Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Chipofftheoldblock]

I think we're gonna have to go to market for something in the short term at the very least. I don't think anyone in that current crop is up to it, and I love Sione.

Hetherington looks to be our priority target, and I'm very curious to see if we push to sign him for 2026 if we can't get him immediately. guys like Tallis Duncan and Egan Butcher serve as solid plan B's. you could even have a look at Brandon Smith.

I think the Galvin edge conversation is probably still 18 months away, and Latu's miles off. Hodges is classy, but he's still three years away...

Havea though, he's the guy long term. I'm hopeful we can sign Hetherington to lock the scrum for the next five years before we begin to integrate Tame. he's legit.

To me Egan Butcher is a guy you could jag - works hard, plays hard. Would not cost the earth.
I would also look at getting Baily Sironen back from Catalans - another that would not cost the world and do a very good job across multiple positions from hooker and backrow.

You need players with grit and determination looking to make a name.

Guys like Matamua and Reuben Porter (how he jagged another contract i have no idea) should have been released. I am not a fan of Matamua at any cost. I think he is lazy and shows no desire to use his size and skill.
Tumeth shows more guts and determination than this guy.

 

[orange&black]

Have to agree on the fitness issue. This season I watched many games where it looked like our players were simply not as fit as their opponents. Perhaps we were always chasing games as well which made it tougher for us, also we were often younger and smaller than the opposition so struggled to match it physically for 80 mins.

 

[Lestronge]

Yep seen it , I posted after watching todays news headlines so he hasn’t backed off , the big forward we were looking at Willson looked like he was about to drop , others were heads down jogging , they say they are training them on the limit , we look like we are not trying hard at all , that’s all m saying

There’s 2 competing theories around performance . One is you build up to that , so you’re peaking at the end of your training cycle to coincide with the date of whatever it is you’re training for . This is usually the strategy most defence forces use . With minimum standards set prior to the training commencement date that are non negotiable .
Or the balls to the wall getting flogged every day .
The only elite units I know who train like this are things like SAS , where there pre selection standards that are soo high , that most don’t even pass the pre- selection .
I really don’t think you can judge anything on week 2 day 1 , nor be able to judge anything like the intensity on the training , where one is media photos to drive a particular agenda , and the other the club photos released to drum up interest .
I’m not sure how interesting and good for fan engagement it is , watching the players vomit in a bucket , and look like they need an IV drip .
Outside of the hardcore on this forum .

 

[Chipofftheoldblock]

Just looked at the pre season training shots posted today on tigers web site , can’t see one player sweating it up , and to many smiling faces , Broncos look like they are going to pass out on tv up in qld , getting flogged , our guys look like it’s a fun day out , I want to see pain , we were so unfit last season it was a joke , harden them up already

I agree and this was my issue with last season also.
We looked under done, we looked small in stature and we still look like that.

Bulldogs changed their whole approach and that came down to training and the type of players they bought.
Penrith and Storm have been doing this for years yet we have a coach who still likes to think he can play.

We need a hard edge approach to training - i have no problem with what Madge is doing at the Bronco's. No one seems to complain about the training the Storm go through each pre-season.
Blore was a different player than the one that was here (he was rarely injured this season) and that is down to 2 things - club culture and the training approach of hard work.

 

[Bones]

Yep seen it , I posted after watching todays news headlines so he hasn’t backed off , the big forward we were looking at Willson looked like he was about to drop , others were heads down jogging , they say they are training them on the limit , we look like we are not trying hard at all , that’s all m saying

The bulk of the NRL squad isn’t even training yet, and Madge hasn’t coached a team to finals in any of his last 6 seasons as an NRL coach. There’s more to it than just flogging them till they spew every day.

 

[Lestronge]

I agree and this was my issue with last season also.
We looked under done, we looked small in stature and we still look like that.

Bulldogs changed their whole approach and that came down to training and the type of players they bought.
Penrith and Storm have been doing this for years yet we have a coach who still likes to think he can play.

We need a hard edge approach to training - i have no problem with what Madge is doing at the Bronco's. No one seems to complain about the training the Storm go through each pre-season.
Blore was a different player than the one that was here (he was rarely injured this season) and that is down to 2 things - club culture and the training approach of hard work.

I agree our training standards need to lift . But how does anyone know how hard we are training ?
Like I said one teams photos of being hammered are supplied by media outlets at training , because the story is “madge flogs his players” .
The other is photos released by our internal media manager . They’re not the same thing .
Plus the guys at training right now , are mostly kids , and back end players /guys who are in thier second year consecutive of football .
If by December we arnt seeing photos of guys lying in a heap on the ground , which I think the club should release , then we should worry . Not the second week of November .

