Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[TheEnz]

King is a significantly better defender. I expect someone to look at tackle efficiency stats and argue with me (though the difference is minimal). King is by far the better wrestler and better disciplined when it comes to 6 agains and penalties.
They both make their metres but with minimal effect though I think May probably slightly has an edge here.
I think King over May for his defensive discipline is a perfectly fine selection but there is one final consideration which is personality. Now May seems like a decent enough bloke to me but he also seems a bit of a different character. He also obviously had some sort of falling out at the Roosters which we don't know the details of. You've only got a week to meld all those personalities so if there are questions about one bloke fitting in compared to the alternate option that would also influence the decision.

I think at the end of the day the roosters were stacked with good forwards coming through the ranks, as much as I love Terell I would probably pick Nofahu Whyte before him based on second half of 2025 and rep form. Roosters knew they could easily get Terell off the books without having to chip in a cent because he had a solid season and there was a shortage of decent middles on the market. They then used his $$ to top up the younger boys they knew they had coming through...I hate to say it, but very smart business on their part. It probably also had a bit to do with his personality as well, however I don't think that was the main reason.

 

[gregjm87]

Just on another note , has anyone wondered how the rabbits can afford there roster , just look at there pack and there backline , maybe there the new roooters

Probably the cheapest spine in the comp and id guess Murray the only forward on more than 700k.

 

[gregjm87]

I think at the end of the day the roosters were stacked with good forwards coming through the ranks, as much as I love Terell I would probably pick Nofahu Whyte before him based on second half of 2025 and rep form. Roosters knew they could easily get Terell off the books without having to chip in a cent because he had a solid season and there was a shortage of decent middles on the market. They then used his $$ to top up the younger boys they knew they had coming through...I hate to say it, but very smart business on their part. It probably also had a bit to do with his personality as well, however I don't think that was the main reason.

Don't disagree with this take at all, prioritising Whyte as well as the likes of Steep and Wong is fair enough. But weren't there comments around "made some calls" when explaining why he was overlooked? I may be misremembering but I thought there was a blowup on the forum about the calls were to Roosters staff and not Tigers staff or something like this.

 

[innsaneink]

We should probably try to do that … that making guys Origin players thing

If Terrel wasnt driven right down to empty on the fuel.gauge nearly every game.it.may have already happened

 

[weststigers]

We should probably try to do that … that making guys Origin players thing

In fairness...we have made more than what we probably should have considering our ladder position the last 4 years.

 

[innsaneink]

It’s one of the world’s great mysteries …how all the teams spend the same amount of money but you end up with such a variance in playing talent .,,we are supposedly broke but the Rabbits can bid for everyone ..

As I’ve said before …make the player payments public … the US sports seem to manage it..

Now they want an exemption for Ashton Ward to play...hes not in their top 30
Humphries suspended
Sullivan injured
Glover injured

 

[weststigers]

If Terrel wasnt driven right down to empty on the fuel.gauge nearly every game.it.may have already happened

He's a good soldier Terrell. Did us a massive solid last year. Hopefully with the new reinforcements, he can get more suitable minutes.

 

[Vicious]

Just on another note , has anyone wondered how the rabbits can afford there roster , just look at there pack and there backline , maybe there the new roooters

All their potential halfbacks are on lower value contracts if not the bare minimum.
An ageing Cody Walker would not be getting any more than 500k.
I would say Jye Gray would be getting somewhere around 500k.
Brandon Smith supposedly signed with them for a much lower cost than what he has been receiving in the past due to his off field issue. So I’d say he would also be getting 500k at best.
So you look at that and their starting spine is covered for around 1.7mil which is far cheaper than many clubs including ours which is almost double that value.
What this means for us is we expect our spine to totally outplay their spine when we play them IF they play up to their contract value.
This has often been my point in the past when some of our fans have wanted to blame the likes of Seyfarth for our losses.

 

[Tom Shines]

Now they want an exemption for Ashton Ward to play...hes not in their top 30
Humphries suspended
Sullivan injured
Glover injured

We are probably still paying 90 percent of Sullivans wage this season to be fair…

 

[Tom Shines]

All their potential halfbacks are on lower value contracts if not the bare minimum.
An ageing Cody Walker would not be getting any more than 500k.
I would say Jye Gray would be getting somewhere around 500k.
Brandon Smith supposedly signed with them for a much lower cost than what he has been receiving in the past due to his off field issue. So I’d say he would also be getting 500k at best.
So you look at that and their starting spine is covered for around 1.7mil which is far cheaper than many clubs including ours.
What this means for us is we expect our spine to totally outplay their spine when we play them.

What’s Murray, Mitchell, kolaomatangi, Arrow, Fafita and Wighton on ? All origin players …as was Walker who is probably on about $600

 

[Rock Hopper Steve]

They don’t want to pick us.
You could argue in the past that we didn’t have any players of that level, but last year we had at least one, if not 3 and still crickets not cockroaches.

We will be leading the comp come origin this season so if will be interesting to hear the excuses.

T4L.

