Wests Tigers sign Blake Austin and Cory Paterson

[nuggetron]

i think what many are missing is why patterson returned home
his wife was home sick
he would of came to the tigers relatively cheap and more importantly will be trying to impress to firstly get a contract extension/upgrade and secondly to stay in australia with a full time job to keep his wife happy.
yes he is muslim and yes he is friends with mundine. so what? are we going to reject SBW cause he is friends with mundine? thats foolish, we want a competitive team we need to sign some bad ass people to get a bit of mongrel/competitive players. we dont want to be seen as the easy club. look at our team, theres nobody you fear. compare that to manly and they have matai, a SOB you dont want to cross, we need some aggressive players, as long as they arent stupid on and off the field and get in or cause trouble for no reason. if you can contain a bad boy and get them to put into legal actions on the field then we have a dangerous X factor in the team. patterson can be that X factor, yes he isnt someone you fear, but he is a dangerous ball running, leaping, try scoring 2nd rower, someone we can mould into a strike weapon. at only 26 he has plenty of time in him and plenty of experience. we always needed a big line denting 2nd rower and patterson is that guy, sure he isnt as glorified as SBW, but he is what we need and at the right price who can complain? less publicity the better. people who bring up his religion i dont really see the point in that. doesnt change his skills and abilities, if it allows him to focus on his footy and have a happy life then good on him.

im looking forward to seeing both of these signings in first grade for 2014, they both offer the things we need in our club, a utility/stop gap 5/8th and an ellis like 2nd rower. and for once we would be having a club pay for one of our players. i see plenty of potential in both of these guys and hope we can get it out of them, especially austin. i am excited with the direction potter is taking this club, i really hope the powers that be stick by him and give him time to create the team he likes and threaten the other 15 teams.

 

[Frank_the_tank]

Good signings

Identifying players with a lot of potential but without the price-tag is the way recruiting should be done.
These guys will fit right into the squad and will be allowed to blossom.

top stuff!

X 2\. Good signings. I've always liked Paterson, and Austin has a lot of upside.

 

[Justo]

Is it 2014 yet? Gawd its gonna be a long off season. Cmon Tiges!!!

 

[ragedmachine]

pfft…haven't we already got enough backrow halves?

Anasta, Siro, Fulton Lawrence...not enough bulk to handle an opposition forward pack, not enough talent to create plays in the halves

SMH...Another year of mediocrity.

 

[avocadoontoast]

soon we will have the record for signing the most fringe first grade players, how the hell do the roosters always get good signings?

Because they don't have a salary cap remember.

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[foreveratiger]

This Forum makes me laugh at times … If you sign someone like Adam Blair you have people saying he was the missing piece to the puzzle last year in winning the Premiership (had we achieved it) now you have people saying what a waste of money we lost Fafita over it blah,blah,blah.
You sign players that are not your Marquee signings and people still whinge ,I'm sure we haven't paid massive overs for these guys , so on that note welcome to the club and wish you both the best .

 

[jctiger]

Have just finished watching the HKR v Wigan game on Fox and Patterson was out. Apparently hasn't played the last couple of weeks either. Anyone have any recent info on him.
Hoping it's not an injury.
PS. Richards was out for Wigan as well.

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[dazza65]

You know what guys, we're building a squad not a one or two person trick show - had enough of that.
Both would have come relatively cheap, both have considerable upside potential and now what we need is for Potter and co to develop them. Both of these players are the type that if at the Storm would grow another leg. Lets see if WT cam start to so the same thing once our cultural divisiveness is done (Ahem….)

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[king_sirro]

Surprised Patererson in only 26\. That gets me excited. He has the talent to be a great signing or just a depth one. Time will tell but only 1 year contract so no harm done.

Austin has never excited me as a half but havent seen much of him so will watch with an open mind. Penrith did rate him highly so not sure why he hasnt kicked on

 

[VanillaThunder]

You know what guys, we're building a squad not a one or two person trick show - had enough of that.
Both would have come relatively cheap, both have considerable upside potential and now what we need is for Potter and co to develop them. Both of these players are the type that if at the Storm would grow another leg. Lets see if WT cam start to so the same thing once our cultural divisiveness is done (Ahem….)

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Well said. They're not signings that will win us the premiership straight off the bat, but they're a step in the right direction towards building a new culture within the club, and that's all we can realistically ask for at the moment.

 

[Guest]

Good signings

Identifying players with a lot of potential but without the price-tag is the way recruiting should be done.
These guys will fit right into the squad and will be allowed to blossom.

top stuff!

I agree. This year has shown our backrow to be a real weakness and while we have a couple of decent prospects coming through we need some experience. Patterson is very tall too and should prove awkward to handle if he makes a successful return.

As for Austin well with Anasta on the downward spiral, benji leaving and brooks still untested, we need some depth in the halves and Austin is clearly no midget either.

 

[Flippedy]

maybe a tough front rower ,and a classy 5/8 .but you right ink .wests never do make those big signings so I suppose I should never get my hopes up and aim higher than I expect .o and just quietly ,, I would have used some of this money to keep Brendan santi …

Something I posted not long ago on another forum….re: ''average signings/new recruits".

