Man, watching us vs Parra.

We were Pummled.

Not Brooks fault on that. He goy a few opportunities and helped us get 20 points. I cannot fault him.

Our defense too, it held a line. We were not Porus slop. Yes, parra had a creative attack and rattled us, but they employed tactics to rattle us Unlike say easts that will just pass the ball to a center/winger and stroll on through.

We did well, in a comp where people are loosing 40/0 we actually performed. Long way to go.

Why blame Brooks when its clear Andrew Johns couldnt have won that game for us.

JAC has great attitude and of all the players mentioned would bring the hardworking culture Madge is trying to instill here.

Front load his contract, let him buy a house and lock him in for 4 years.

“Canberra have already paid around $200,000 of Leilua’s $700,000 deal, and are only prepared to throw in an extra $100,000 to seal the Canberra-to-Concord deal.”
Joey BJ Leilua for 400K where do we sign?

@the_third said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

I still believe we will need another hooker to cover Liddle and Simpkin
An experienced one at that
I think we all know Walters will join his dad

Just Jumping to the earlier comment:
“I still believe we will need another hooker to cover Liddle and Simpkin
An experienced one at that
I think we all know Walters will join his dad”

So we have Walters, Liddle and Simpkin who can play hooker. Now were talking of hiring a 4th hooker?
Why don’t we ask Matt Ballin to come back out of retirement? Worked last time we had 3-4 hookers on the books, not.

At the moment with Douleini moving to 5/8 we have no fullback and I think Mbye will probably get the job there. As much as Mbye was a mistake I think it may not be a bad move to put him at fullback and wait for a top shelf fullback to come on the market (then buying someone not ideal). Either way our forward pack is a bigger concern followed by fullback.

Why do we want 3 hookers on the books? Why on earth do we want 4??

Lets throw Liddle at it. If he falls this year, he falls. If he succeeds he succeeds. If he is not ready now he will never be ready. Hire Angus Crichton or someone decent forward and make our pack feared again! Let the rest work themselves out without having to deal with defense for 80 minutes.

@Mighty_Tiger said in David Nofoaluma:

@Jedi_Tiger said in David Nofoaluma:

@rihannafan1 said in David Nofoaluma:

@Jedi_Tiger said in David Nofoaluma:

@rihannafan1 said in David Nofoaluma:

@Jedi_Tiger said in David Nofoaluma:

@twentyforty said in David Nofoaluma:

If it’s true that Nofa is asking $650k then he’s priced himself out of WT. I hope he gets picked up by eels and gets a combo going with Moses. I think we paid too much for Nofa ($450k) at a time when we had all our stars leaving and now it’s biting us on the gluteus because everyone with a sentimental soul , including Nofa, thinks he’s worth an upgrade. During the last 3 years when he was on $450k , Fox was on $350k. I still think his true value to WT is $325k plus a top up with vets and car of about $80k - $100k. You never no if you don’t ask? Someone was desperate enough to buy fox at $650k. It’s going to be very interesting to see how that unfolds?

it is scary to think JAC was on 350k and Nofo 450k
right time right place for Nofo when our stars left he stayed
Shouldn’t be able to win lotto twice
Joey L can leave end of 2022 ? imagine nofo money for Stagg or Stephen crighton

Key word: imagine.

cash is a reality if we use it for 2022 one hell of a war chest
Packer and Nofo money on Stagg or Crighton and a depth player signing

I agree that we pay 450k at the most and really it’s the appropriate amount for Nofo. But Staggs and Crichton are much younger than him and have already had somewhat comparable career best years. Wests Tigers are not signing them on 450-500k and we just don’t have the TPAs to do anything else. You can imagine but it will never ever happen.

Packer and Nofo money should get us one of Crighton, Staggs

Can you be consistent. Paying overs for those 2 is ok?

Packer & Noffo salary combined is overs for both these players a year.

I dont get this.
We have a 450K winger wanting 450K. Pay the man his money.

Dont go hiring a 30 year old winger on his way out to replace him, even if your paying Unders.
Dont go hiring Crighton (Steven) or Staggs for a Million to replace him.