 

[426Tlgerland]

The bulk of the NRL squad isn’t even training yet, and Madge hasn’t coached a team to finals in any of his last 6 seasons as an NRL coach. There’s more to it than just flogging them till they spew every day.

I never said I want them passing out , I would like to see them break into a sweat , or is it cold down south , been 30 deg days up hear so could be the difference , maybe

 

[Chipofftheoldblock]

I agree our training standards need to lift . But how does anyone know how hard we are training ?
Like I said one teams photos of being hammered are supplied by media outlets at training , because the story is “madge flogs his players” .
The other is photos released by our internal media manager . They’re not the same thing .
Plus the guys at training right now , are mostly kids , and back end players /guys who are in thier second year consecutive of football .
If by December we arnt seeing photos of guys lying in a heap on the ground , which I think the club should release , then we should worry . Not the second week of November .

Fair call - although i don't think this will change from what we are seeing but agree with what you are saying.

 

[crazycat]

This is assuming that there is zero cheating involved.

Gould is very smart in maximising the 3rd party sponsorship.

Ill just call something out with Gould:

He apparently rejected the Bulldogs job 4 times.
Why? he did not think he had the guts to wield the axe hard enough.

He fired Josh Jackson, he gutted all the training staff. While Reynolds came back, it was on peanuts....

Notice a trend?

Dragons are firing Hunt, Bird and Lomax walked.

Parra are firing people left/right/center.


What do we do?
Let our stars walk after getting the Spoon.

Benji 100% is far too soft to do a club rebuild.
Yes I know we hate the phrase "rebuild", Because we hear it year after year. IMHO we haven't had one.
Madge never took a broom to our roster (he couldn't have, in his defense).

We have never had a true rebuild, like other clubs have. If 2025 we don't fire, we won't. Marshall is far too soft to do a proper rebuild.

 

[rugbygoated]

I’m hopeful that two things may occur.

1- our forwards are better because our outside backs will actually do some dirty work
2- Richo still has a couple of recruitment cards to play.

Given that, Benji might not be fully cooked.

He is. I'm looking around at other teams that are contending for the wooden spoon. Here's what I've found. We are still favourites for the spoon. No forward pack + benji still as coach.

Other contenders:
- Dolphins (post-Wayne) with ageing forwards and overachieving 2 seasons in a row
- Knights - only so much ponga can do and their halves situation is nowhere near sorted, with the only bright lights some juniors and english journeymen
- Titans - Des Hasler coach, with tino back and Kini coming off international duties for NZ
- Dragons - can't count them as wooden spooners with flanno as coach, but with off field problems and signing ageing players it could be a negative
- Warriors - Very disappointing 2024. JFH will be huge for them, but they will have a new halfback with SJ out, TMM was good this year, but uncertainty around their team
- Sea Eagles - Very interesting one. DCE injury would be an absolute killer for their season. Combine this with Turbo's ability to get injured easy and it's season over. Brooks had a great 2024, but in games without dce he went back to the old brooks. Seibold is already a wooden spoon winning coach in 2020 with broncos.
- Broncos - They will not get the spoon, but we only have to look to 2020 to see how club culture can fizzle out a great club. Madge has won a spoon with us. Broncos are full of talent, but not much work ethic. Was shocked watching Carrigan for Australia, looks lazy and not the same player. Mam situation will be a distraction, with no good 5/8s on the market. Ben Hunt / Adam Reynolds pairing would not gel

 

[Tiger_Yoshi]

Ill just call something out with Gould:

He apparently rejected the Bulldogs job 4 times.
Why? he did not think he had the guts to wield the axe hard enough.

He fired Josh Jackson, he gutted all the training staff. While Reynolds came back, it was on peanuts....

Notice a trend?

Dragons are firing Hunt, Bird and Lomax walked.

Parra are firing people left/right/center.


What do we do?
Let our stars walk after getting the Spoon.

Benji 100% is far too soft to do a club rebuild.
Yes I know we hate the phrase "rebuild", Because we hear it year after year. IMHO we haven't had one.
Madge never took a broom to our roster (he couldn't have, in his defense).

We have never had a true rebuild, like other clubs have. If 2025 we don't fire, we won't. Marshall is far too soft to do a proper rebuild.

Richo is rock hard though....he will do what it takes to she dead wood

 

[rugbygoated]

People had a similar mindset in 23 and 24.
With all due respect, I’m not believing anyone saying we can’t win it. Given our current forward pack which is looking likely to get even weaker in 25, and given our coaching staff who are still not good, we are a good bet for 17th.

