If we sign Mansour because Penrith want/need us to, so we can get an unproven smallish kid, and they get to keep a superstar of the future, we haven’t learned a thing and we will never get out of the mediocrity cycle.

Tigers rorted again. Anyone surprised?

Seriously NRL is just a farce.

@Aesopian said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Why Wests Tigers are furious with Fittler and NSW Blues

By Michael Chammas
November 1, 2020 — 7.45pm

NSW coach Brad Fittler put a few noses out of joint at the Wests Tigers this week following his comments that he was “disillusioned” that the Tigers could not find a spot for a young Ryan Papenhuyzen at the club.

It’s the second time in a few months Fittler has had a crack at the Tigers, criticising the club for having “an identity crisis” and questioning whether they would “become anyone of real strength” on Wide World of Sports’ Freddy and the Eighth in August.

Safe to say it didn’t go down well with Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis, who is the owner of Brydens Lawyers - the major sponsor of Freddy’s Blues.

Hagipantelis has asked club officials to reach out to Fittler to find out if he has a problem with the club. The Tigers haven’t had a player represent NSW in the past three years under Fittler, who overlooked Dally M winger of the year David Nofoaluma.

Going by the talk out of rugby league circles, it’s not the only thing that Hagipantelis has to be upset about. This column understands the Blues major sponsor hasn’t heard from NSWRL chief executive Dave Trodden since March, prior to the COVID interruption. Trodden is under a bit of pressure, with an email doing the rounds of several clubs questioning his leadership.

Trodden’s name was mentioned as a potential replacement for Todd Greenberg as NRL chief executive earlier in the year, but there are very few people at head office who have good things to say about the NSW boss.

Foxx having second thoughts

There’s been another twist in the contract saga of Josh Addo-Carr, with the Storm winger indicating he is happy to remain at Melbourne next year should the club not be provided a suitable replacement.

Addo-Carr had signed a heads of agreement with the Wests Tigers that he would link with the joint venture in 2021 should he be released by the Storm. However Melbourne’s premiership triumph may have triggered a potential change of heart.

Good on you Lee. You’re putting your hard earned into the sport and have every right to challenge the biased brigade the NRL has become. That’s the kind of strong leadership WT fans want.

1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1986th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 986th year of the 2nd millennium, the 86th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1980s decade. Also the last year the blue and gold army witnessed their sooky-lala team win anything.

@hobbo1 said in November 1 is the day:

Aiden Tolman commits

Welcome to Plodville

Population: 30

@Hangonaminute said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@BAGNF05 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Hangonaminute said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Earl said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Hangonaminute said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@formerguest said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Hangonaminute said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Lot’s of “fingers crossed I hope” going on next season it seems.

1 ???
6 Hope Do E is the correct fit
3 Hope he gets back to his best
4 Ditto
7 Hope he can guide this team around and gel with his spine
9 Hope he can firstly stay on the field, secondly be what we need at 9 (I have serious doubts)
And his understudy, we hope he’s all he’s cracked up to be and could handle stepping up.

All of these ??
Along with the hope that Blore and Stefano live up to their potential are the reasons why I see another disappointing season ahead.

Conversely, whilst I am unsure on the number one filling our requirements and second rowers a bit thin on the ground, so agree on Blore needing to step up in the absence of a significant signing there, I am reasonably happy with the cattle elsewhere and looking forward to the season.

Unlike many, I doubt that WT will miss Harry much, if at all actually.
Even disregarding the supposedly red hot prospect in Simpkins, I love the quick and accurate out in front pass that Liddle consistently provides, expecting Brooks and Douehi to shine with the time and space that service gives, with those wider also prospering on the back of it and not being run out of space on the right.

A much lighter and fit Leilua plus the speed of Roberts firing for WT in the centres is a real possibility and if not there are plenty of reasonable options to otherwise fulfil the role for mine, with a post remedial eye surgery Kepaoa set to shine and Talau as well.