Pay Nofo his due. You have a 27year old winger who has hit form. More importantly he Combines well with BJ and Luciano Leulia. DONT FIX WHATS WORKING!

We have no clear NR1, we have forwards that try but get beaten by better teams. We have the leagues nr3 tryscorer and everyone goes “lets replace that guy”! I dont get it.

@newtown said in Too many project players:

@tilllindemann said in Too many project players:

I will back a recruitment approach that targets young projects like Laurie, Tuki, Simpkin, and Stefano, over a recruitment approach that targets ‘established players’ like Packer and Reynolds any day of the week.

I would label Packer and Reynolds as pre pension players but Wests tigers have, and will, pay their full pensions.

I hate digging this up but…

Say Josh Reynolds went to the Storm/Easts/souths, would he instead become a Gun? Would he be a gritty forward? In short would he develop?

What if James Tamou came here instead of Penrith 3ish years ago? Or Cody Walker?

Because Souths made Cody Walker an Origin level 5/8, As Easts massively improved Luke Keary.

The Storm get the same players we get. The storm get rejects, get unwanted 5/8’s and make them something…

So what if… OUR DEVELOPMENT SUCKS?
just a thought, sure Packer appears to have come here to retire, Reynolds perhaps notm Gold Coast are getting heaps from Corey Thompson.

Maybe the problem is…US. maybe buying other players wont chanrlge our core problem.

@tiger5150 said in Politics Super Thread - keep it all in here:

@happy_tiger said in Politics Super Thread - keep it all in here:

Trump has allegedly pardoned 73 people and commuted 70 jail sentences today

And has pardoned the least people of all presidents since McKinley 120 years ago, but yeah…Trump. Obama pardoned 212 and gave clemency to 1715 people.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/24/so-far-trump-has-granted-clemency-less-frequently-than-any-president-in-modern-history/

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-pardons

Something weird with America’s pardon system. IMHO there is no way, a De-elected president should be able to pardon anyone (be they dem or rep or whatevrr).
Your elected, you decide to pardon people, OK you face the electorate with those decisions.

The whole “I am running out of office so I am going to pardon X and Y and Z”. Those guys who killed the 9 year old in Iraq. WTF, like how sicko can you get. The electorate, the Citizens should know about whos getting pardoned.

Just seems wrong to me.

@sabre said in Lost opportunity in Macarthur:

@cochise said in Lost opportunity in Macarthur:

@frullens said in Lost opportunity in Macarthur:

Souths have signed a ground breaking partnership with Macarthur FC.

Wests Tigers are losing the region to Souths and even Penrith… What is our strategy for our footprint??

https://www.rabbitohs.com.au/news/2021/01/29/ground-breaking-partnership-with-macarthur-fc/

Honestly, I don’t know, but think we may be giving up out there. Wests Magpies Canterbury Cup team has moved from Campbelltown.

I definitely think club bosses see our future as being in the Inner-West. Our membership, crowd attendance and general support is much bigger in this locality. And with the centre of excellence coming at Concord I think this is the area our focus should be on.

If that is the decision of the club bosses:
All directors should be immediately fired and sent packing.

Penrith has become an incredibly strong team by fostering the mountains and the growth out of the Juniors in that area.
Campbelltown and Macarthur have always been a gateway to Camden and the Southwest. Now though Camden is a real estate boom to rival Kellyville. What was once pasture is now houses on houses on houses.

Saying our growth is in the inner city being 9-16th while Easts and South’s get more premiereship rings is a joke. We could dominate South west Sydney and bring a talentpool about the size of Penrith’s but hey who needs long term thinking.

@Tiger_Steve said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

So just catching up… we signed an abattoir and JT is coming back to run it? Or is that just a rumour?

?? Worst SAW sequel ever?

@Earl said in Ofahengaue Signs/ Aloiai released:

@BAGNF05 said in Ofahengaue Signs/ Aloiai released:

@Earl said in Ofahengaue Signs/ Aloiai released:

@BAGNF05 said in Ofahengaue Signs/ Aloiai released:

@Earl said in Ofahengaue Signs/ Aloiai released:

@BAGNF05 said in Ofahengaue Signs/ Aloiai released:

You’re seeing what you want to see mate

So are you.