Personally, I hope none of our players are selected for origin, we are all praying that this is the year we make the finals and the road gets tougher if your best players are missing and after are jaded from the series.

There I said it, suppose that makes me a selfish prick.

 

[wstigers11]

Think Tiny has the biggest chance for origin

 

[Vicious]

What’s Murray, Mitchell, kolaomatangi, Arrow, Fafita and Wighton on ? All origin players …as was Walker who is probably on about $600

Yes but they can afford to pay more for other positions than what we can because they are only spending minimal money on their spine.
So the effect that those Souths players you have named have on their success, should be the same effect as what our highly paid spine have on our success.

 

[Tom Shines]

Yes but they can afford to pay more for other positions than what we can because they are only spending minimal money on their spine.
So the effect that those Souths players you have named have on their success, should be the same effect as what our highly paid spine have on our success.

Except I’ve named 7 players as opposed to 4 in the spine…

Our half AD is on $400k by the way

 

[Vicious]

Except I’ve named 7 players as opposed to 4 in the spine…

Our half AD is on $400k by the way

Yes but we are also paying another spine member in Latu 500k
An estimated combined value of our two halfbacks options being Douehi and Latu is 900k, where Souths have Humphries and Ward which would be around 350 - 400k.
So if our halfback does not far outplay their halfback when we play them, something is wrong.
5/8 they have Walker on 500k, we have Luai on 1.2m, so again Luai needs to be twice as good as Walker when we play them.
Fullback, Bula at somewhere around 900k compared to Jye Gray on around 500k needs to be twice as good as him.
Api on 700k needs to be a lot better than Brandon Smith on 500k

This is the accountability we need to be taking into consideration when rating our players performance.

 

[jrtiger]

Think Tiny has the biggest chance for origin

I think NSW will have their eye on Samuela. former U19 captain and there's a dearth of options at left edge given Crichton is headed to RU.

it's him and Dylan Lucas battling for that spot for mine.

 

[wstigers11]

Yes but we are also paying another spine member in Latu 500k
An estimated combined value of our two halfbacks options being Douehi and Latu is 900k, where Souths have Humphries and Ward which would be around 350 - 400k.
So if our halfback does not far outplay their halfback when we play them, something is wrong.
5/8 they have Walker on 500k, we have Luai on 1.2m, so again Luai needs to be twice as good as Walker when we play them.
Fullback, Bula at somewhere around 900k compared to Jye Gray on around 500k needs to be twice as good as him.
Api on 700k needs to be a lot better than Brandon Smith on 500k

This is the accountability we need to be taking into consideration when rating our players performance.

They’re paying for Dodd still
Smith is on $650k - API $700k
Latrell 1.1m
Murray 1.1m
Wighton 850k
Keon, Arrow, Campbell Graham, Tatola all on $700k

The rest you’ve speculated - their roster is top heavy compared to ours. Just a different way of salary cap management

 

[Vicious]

I think NSW will have their eye on Samuela. former U19 captain and there's a dearth of options at left edge given Crichton is headed to RU.

it's him and Dylan Lucas battling for that spot for mine.

He’s definitely a chance if playing at his best and we are winning plenty of games.
You would hope they would move away from Angus Crichton now he’s heading to RU.
It’s hot competition though, you mentioned Dylan Lucas, there is also Teig Wilton, Jacob Preston and Tallis Duncan who both look to be playing right edge this season, but both have played very well on the left in the past. If the Raiders have another good year you would think Hudson Young is playing well and he can also play on the left edge.

 

[jrtiger]

He’s definitely a chance of playing at his best and we are winning plenty of games.
You would hope they would move away from Angus Crichton now he’s heading to RU.
It’s hot competition though, you mentioned Dylan Lucas, there is also Teig Wilton, Jacob Preston and Tallis Duncan who both look to be playing right edge this season, but both have played very well on the left in the past. If the Raiders have another good year you would think Hudson Young is playing well and he can also play on the left edge.

Wilton's way off from what I've seen of late, Billy Burns was keeping him out of the starting side last year. I wonder how much stock they put in playing on the left every week, because Sammy would then be above Preston, Duncan and Young as well.

obviously when compared to a lot of those blokes he's behind, but again, if they're looking for a left edge specialist, it's him and Dylan Lucas that are the main two looking to succeed Crichton.

 

[Tom Shines]

Yes but we are also paying another spine member in Latu 500k
An estimated combined value of our two halfbacks options being Douehi and Latu is 900k, where Souths have Humphries and Ward which would be around 350 - 400k.
So if our halfback does not far outplay their halfback when we play them, something is wrong.
5/8 they have Walker on 500k, we have Luai on 1.2m, so again Luai needs to be twice as good as Walker when we play them.
Fullback, Bula at somewhere around 900k compared to Jye Gray on around 500k needs to be twice as good as him.
Api on 700k needs to be a lot better than Brandon Smith on 500k

This is the accountability we need to be taking into consideration when rating our players performance.

you are concentrating on 4 players in the spine when I’ve named 6 others ( not including Walker i- 600k)