Stefano Utoikamanu #241

[Merlot]

just doesn't seem to have any aggression in him,mayb Todd Payton can turn him into a 1/2 back

 

[Tiger Stripes]

Yeah he wasn’t really putting together a good resume, but like many others who leave us, they are having the last laugh

NOT LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!
$175,000 yearly pay cut to get into the finals, provided he gets picked?

 

[BalmainJnr]

NOT LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!
$175,000 yearly pay cut to get into the finals, provided he gets picked?

You forgot the boat and jet ski listed on the other set of books.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

From Shawn a couple of years ago. And chatting Tim, who I've known for 50 odd years

Shawn said as much 2mths or so ago.
It wasn’t Benji who didn’t want him, Fulton handled the discussions.

 

[Tito Santana]

From Shawn a couple of years ago. And chatting Tim, who I've known for 50 odd years

I’ve known him for 51 years. Deal with it ….

 

[upthetigers]

At least they make the finals. Give yourself an uppercut. I did.

Don't say Kaito's music promotes violence and then say stuff like this. No, AHX?

 

[watersider]

I feel like Stefano is just a professional. He shows up, does his minutes, never really injured and looks after himself but perhaps just entirely devoid of passion.

Maybe that's just the impact of playing for the tigers, though.

I think we'll see at least how good he can be at Melbourne. The obvious subtext of what he said today is that he's not getting good coaching and development here, he thinks it will be better elsewhere. Can't really say he's wrong.

Just on blore, has he actually been that good in Melbourne? I haven't watched a huge amount of them but blore looks like he did for us in what I have seen. Solid but unspectacular and perhaps a decent plodder. The other second rower seems a much more threatening and impactful player.

To me Reuben porter plays at a similar level to Blore. I don't mean that as a knock on blore, just a solid player who gets through his work. Last night porter even showed a bit more than that. I was sad to lose blore but actually he hasn't improved as much as I expected him to.

 

[clontarfkid]

Storm will be the make or break of Stef...will get him fit,improve his agility,and ramp up his commitment. Will that be enuff..dunno.
Thinking he's a non thinking man's Musgrove tbh
But has given himself every opportunity under bellyache,and 800k wld have backfired on us bigtime

 

[Krammy]

Thats the thing. Here is an encore...

https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/07/30/forget-nrl-forwards-seeking-the-highlight-reels-wests-tigers-need-low-profile-hard-workers-in-the-pack/

I agree with a lot of what the bloke said. Effort on effort forwards with passion.

 

[Krammy]

Storm will be the make or break of Stef...will get him fit,improve his agility,and ramp up his commitment. Will that be enuff..dunno.
Thinking he's a non thinking man's Musgrove tbh
But has given himself every opportunity under bellyache,and 800k wld have backfired on us bigtime

We don't need any more Musgroves, that's for sure.

 

[Krammy]

Stephanie played his usual game….no one noticed him on the field

Wow, I didn't watch the game, but I thought he might be out to impress his new club??

 

[rugbygoated]

I personally think that run of Burton, Kikau, Crichton, Mahoney, JAC, Tupouniua, Ciraldo and now possibly Stefano is a more substantive recruitment drive (all since 2022) compared to Api, Luai, Bateman, IP, Klemmer, Olam.

Luai may be the best signing of the lot but obviously hasn't played a game for Tigers yet, so we are yet to see what having both Api and Luai can do for us.

I think also Dogs got better value for their top signings than Tigers so far. Turns our IP and Bateman were more risky than we initially may have thought (Bateman perhaps was always a question-mark), also Klemmer has been average.

Whereas Burton, Kikau and Crichton have absolutely maintained their form at Canterbury.

Disagree. Burton was horrible for many parts of 2022 and 2023. Kikau was poor in a very injury interrupted 2023. Crichton has been perfect.

 

[Sco77y]

I feel like Stefano is just a professional. He shows up, does his minutes, never really injured and looks after himself but perhaps just entirely devoid of passion.

Maybe that's just the impact of playing for the tigers, though.

I think we'll see at least how good he can be at Melbourne. The obvious subtext of what he said today is that he's not getting good coaching and development here, he thinks it will be better elsewhere. Can't really say he's wrong.

Just on blore, has he actually been that good in Melbourne? I haven't watched a huge amount of them but blore looks like he did for us in what I have seen. Solid but unspectacular and perhaps a decent plodder. The other second rower seems a much more threatening and impactful player.

To me Reuben porter plays at a similar level to Blore. I don't mean that as a knock on blore, just a solid player who gets through his work. Last night porter even showed a bit more than that. I was sad to lose blore but actually he hasn't improved as much as I expected him to.

That’s how I see him. Blore looks the same as he did here. Solid, still makes some bad errors. Just has a few more opportunities presented to him during their games due to playing in a much better side.

 

[Tiger_Yoshi]

Wow, I didn't watch the game, but I thought he might be out to impress his new club??

He signed 10 days ago…no need to impress

 

[Sco77y]

Wow, I didn't watch the game, but I thought he might be out to impress his new club??

To be fair I think he was trying. Maybe he just isn’t as good as everyone thinks. He may still have unrealised potential, he may not.

 

[jirskyr]

You seemed to suggest in your previous post that there was something shady going on with their recruitment since the new owners came into play.

I'm just suggesting that they have recruited similarly to us in terms of $$ but have recruited smarter and got more out of their signings because of a better coaching staff and probably better support from Gould and co.

I wasn't suggesting

 

[426Tlgerland]

Stef needs to go??? Ok. You know. Bellamy dont

If all is correct l Stef wanted to win a comp ( Melb ) ✅
Stefs wife wanted to stay in Sydney
Stefs wife wanted to stay near mummy
Stefs wife wanted help with the child from Mummy and family
this could end up a mess ! Stef has to be able to man up every week , can’t see it , and do you think he had a good game a Thursday night , you need to look at it again , POLE WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME OR BETTER

 

[TonyTiger]

Too right mate he didn’t want to get down and dirty with his mates and lead them out of the rut , however i am glad he has gone to Storm and not Dogs , I remember Glenn Morrison leaving the Tiges saying he wanted to win a title , turned out Tiges won a title and he didn’t 😂

Glenn Morrison left us for the Cowboys then got Hoppa’s finger of approval - I still remember the ref’s audio when Morrison made an official on-field complaint during a subsequent game at Leichardt oval against Wests Tigers:
“Hey Ref, it’s Hopoate, he’s fingering our ars#holes’”
Then the video of the finger in slow motion, like a heat seeking missile. 🤣

 

[TonyTiger]

He signed 10 days ago…no need to impress

Those Botox injections combined with his poker face fooled the media.

 

[hank37w]

Just on blore, has he actually been that good in Melbourne? I haven't watched a huge amount of them but blore looks like he did for us in what I have seen. Solid but unspectacular and perhaps a decent plodder. The other second rower seems a much more threatening and impactful player.

To me Reuben porter plays at a similar level to Blore. I don't mean that as a knock on blore, just a solid player who gets through his work. Last night porter even showed a bit more than that. I was sad to lose blore but actually he hasn't improved as much as I expected him to.

I'd expect a full preseason at the Storm might make him even better, as I have said elsewhere and you seem to agree, he was starting to show his current Melbourne form towards the end of last season with us.

Still think Melbourne got the better end of the deal.