Matterson “I want to go to a club where I can win a premiership” 10 months later playing in a preliminary final.

He’s a flog, but I rest my case.

I’m laughing at this one. That is a pretty poor way to rest your case. That doesn’t go anywhere near proving that Wests Tigers are a rabble or incompetently managed.

I don’t view Matterson leaving as being about the club being incompetently managed. If anything he just proves to me how hard it is to manage contracts within the NRL.

One point that I would agree with is that if you are a winning footy team it’s easier to hold onto the players that you want too. That doesn’t mean you get it right. If you look at Penrith they are a winning footy team but let’s see how they manage their success going forward.

Just to expand, for a relatively young guy to make an assertion that WT are not heading towards success after an already very long run of poor performance, I have to conclude that there are some issues within the club.

…and you do understand that WT is in the business of winning football games? Our competence in this area is surely in question.

You gotta get some better ammo. What issues ? Why does Matterson stating that mean anything at all other than he wants more money.

Yes we have to win footy games. I get that. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that you and others keep asserting that management is incompetent or there are some big issues but you can’t articulate those issues clearly, rationally and objectively.

We agree completely that the more games we win the better.

Earl, You are DEAD SET RIGHT!
When you have a player like Matterson who wants money (not judging) and breaks his contract early you have a situation.
A situation that isn’t regularly seen in league before. Coach and Board make a decision not to upgrade a player under contract, which has consequences good and bad. Matterson was worth more, sure. But I get it totally that if we give him more we expose a weakness in salary negotiation, it could have opened the flood gates to future bad deals.

The board isn’t at fault for a player being greedy. Aloiai likewise this time broke a contract. The board is handed the situation. I would have kept him lawn mowing, but that would have lead to team disruption. Signing Joe O with money flowing our way is the best recovery of the situation the Board was handed.

Our Board is probably one of the better ones in Rugby League. They are just handed a team without a fixed home ground, a crowded Sydney basin, passionate fans flowing both ways, an unfair salary cap and competition who do them a disservice. (as well as the Rupert terrorgraph that kicks us every chance it gets. )

IMHO we should be looking out for more forwards. I think that most forwards don’t like being a bashing post for a team. If you had a choice of running up against say Jason Taumololo or playing with JT, I think most forwards would choose playing with the bigger pack. Luke Lewis went to Cronulla probably to play with Gallen and not be the center of attention at that team (which then developed a good culture of strong forwards). I digress.

The board isn’t responsible for players getting greedy. That’s Rugby League. What the board can do is make the best of the situation before it.

@cultured_bogan said in 3,2,1 v Cowboys:

@boonboon said in 3,2,1 v Cowboys:

3. Garner
4. Twal
5. Musgrove

How anyone can give points to Douehi when his defence was almost as bad as Roberts

16 tackles, 1 missed, 1 ineffective.

What I am more concerned about is how compressed we are and soon as the ball is spread quickly by the opposition we get exposed on the edge. First Cowboys try yesterday was a prime example of that. Bunched in the middle and Lemuelu identified it and threw the ball wide and left Roberts and Nofo in a 4 on 2 overlap.

Our defense seemed so much better vs Parramatta. Parra wore us down, I get it.

Also, like last year:
Us and Parramatta go really good.
WE play really hard against each other.
We both loose our next games and from memory last year Parra and us lost the next 3.

But we needed a rocket for defending like that. Our backline has 2x 700k centers, a high price winger who could not defend and enough that we should have been solid. We wern’t.

20/20 hindsight. I wish we moved Roberts to Fullback and let Momo take his center spot OR moved BJ to Lock. Daine Laurie is great at FB but we could have restructured our team. Either way we have good reason to be unhappy with a back line that is so expensive and known for good defense not defending.

@newtown said in Too many project players:

@tilllindemann said in Too many project players:

I will back a recruitment approach that targets young projects like Laurie, Tuki, Simpkin, and Stefano, over a recruitment approach that targets ‘established players’ like Packer and Reynolds any day of the week.

