Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

gregjm87 said:
I don't think our halves looked any better with AD at first receiver. I think AD did a better job there than either of them did, but I don't think they looked better with him there.
Quite often he didn't look to give them more time and space but rather just moved the defensive pressure wider of the ruck. I think this is how he scored his try. Defensive pressure pushed up wide of the ruck and forgot about the bloke with the ball.
I think the issue with AD playing as a lock is that he needs to be willing to take hit ups and get bashed. Running into the line with the ball is how you then create the space wider. If he's not taking 15+ hit ups effective enough for 100+m then defence will just slide off him with the 2nd receiver not getting any additional space.
Additionally for me the locks key ball playing role is short passing to isolate middle defenders and get our ball running forwards one on one. It will rarely lead to a line breaks but is how those forwards then find their front and generate fast play to then attack off. I didn't see any of this in his little cameo.
Not saying he can't do any of the above or that we shouldn't continually trial it for the remainder of the season. I'm just in no way convinced yet.
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Good analysis, so what players do we currently have, or do we need to get us attacking fluently?
 
Vicious said:
Good analysis, so what players do we currently have, or do we need to get us attacking fluently?
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I haven't seen it in any of our current players. I don't know if that means none of them have that skill set or simply none of them have been given the opportunity to showcase it.
 
tigahhh said:
i’m a young girl but close enough lol it shows we are improving :

After 17 games 2024 v 2025 for the Wests Tigers

2025 has 2 wins more, 2 losses less, 3 places higher on the ladder, scored 41 points more and conceded 60 points less.

A points difference improvement of 101 points.

If WT improve by the same amount at the same time next year:

8W, 9L, For 375, Against 376, Pts Diff -1 Tigers would be ~11th and 1 win shy of the top 8.

big picture shows improvement, more cohesion in our attack which will come with a settled spine and we aren’t far away.
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The problem is that we have gone backwards since the start of the year. The trend line is currently pointing down, when we need it to point up. The past 10 weeks have been very poor, there is no sugar-coating it.

Compared to other teams down the bottom of the ladder we have been pretty fortunate with injuries. We have had a lot of disruption to the spine, but a lot of it is also Benji's fault. He was constantly shifting Mason around when we had Doueihi and Turuva there already. I don't think Benji knows what his best team is. His recruitment of Bird and Hunt have been failures, and you can argue that Luai has been a failure so far given the money he is on.

But the main thing is that I don't see where the improvement comes from. Pearce-Paul is a good signing but he isn't standing out in a team coming 13th, so what will make him stand out at the Tigers? The biggest improvement we can make bar changing the coach is in the people around him, but Benji has hand-picked his staff and he won't change it now.
 
whadafeck said:
The problem is that we have gone backwards since the start of the year. The trend line is currently pointing down, when we need it to point up. The past 10 weeks have been very poor, there is no sugar-coating it.

Compared to other teams down the bottom of the ladder we have been pretty fortunate with injuries. We have had a lot of disruption to the spine, but a lot of it is also Benji's fault. He was constantly shifting Mason around when we had Doueihi and Turuva there already. I don't think Benji knows what his best team is. His recruitment of Bird and Hunt have been failures, and you can argue that Luai has been a failure so far given the money he is on.

But the main thing is that I don't see where the improvement comes from. Pearce-Paul is a good signing but he isn't standing out in a team coming 13th, so what will make him stand out at the Tigers? The biggest improvement we can make bar changing the coach is in the people around him, but Benji has hand-picked his staff and he won't change it now.
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KPP unfortunately is a ‘passive’ 2RF, like the rest of our pack. Tigers need an aggressive forward somewhere in the mix.
 
weststigerman said:
I wonder if all the people suggesting Taylan May come into the side watched his game or just looked at his stats?
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I watched a 12 min highlights package …Didn’t seem to do much ( no other Magpies player did either ) until he scored three tries late when n the game was over down 22-0 …

Pick him by all means ..but I’ll be keeping the expectations low for a while..
 
weststigerman said:
I wonder if all the people suggesting Taylan May come into the side watched his game or just looked at his stats?
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I would say most people just read he scored 3 tries and based their opinion of that.(I did not see him play either but i have followed football long enough to know you can put little credibilty on who scores the tries).Having said that i HOPE he is the answer in the centres because i feel he will be picked there tomorrow.
 
weststigerman said:
I wonder if all the people suggesting Taylan May come into the side watched his game or just looked at his stats?
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Yeah I did wtm (actually twice). He was strong on both sides of the ball, made his tackles, no poor defensive reads that I recall, strong in carries (one knock on) & obviously finishing with 3 tries. Didn't seem gassed at the end.

