Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Needaname]

Someone said 4 spots remaining for next season?

Bunty Afoa
Harrison Hassett
Raymond Faitala Mariner
Freddie Lussick

There are players I prefer, but this covers a lot of holes.

I’d take Top Sipley over the above. Always bends the lines with his runs.

 

[Vicious]

Ray Stone is a Tigers type signing.

The kind of cult favourite from another club of the great story that gives hope to people that no matter being a midget, if you work hard and train hard you will play first grade.

Anyone ever seen the movie Rudy? Check it out.

Press conference and a term I hate - “He’s a great competitor”.

I want established first grade weapons. Not journeymen.

I think you are missing the point that our defence in particular lacks line speed and lacks aggression due to having a forward pack full of players that make tackles only because they have to, but no intention to hurt the opposition or make a difference.
Ray Stone alone will not make a world of difference, but a player like him could be the starting point in signing a few players who do defend with intent and aggression.
If we were to sign him, I would play him at 9 for the first 20 mins of each game before bringing Api on once the heat of the battle has settled and we would then have the option of using Stone as a 13 and he would likely only play 40-50mins each game just for his aggression factor alone.
As I say we need more aggressive defenders than just him, but he’d be a start and maybe a few of our current players would find the courage to show a bit of line speed and hit a bit harder from playing alongside him.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

I think you are missing the point that our defence in particular lacks line speed and lacks aggression due to having a forward pack full of players that make tackles only because they have to, but no intention to hurt the opposition or make a difference.

While I agree that we need some more aggression, I am now convinced that this is mainly due to our coaching and development.

Terrell May is absolutely capable of being an impact forward with aggression, he is now coached to preserve himself so he can play 70-80 minutes. More minutes, but less impact.

I still remember a game at Campbelltown about a year or two ago where Fonua Pole came off the back fence about three times like a rampaging bull. He is capable but is now playing longer minutes.

Look at Galvin at the Dogs yesterday, everyone said he didn't play straight enough with us (rightly so) but already changing his game, playing at the line, playing much straighter.

We are the club where players come and regress. Not many improve here.

 

[Vicious]

While I agree that we need some more aggression, I am now convinced that this is mainly due to our coaching and development.

Terrell May is absolutely capable of being an impact forward with aggression, he is now coached to preserve himself so he can play 70-80 minutes. More minutes, but less impact.

I still remember a game at Campbelltown about a year or two ago where Fonua Pole came off the back fence about three times like a rampaging bull. He is capable but is now playing longer minutes.

Look at Galvin at the Dogs yesterday, everyone said he didn't play straight enough with us (rightly so) but already changing his game, playing at the line, playing much straighter.

We are the club where players come and regress. Not many improve here.

Sone very good points you raise.
That along with the fascination to play injured players who only let us down while playing injured is mind boggling.

 

[innsaneink]

Line speed starts at training...or even the offseason (fitness)...but its a waste of time.if we cant compete in the ruck, wrestle and slow the opposition down, put them on the deck and turn them around.
Guys like Stone tho would help big time

 

[Fish88]

"he hasn't been in the Warriors first grade side for awhile" doesn't that tell you something.

Warriors are stacked with forwards and are backing youth too.

 

[Tiger-ferret]

"he hasn't been in the Warriors first grade side for awhile" doesn't that tell you something.

Perfect signing for the Tigers!

 

[Milky]

No "super good" Talent.

Tristan Hope
Heath Mason

Both come to mind. I like Hope, but both are fringe graders not guns.

I agree but what I’m trying to say is he has had time + resources to form the team he wants.

When Cleary was here, he signed Matulino, Mcqueen, Packer and Reynolds. They weren’t good but whilst he was coach they performed. We beat Roosters and Storm in GP back to back. We could only dream of that now.

It seems Benji is just signing whoever he can with no plan

 

[hank37w]

people on here don’t like logic
they want Klemmer on $800k

I think we definitely would have explained to him coming into this season that we would not play him the requisite number of games to activate that clause in his contract.

I think the club did the right thing by Klemmer and themselves by doing that, giving him the opportunity to go elsewhere on a multi year contract rather than risk having nothing or a very low contract somewhere else after the completion of this season.

