Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[tig_prmz]

you want players for first grade, you need to recruit from first grade sides.

picking from reserve grade and U20s will give you what you pay for more often than not.

we can't control someone's injuries/talent- we can change their attitude and help their self belief.

that's why curtis scott/jessie ramien would be a better fit for us than dugan/moylan

and let's not sign other team's reserve grade players with less than 10 match experience for NRL. it's a short in the dark that we can't afford anymore.

I don't care what happens in 2021, backload contracts until it comes out of their mouths but lets' please aim for top 6-8 finish in 2020.


I hope the club does literally the opposite of basically everything you say here. Spend top dollar on all signings! Never look for bargains! Mortgage the future for the off chance of jagging a finals game next year! Have you until recently been the CEO of the Gold Coast Titans by any chance?

i'm not saying don't look for bargains. everyone needs depth, it's a 30 man squad. what i am saying is- let's not buy reserve graders for the NRL team. we need to buy proven first graders. matulino/packer/reynolds didn't work out due to their history of injuries- idk why moylan/dugan would be any different.

we are better off adopting a roosters model than a storm model. where it's a top heavy cap. everyone's trying to do what melbourne does- buy reserve graders and polish them in to NRL standard. we've shown that we can't do that.

 

[tony soprano]

jesus can we not be so biased. Thommo is nowhere near the skill set of paps. Paps is younger faster and has room to grow. Thommo has played for years and should be the best he can be. Is he good yeah he is ok. Is he a game-breaker.... no. does he make mistakes he shouldn't .... yes, is he all heart... of course.

But please if you think ct is better the pap your having a laugh

Mate he cannot pass therefore predictable.

His pretty much a faster Dugan.

Don’t underestimate thomo just saying not worth paying overs for pap

 

[balmain boy]

@tony-soprano hype player.
Crumble under pressure.

Really didn't offer much and the heat was on him. He was targeted heavily and didn't seem to handle it well.

Melb can have him.

Next Billy Slater, ha....
More like the next Anthony Milford.

Only thing that separates him from thomo is his speed

And that Pap can take a kick on the full, find a weak link, break the line and score a length of the field try. We have no one in our top 30 who can do that

 

[hodgo]

@tony-soprano i actually cant disagree with you more tbh. Teddy is a below avg passer and was ordinary when he first started. Turbo and rts are also average passes. What you can't teach is speed and hope running. He has scored about 4 tries i can remember out of nothing. Thats 4 more then our whole team. He is the exact bloke you throw coin at. He is a ponga type talent. Not as talented granted but bloody impressive. Not id happily argue contract lengths bonuses etc.

 

[Tigerboy]

@tony-soprano i actually cant disagree with you more tbh. Teddy is a below avg passer and was ordinary when he first started. Turbo and rts are also average passes. What you can't teach is speed and hope running. He has scored about 4 tries i can remember out of nothing. Thats 4 more then our whole team. He is the exact bloke you throw coin at. He is a ponga type talent. Not as talented granted but bloody impressive. Not id happily argue contract lengths bonuses etc.

Can you believe we had ‘em both? Our only claim to fame now, I suppose... wow I’m sad

 

[Madgic]

@hodgo BJ Leilua on the market as of today for $600K.

 

[earl]

@hodgo BJ Leilua on the market as of today for $600K.

I wouldn't go for him on that money. I just think it's overs.

 

[WT2K]

@hodgo BJ Leilua on the market as of today for $600K.

Off to the bulldogs is the rumour.

 

[Madgic]

@Earl So do the Raiders? Seem to prefer Jordan Rapana for $500K.

 

[earl]

@Earl So do the Raiders? Seem to prefer Jordan Rapana for $500K.

So would I but $500k for a winger is a lot.

 

[hobbo1]

@Earl So do the Raiders? Seem to prefer Jordan Rapana for $500K.


So would I but $500k for a winger is a lot.

Normal rate these days ...
Big fast tall wingers are a must to have ..

 

[TheDaBoss]

@Earl So do the Raiders? Seem to prefer Jordan Rapana for $500K.


So would I but $500k for a winger is a lot.


Normal rate these days ...
Big fast tall wingers are a must to have ..

We have a tall winger in bradley... as for speed...yeah nah

 

[kiwitiger]

@Earl So do the Raiders? Seem to prefer Jordan Rapana for $500K.