I would label Packer and Reynolds as pre pension players but Wests tigers have, and will, pay their full pensions.

I hate digging this up but…

Say Josh Reynolds went to the Storm/Easts/souths, would he instead become a Gun? Would he be a gritty forward? In short would he develop?

What if James Tamou came here instead of Penrith 3ish years ago? Or Cody Walker?

Because Souths made Cody Walker an Origin level 5/8, As Easts massively improved Luke Keary.

The Storm get the same players we get. The storm get rejects, get unwanted 5/8’s and make them something…

So what if… OUR DEVELOPMENT SUCKS?
just a thought, sure Packer appears to have come here to retire, Reynolds perhaps notm Gold Coast are getting heaps from Corey Thompson.

Maybe the problem is…US. maybe buying other players wont chanrlge our core problem.

@mike said in Moses Mbye Super Duper Thread:

@crazycat said in Moses Mbye Super Duper Thread:

It is weird reading this.

Yes the WT appears ready to part ways with Mbye. As many predicted, he failed to come close to his 750k pricetag. I too asked “what?!?” Truly wondering why Mbye and why over the Morris twins.

Yet i feel the guy did perform better then I expected. Ok maybe with 750K reynolds and 600k Packer being benchwarmers, our expectations were low…WAY too low. It seemed to me that Mbye did put the effort in for the club. Yes he dropped the ball, yes he was a speedhump in defense and compaired too say AJ brimstone, latrell , etc. We did not get value for money.

Seriously Was I the only WT screaming ‘grab the morris brothers’.

As dumb as the mbye decision was, Kudos to Mbye for putting in the effort and earning his place.

Mbye is like a bad used car salesman. Slick talker but sells you rubbish.

Did Mbye sell himself to us? I honestly dont know. <honestly do not know, your reason makes as much sense as any other>
I remember he performed “really well” that last 3 months at the bulldogs, but they still lost massively. No idea if the Morris’s and everyone else slacked off to make him looK better. But why pay 750k for a player, unproven in a loosing team? I never saw a 300k performance from Mbye at the dogs, sure we got 250k our way … but just why?

From what I saw Cleary and the WT player development squad wanted Mbye. If Mbye sold sold himself to them so …well then heck he is more like Tim Shaw or Donald trump, far out we should move him to recruitment so we can beat Frank Lowry and the Easts gang to the new signings.

Mbye, I appreciate what you did on the field. Glad this saga is Over.

Man, watching us vs Parra.

We were Pummled.

Not Brooks fault on that. He goy a few opportunities and helped us get 20 points. I cannot fault him.

Our defense too, it held a line. We were not Porus slop. Yes, parra had a creative attack and rattled us, but they employed tactics to rattle us Unlike say easts that will just pass the ball to a center/winger and stroll on through.

We did well, in a comp where people are loosing 40/0 we actually performed. Long way to go.

Why blame Brooks when its clear Andrew Johns couldnt have won that game for us.

@snake said in Bite the bullet coach:

@blacknwhite said in Bite the bullet coach:

we were in that game for 80… the whole 80.

We werent demolished up and down the park. Without errors, and 6 again penalties we were doing quite well field position wise…

The big difference was, when we were within striking distance, our players passed the ball to someone else hoping they could make something of the situation. The Eels played as if they were each trying to make options for the next man.

Mentality.

Its called structure and this team has none.

Did you watch the tries?
None of the Eels tries were ‘structure’ tries. They were playing very unstructured. We saw Moses try to take out about 5 people with his stepping, half commiting/non committing to break up the line.

The eels got OFFLOADs and they got playing for their teammates. They had a good attack which broke our defensive structure (IMHO, which seemed quite good for once).

That style wont help them against Canberra who will strip the ball from the Eels, nor will it help with the Storm/easts who will defend better then us.

@tigervinnie said in First coach sacked?:

@cultured_bogan said in First coach sacked?:

@adelaidetiger said in First coach sacked?:

Does Trent Barrett get a free pass for this year or could he still be on the chopping block? How bad would things have to get?

