@avocadoontoast said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Reynolds is not and will never be a hooker. His service from there is terrible.

Maybe he will do well in the role because he has had all off season playing there. You are correct though and it doesn’t look promising.

@bbobb said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@mike said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@TrueTiger said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Cultured_Bogan said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@TrueTiger said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@bathursttiger1 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@TrueTiger said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

Even though we are discussing speed in our backline and who would provide it,I cant help but ask who is going to distribute the ball form dummy half in a fast and precise manner…it starts from there and flows along the backline,we know what happens when we get slow ball from dummy half…

does anyone have an update on Liddle and do we think JR pending will be DH or Mbye.?

Ziggy you make too much sense.

thanks mate…it beats arguing just for the sake of it…

I guess that the club is going to once again hedge their bets that once Liddle is fit he’ll be right. Simpkin will be in the lower grades plying his trade, hopefully he is the real deal.

What I was asking CB,if Liddle isn’t fit to start which he definitely wont be,do people think the hooker role will be Mbye or JR to start in rnd one…

I would think JR will be the starting hooker if fit and is allowed to play by the NRL.

In my opinion, JR didn’t look at all comfortable playing hooker last year.

He is an effective runner from dummy half if there is a quick play-the-ball but his passing from the ground is ordinary at best. He also doesn’t seem to engage the markers nor does he bring players on to the ball. The other concern has to be his body over a full season. Will he be able to handle 50+ tackles a game? The evidence of the past two years would seem to suggest otherwise.

I think Mbye is the better option and if he plays well, he would have to be an outside chance of playing hooker for Queensland given they have manufactured Hunt into that role in the past - so there is incentive.

I think you have to put Mbye there. JR can play off the bench and get 20 minutes a game or something like that and we can see how he goes.

@beachtiger said in Pre-season 2020:

@Earl said in Pre-season 2020:

@Demps said in Pre-season 2020:

@Roar_Power said in Pre-season 2020:

Geez, Tommy Talau is a big specimen.

Sky’s the limit for the lad.
Looks like an elite athlete.

Looks don’t count. I hope the kid comes on but I’m worried he is going to be a flop.

What do you base that on, from what I’ve seen and read about him he seems to be a student of the game, very competitive and obviously has some pedigree from his old man.

Interested to know why you think he’ll be a flop.

He is highly rated on here without any performance that justifies that rating. When Tedesco, Moses, Brooks, Woods, Benji, Robbie etc came through they looked the goods. We haven’t seen anything like that from Talau.

I hope he kills it but at the moment I think he is hyped too much. It’s like we are desperate for a new star (which we are).

@Demps said in Pre-season 2020:

@Roar_Power said in Pre-season 2020:

Geez, Tommy Talau is a big specimen.

Sky’s the limit for the lad.
Looks like an elite athlete.

Looks don’t count. I hope the kid comes on but I’m worried he is going to be a flop.

@Tiger5150 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@pawsandclaws1 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Tiger5150 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@pawsandclaws1 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Tiger5150 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@TillLindemann said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

This is the last time I get my hopes up from a rumoured signing. If Doueihi isn’t signed tomorrow I’ll lose it.

For Doueihi?

Ill be more annoyed if signing Doueihi prevents signing BJ

Signing BJ does not address the issue of a chronic lack of pace.

Agreed but the reason we want pace is to enable line breaks/score tries. BJ clearly addresses the issue of breaking the line/scoring tries.

Particularly if our pack improves as we hope. Sometimes to me when we are in the oppositions 20 is when we look least likely to score. IMO BJ will certainly help there.

We can break the line ok, but it is worthless because Nofoaluma and Jennings do not have the pace to finish. If we don’t sign pacey players this off season, our recruitment has been a disaster.

A disaster?

Serious question, will you be happy/satisfied if our requirement = Walters, Luc Leilua, Musgrove, Stefano, BJ & AD?

We still need to get 3 of those players so it’s a long way off. I’d be stoked with those signings. We’d look a lot better.

@stevied - personally I hope we get AD, AJ and Gagai but there is no way that is happening. At the same time we have to be careful. We went hard when Ivan was here and it was a disaster.

I think AD on 500k is okay considering our position but not a long term contract. 500k for an established half in the comp is worth it. He isn’t established but he looks like he could fill that role.

As for your question - it’s all conjecture until it’s official.