So would I but $500k for a winger is a lot.


Normal rate these days ...
Big fast tall wingers are a must to have ..

Also robbie Dean's wants him for whatever club he is coaching now in Japan. No salary cap in Japanese ru so to keep him is going to cost

 

[Goanna57]

@tony-soprano you are kidding yourself

 

[Russell]

Didn’t rate Papenhuyzen last night. Corey Thompson not that far away from him as a full back...


Papenhuyzen is more a Dugan type fullback where pass is not an option.

Interesting stat FOX mentioned = Papenhuyzen has 55 tackle breaks, but has only made 4 passes all season.

I.e. he is just a runner.

A hell of a runner though and no doubt the Storm will teach him to pass.

I think we should pass.Lol

 

[Russell]

@hodgo BJ Leilua on the market as of today for $600K.

@hodgo BJ Leilua on the market as of today for $600K.

Rather have his brother for half that.

 

[2041]

you want players for first grade, you need to recruit from first grade sides.

picking from reserve grade and U20s will give you what you pay for more often than not.

we can't control someone's injuries/talent- we can change their attitude and help their self belief.

that's why curtis scott/jessie ramien would be a better fit for us than dugan/moylan

and let's not sign other team's reserve grade players with less than 10 match experience for NRL. it's a short in the dark that we can't afford anymore.

I don't care what happens in 2021, backload contracts until it comes out of their mouths but lets' please aim for top 6-8 finish in 2020.


I hope the club does literally the opposite of basically everything you say here. Spend top dollar on all signings! Never look for bargains! Mortgage the future for the off chance of jagging a finals game next year! Have you until recently been the CEO of the Gold Coast Titans by any chance?

i'm not saying don't look for bargains. everyone needs depth, it's a 30 man squad. what i am saying is- let's not buy reserve graders for the NRL team. we need to buy proven first graders. matulino/packer/reynolds didn't work out due to their history of injuries- idk why moylan/dugan would be any different.

we are better off adopting a roosters model than a storm model. where it's a top heavy cap. everyone's trying to do what melbourne does- buy reserve graders and polish them in to NRL standard. we've shown that we can't do that.

Apart from Matterson, Taupau, Austin, Thompson, Aloiai, Lodge and Twal you mean. We have massively more success identifying overlooked talent than we do paying full price for “established first graders”, and that’s before you even start discussing the fact that if you sign all your players on top dollar you run out of cap room almost immediately.

Imitating the Roosters is not a game plan, it’s a fantasy. They either have the greatest cap management skills ever seen combined with a once in a generation hit rate on young talent, or they’re massively cheating.

Also, the Roosters’ big free agent signings were not how they started to build that roster. They added Tedesco and Cronk (and Crichton - isn’t it amazing how they can just absorb 800k worth of dud without missing a beat? Odd that) to a squad that already had Mitchell, Manu, JWH, Cordner etc. Oh, and Keary was under appreciated at his previous club like all those players you don’t want to sign.

Everything we see from successful clubs screams out that to build a long-term successful roster you have to start from within. That means young talent and undervalued players. If you try to do it with full ticket free agents you will be the Titans or - at best - you might compete for a year or two before bottoming out like the Dogs. In a salary capped league, you either take advantage of undervalued talent, cheat or fail.

 

[OzLuke]

@Earl So do the Raiders? Seem to prefer Jordan Rapana for $500K.


So would I but $500k for a winger is a lot.


Normal rate these days ...
Big fast tall wingers are a must to have ..

players like Rapana aren't just big tall wingers, they usually can get your set of 6 off to a good start on a kick, and they can also bob up during the game to take some workload off the forwards.
I'd have Rapana, pass on Leilua.....he's great for amazing brain farts....

 

[jirskyr]

jesus can we not be so biased. Thommo is nowhere near the skill set of paps. Paps is younger faster and has room to grow. Thommo has played for years and should be the best he can be. Is he good yeah he is ok. Is he a game-breaker.... no. does he make mistakes he shouldn't .... yes, is he all heart... of course.

But please if you think ct is better the pap your having a laugh

Don't entirely agree.