I think the biggest thing is not about how bad we are, but how bad are teams around us. There is not many teams in the same situation as us. No forward pack, 3 spoons in a row, no club identity or culture, senior players wanting out, junior players playing a bit too care free after being unleashed too early, and most importantly poor standards being set by a rookie coach. Knights are due surely. They've overachieved a lot recently. Favourites for the spoon again unless we can sign a decent forward out of nowhere who can at least keep us off the bottom

 

[Lestronge]

He is. I'm looking around at other teams that are contending for the wooden spoon. Here's what I've found. We are still favourites for the spoon. No forward pack + benji still as coach.

Other contenders:
- Dolphins (post-Wayne) with ageing forwards and overachieving 2 seasons in a row
- Knights - only so much ponga can do and their halves situation is nowhere near sorted, with the only bright lights some juniors and english journeymen
- Titans - Des Hasler coach, with tino back and Kini coming off international duties for NZ
- Dragons - can't count them as wooden spooners with flanno as coach, but with off field problems and signing ageing players it could be a negative
- Warriors - Very disappointing 2024. JFH will be huge for them, but they will have a new halfback with SJ out, TMM was good this year, but uncertainty around their team
- Sea Eagles - Very interesting one. DCE injury would be an absolute killer for their season. Combine this with Turbo's ability to get injured easy and it's season over. Brooks had a great 2024, but in games without dce he went back to the old brooks. Seibold is already a wooden spoon winning coach in 2020 with broncos.
- Broncos - They will not get the spoon, but we only have to look to 2020 to see how club culture can fizzle out a great club. Madge has won a spoon with us. Broncos are full of talent, but not much work ethic. Was shocked watching Carrigan for Australia, looks lazy and not the same player. Mam situation will be a distraction, with no good 5/8s on the market. Ben Hunt / Adam Reynolds pairing would not gel

??? I read that have lots of room optimism . How you’ve mentally twisted yourself with that narrative to already be writing us off … I dunno . Especially you know , how we won 3 of our last 4 games . That last game though ….

 

[BAGNF05]

He is. I'm looking around at other teams that are contending for the wooden spoon. Here's what I've found. We are still favourites for the spoon. No forward pack + benji still as coach.

Other contenders:
- Dolphins (post-Wayne) with ageing forwards and overachieving 2 seasons in a row
- Knights - only so much ponga can do and their halves situation is nowhere near sorted, with the only bright lights some juniors and english journeymen
- Titans - Des Hasler coach, with tino back and Kini coming off international duties for NZ
- Dragons - can't count them as wooden spooners with flanno as coach, but with off field problems and signing ageing players it could be a negative
- Warriors - Very disappointing 2024. JFH will be huge for them, but they will have a new halfback with SJ out, TMM was good this year, but uncertainty around their team
- Sea Eagles - Very interesting one. DCE injury would be an absolute killer for their season. Combine this with Turbo's ability to get injured easy and it's season over. Brooks had a great 2024, but in games without dce he went back to the old brooks. Seibold is already a wooden spoon winning coach in 2020 with broncos.
- Broncos - They will not get the spoon, but we only have to look to 2020 to see how club culture can fizzle out a great club. Madge has won a spoon with us. Broncos are full of talent, but not much work ethic. Was shocked watching Carrigan for Australia, looks lazy and not the same player. Mam situation will be a distraction, with no good 5/8s on the market. Ben Hunt / Adam Reynolds pairing would not gel

Key injuries can derail every club with the exception of maybe four clubs.

If we don’t add a couple of forwards we’ll be in the mix for bottom four and Benji will come under pressure. That’s the business.

 

[rugbygoated]

??? I read that have lots of room optimism . How you’ve mentally twisted yourself with that narrative to already be writing us off … I dunno . Especially you know , how we won 3 of our last 4 games . That last game though ….

We can't build consistency over a long period. 3 out of 4 sounds good, but it was to avoid a spoon. What about the start to the year when we beat sharks and eels, then lost like 10 in a row, won twice, then another 8 in a row loss streak. It's just not good enough

 

[Tigers_Wests]

Snippet relevant to us from an article tonight.

Hetherington, 25, played a career-high 23 games in 2024 but only started in three of them.

His manager Chris Haddad told AAP that the request for a release boiled down to his desire "for more minutes and a starting position".

Wests Tigers and St George Illawarra were among two clubs keen on the rugged forward but they were not able to offer a deal as no release was forthcoming.

Maguire has been up front and Haddad said Hetherington would rip in to training under the new mentor.

"I have known Madge (Maguire) for 14 years and he is straight to the point with everything and a great coach," Haddad said.

"Madge said he just wanted a chance to work with Kobe for the next year and that he was not releasing him. The Broncos also do not have a suitable replacement. Kobe is happy to stay."

