Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[boonboon]

tupou homesick supposedly

Isn't he from Canberra

 

[hammertime]

Good post. It is easy to criticise Tupou but when you realise he was inexperienced when introduced into a poor squad, he did okay. I hope Richardson is going to return him to WTs.

He'd be depth. So it would need to be the right price.

 

[Demps]

Tupou > Feledy, Naden & Fataape.

He needs some belief behind him which I think he'd get with Benji.

Perfect top 30 recruit.
Work on his game and fill in when needed, hopefully can continue to improve and push to be a starter.

He's a very athletic player.
Has his flaws, yeah, but there's a player in there.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Would absolutely take Tupou back.

Covers centre & wing, plenty of high end potential. You can't have too many big, fast, athletic players in the squad.

If he is the quality of player you bring up in times of injury, if he is the KOE talent level- the club is in good shape.

I'd say he is more talented than Skelton, but less developed. He was also learning while being part of a very poor squad. We have missed the power running of Skelton when injured. Tupou fixes that.

He’s only mildly better than Kepaoa

 

[pawsandclaws1]

He'd be depth. So it would need to be the right price.

I hope we witness the same improvement in him similar to that of Toa. If we can recruit three good NRL players (not including Tupou) in addition to those we now have, there is a core of players which should lift the performance of the team and individual players. I was disappointed when Tupou left but understood the $ he was offered by the Dolphins was above market rate.

 

[bptiger 0]

Good post. It is easy to criticise Tupou but when you realise he was inexperienced when introduced into a poor squad, he did okay. I hope Richardson is going to return him to WTs.

Oh we will take butter fingers tupou but won’t give may a shot , really

 

[pawsandclaws1]

Oh we will take butter fingers tupou but won’t give may a shot , really

I am happy for Richardson and Marshall to build the new squad. We've brought Richardson into the club for his experience, so I suggest it is in our interests to let him do his job. There was a post yesterday about May from one of our forum members. It should be mandatory reading for those pushing the Taylan May barrow. It removed the emotion from the debate and instead provided fact and it was excellent. I will try and find it.

 

[weststigerman]

Looking at Tupou’s QLD Cup stats, 10 errors from 7 games including 1 game with 5 errors.

Safe to say he still has that shocker in him. My issue with him was never catching, but the way he holds the ball when he comes in for hit up it’s almost 50/50 that he’ll lose it.

 

[pawsandclaws1]

Oh we will take butter fingers tupou but won’t give may a shot , really

Here is the post from Tigers which provides an excellent analysis.

It's not worth it for this club. You'd be swapping on-pitch liabilities with off pitch ones, which are worse.

He's not experienced enough to just turn it back on again, I don't think he's ever played more than 8 first games matches in a row in his career, and when he has played that long its been on the wing as part of the great team of the last 20 years. Look at how roided up Naden and Staines' stats are after stints on the wing for Penrith. Don't we learn anything?

He's only played 8 games of his career at Centre and that was after Crichton's departure, and that batch of games included losses to the Knights, Manly and the Cowboys. He's scored one try in his career as a centre. The amount of time between May's best showings for Penrith and today are pretty much the same amount of time between when James Roberts making his origin debut and said player joining Wests Tigers.

There are things that you learn as a pro after doing something 80+ times instead of 8. That's what this club needs in that position.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Tupou is overrated with butter fingers to boot

Overrated? Who is he rated by?

 

[Lestronge]

Looking at Tupou’s QLD Cup stats, 10 errors from 7 games including 1 game with 5 errors.

Safe to say he still has that shocker in him. My issue with him was never catching, but the way he holds the ball when he comes in for hit up it’s almost 50/50 that he’ll lose it.

It’s a weird one , because he came from union and the big thing in union is ball security as you go into the collision , as you can be stripped at any point , held up to force a turn over , and dominated in the ruck .
It’s union 101 .
He’s a real talent though . His ball security is infuriating.

 

[Tiger-ferret]

Would absolutely take Tupou back.

Covers centre & wing, plenty of high end potential. You can't have too many big, fast, athletic players in the squad.

If he is the quality of player you bring up in times of injury, if he is the KOE talent level- the club is in good shape.

I'd say he is more talented than Skelton, but less developed. He was also learning while being part of a very poor squad. We have missed the power running of Skelton when injured. Tupou fixes that.

Skelton did more in his 4 games for us than Tupou did in 30. At a reported $650k @ dolphins id pass.

 

[Fish88]

View attachment 23203

Has possibly the worst hands I’ve seen in first grade but if he fixed that he’s be very good.

 

[mtd#2]

If only... unfortunately already extended at the broncs

I signed up to the broncos forum to see what they had to say
They seem resigned to the fact they will lose staggs or cobbo

 

[batboy]

Overrated? Who is he rated by?

Read the comments - Plenty it would seem (Mind Boggling)
- Lets all go out and buy some more potential.

He looked like he didn't wanna be here when he played, Now he's not here
- Best leave him not here.

Said way back when he'd struggle to get a start up there,
There's a reason.

 

[Betterdays22]

Overrated? Who is he rated by?

He was offered a hugely inflated contract by the Dolphins so clearly someone did rate him.

Ended up being a great move by Benji not to desperately try to keep him here. We landed Skelton who is on at least half the salary but is probably twice as good.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

Tupou > Feledy, Naden & Fataape.

He needs some belief behind him which I think he'd get with Benji.

Perfect top 30 recruit.
Work on his game and fill in when needed, hopefully can continue to improve and push to be a starter.

He's a very athletic player.
Has his flaws, yeah, but there's a player in there.

Would prefer May over Tupou.
But for depth would take Tupou over the others.
But I would want to avoid him. He hasn’t lived up to potential, struggled when given chances and is 23 soon. He also ditched us easily (we offered him a very nice deal from reports) so he didn’t want to be here anyway.

 

[crazycat]

200k is almost minimum wage. Players on 200k are usually number 28-29 on the roster.

Staines and Naden are both on double that.

People really are out of touch with salaries and rises from the cap increase.

Exactly why I argue against depth so much.

If Naden (depth) is 400k + Staines (depth) another 400k, you could go a 650k player and a min contract guy for the same price.

Sure you need a bit of depth, 18/19/20 in a Utility, a forward and maybe someone who can play halfback. The rest should be as close to min val as possible. SO you get first graders starting in your side.

 

[Buttface]

He was offered a hugely inflated contract by the Dolphins so clearly someone did rate him.

Ended up being a great move by Benji not to desperately try to keep him here. We landed Skelton who is on at least half the salary but is probably twice as good.

It’s a shame we didn’t have Topou when he was a little younger so we could develop him correctly. 😎

No Ex girlfriends.

Helta Skelta rules.
When he’s on the field.

 

[Tom Shines]

Good post. It is easy to criticise Tupou but when you realise he was inexperienced when introduced into a poor squad, he did okay. I hope Richardson is going to return him to WTs.

Sorry I’m not buying those excuses given the nature of his worst mistakes … experience levels has nothing to do with dropped balls and kicks …

His attitude last year was ordinary and he looked like he was busting his backside to get out of the place … Im sure Richo will remember that now that Topou has found out the grass isn’t any greener