What your team needs in 2017..WESTS TIGERS

[Geo]

WESTS TIGERS

Key 2016 stats: Defence 15th, Run Metres 15th, Line Breaks 8th

What they've got: A gutsy coach, three of the most promising young playmakers in Mitch Moses, James Tedesco and Luke Brooks, and a quality leader in Aaron Woods. They also have some big improvements to make in defence and go-forward, despite the presence of Woods.

What they need: A fit specialist hooker in the side would be handy after Robbie Farah's exit, although veteran Matt Ballin and youngster Jacob Liddle fit the bill. Some more depth in the forwards wouldn't go astray either, with the team already boasting some quality talent in the backline.

What they're getting: No confirmed signings as yet.

http://www.nrl.com/what-your-team-needs-in-2017-part-2/tabid/10874/newsid/101941/default.aspx

 

[happy_tiger]

A miracle or two won't go astray in 2017 , especially if we can't significantly add to our current roster

 

[TCL]

Agree JT is gutsy time will tell if he is good. Agree on teddy, Moses, woods and brooks sort of. Agree our defence needs big work, that's our coaches job and he hasn't fixed it in two years.

So fair and obvious assessment.

Only thing that concerns me is we haven't announced any new recruits to fill those gaps and I don't know if we can? So really for us the big improvement has to come from within.

 

[jadtiger]

I would rather have a good coach who can get the best from his players rather than a "gutsy" coach.Jt has delivered nothing with his selections and defensive plans(maybe its all buckets fault).

 

[stevetiger]

A miracle or two won't go astray in 2017 , especially if we can't significantly add to our current roster

We yet again have a team that can give the comp a good shake next year. Tedesco & Moses are looking like gun players in critical positions. Brooks is inconsistent and goes missing but there are times he looks like developing into a great player.

We have a quality pack and some quality outside backs.

How much worse of a team are we compared to this year's grand finalists. I don't think we are that far off at all.

We lack a hooker, we lack a quality winger, we have poor defence on one side & we may need an impact forward but I don't think that is essential. None of these problems are really that big. Idris may help out. Liddle/Balin may do the hooking job.

 

[happy_tiger]

A miracle or two won't go astray in 2017 , especially if we can't significantly add to our current roster

We yet again have a team that can give the comp a good shake next year. Tedesco & Moses are looking like gun players in critical positions. Brooks is inconsistent and goes missing but there are times he looks like developing into a great player.

We have a quality pack and some quality outside backs.

How much worse of a team are we compared to this year's grand finalists. I don't think we are that far off at all.

We lack a hooker, we lack a quality winger, we have poor defence on one side & we may need an impact forward but I don't think that is essential. None of these problems are really that big. Idris may help out. Liddle/Balin may do the hooking job.

We have garbage centres and second rowers and seeing they basically defend beside each other in the line it sticks all of our problems in the two most important areas defensively

As proven the top sides tore us apart when they played at their best

If we don't improve with some quality acquisitions in 2017 we will go backwards , mark my words

 

[Tigertigertiger]

We need decent centres who can tackle

 

[stevetiger]

Melbourne had a centre pairing of Will Chambers & Cheyse Blair. Cronulla had a centre pairing of Jack Bird & Ricky Leutele.

We've got Simona and Naiqama. I think our centres are better than Melbourne's and close to Cronulla's. I think Bird is a great player and Leutele is also pretty darn good. Chambers is good but Blair is pretty ordinary. Stick Simona or Naiqama into those teams and they would look very good.

Compare that to the wingers for both teams. Vinivalu & Koro for Melbourne and Holmes & Feki for Cronulla.

Nofo would go great in both teams but Rankin is so far off that level it isn't funny.

 

[stevetiger]

As for our second row let's look at both teams:-

Melbourne have Proctor & Harris.
Cronulla have Lewis and Graham.

I think both teams have better second rowers than us and it's not close but I also think that is a weak point in our team. Lawrence when in form can compare with those players. We need someone else to kick on to round that position out.