He got to sign a lot of his players and moved on whomever he didn’t want so you’d think he may not get a pass.

Seems like another Jason Taylor, seems to offer a bit as part of a coaching system, but doesn’t fare well overseeing it all.

dont worry they have JAC coming next season, cant wait to see how well a winger improves their forwards, hooker and inexperienced halves situation.

Absolutely Brilliant post.

Yes a JAC with 1 more year of injuries on him. Look I rate the guy and a specialist winger is worth something. Particularly as JAC gets defense and if he can train that then that’s valuable.
But a year in League, this comp is damaging a lot of bodies, JAC won’t keep being the fastest winger with the way he gets tackled. Still a great signing but a risk.

Either way Barrett is another Jason Taylor. He has his system, he will force it onto the Bulldogs where it doesn’t fit. He will get Burton across but no one else once people see a trainwreck this year. Then Burton will be blamed for the next year. No reason why anyone else of talent will stay.

Todd Payten will need to start getting some wins on the scoreboard and it looks like he will loose the team respect soon.
Barrett I expect to be the biggest failure, no creativity as a coach it is his way or highway and by him rewriting the side he owns the problems. He won’t adapt as the game changes.

The big surprise is Anthony Griffin. I rated him as the best of the coaches available and he has a great winrate. Tough but knows how to get the side moving. Infact if we lost McGuire I was hoping we would hire him next. Boy St George have shown success even with one of their biggest names down on the sidelines.

Looks like Easts knew Matterson was one greedy player. They were right to punt him.

I think we got the best year out of him. Sure he is going solid at Parramatta but he is making mistakes.

I don’t mind players being upfront, but far out Matterson turn the dollarsigns off. You are on $750K! what is 770K that much better.

@avocadoontoast said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Absolutely, he’s been awful since he got back from the US. He’s not a fullback and these days he’s a bog average winger too.

Re Val Holmes ( I think)

Agreed. No idea why Cronulla were willing to pay so much for him to stay. He seemed like a good back, had that football brain and sly way, but nothing that special.

Maybe he is better then an average winger, but for his pricetag boy he would want to be a lot better.

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@magpieger said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@jc99 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

This forum cares way too much about players personalities… as long as they work hard at training and work hard on the field let’s take them. We can’t afford to run background checks on players and only sign charity workers… McGuire is a grub but he would be a solid pickup and footy is what matters

I’m very proud of the fact our club hasn’t ever been seen as purveyers of grubby play.
To the point that even the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Finger” or Tim Simona stuff never left a stigma upon our great clubs name in the same way Storm cheated the cap or Easts Rorters continually seem so flushed for choice or Sharks being found over the cap every year either side of their premiership.
Our integrity is intact.
We are proud.
We signed bone-heads before, the most recent having been dropped last week.
Was it last year McGuire got done for eye-gouging?
Let us not even entertain the thought of having someone of so little repute at our club.
If we limp… we limp like men!

Yeah it’s gone great for us not playing like Melbourne for the last decade… really glad we decided not to do that

Honestly, yes.

Sterlo in about 2015 " everyone is plAying like melbourne. There are only 3 original teams in the comp, Manly, Tigers and <cant remember who>".

Yes we need to win, but being a secondrate melbourne just means we change from loosers to sucky wannabe loosers.

It is weird reading this.

Yes the WT appears ready to part ways with Mbye. As many predicted, he failed to come close to his 750k pricetag. I too asked “what?!?” Truly wondering why Mbye and why over the Morris twins.

Yet i feel the guy did perform better then I expected. Ok maybe with 750K reynolds and 600k Packer being benchwarmers, our expectations were low…WAY too low. It seemed to me that Mbye did put the effort in for the club. Yes he dropped the ball, yes he was a speedhump in defense and compaired too say AJ brimstone, latrell , etc. We did not get value for money.

Seriously Was I the only WT screaming ‘grab the morris brothers’.

As dumb as the mbye decision was, Kudos to Mbye for putting in the effort and earning his place.