Your first sentence says it all, if you don’t have a gun no1 you can forget about it.
The rest as I said are big “ifs”.

I don’t think the top teams need a gun no 1. You need a fair few gun players though. We don’t have a team of stars. Fullback and one edge backrow spot to me should be our priority signings so in our case I think we do need a gun fullback or edge backrower. You’d think we’d make the 8 with Tedesco and Angus Crichton in our team. Knowing our luck they’d both do their ACL’s in the first game.

The thing is we need real high quality players now and maybe you just get them via developing juniors.

The reality is we don’t have a gun in our spine at all, the top teams have at least 2.

If we’re to go any good at least one of our spine need to have a season like no other X5, I can’t see it happening unfortunately.
Realistically how much better is Brooks going to get, or Do E, or even Liddle?

If we couldn’t make the 8 with Grant we’re not going to with Liddle and no number 1.

The reality is, we don’t have a quality number 1, Brooks is Brooks and were hoping the other 2 have the seasons of their wildest dreams (and we still might not go any good)

I think our 6,7,9 might surprise, 1 is a major issue.

Brooks hasn’t surprised me yet, can’t see why that will change now, ditto with Liddle, I could see Do E maybe surprising but is he going to carry us into the finals himself?

Mate our spine is very ordinary

Brooks has been playing behind no go forward and the worst ruck speed in the Comp. We have a decent front row now I think Brooks will improve sharply.

I’m getting wrapped up in the hype around Simpkin and Liddle not the worst if he’s fit.

Think AD is in for a big year.

@frullens said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@teddy23 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

If we’re thinking about young halfbacks I’d much preferably target Matt Burton over Flanagan…

Was a Kyle Flanagan fan, however if he can’t do much with that Roosters team with strike power along the lines of Tedesco, Keary, Manu, Tupou and the Morris brothers with the pack they got also I bet he’d struggle with our current mob

However, If Foran goes to Manly, I doubt he plays 9 for long and if he does make that switch to 6 i would aggressively target Josh Schuter

Josh Schuter imo is a much much much better prospect than Flanagan and slightly better than Burton

What’s all this talk about young Flanno not doing much with a star rooster pack?

Made the top 4. Almost best panthers (2 points) and almost beat raiders (4 points).

He kicks incredibly. And he wasn’t the lead playmaker. By any team standards (except for chooks) he did a pretty good job, especially considering it’s his 2nd year in NRL.

Not saying to sign him, but people acting as if he was horrible.

Robbo just realised he would actually have to coach Flanno, you see that’s not exactly his go, easier to just buy a ready made star

@NJLM78 said in Aloiai:

@avocadoontoast said in Aloiai:

Madness if true

At the 15 other NRL clubs it would be…

Take the emotion out of it. Aloiai is a middling prop in the NRL, we’ve given him a handful of years to become that player. We hold the cards here. Tell him what he’s worth (around 500K IMO) and move on. There’s other props out there for that money, he’s hardly big Papalii.

@Tiger5150 said in JAC:

@hsvjones said in JAC:

So Dogs just announced Former All Blacks coach as a High Performance Consultant… Gee wiz Barrett is on fire and not holding back… I was holding out hope we would still get JAC but I have no hope left now that we get him and its either the Dogs or Souths unfortunately…
We need something to change urgently as the media are only going to get stronger on us moving forward and make it even harder to recruit the quality ones.

I am seriously at a loss of what’s going on with the club…
We have never been this quite so either we have got rid of the leaks and announcements are coming or they are packing there desks up and moving on out the back door…
I love this club but I say increase our JAC offer and give us fans something to be excited about because we have sure earned it over the last 10 years…

Tigers fans: Hasnt this club learned anything from the Latrell fiasco where they played the whole thing out in the media and made us a laughing stock?

Also Tigers Fans: Why arent we hearing anything from the club about the negotiations with JAC? Why wont they tell us something? ANYTHING! Why are we reading more in the media?

Takes 15 minutes to put together a press release.

