Wests Tigers V NZ Warriors Trial *Live Thread..

[The_Patriot]

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Also Aloiai has generally played his best footy off the bench.

Aloiai has the benefit of improvement. I expect massive season from him. Bit harsh to judge him on previous seasons when he is only going to improve.

He is one of our stars.

people will come around to that this season

 

[Tiger_Steve]

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Also Aloiai has generally played his best footy off the bench.

Aloiai has the benefit of improvement. I expect massive season from him. Bit harsh to judge him on previous seasons when he is only going to improve.

He is one of our stars.

people will come around to that this season

Agreed. At his best he is one of our only forwards that bends the line. To be honest I don’t have much insight on his defence in the middle - nothing negative springs to mind though.

 

[The_Patriot]

\
Also Aloiai has generally played his best footy off the bench.

Aloiai has the benefit of improvement. I expect massive season from him. Bit harsh to judge him on previous seasons when he is only going to improve.

He is one of our stars.

people will come around to that this season

Agreed. At his best he is one of our only forwards that bends the line. To be honest I don’t have much insight on his defence in the middle - nothing negative springs to mind though.

Fitness will be the key to his defence. Something im confident the coach has handled however.

 

[the new guy]

Just a thought fwiw.
AD fullback, nofo and Jennings wings.
Clark, Musgrove & Seyfarth on the bench, with MCK to cover, and can play centre if Mbye needs to go into DH for Walters.

 

[Tigerwould]

Agree with the 13 needing to be fit in defence. Hopefully Josh has this otherwise gaps will open up. Huth has him covered in D. Josh can dent in Attack.

 

[Tiger_Steve]

Really hoping Musgrove is in the mix. Very impressive last week imo

 

[JC99]

Aloiai was one of our best start of last season before some injuries happened. Bent the line better than anyone else in our forward pack. I’m sure he’s fitter than ever now and I’m happy he’s starting at lock this weekend

 

[JC99]

Really hoping Musgrove is in the mix. Very impressive last week imo

Bench spot for sure. I would be shocked if he wasn’t playing round 1

 

[JC99]

hope zane musgrove grabs a bench spot

hope zane musgrove grabs a bench spot

Musgrove and Doueihi will both start R1as will Momo.

Momo in, who out?

Mbye bench

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Mbye play centre over Momirovski. Madge was willing to part with Momirovski for a year.

 

[cochise]

Guys what’s going on with Talau everyone on this site said he was gunna be a star after one trial everyone’s scrapped him where’s the loyalty

I watched him closely last week. He made two poor attacking decisions which showed that, under pressure, he is a liability at this stage. In defence he was caught short a few times but lack of replays did not allow me to check whether inside defenders rushed the line causing a two on one against him.
I’m definitely not brushing him and one poor game is not the end of the world but no way is he pushing Leilua, Mbye or momirovski out of a centre position at this stage.

Spot on mate! Talua has a bright future but it is still that at the moment, in the future, he still has to develop further.

 

[Tim Sheens]

The problem with not having an 80min 9 is that we have to carry one on the bench.
Then we probably need to carry a player that can cover an injury in the backline as well as a forward rotation and Chee is the only player that can do that.
So there's 2 bench spots taken with a backup 9 and a backup back/backrower.

That leaves 2 props for the other 2 spots

Which is fine in a normal match, with the four props playing minutes according to their impact and endurance, taking up half of an eight man interchange.

 

[gallagher]

Aloiai was one of our best start of last season before some injuries happened. Bent the line better than anyone else in our forward pack. I’m sure he’s fitter than ever now and I’m happy he’s starting at lock this weekend

I'd love to see him have an injury free season.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

I don’t think Walters starting will be as positive as many think. His impact is in spurts and needs space. He would be more valuable to us as a bench change giving us some spark/dynamic game off the bench.

The side is ok, I’m not as happy as some.

LL hasn’t impressed much yet & will take time to gel.