Our front row/lock combinations though are up there with both teams. Bromwich, McLean, Finucane for Melbourne with a fairly weak bench for Melbourne & Fifita, Prior, Gallen, Tagatese & Heighington for Cronulla.

We have Woods, Grant, Sue, Ava, Felise & ET. That is a good combination. I think it's better than both grand final teams.

I just don't see our team as being a team full of dud players. We've got a lot of quality in our side.

I think our players tend to get rated way too harshly on this board.

 

[happy_tiger]

Melbourne had a centre pairing of Will Chambers & Cheyse Blair. Cronulla had a centre pairing of Jack Bird & Ricky Leutele.

We've got Simona and Naiqama. I think our centres are better than Melbourne's and close to Cronulla's. I think Bird is a great player and Leutele is also pretty darn good. Chambers is good but Blair is pretty ordinary. Stick Simona or Naiqama into those teams and they would look very good.

Compare that to the wingers for both teams. Vinivalu & Koro for Melbourne and Holmes & Feki for Cronulla.

Nofo would go great in both teams but Rankin is so far off that level it isn't funny.

But look at the blokes who look after them defensively Steve

Proctor and Tohu Harris , many of us would stain the sheets with these blokes as our back rowers

That's the difference , we need to either get a better 11 and 12 or a better 3 and 4 , to have the mish mash we currently have is crazy and will only send us backwards

 

[stevetiger]

Melbourne had a centre pairing of Will Chambers & Cheyse Blair. Cronulla had a centre pairing of Jack Bird & Ricky Leutele.

We've got Simona and Naiqama. I think our centres are better than Melbourne's and close to Cronulla's. I think Bird is a great player and Leutele is also pretty darn good. Chambers is good but Blair is pretty ordinary. Stick Simona or Naiqama into those teams and they would look very good.

Compare that to the wingers for both teams. Vinivalu & Koro for Melbourne and Holmes & Feki for Cronulla.

Nofo would go great in both teams but Rankin is so far off that level it isn't funny.

But look at the blokes who look after them defensively Steve

Proctor and Tohu Harris , many of us would stain the sheets with these blokes as our back rowers

That's the difference , we need to either get a better 11 and 12 or a better 3 and 4 , to have the mish mash we currently have is crazy and will only send us backwards

I don't think it's that bad. Also Lawrence and Simona are fine. Brooks has been an issue on that side but I think his defence has improved a lot.

The right side needs some work but Moses needs to improve and then we do need a second rower who can defend. I like Aloiai but there were some times when we were playing Canberra that he looked too laterally slow to play there defensively.

Every team will have its faults as well. Look at the Cowboys. They have I think easily the best rooster in the comp but they couldn't go forward and just got smashed at the end of the season. That is with a great pack.

Our team should be performing better. Hopefully Moses and Brooks come on next year and with some small changes we can have a really good season. In my opinion our squad is easily a top 8 team. If they get a roll on anything is possible.

 

[palms]

I'd be chasing Gagan, Hymel Hunt, Taufua, Nathan Davis (depending on how his ankle has recovered) and to a lesser extent Carlin Anderson from the off contract list. All would be a definite upgrade for 2017\. There's maybe a chance to get one of Whare or Hiku, I'd be inclined to take Whare as Hiku would struggle in our system as he already had fitness issues this year and comes across as pretty lazy, but we wouldn't have the coin for either.
You're right Steve, we are not far off. Only an upgrade on a winger and a gun second rower is needed.

 

[ricksen]

More than anything, we need Lawrence and Aloiai to take a massive step forwards in 2017.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

If ET stays i'm keen to see Ava come in to start at prop, enabling Sue move to the back row with Lawrence. There's no intimidation factor with Aloiai and Lawrence as a combo. Push Aloiai back to the bench. We really need to splurge on a quality backrower for 2018.

 

[Eddie]

This is the 3rd season for JT so he really needs to make the playoffs next year.

We have plenty of players at the right age and experience to go to the next level.

We have some deficiencies which means we are not anywhere near a premiership contender.

