaws have been exposed in the back end of the season - and it wasnt just one or two missed tackles. There were some really bad and consistent decisions.

Now I don't think that's all on Pole.... There's a systematic issue with the Tigers defense which will no doubt help improve Pole's defence as an individual contributor.

I think we need to boot John Morris as defensive coach. After the sharks game I thought John Morris must have been a defensive genius, but it unravelled way too quickly and never improved again.

The Tigers need to add a workhorse to their pack, the likes of David Stagg and Dallas Johnson over the years who would do 40+ tackles a game. Someone that takes 5-10 runs a match, but is primarily a defensive workhorse.
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I'm not sure whether John Morris should be made the total scapegoat for our defence.

Our team must have had the most changes to both edges out of any team this season and arguably some of the poorest or weakest defenders in these positions (AD, Faataape, Naden, To'a, Staines in strength, Galvin strength & experience, Sullivan, Alaimalo, Samuela in experience etc etc). And the edges were where probably 80%+ of tries were scored against us (that's a gut feel figure too).

I'm also not sure who is to blame for a poor line speed, winning the collision & the whole stop/hold wrestle in the middle. Whether it is Morris, Benji's overall strategy, strength & conditioning, wrestling coach or all of the above.
 
TSP said:
More loyal than me at the moment.

The spoon bowl loss was a real thump to the head.

We all got our hopes up to “reach for the stars” and secure second last place but once again fate intervenes.

In some ways, it would have been kinder on us if we hadn’t have had to go through the drama of spoonbowl and had secured the spoon a few rounds ago and had no hope at all.

Instead we’ve had to face the additional trauma of dealing with some excitement followed by the let down of complete and utter catastrophe.
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The spoon bowl let a lot of us down, cant disagree there!

But it was also a stark reminder of where we are as a club and playing group.

In hindsight, though, I'm glad we lost. Those who truly want to be part of the rebuild will use it as motivation during preseason and for the 2025 season.

We took a family photo with spoons in our hands, so that when we win the Grand Final one day we can share it on socials that we have been here through the tough times 🙂
 
BlackWhiteGold said:
I'm not sure whether John Morris should be made the total scapegoat for our defence.

Our team must have had the most changes to both edges out of any team this season and arguably some of the poorest or weakest defenders in these positions (AD, Faataape, Naden, To'a, Staines in strength, Galvin strength & experience, Sullivan, Alaimalo, Samuela in experience etc etc). And the edges were where probably 80%+ of tries were scored against us (that's a gut feel figure too).

I'm also not sure who is to blame for a poor line speed, winning the collision & the whole stop/hold wrestle in the middle. Whether it is Morris, Benji's overall strategy, strength & conditioning, wrestling coach or all of the above.
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Sorry mate I am not just calling for Morris's head, I'm just not sure the inner workings of the coaching team so not sure who else's head to put on the chopping block 🙂
 
mtd#2 said:
The spoon bowl let a lot of us down, cant disagree there!

But it was also a stark reminder of where we are as a club and playing group.

In hindsight, though, I'm glad we lost. Those who truly want to be part of the rebuild will use it as motivation during preseason and for the 2025 season.

We took a family photo with spoons in our hands, so that when we win the Grand Final one day we can share it on socials that we have been here through the tough times 🙂
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Thanks for that.

You’re kind of right, when the going gets tough, the tough get going!
 
mtd#2 said:
Sorry mate I am not just calling for Morris's head, I'm just not sure the inner workings of the coaching team so not sure who else's head to put on the chopping block 🙂
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It'll be interesting what changes are made to the football dept after their internal reviews. That'll give us some indication where they have seen the issues. From the outside looking in, they can make improvements in all areas lol
 
BlackWhiteGold said:
I'm not sure whether John Morris should be made the total scapegoat for our defence.

Our team must have had the most changes to both edges out of any team this season and arguably some of the poorest or weakest defenders in these positions (AD, Faataape, Naden, To'a, Staines in strength, Galvin strength & experience, Sullivan, Alaimalo, Samuela in experience etc etc). And the edges were where probably 80%+ of tries were scored against us (that's a gut feel figure too).

I'm also not sure who is to blame for a poor line speed, winning the collision & the whole stop/hold wrestle in the middle. Whether it is Morris, Benji's overall strategy, strength & conditioning, wrestling coach or all of the above.
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I would say that they don't either. It's a mess.
 
Newtown said:
I would say that they don't either. It's a mess.
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Nope . Betsy pretty much gave it away , in the BTR podcast . Said we weren’t strong enough , led to retreating defenders which led to poor play , like infinite penalties / sin bins , lazy defence etc .
Said they’d figured out to quantify effort areas , and that when the guys were hitting thier targets on the effort areas , we’re winning or putting in good performances .
If that’s not a shot across the bow , towards the high performance team , than I’m not here .
And he’s 💯 right . We looked too weak at times , and because of that we were getting tired out earlier than most teams . We couldn’t stay in the arm wrestle because we weren’t strong enough .
I also know I heard a player give an interview where they alluded to the fact that the reason we play soo expansive out of our end was because we didn’t have the thrust and power in the back 3 , so we had to manufacture ruck speed .
There’s that word again Power / strength . I think they got it wrong this year . That’s Peter Moussa and his team . South’s by the way , suffered from the same thing . They looked to be outmatched physically .
 