BJ hasn’t had a Madge offseason and will take longer in the backs to get combos working. Expect a tough year for him

Momo will come in but for who...
AD will come in for CT but where does CT go
Jennings has looked different so far (amazing what a full pre-season does to players).

We are missing a glue guy - Matto/ET were those last year doing the cleaning up + 3rd man + gap filler from our forward pack just don’t see one of those

It’s only a trial and we know they mean little but do want to see signs ahead of our first few rounds on how they play together

 

[TheDaBoss]

Combinations key for Maguire in Rotorua trial
Author
Dan Talintyre
Timestamp
Wed 26 Feb 2020, 11:47 PM

Wests Tigers Head Coach Michael Maguire says combinations will be the key thing he's watching for in Sunday's trial match against the New Zealand Warriors in Rotorua as the focus continues to narrow for the 2020 season ahead.

Maguire has named a squad of 23 players for the cross-Tasman trial match for the second year in a row, with all the regular big names including Benji Marshall, Luke Brooks and Moses Mbye included for the visitors.

Having watched a number of the club's new faces trial strongly against the Penrith Panthers last Saturday, Maguire said seeing how the combinations between players develop would be the key thing for him this week and a deciding factor in who will force their way in to the Round 1 side.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing those combinations," Maguire said.

"We've done a lot of work in the pre-season and I've seen the boys grow throughout that time but it's now about getting out on the park and delivering a strong performance before we start the season.

"I think the combinations will be the big thing for us — whether it's the right edge, left edge or through the middle — they're all growing. It's going to be down to us to how they go in a game situation."

Wests Tigers new recruit Luciano Leilua
Wests Tigers new recruit Luciano Leilua
©NRL Photos
Having watched new recruits Zane Musgrove, Adam Doueihi, Billy Walters and Luciano Leilua all have their first game for the club last week, Maguire said he was excited to see the new places take the next step forward now in their second game.

"Trials is a little bit about blowing off the cobwebs," he said, "but it's also too about seeing how they're going to perform in the team and the unit and the way that we're playing.

"We've got big BJ [Leilua] coming in this week... and all our big players are playing so I'm really looking forward to watching those combinations grow throughout the game.

"We've been doing a lot of work for quite a couple of months on that but it's now about what they do on the field against the opposition."

Wests Tigers will kickoff against the New Zealand Warriors at 12:00pm AEDT on Sunday (2:00pm local time) in their final hit-out before the 2020 season officially gets underway for Maguire's side on March 15 against St. George-Illawarra.

 

[Geo]

Combinations key for Maguire in Rotorua trial

*Madge is useless....how does he expect to see combinations when he has named the likely Rd 1 FB on the bench a bloke who's hardly played rake at 9 ...havles who haven't played a minute in previous trial..a centre who's never played all in 80mins..

*In before @happy_tiger

 

[Elderslie_Tiger]

Combinations key for Maguire in Rotorua trial

*Madge is useless....how does he expect to see combinations when he has named the likely Rd 1 FB on the bench a bloke who's hardly played rake at 9 ...havles who haven't played a minute in previous trial..a centre who's never played all in 80mins..

*In before @happy_tiger

The KEYBOARD COACHES are alive and well

 

[Blocker1963]

Nice squad, like Walters at 9, real goer and gives good service, Hope L Garner and Tom Mikaele improve further, go Tigers

 

[avocadoontoast]

With the exception of no AD at 1 I think that's close to our strongest lineup.

 

[Geo]

Combinations key for Maguire in Rotorua trial

*Madge is useless....how does he expect to see combinations when he has named the likely Rd 1 FB on the bench a bloke who's hardly played rake at 9 ...havles who haven't played a minute in previous trial..a centre who's never played all in 80mins..

*In before @happy_tiger

The KEYBOARD COACHES are alive and well


 

[wicked_j]

What's the chances of the team running out similar to the back end of last year - so the named 9 starts off the bench, an extra forward starts, and Benji covers dummy half for the first 20 or so?

This means Walters only has to play 60mins, and means we're not short a forward. Just need one (or more) of the forwards to act as a link man to Brooks in the first 20.