@fair-dinkum said in [Signing Suggestions & Rumours](/post/1050200) said:
I see others on here have have already mentioned this so there may be something to it. This is the "rumours" section, im just passing on what i have heard and this is the place to post it, so here goes -
Take this post with a grain of salt as nothing may come of it and it could all be misinformation and Chinese whispers from all involved but ive heard from 3 different sources, 2 from within the club [a trainer and a friend in the back office] and from a league reporter who was with the trainer when i spoke to him, that theres a strong possibility Kevs kid, Bill Walters has/is signing with the Tigers as he is off contract with the Storm next year.
From my conversations with these guys i also picked their brains to find out that the club is also looking to move on a long serving club favourite however are open to a 1 year contract to get him to 15 years of service and a 250 game, 1 club player if he wants it. He wouldnt want much so the club can go either way. Benji is a 95% chance to go on for another year thus next year like this year will be a swansong for 2 Tiger greats playing in their final year [Benji twice now as this was to be his last year with Robbie but his body is holding up and Maguire wants his experience on the field around a young half back in Walters].
The club will not resign most that are coming off contract this year and in 2020, freeing up 15-20 new spots for the top 30 in the 2021 season. They have also been looking at players overseas to import with such a large number of spots available to fill by 2021. As with all of us fans, the club knows that the current roster is complete trash and they are still fuming over the Ivan situation and have given Maguire 100% control to build his team with no salary cap issues from 2021 with the hope of results by 2022, i.e consistent Top 6 quality side on wards . The club knows we have no chance to get anywhere near the 8 with the current players and quality of recent player signings and will be doing another complete shedding from players coming off contract. 2020 will be a hard year and will produce much the same as this year in terms of results, possibly jag 7 - 8th spot if a few results go our way next year, but they are realistically expecting a 9th - 13th place with the quality they are putting on the park and going out of their way to shed the roster and clean up cap space and hope the fans can see what they are doing. Maguire has complete and final say in signings and it all rests on his head.
Major top $$$ sponsors, ill assume for 3rd party agreements are being chased hard to be competitive with current top 8 sides, this is a priority.
Next year will be -
Benji/Brooks - 6
Walters/Brooks - 7
Liddle/Brooks - 9
The club isnt sure where to play Brooks, they dont feel continuing to play him at half back will bring the club any success and he isnt coming along as they had hoped by now but they see him as a key player thats good for the club in utility value and is well liked. Pending an upper body bulk up in the off season he will play as hooker shared with Liddle next year and they will trial him in and out of there for the remainder of this year and trials early next year. From the bulk up of playing hooker and hoping he doesnt lose too much pace they could be looking at playing him as a bigger running 5/8 in 2021 after Benji leaves with Walters in the half back roll controlling the play and leaving Liddle who is older/fitter/heavier to play hooker full time in 2021. Liddle is signed to 2021, if he isnt producing/more injuries, he will be gone after 2020/2021.
Reynolds will be offloaded to either the Storm or Titans. Club in talk with both teams to offload Reynolds and in talks with 3 others teams to offload a couple of others under contract. Overseas clubs are being talked to, i.e player swaps.
Also another rumour is a very fast, dynamic, young outside back has/is signing soon and a big named hard working forward [2nd row/lock] in the Matterson quality range has agreed to terms but has not signed, a family issue, i.e. partners employment could keep him from coming as he would be moving interstate and wants his family to move with him. So that could go 50/50 on that one. The tigers are hoping Aloiai's fitness and discipline improves from a 40-50 minute player to a 60+ minute player as they want some starch in the back row with this line up - 11.Matterson 12. new signing 13. Aloiai.
That will be pretty much all the big signings until the team takes the park in 2021/2022. Very lean otherwise in the signing department, lots of second stringers to fill in a gap year or 2, think Momo quality level.
When the outside back and the forward signings are 100% confirmed to me, I will name them.
Standby.