 

[Vicious]

Line speed starts at training...or even the offseason (fitness)...but its a waste of time.if we cant compete in the ruck, wrestle and slow the opposition down, put them on the deck and turn them around.
Guys like Stone tho would help big time

That’s the thing, 2 of our forwards that get heavily scrutinised in Twal and Seyfarth are 2 of our better players in regards to competing in the ruck, wrestle, slowing down the play the ball and getting back to marker.
We all know the are very underwhelming from an attacking point of view which is the problem, but we don’t appear to have many forwards, possibly only May who excels in attack and defence, but even he has been below par in his ball carries recently which I think most of us agree is largely due to him playing too many minutes each game.

 

[hank37w]

We never have any line speed when defending and it pisses me off. All the good teams sprint off the line, WTs barely move off the line.

It has to be fitness, it can't be anything else, how can you not know that it is just something that you have to do.

 

[Tiger Stripes]

Can they bring there coach down as well.

Interesting ticks of approval from this comment!
Demps, BWG and Vicious.
Honeymoon over Mr. Benji? Losing the faithful?
Time to look into the mirror, get better help?
I'm sure Richo would have some good advice. Just have to take it onboard.

 

[hank37w]

The form of Pole, Api and To'a has fallen off a cliff

Two of those have resigned recently, I suppose we will probably resign To'a as well despite him constantly playing with only one arm and one leg.

I expect we will mostly fill our top 30 with current players and lower grade players from within, anything that falls out of a tree will be permanently disabled from the fall.

 

[tigahhh]

I think we definitely would have explained to him coming into this season that we would not play him the requisite number of games to activate that clause in his contract.

I think the club did the right thing by Klemmer and themselves by doing that, giving him the opportunity to go elsewhere on a multi year contract rather than risk having nothing or a very low contract somewhere else after the completion of this season.

I agree , he hasn’t been missed watching his defence in that dragons game
Also is a IM client so bye

 

[tigahhh]

the Wahs cup side has gems in there
get the back rowers, forwards & tuapiki for bula insurance bc he’s probably out of here and sell them first grade
even their 13 & 9 is class

 

[gregjm87]

That’s the thing, 2 of our forwards that get heavily scrutinised in Twal and Seyfarth are 2 of our better players in regards to competing in the ruck, wrestle, slowing down the play the ball and getting back to marker.

Twal does not fit this description in my opinion.

 

[gregjm87]

It has to be fitness, it can't be anything else, how can you not know that it is just something that you have to do.

Disagree that it has to be (certainly could be). I think defensive coaching and ability are a big factor. Not that they aren't told to get off the line but they lose the collision and wrestle, meaning slow to get back to the line, meaning slow to get off it.

 

[Vicious]

Twal does not fit this description in my opinion.

Fair enough and I believe you are a very good analyst so I’ll take your word for it.
So if we were to retain only one of Twal, Seyfarth or Bird, would you keep Seyfarth ahead of the other 2 ?
I only ask as I think it’s nearing the stage where we might need to make this type of decision and I think I would prioritise Seyfarth ahead of the other 2.
I don’t think we would have much trouble offloading Twal at his full 400k value if that’s a decision we were looking to make.

 

[Tom Shines]

Fair enough and I believe you are a very good analyst so I’ll take your word for it.
So if we were to retain only one of Twal, Seyfarth or Bird, would you keep Seyfarth ahead of the other 2 ?
I only ask as I think it’s nearing the stage where we might need to make this type of decision and I think I would prioritise Seyfarth ahead of the other 2.
I don’t think we would have much trouble offloading Twal at his full 400k value if that’s a decision we were looking to make.

Isn’t the idea to improve the squad ? You can’t keep doing what we are doing now , where there is no depth in the team and we have to bring players that aren’t NRL standard every time there is an injury or make guys like Toa play through it…

We have close to zero depth outside the Top 17 … we had only two players out on Saturday and couldn’t really replace them …

Why not just keep the three you mention as depth?

 

[balmain boy]

Keep in mind Terrell May wasn’t any better than Twal last night.
Not entirely his fault, it’s been obvious since round 4 he’s playing too many minutes and it’s effecting his impact, but his half paced ball csrries were no more effective than Twal or Seyfarth last night,

Cmon, even at half pace he still blew those two away.

Once the likes of Twal and Seyfarth are 17-21 on the roster, and Sukkar is 30-34, then we might actually have a decent pack.