I'd suggest he will come in at left centre, with AD pushing to the bench. Twal play 20-25 mins, AD come on as lock at that point. Then May is assessed at around the 60-65th minute, if gassed or risk of soft tissue injury, AD shifts out to left centre, Twal on to finish game at lock (otherwise in prop rotation).
 
tigahhh said:
i’m a young girl but close enough lol it shows we are improving :

After 17 games 2024 v 2025 for the Wests Tigers

2025 has 2 wins more, 2 losses less, 3 places higher on the ladder, scored 41 points more and conceded 60 points less.

A points difference improvement of 101 points.

If WT improve by the same amount at the same time next year:

8W, 9L, For 375, Against 376, Pts Diff -1 Tigers would be ~11th and 1 win shy of the top 8.

big picture shows improvement, more cohesion in our attack which will come with a settled spine and we aren’t far away.
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Also bought the best player on the market.
has the Juice been worth the Squeeze,
I think based on recruitment and another year in the younger Players
most here thought we'd have shown more improvement than we have.
 
Tom Shines said:
I watched a 12 min highlights package …Didn’t seem to do much ( no other Magpies player did either ) until he scored three tries late when n the game was over down 22-0 …

Pick him by all means ..but I’ll be keeping the expectations low for a while..
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Really you keeping the expectations low, who would have thought!
 
Tom Shines said:
Well they say that Disappointment = Expectations minus reality …

Watching this team all my life has taught me to manage that
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In a perfect scenario Taylan should have been held back a little bit longer, but 2 games back he’s already a much bigger edge threat than what we currently have, so we really have no option other than to play him.
I thought his defence looked a bit shaky a couple of times, but rock solid compared to what we have recently been dishing up at NRL level.
Very noticeable is that Taylan generally accelerates fast when coming onto the ball like all good quality players do.
Let’s hope that does not disappear after playing with us for a while.
 
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BlackWhiteGold said:
Yeah I did wtm (actually twice). He was strong on both sides of the ball, made his tackles, no poor defensive reads that I recall, strong in carries (one knock on) & obviously finishing with 3 tries. Didn't seem gassed at the end.

I'd suggest he will come in at left centre, with AD pushing to the bench. Twal play 20-25 mins, AD come on as lock at that point. Then May is assessed at around the 60-65th minute, if gassed or risk of soft tissue injury, AD shifts out to left centre, Twal on to finish game at lock (otherwise in prop rotation).
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Great to hear.

I know you would have watched. I was referring to those who just looked at the stats.

I would have liked to see him get 1 more NSW Cup game under his belt, especially after having hamstring tightness 2 weeks ago. It looks like Benji might move AD as you said so we need someone that is not Bit’d.
 
Vicious said:
Who ?
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I’m not a talent scout and not across all the NRL capable locks that may suit our team, but I do reckon there has to be someone out there better, it wouldn’t be hard.
We have him till the end of this season, and to upgrade our NRL lock, as I think we are about to add two centres to the mix, I don’t see the point in extending him and his new management at our club.
 
Vicious said:
True, who would you interchange him with ?
I realise we start Twal at 13 as a bigger body when defending and tk assist our middles with the go forward , but it appears all rival teams know we don’t even consider shifting the ball early in games, so just condense their defence and make it very hard for us to win the yardage battle no matter how many bigger bodied forwards we have.
I think the only way we can potentially combat this is by having a 13 who plays 1st receiver and digs into the line from the opening whistle.
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Agree our starts are depressing the way we get dominated. We definitely need to play smarter and more attacking early on.

Im not sure who i would interchange AD with. Bird was the obvious choice at the start of the year but he has been terrible imo.
 
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