_"Is it the players we get, or the coaching they get when they get here, the culture they walk into...the attitude in the joint?\
\
We must have a lot of bad luck, where teams like Melb & Manly make new recruits even better\
\
Coincidence?"_

I think it'll be a few years if we are even able to make a play for a real top notch buy...**we need to be in a position where they want to come first...2nd last isnt that position** - the clean out will help tho

Even when we were top 4 in 10/11 and favourites for the comp in 2012 we couldn't attract the top notch players to the club, excepting Blair of course and we all know how that's worked out. We have never, ever won the race for the signature of a marquee player, regardless of our position on the ladder. I hate it!

 

[Newtown]

I think Paterson is a very clever sign.

Size..yes.Offload…yes.Mongrel....yes.

And can score a pie too.

Big tick from me.....Ive always liked how this kid played.

Me too,it is a no brainer signing,he is playing for bugger all to try and re establish himself back in the NRL,if he goes great we keep him,if he fails we have lost not much, whats not to like.

Win win situation.

 

[Erin19]

Have just finished watching the HKR v Wigan game on Fox and Patterson was out. Apparently hasn't played the last couple of weeks either. Anyone have any recent info on him.
Hoping it's not an injury.
PS. Richards was out for Wigan as well.

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Sorry to say but yeah, pretty sure it's an injury

One player facing a spell on the sidelines though is second rower Cory Paterson, who limped off with a knee injury.
"Cory could be out for four to six weeks with an ACL injury. It's a tragedy but we'll assess it during the week,"

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Hull-KR-s-Cory-Paterson-faces-spell-sidelines/story-19490056-detail/story.html#axzz2bC288vP2

 

[Eye_Of_Da_Tiger]

I think they will be ok. Love the strategy of short term contracts. Make players earn the right to play not expect it.

 

[nuggetron]

maybe a tough front rower ,and a classy 5/8 .but you right ink .wests never do make those big signings so I suppose I should never get my hopes up and aim higher than I expect .o and just quietly ,, I would have used some of this money to keep Brendan santi …

Something I posted not long ago on another forum….re: ''average signings/new recruits".

_"Is it the players we get, or the coaching they get when they get here, the culture they walk into...the attitude in the joint?\
\
We must have a lot of bad luck, where teams like Melb & Manly make new recruits even better\
\
Coincidence?"_

I think it'll be a few years if we are even able to make a play for a real top notch buy...**we need to be in a position where they want to come first...2nd last isnt that position** - the clean out will help tho

Even when we were top 4 in 10/11 and favourites for the comp in 2012 we couldn't attract the top notch players to the club, excepting Blair of course and we all know how that's worked out. We have never, ever won the race for the signature of a marquee player, regardless of our position on the ladder. I hate it!

remember though that we had to marquee stars back then, there isnt many teams that have three big name stars
we were always over the salary cap without having any major signings
roosters have SBW maloney
rabbits are buying a premiership with GI sam burgess, but reynolds sutton are their juniors/have been there a while and were crap when they signed their last contract
storm the big 3
manly DCE foran (juniors) watguts snake
cows JT and tamou
titans idris taylor
sharks gallen and the west tigers/panthers
tigers had marshall and farah (both were on good sized contracts)
i think the issue wasnt that nobody wanted to come, it was that we couldnt afford a reasonable offer to big stars and rather than embarrass ourselves, we didn't chase the stars
we are in a different position now, i expect us to be chasing bigger names over the next 2 or 3 years and eventually attract a big marquee name
i think we had a few marquee names, and a lot of slightly good players, rather than a melbourne/manly model where we have a small group of marquee names and plenty of nobodies that can do a simple role well, i think thats the direction potter is taking us
look at horo. he went to manly dirt cheap, unwanted by the eels!, now he is the leading try scoring forward, his value for money is fantastic. sheens tried to do that with players but it wouldnt work because of our game style/plan. potter is trying to change that, and people like paterson are capable of being our horo.
with marshall gone, if we can become a reasonable team over the years we could attract bigger names. if we looked like we were capable of winning a premiership but fell short, marquee players will go hmmm, their 2nd row is weak-ish, if i was there i could bolster that up and change their game and possibly be the reason they win a grand final, and hence want to come to the tigers at a lower dollar with the better opportunity win. look at JT and penrith. he said no despite the big money, i would say a big reason was family/friends in NQLD, but a lot would be due to the cows being a more likely team to go somewhere compared to the panthers (not that its working out that way this year)

 

[Abraham]

Problem with signing Patterson to a 1 year deal is that if he plays well, his rodent of a manager will be shopping him around to the NFL, Premier League, and the Scandanavian Badminton League in search of the highest bidder.

Doesn't look like a long term prospect to me.

 

[tig_prmz]

i dont think manly have ever attracted a big name

 

[ball_main]

Corey Patterson I don't see much value in regards to being a leader or mentor. Another Khoder Nasser / mundine puppet

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[tigergirlz]

Who will be our goal kicker next year? Don't we need someone

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