WestsTigers were extremely disappointed that the NSW coach found it appropriate to once again drag our club into the media spotlight over some retention decisions that took place over 3 years ago. Wests Tigers and 13 other NRL clubs have been consistently pillaged by the Melbourne Storm, a club that has no juniors and systematically cheated the salary cap for a number of years and were ultimately stripped of premierships. They are proven cheats. While the Sydney Rorters (sic) have never been found guilty of cheating, it is the worst kept secret in rugby league that their Chairman is a powerful figure in the game, it’s no surprise he is able to attract premiere talent. Losing players to these clubs will continue, the media should not take joy in this sad aspect of our game.

@jirskyr said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Elderslie_Tiger said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Former NSW Origin star Jack Bird will return home to St George Illawarra on a two-year deal after becoming the first major signing of new Dragons coach Anthony Griffin.

How can anyone in the media be calling Tigers basket-case when St George and Bulldogs exist!?

Cos WT news makes $

Manly had a player stab someone, allegedly.

Another one of their players regularly assaults people, allegedly.

Rumour has it their former coach had to bring in his own office furniture and as soon as their FB gets injured they’re a second grade side.

Don’t believe half the rubbish the ‘news’ outlets produce. It’s all fairytales.

@happy_tiger said in 2021 Rookies:

@sleeve said in 2021 Rookies:

@willow said in 2021 Rookies:

@sleeve said in 2021 Rookies:

@happy_tiger said in 2021 Rookies:

@sleeve said in 2021 Rookies:

Talk about size of half backs.
Cronk178cm 88kg
Alfie 165cm 76kg
Toovey 168 cm 70kg
Madden 180 cm 82kg

Next argument will but they were bigger then.Yeah! Roach,Sirronon,Tallis,Webke,and another 100 were midgets.

I don’t think sides were able to isolate players as well back then …and legs tackles were acceptable back then as well

OH give me a break! Are you another Brooks basher or just a Douiehi at 5/8 fan?

Happy may have played in the NRL once upon a time…just saying.

Point taken,and i would not care if he’s C Smith .Cronk has only been out of the game for 1 year,the comments were of little reference,next we will get "but the rules have changed,or the fact that most halves today still leg tackle.

You’ve brought up players from the 80’s …they played against far different defences and no wrestle …the leg tackle was more acceptable because getting fast play the balls wasn’t as important …two completely different eras …yes things worked in both eras …but if they weren’t important in a particular era

Some clubs even hid their half back behind the line for ‘cover defence’ haha

@geo said in 2021 Rookies:

here we go…Jock Cronk…

Haha next Joey passing to next Cronk, we’ll go undefeated

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@bigsiro said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Seems most are in agreement re the definition of overs.
But then why when a good player in a position we need comes up do people say “I wouldn’t pay overs”?
Wouldn’t a good fullback/half/winger/hooker be worth their weight in gold to us?!?!?

To me it’s how much you think that player moves the needle . I understand why we offered LM 1 mil because we had Thommo , who tried hard but had to have been a net 0 at fullback . He’s probably worth 700k , but he really would have moved the needle had we signed him , no matter what we paid . It’s contracts like Mbyes , where i don’t think at any point he would have been viewed as someone who made us grossly improved. He would have made us better ,sure , but his value was finite . I think this is what they mean .

I like the term move the needle. This term could also describe a players ability to uplift the brand of the club and attract other premium playing talent. It’s my view that we still need a couple of top line players to ‘move the needle’ to get us right up into that top eight conversation. Crichton from Panthers or Staggs would be that sort of signing. Not much around for 2021 though unfortunately.

@mike said in Wests Tigers sign James Roberts till 2022:

Can’t wait to see James Roberts in Round 1. Who else is excited by the prospect of genuine speed in our backline?

More speed than Oxford st

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@cochise said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Lots of people saying McInnes would be lock for us but is that what the club thinks? I’m pretty certain he wants to play hooker over lock.

I think our interest in him was to play lock. The club see a Radley type ball playing lock as the biggest priority so that is where I think we were looking at McInnes playing.

