Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Right...you've seen him in person. So no facts...just your personal assessment? I've seen guys that look like they should weigh 95-100kg, but they step on the scale and they are 80kg - your eye is no substitute for a measuring tape and scale.

Here is what I base my comments on - https://www.dragons.com.au/teams/nrl-premiership/st-george-illawarra-dragons/tyrell-sloan/. You'd think his club would know his weight and height.

Don't want to engage about why you are surprised Wayne Bennett doesn't sign certain players.
While I appreciate your point - don’t go betting the farm on the heights and weights from the club sites…

They’re rarely correct.
 
Do we have a defensive coach or not,
That Dominic run out of his ingoal yesterday that resulted in the winning try,
3 westiger defenders 1st one in Doms ingoal missed him altogether second tiger put both arms around his legs and he just stepped out of his attempt, third was exactly the same, both arms around Doms legs and he just stepped out of this attempt.

WHY CANT OUR COACHES TEACH PLAYERS HOW TO LOCK A PLAYERS LEGS UP FOR CHRISTSAKE.
I know I’ll be in the minority when I say this but if we miss the finals I place it firmly on Benji and the rest of his coaching staff. Everyone has been making excuses about injuries but even then his awful attacking coaching and halves combo he’s built has cost us crucially in 3 games which were there for the taking and his boneheaded decision to throw Makasini in way too early has cost us 2 wins.
 
Turuva being a tradesman style of winger is fibe when you have a class winger with x-factor on the other wing or class players around him.
Unfortunately we don’t have that so it just adds to our full boring team with no real x-factor about it other than halves who can occasionally pull a rabbit out of their hat, 2 second rowers who can create opportunities when they are playing and a left centre who we all know is very good, but is becoming very injury prone.

What’s with the “boring” complaining ? 😂

I wonder if the Newcastle fans are crying over winning boring yesterday?

Don’t worry .. Junior Tupou is on his way soon… he won’t be boring..,
 
What’s with the “boring” complaining ? 😂

I wonder if the Newcastle fans are crying over winning boring yesterday?

Don’t worry .. Junior Tupou is on his way soon… he won’t be boring..,
Id take boring win every day of the week. It happens to teams. Penrith nothing like the team that started the season in the past two weeks and with few injuries to excuse themselves.
That one is probably going to come back and bite us along with a couple of others but we ain't alone in having off days in a long demanding competition while struggling for players who can meet the demands
 
What’s with the “boring” complaining ? 😂

I wonder if the Newcastle fans are crying over winning boring yesterday?

Don’t worry .. Junior Tupou is on his way soon… he won’t be boring..,
Newcastle can play poorly and be boring and still win as they have plenty of speed and plenty of x-factor.
When you have a slow and boring team like we do, we have to be near perfect with our ball handling and execution to be any chance.
It’s not sustainable to think we can be near perfect with our ball handling and execution every week.
 
I agree, this season is on Benji. I think he's lost us a few games just from poor bench usage and team selections.
I think we desperately need a veteran coach (Not apart of the 05 premiership) to come in and guide Benji.
Imagine if Bennet came for 1-2 years and showed him how to do things..
Benji has potential but he just doesn't know what he's doing IMO.
I don't think its team selections, i think he is picking the best he can with the limited player pool he has. What I have noticed is that as soon as we lose a player to injury in a game it absolutely destroys our bench rotation, he had the same issue last year and because of the large number of in-game injuries we are getting it has become very obvious this year. He really needs to improve his scenario planning in this area. It does not help losing both your back rowers to injury as these are usually the guys that can step into the center position or into the middle, they tend to be your most versatile players, therefore it is a very specialist position to be a 2nd rower first and still cover the other positions, does not work the other way around unfortunately.
 
While I appreciate your point - don’t go betting the farm on the heights and weights from the club sites…

They’re rarely correct.
Hey look - The same site says Gutho is 6"3' and 96kg. There is a photo of them standing next to each other and it looks like he has 2 inches and 10kg on Sloan. Seems right to me.
 