However look at some of the filth that made the finals this year. You can't tell me we won't be a better side then the Bulldogs next year.

Problem for us is this year was a golden opportunity as 2 teams did not participate and the likes of Roosters, Souths and Manly all fell over. We still could not capitalise and grab a finals berth.

Might be tougher this year.

 

[happy_tiger]

Melbourne had a centre pairing of Will Chambers & Cheyse Blair. Cronulla had a centre pairing of Jack Bird & Ricky Leutele.

We've got Simona and Naiqama. I think our centres are better than Melbourne's and close to Cronulla's. I think Bird is a great player and Leutele is also pretty darn good. Chambers is good but Blair is pretty ordinary. Stick Simona or Naiqama into those teams and they would look very good.

Compare that to the wingers for both teams. Vinivalu & Koro for Melbourne and Holmes & Feki for Cronulla.

Nofo would go great in both teams but Rankin is so far off that level it isn't funny.

But look at the blokes who look after them defensively Steve

Proctor and Tohu Harris , many of us would stain the sheets with these blokes as our back rowers

That's the difference , we need to either get a better 11 and 12 or a better 3 and 4 , to have the mish mash we currently have is crazy and will only send us backwards

I don't think it's that bad. Also Lawrence and Simona are fine. Brooks has been an issue on that side but I think his defence has improved a lot.

The right side needs some work but Moses needs to improve and then we do need a second rower who can defend. I like Aloiai but there were some times when we were playing Canberra that he looked too laterally slow to play there defensively.

Every team will have its faults as well. Look at the Cowboys. They have I think easily the best rooster in the comp but they couldn't go forward and just got smashed at the end of the season. That is with a great pack.

Our team should be performing better. Hopefully Moses and Brooks come on next year and with some small changes we can have a really good season. In my opinion our squad is easily a top 8 team. If they get a roll on anything is possible.

I'll bet we don't make the 8 if we keep basically the same squad from 2016

Too many clubs will step up in 2017 who finished below us in 2016

 

[supercoach]

The bottom line we need to have the calls go our way and be playing out of our skin to match the quality sides and their is still a million miles between our great games and our poor games. As Happy said our centre's and second rowers are way off quality and that is where we leak most of our points. Our defence will never improve till we get some real hard nuts defending with our kids, even Dean Pay or Trevor the axe would not fix the problem.

I am really worried about 2017 even though we went better than expected in 2016

 

[Tigrr]

Everybody seems to like Lawrence but he is a suspect defender over 80mins. Maybe he should start off the bench for impact running late in the game. I think Aloai will improve. Naiqama and Rankin must go. So one great 2nd rower and one great winger will help. I would be coaching Felise to be the next Taumalolo type of player as well!

 

[happy_tiger]

The bottom line we need to have the calls go our way and be playing out of our skin to match the quality sides and their is still a million miles between our great games and our poor games. As Happy said our centre's and second rowers are way off quality and that is where we leak most of our points. Our defence will never improve till we get some real hard nuts defending with our kids, even Dean Pay or Trevor the axe would not fix the problem.

I am really worried about 2017 even though we went better than expected in 2016

And the other problem is there isn't much talent uncontracted for 2017 in the positions we mentioned SC

 

[TigerSJ]

Really guys - it's nice to be so loyal to members of the WTs squad but some of the posts comparing our second rowers and the depth on our bench to that of this year's top 8 sides is generous to say the least. Nearly every forward in those sides has been consistently tougher, run harder, tackled harder and played faster and smarter than our guys.
Sure we have had some good efforts now and again from Woods, Aloiai, Sue and ET, but across the season and against the bigger packs we have mostly been smashed. Certainly at the business end, or when the opposition has turned up, we have not been even close to matching them.
The way things panned out in 2016, with many other teams having problems, enabled us to climb the ladder a bit, but when we had our chances to grab a finals berth we showed how far away from the top teams we really are!
Sorry to say but none of our deep seated problems have been rectified and without changes we will be lucky to achieve as good a result on the ladder as we did this year.