That doesn’t mean McInnes wants to play lock.

I don’t know how I feel about him at lock, personally I think he’s better at hooker. He’s a great defender but I have visions of him being whacked multiple times trying to run the ball out of his own end. He’s not as evasive as Murray and doesn’t have the size of Radley who’s just built better for running the footy.

I have to agree. Not keen on him on the sort of coin being bandied around. He’s a warrior and consistent footy player but on upwards of 700K I feel like you want some individual brilliance or someone who will win you a game with some magic. I like him just worried we’re looking at him as a marquee signing.

@cochise said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@bagnf05 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@bagnf05 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Here’s a great example of what Harry can do. In this Twitter thread you see him give Brooks good space to attack, get Eiso rolling forward with a perfect pass, run himself and get us in attacking position and then fire two beautiful passes to brooks to set up the try.

The bloke has it all. Let’s not pretend his service isn’t good. The example are all here https://twitter.com/rlwriters/status/1348791654015123462?s=21

Anyway a bit off topic so rant over lol

All of that is from midfield or beyond mate . You are literally proving my point . I am not talking about who is the superior player . I’m talking about getting your forwards onto the ball in situations where they really shouldn’t . And the reason Liddle does this , is he’s a far bigger threat when he scoots out because he’s way faster than Harry.

Liddle service is fast as all get out off the deck and accurate . But Harry is the more complete player . But he has weakness . Most notably his ruck manipulation, in the dirty end . Everybody has weakness mate .
And I think liddles style is better for the current makeup of the team. But I am nervous about his body and weak first contact in defence . But he looks way bigger this year . So we will see .
Liddle equals poor mans Damien Cook . Harry equals poor mans Cam Smith . This is all I’m saying .

Firstly, Harry is far more dangerous running the football, it’s probably the best part of his game so not sure why you think it’s his biggest weakness he ran the ball more than any other hooker in 2020. He makes far more line breaks when running the footy too.

As for service to the big fellas, his service is good as shown, his passes are just as good if he’s standing 30 metres further back there’s really no difference, he has that cam smith pass where it’s right in front of the props almost looks forward. Liddle has good passing for sure but if brooks struggles again it’ll be all for nothing and not sure he can control a game like Harry.

Whatever mate , I couldn’t be bothered anymore . I’m trying to be objective , and these are things I watched with a keen eye , last year, and Liddle the previous 2.Especially when the hype train , left the station. If your not even going to admit that Liddles speed out of dummy half is better , than your just lying to yourself now . Liddle is a line break threat every time he gets out . A clean break . I get it . Harry’s was your favourite player . You think he’s the bees knees . I personally don’t . I think he’s above average . And I will wait to reserve judgement , as one thing I know about this game , is how quickly perceptions can change. Like , if Liddle plays to his potential , the general opinion of him around here in 7 months .especially if he signs for say , the dogs . I think Liddle is a gun . Everything I’ve seen of him suggests it . And , he’s our gun . He’s a tigers junior .

Love your passion for Liddle mate but nobody is making this Harry Grant stuff up. It’s not just hype. You’ll get plenty of chances to see it for yourself this year, origin games, grand finals and probably test matches included. Liddle’s big goal is playing FG.

It’s not just passion mate . I get it , he’s had a stop start career and a lot of guys have gone off him, but I’ve got real high hopes for him . And I think the club does as well. I really like our spine this year . It’s the best one we’ve started the season with in a long time . There’s just a lot of upside to it .

I like it too and good to see Liddle accepting some accountability in the media today and showing gratitude to the club. On the spine FB still worries me, I hope Laurie comes over soon.

I believe, somewhat hopefully, that we will see a much better Mbye in 2021.

Persistent rumours about him going back to QLD not good. Is his heart in it?

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@bagnf05 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Here’s a great example of what Harry can do. In this Twitter thread you see him give Brooks good space to attack, get Eiso rolling forward with a perfect pass, run himself and get us in attacking position and then fire two beautiful passes to brooks to set up the try.