Newcastle can play poorly and be boring and still win as they have plenty of speed and plenty of x-factor.
When you have a slow and boring team like we do, we have to be near perfect with our ball handling and execution to be any chance.
It’s not sustainable to think we can be near perfect with our ball handling and execution every week.
To be fair if Makasini had scored that try where Ponga ran him down and then held him down it would have been akin to the one they scored at the end. I don't think they were much better than us in attack and we were the better team overall..they just converted the single moment that we couldn't. Not really an xfactor thing that last try, just very lucky.
 
Since we are bringing in Tupou why don't we try and bring back Kapoa too and to complete the trifecta look at the guy in this video, I like his style.
I don’t get it.
You would think recruitment would heavily involve identifying and signing players that have attributes that we don’t currently have within our team.
Our recruitment seems to be largely rinse and repeat, not solving any problem areas.
 
That will be unlikely anytime soon. … he never got across the tryline at his last two clubs .,
You mean the guy that left the Tigers for the stacked Dolphins backline & then joined the stacked Roosters team?

His inability to get gametime for 2 clubs with strong player depth isn't completely surprising.

That said, he's got 4 tries, 1 assist & a number of tackle breaks in 9 games so far in KOE (I think he averages 3-4 breaks a game). Plus, he has very good metres-per-game return in his 3 1st grade games in 2 years which improved since leaving the Tigers (small sample size could inflate the result though).

Sometimes players don't get a run in 1st grade because the players in front of them are just 'better' or fit the system better. The Tigers would be far more likely to use him than either of his previous 2 clubs.
 
To be fair if Makasini had scored that try where Ponga ran him down and then held him down it would have been akin to the one they scored at the end. I don't think they were much better than us in attack and we were the better team overall..they just converted the single moment that we couldn't. Not really an xfactor thing that last try, just very lucky.

If he was a bit quicker he might have got there …
 
To be fair if Makasini had scored that try where Ponga ran him down and then held him down it would have been akin to the one they scored at the end. I don't think they were much better than us in attack and we were the better team overall..they just converted the single moment that we couldn't. Not really an xfactor thing that last try, just very lucky.
Do you call speed to run the length a part of x-factor ?
When was the last time we run the length ? Luke Laulilli at Leichhardt Oval in round 2, but we will get rid of him, too fast to be in our team.
 
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I agree, this season is on Benji. I think he's lost us a few games just from poor bench usage and team selections.
I think we desperately need a veteran coach (Not apart of the 05 premiership) to come in and guide Benji.
Imagine if Bennet came for 1-2 years and showed him how to do things..
Benji has potential but he just doesn't know what he's doing IMO.
Totally agree
 
Do we have a defensive coach or not,
That Dominic run out of his ingoal yesterday that resulted in the winning try,
3 westiger defenders 1st one in Doms ingoal missed him altogether second tiger put both arms around his legs and he just stepped out of his attempt, third was exactly the same, both arms around Doms legs and he just stepped out of this attempt.

WHY CANT OUR COACHES TEACH PLAYERS HOW TO LOCK A PLAYERS LEGS UP FOR CHRISTSAKE.
Probably because Benji doesn't write anything in bold and capitals in the Monday whiteboard session. They could do with a guy like you Dennis.
 
You mean the guy that left the Tigers for the stacked Dolphins backline & then joined the stacked Roosters team?

His inability to get gametime for 2 clubs with strong player depth isn't completely surprising.

That said, he's got 4 tries, 1 assist & a number of tackle breaks in 9 games so far in KOE (I think he averages 3-4 breaks a game). Plus, he has very good metres-per-game return in his 3 1st grade games in 2 years which improved since leaving the Tigers (small sample size could inflate the result though).

Sometimes players don't get a run in 1st grade because the players in front of them are just 'better' or fit the system better. The Tigers would be far more likely to use him than either of his previous 2 clubs.

We’ll have to wait and see how they choose to use him ..,

He will be behind Turuva and Makasini for mine .., I would probably have Tavana ahead of him for Winger 3
 
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