In some regards Corey is a superior player than Paps - better at taking hitups, more tackle breaks (100 in 22 games vs 64 in 21 games), proven at FB and wing, more wily in attack, better defender. He has score 9 tries vs 8 for Paps and weighs 12 kg more. I'd argue Corey has a better step / movement in terms of evading defenders, rather than the explosiveness Paps has

Paps is undoubtedly faster both in terms of explosive speed and top speed.This certainly helps him break tackles and burst through holes. It also helps his fullback positioning, because although I don't think he is top-shelf for positioning, he is fast enough to make up for it. Paps appears superior at taking bombs to Corey.

Paps has basically no passing game at all, though Corey doesn't have one either, Corey does have a decent offload. Watch Paps closely and he has an odd passing technique off both sides, so it's not just fullback distribution, it's just his basic passing ability.

So IMO Corey is like an old red brick house and Paps is like a new 5-bedroom duplex. One is definitely shinier and swish, but the other one is tried and tested over a much longer career.

Personally, my main concern with a bloke like Paps is if he has one serious leg injury, as a skinny little fellow, that could be it in terms of his pace. And if his pace goes, I don't know what else he has. He's courageous, can take a tackle and is good at sniffing around, but IMO that all centres around his natural acceleration. I think far too many people see a fast player and think that's it, you can bank his career. I'm wary of big-money offers so soon after his debut.

Raiders on the weekend pretty much shut Paps down every time. I think he made 1 good line break on kick return. But they knew he was 99% going to run, not pass, and typically covered him across field and smothered him. Paps doesn't seem to jink back inside so often (he steps to the outside) and basically can't shrug off a proper 1-1 tackle because of his size.

This is not to slight Paps, just to temper some of the fever on his recent form. Commentators on telly love to talk up anything, even the way they were going on about BJ Leilua's eyeball or Farah's late-game inclusion - not nearly as big a deal as they make out, for the purpose of theatrics.

I've been watching footy for decades and seen plenty of players pop up relying heavily on 1 attribute, but ultimately small skinny footballers need a complete package to take their career to next-level.

 

[balmain boy]

jesus can we not be so biased. Thommo is nowhere near the skill set of paps. Paps is younger faster and has room to grow. Thommo has played for years and should be the best he can be. Is he good yeah he is ok. Is he a game-breaker.... no. does he make mistakes he shouldn't .... yes, is he all heart... of course.

But please if you think ct is better the pap your having a laugh

Don't entirely agree.

In some regards Corey is a superior player than Paps - better at taking hitups, more tackle breaks (100 in 22 games vs 64 in 21 games), proven at FB and wing, more wily in attack, better defender. He has score 9 tries vs 8 for Paps and weighs 12 kg more. I'd argue Corey has a better step / movement in terms of evading defenders, rather than the explosiveness Paps has

Paps is undoubtedly faster both in terms of explosive speed and top speed.This certainly helps him break tackles and burst through holes. It also helps his fullback positioning, because although I don't think he is top-shelf for positioning, he is fast enough to make up for it. Paps appears superior at taking bombs to Corey.

Paps has basically no passing game at all, though Corey doesn't have one either, Corey does have a decent offload. Watch Paps closely and he has an odd passing technique off both sides, so it's not just fullback distribution, it's just his basic passing ability.

So IMO Corey is like an old red brick house and Paps is like a new 5-bedroom duplex. One is definitely shinier and swish, but the other one is tried and tested over a much longer career.

Personally, my main concern with a bloke like Paps is if he has one serious leg injury, as a skinny little fellow, that could be it in terms of his pace. And if his pace goes, I don't know what else he has. He's courageous, can take a tackle and is good at sniffing around, but IMO that all centres around his natural acceleration. I think far too many people see a fast player and think that's it, you can bank his career. I'm wary of big-money offers so soon after his debut.

Raiders on the weekend pretty much shut Paps down every time. I think he made 1 good line break on kick return. But they knew he was 99% going to run, not pass, and typically covered him across field and smothered him. Paps doesn't seem to jink back inside so often (he steps to the outside) and basically can't shrug off a proper 1-1 tackle because of his size.

This is not to slight Paps, just to temper some of the fever on his recent form. Commentators on telly love to talk up anything, even the way they were going on about BJ Leilua's eyeball or Farah's late-game inclusion - not nearly as big a deal as they make out, for the purpose of theatrics.

I've been watching footy for decades and seen plenty of players pop up relying heavily on 1 attribute, but ultimately small skinny footballers need a complete package to take their career to next-level.

I'm not sure what stats you're looking at but Paps destroys Corey in tackle and line breaks.