The bloke has it all. Let’s not pretend his service isn’t good. The example are all here https://twitter.com/rlwriters/status/1348791654015123462?s=21

Anyway a bit off topic so rant over lol

All of that is from midfield or beyond mate . You are literally proving my point . I am not talking about who is the superior player . I’m talking about getting your forwards onto the ball in situations where they really shouldn’t . And the reason Liddle does this , is he’s a far bigger threat when he scoots out because he’s way faster than Harry.

Liddle service is fast as all get out off the deck and accurate . But Harry is the more complete player . But he has weakness . Most notably his ruck manipulation, in the dirty end . Everybody has weakness mate .
And I think liddles style is better for the current makeup of the team. But I am nervous about his body and weak first contact in defence . But he looks way bigger this year . So we will see .
Liddle equals poor mans Damien Cook . Harry equals poor mans Cam Smith . This is all I’m saying .

Firstly, Harry is far more dangerous running the football, it’s probably the best part of his game so not sure why you think it’s his biggest weakness he ran the ball more than any other hooker in 2020. He makes far more line breaks when running the footy too.

As for service to the big fellas, his service is good as shown, his passes are just as good if he’s standing 30 metres further back there’s really no difference, he has that cam smith pass where it’s right in front of the props almost looks forward. Liddle has good passing for sure but if brooks struggles again it’ll be all for nothing and not sure he can control a game like Harry.

Whatever mate , I couldn’t be bothered anymore . I’m trying to be objective , and these are things I watched with a keen eye , last year, and Liddle the previous 2.Especially when the hype train , left the station. If your not even going to admit that Liddles speed out of dummy half is better , than your just lying to yourself now . Liddle is a line break threat every time he gets out . A clean break . I get it . Harry’s was your favourite player . You think he’s the bees knees . I personally don’t . I think he’s above average . And I will wait to reserve judgement , as one thing I know about this game , is how quickly perceptions can change. Like , if Liddle plays to his potential , the general opinion of him around here in 7 months .especially if he signs for say , the dogs . I think Liddle is a gun . Everything I’ve seen of him suggests it . And , he’s our gun . He’s a tigers junior .

Love your passion for Liddle mate but nobody is making this Harry Grant stuff up. It’s not just hype. You’ll get plenty of chances to see it for yourself this year, origin games, grand finals and probably test matches included. Liddle’s big goal is playing FG.

It’s not just passion mate . I get it , he’s had a stop start career and a lot of guys have gone off him, but I’ve got real high hopes for him . And I think the club does as well. I really like our spine this year . It’s the best one we’ve started the season with in a long time . There’s just a lot of upside to it .

I like it too and good to see Liddle accepting some accountability in the media today and showing gratitude to the club. On the spine FB still worries me, I hope Laurie comes over soon.

@cochise said in Who should our No. 9 be for 2021:

@strongee said in Who should our No. 9 be for 2021:

@cochise said in Who should our No. 9 be for 2021:

@speed2burn said in Who should our No. 9 be for 2021:

@leichhardttiger said in Who should our No. 9 be for 2021:

@speed2burn said in Who should our No. 9 be for 2021:

back in the Halatau/Farah days in 05.
Sorry Speedie - Halatau did not share the Hooking job with Farah in 2005.
It was Galea first 6 rounds then Farah for 7, then Farah benched for 2 for Galea again then Farah Hooked for the rest of the Season.
Halatau started on the bench Rd 1 (Farah DNP) then he was Centre in our 2nd match vs Dogs (rd3 after the Bye) Then Bench for 3 games alongside Farah then DNP Rd 8, Bench for next 4, then DNP for next 5 Rds 12-16. He was Bench for Rds 17-22 Then 1 game as Centre then picked as Centre but benched for Collis return. Then Benched last 4 games of the For Against Season. Farah was on the Bench himself when Halatau DNP in Rd 14 & 15.
Quite simply, Dene did not share the hooking duties with Farah.
BTW Galea played Hooker 7 times 2R 5 times Bench 1 and seemed to have found his home at Lock for the last 10 games only to shift back to the 2R so Dene Halatau could lock the scrum for the final 4 games of the Finals period! What a massive pack we had back then!