Lestronge said:
Nope . Betsy pretty much gave it away , in the BTR podcast . Said we weren’t strong enough , led to retreating defenders which led to poor play , like infinite penalties / sin bins , lazy defence etc .
Said they’d figured out to quantify effort areas , and that when the guys were hitting their targets on the effort areas , we’re winning or putting in good performances .
If that’s not a shot across the bow , towards the high performance team , than I’m not here .
And he’s 💯 right . We looked too weak at times , and because of that we were getting tired out earlier than most teams . We couldn’t stay in the arm wrestle because we weren’t strong enough .
I also know I heard a player give an interview where they alluded to the fact that the reason we play soo expansive out of our end was because we didn’t have the thrust and power in the back 3 , so we had to manufacture ruck speed .
There’s that word again Power / strength . I think they got it wrong this year . That’s Peter Moussa and his team . South’s by the way , suffered from the same thing . They looked to be outmatched physically .
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100% correct

We were not strong in defence and that would lead to more players needed in the tackles and even then we could not get them on the ground and led to six again calls, penalties or breaks being made around the ruck as we had gaps in the defensive line trying to retreat.

Royce Hunt is supposedly one of or if not the strongest at the Sharks and hopefully he can improve the strength of the team with his training efforts along with a new S&C teams. If we can hold the teams in defence along with the improvement of the back three making good return metres then we should see improvement.

Jerome Luai will know how to close out games which we couldn't do well for many games this year and talks non stop which our team needs to remain focused.

Rest up fellow Wests Tiger Tragic's and fingers crossed we can look forward to possible additional signings before the start of Pre-season in November.
 
Last edited:
TSP said:
More loyal than me at the moment.

The spoon bowl loss was a real thump to the head.

We all got our hopes up to “reach for the stars” and secure second last place but once again fate intervenes.

In some ways, it would have been kinder on us if we hadn’t have had to go through the drama of spoonbowl and had secured the spoon a few rounds ago and had no hope at all.

Instead we’ve had to face the additional trauma of dealing with some excitement followed by the let down of complete and utter catastrophe.

It seems we can never take one lousy trick. I know this is wt life and we all signed up for it, but…

Anyway, it’s going to weeks for me to get over it at this rate, maybe months.
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You got your hopes up?
I must be older than you TSP.
I was hoping we’d win, no doubt, but my hopes were definitely low and my expectations were very much in the order of a 60 point flogging, experience.
 
liltiger said:
I'm still totally confused at how the club failed to see what the fan base saw. I was hoping Steph would stay and kick on but in the last 12 months there is no way Steph should have been our top forward re-signing priority. That was always Pole. Us fans had been yelling from the rooftops about it for ages. Instead we throw an alleged 800k a year 4 mill deal to Steph. If I'm Pole I'm peeved considering the diffrence in the form between the 2 this year. If we see Steph as an 800k prop then what's Pole 2.5 million.
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Quote from Richo I believe

Start doing what the fans want you to and it won’t be long before you’re sitting with them.
 
Lestronge said:
Nope . Betsy pretty much gave it away , in the BTR podcast . Said we weren’t strong enough , led to retreating defenders which led to poor play , like infinite penalties / sin bins , lazy defence etc .
Said they’d figured out to quantify effort areas , and that when the guys were hitting thier targets on the effort areas , we’re winning or putting in good performances .
If that’s not a shot across the bow , towards the high performance team , than I’m not here .
And he’s 💯 right . We looked too weak at times , and because of that we were getting tired out earlier than most teams . We couldn’t stay in the arm wrestle because we weren’t strong enough .
I also know I heard a player give an interview where they alluded to the fact that the reason we play soo expansive out of our end was because we didn’t have the thrust and power in the back 3 , so we had to manufacture ruck speed .
There’s that word again Power / strength . I think they got it wrong this year . That’s Peter Moussa and his team . South’s by the way , suffered from the same thing . They looked to be outmatched physically .
Click to expand...
Mate you are spot on and its obvious to all except our coaching staff. The spoon bowl wether we give all type of excuses, truth is Benji wanted it bad, the team carried on like they wanted it bad and they go out and produce that. 60 to the second bottom team in a so called must win game. Concerns,: how many players are we replacing in our starting 13 and what teams do you think will finish below us next year even with players signed and consider players leaving.. We need a lot more than just 2 forwards. I hope im wrong. We desperately need power especially in D.
 
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