While lock is his best position, Hetherington can play in the second-row and he will keep the heat on Riki and Piakura.

 

[Jolls]

You can't take anything from a few training photos on either side of the argument. What is portrayed by the media depends on what the journo/photographer is trying to have you think. Being flogged and having a laugh can happen at the same time.

Having personally done many "Army Camps" at places like Kapooka, Canungra and Tully over 35 years I can tell you that the "floggings" have next to nothing to do with fitness - although you have to be fit as a pre-requisite of you can't complete them. The purpose of the activities is to induce physical stress, to simulate battle stress, in a collective environment in order to develop comaradarie and teamwork. I can tell you from first hand experience that in order to push through humour is key - in order to pick yourself and your mates up when you are at a physical and mental low. Black humour at times; but certainly enough to induce a laugh between periods of extreme physical exertion.

I think part of our problem this season is that we had a programme that focussed too much on the wrong type of fitness. We developed a team that was lean to try and execute a fast paced game. I'll bet there was plenty of running and sprints and puking to get down to a lean team so we could play before the line and blow teams off the park with the pace of the play. This bit us in the arse!

I would prefer us to have a more balanced approach this coming season - our pigs and juniors need to put on some muscle while having a focus on the fast twitch response with ball and feet. Endurance is also required but it is something you build over a season otherwise burn out will occur. We need to be healthy and ready at the start of the season building to peak endurance around September.

Flogging players for the sake of fitness in the pre-season is counter productive - flogging them to induce stress in a collective environment to develop teamwork is another thing!

 

[BAGNF05]

You can't take anything from a few trainign photos on either side of the argument. What is portrayed by the media depends on what the journo/photographer is trying to have you think. Being flogged and having a laugh can happen at the same time.

Having personally done many "Army Camps" at places like Kapooka, Canungra and Tully over 35 years I can tell you that the "floggings" have next to nothing to do with fitness - although you have to be fit as a pre-requisite of you can't complete them. The purpose of the activities is to induce physical stress to simulate battle stress ina c ollective environment in order to develop comaradarie and teamwork. I can tell you from first hand experience that in order to push through humour is key - in order to pick yourself and your mates up when you are at a physical and mental low. Black humour at times - but certainly enough to induce a laugh between physical exertion.

I think part of our problem this season is that we had a programme focussed too much on the wrong type of fitness. We developed a team that was lean to try and execute a fast paced game. I'll bet there was plenty of running and sprints and puking to get down to a lean team so we could play before the line and blow teams off the park with the pace of the play. This bit us in the arse!

I would prefer us to have a more balanced approach this coming season - our pigs and juniors need to put on some muscle while having a focus on the fast twitch response with ball and feet. Endurance is also required but it is something you build over a season otherwise burn out will occur. We need to be healthy and ready at the start of the season building to peak endurance around September.

Flogging players for the sake of fitness in the pre-season is counter productive - flogging them to induce stress in a collective environment to develop teamwork is another thing!

I find it hilarious that people are equating our lack of size and physicality with fitness. We fielded a team of kids in the NRL. On what planet were we going to compete physically against hardened professionals?

 

[user118245]

I agree our training standards need to lift . But how does anyone know how hard we are training ?
Like I said one teams photos of being hammered are supplied by media outlets at training , because the story is “madge flogs his players” .
The other is photos released by our internal media manager . They’re not the same thing .
Plus the guys at training right now , are mostly kids , and back end players /guys who are in thier second year consecutive of football .
If by December we arnt seeing photos of guys lying in a heap on the ground , which I think the club should release , then we should worry . Not the second week of November .

Big thing as well, we have no clue when these photos were taken, how far into the session, could’ve been at the start hence no sweat, or whenever

 

[Fish88]

Snippet relevant to us from an article tonight.

Hetherington, 25, played a career-high 23 games in 2024 but only started in three of them.

His manager Chris Haddad told AAP that the request for a release boiled down to his desire "for more minutes and a starting position".

Wests Tigers and St George Illawarra were among two clubs keen on the rugged forward but they were not able to offer a deal as no release was forthcoming.

Maguire has been up front and Haddad said Hetherington would rip in to training under the new mentor.

"I have known Madge (Maguire) for 14 years and he is straight to the point with everything and a great coach," Haddad said.

"Madge said he just wanted a chance to work with Kobe for the next year and that he was not releasing him. The Broncos also do not have a suitable replacement. Kobe is happy to stay."

While lock is his best position, Hetherington can play in the second-row and he will keep the heat on Riki and Piakura.

That’s a shame, he won’t be getting much game time there but I wouldn’t expect Madge to do us any favours anyway