My memory fades me then haha…I could have sworn they did, but I guess I may need to watch a few re runs

Dene was huge in that finals run.

No mate, what you saying is right. When Dene was playing lock they shared the dummy half role. Quite often Farah would take a run out of dummy half and then Dene would take the following one.

Dene was amazing in this role and I expected a team to copy that last season but it didn’t happen.

The wrestle came in just after that . And I feel like there was some kind of rule change which brought us back to the pack . I could be misremembering though .

Exactly mate, after we won in 2005 there was an effort to slow the game down, this led to the introduction of the wrestle. Funnily enough the slowing of the PTB was an effort to reduce dummy half running in the game.

I really though with the 6 again rule that was introduced last year that a team would definitely try the dual dummy halves that we implemented in the 2005 final series.

With the widening of the 6 again rule I wouldn’t be surprised to see a team try it in 2021.

Along with the wrestle coaches also started focussing on patterns and structures around the markers and A defenders about that time. Made for boring completions footy and boring footy training. That’s what PVL is trying to undo now.

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@strongee said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Here’s a great example of what Harry can do. In this Twitter thread you see him give Brooks good space to attack, get Eiso rolling forward with a perfect pass, run himself and get us in attacking position and then fire two beautiful passes to brooks to set up the try.

The bloke has it all. Let’s not pretend his service isn’t good. The example are all here https://twitter.com/rlwriters/status/1348791654015123462?s=21

Anyway a bit off topic so rant over lol

All of that is from midfield or beyond mate . You are literally proving my point . I am not talking about who is the superior player . I’m talking about getting your forwards onto the ball in situations where they really shouldn’t . And the reason Liddle does this , is he’s a far bigger threat when he scoots out because he’s way faster than Harry.

Liddle service is fast as all get out off the deck and accurate . But Harry is the more complete player . But he has weakness . Most notably his ruck manipulation, in the dirty end . Everybody has weakness mate .
And I think liddles style is better for the current makeup of the team. But I am nervous about his body and weak first contact in defence . But he looks way bigger this year . So we will see .
Liddle equals poor mans Damien Cook . Harry equals poor mans Cam Smith . This is all I’m saying .

Firstly, Harry is far more dangerous running the football, it’s probably the best part of his game so not sure why you think it’s his biggest weakness he ran the ball more than any other hooker in 2020. He makes far more line breaks when running the footy too.

As for service to the big fellas, his service is good as shown, his passes are just as good if he’s standing 30 metres further back there’s really no difference, he has that cam smith pass where it’s right in front of the props almost looks forward. Liddle has good passing for sure but if brooks struggles again it’ll be all for nothing and not sure he can control a game like Harry.

Whatever mate , I couldn’t be bothered anymore . I’m trying to be objective , and these are things I watched with a keen eye , last year, and Liddle the previous 2.Especially when the hype train , left the station. If your not even going to admit that Liddles speed out of dummy half is better , than your just lying to yourself now . Liddle is a line break threat every time he gets out . A clean break . I get it . Harry’s was your favourite player . You think he’s the bees knees . I personally don’t . I think he’s above average . And I will wait to reserve judgement , as one thing I know about this game , is how quickly perceptions can change. Like , if Liddle plays to his potential , the general opinion of him around here in 7 months .especially if he signs for say , the dogs . I think Liddle is a gun . Everything I’ve seen of him suggests it . And , he’s our gun . He’s a tigers junior .

Love your passion for Liddle mate but nobody is making this Harry Grant stuff up. It’s not just hype. You’ll get plenty of chances to see it for yourself this year, origin games, grand finals and probably test matches included. Liddle’s big goal is playing FG.

Could use some news or a new rumour - when’s Laurie signing for 2021?