@pawsandclaws1 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Earl said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@pawsandclaws1 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

You lock your good players up full stop. Before him Korobeite left and after JAC Papenhuyzen went. These are franchise players who bring the crowd and bucks into the club. Too late now…

That is a bit over the top. Neither of these guys are franchise players. I don’t even think those players exist in rugby league.

We still haven’t recovered from their losses. Disgraceful retention and the club deserves to wear the black eye and answer why Taylor and Potter were put in charge of coaching.

Losing those guys was nothing compared to losing Tedesco. We’ve also definitely recovered. We aren’t doing any worse since those guys left.

@pawsandclaws1 said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

You lock your good players up full stop. Before him Korobeite left and after JAC Papenhuyzen went. These are franchise players who bring the crowd and bucks into the club. Too late now…

That is a bit over the top. Neither of these guys are franchise players. I don’t even think those players exist in rugby league.

@avocadoontoast said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@Tcat said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

As much as I think AD would be great for us. At 500K, it sounds abit risky IMO. Who knows, maybe we need to take the risk for a possible reward. South’s cap management sounds very dodgy and I think they need to offload him to be at least half cap compliant. Like many have said, If souths pitch a bit of $$ (which I doubt) then definitely.

When you consider that (reportedly) McQueen is on 400k, Jennings 400k, Nofo 450k, Reynolds 800k, Packer 650k: Douehi at 500k sounds good value.

We have a ton of money to spend and he’s the kind of player that will make us a better team without question. And he can slot into the 6 once Benji retires. Would be an astute signing imo.

For us it’s potentially a good signing. For Souths it can’t be working. The problem is all these figures are just plucked out of the air.

@ElleryHanley said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

@WT2K said in Signing Suggestions & Rumours:

The Sydney Morning Herald

By Christian Nicolussi
January 15, 2020 — 7.06pm
Adam Doueihi is weighing up his immediate future after South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett told him he is free to chase a starting fullback position elsewhere after making it clear Latrell Mitchell will get first crack at the club’s No.1 jersey.

Bennett admires Doueihi and is happy for him to see out the remaining two years of his deal, but also informed him on Wednesday he would not block any early release from Redfern.

Only two days earlier Bennett said he faced some “hard decisions” about how to squeeze the likes of Doueuhi into a back line that now features Mitchell, Campbell Graham, Braidon Burns, Dane Gagai and James Roberts.

Doueihi was given his NRL debut by Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire and is a Balmain junior. The Tigers also need a starting fullback and have well north of $600,000 still in their salary cap for this season, but have so far baulked at Doueihi’s price tag, given his current deal is heavily back-ended.

The Herald understands Doueihi stands to collect about $500,000 this year and even more in 2021. Souths do not have to move on any players to be salary cap compliant and it remains to be seen if they will pick up any of Doueihi’s tab should he leave.

Adam Doueihi could be the man to make way after Latrell Mitchell’s arrival at South Sydney.
Adam Doueihi could be the man to make way after Latrell Mitchell’s arrival at South Sydney.

Photo: AAP
Tigers boss Justin Pascoe told the Herald on Tuesday: “Having cap space at this time of year allows us the opportunity to be strategic and leverage off other clubs who might have challenges with their ca space.”

Bennett took one look at Mitchell train on Tuesday and was clearly convinced his star recruit would more than make the successful transition to fullback in just eight weeks.

Doueihi was initially told by Bennett he would be playing five-eighth, only for Cody Walker to sign a two-year extension in December. He was then informed by the supercoach he would be the starting fullback, only for Souths to the sign Mitchell.

“Some of the boys here have played some great football for us, but the end result is we couldn’t walk past the opportunity to take Latrell,” Bennett said on Monday. “This club is about success. We want to have the best team we possibly can here and we believe he [Mitchell] is going to add to what we already have.”

New recruit Latrell Mitchell shakes hands with Souths coach Wayne Bennett on Monday.
New recruit Latrell Mitchell shakes hands with Souths coach Wayne Bennett on Monday.

Doueihi’s best hope is securing a utility role off the bench, which he could easily do given his ability to play anywhere in the back line. A tall playmaker who impressed at fullback towards the end of last season, Doueihi would even start a few games during the Origin period with Dane Gagai a Queensland regular and Cody Walker and Mitchell a chance to earn a NSW Blues recall.

Such is the depth in the outside backs at Souths that it was easy to forget Bryson Goodwin had also returned to the club on a one-year deal.

Before he made his NRL debut under Maguire at Souths in 2018, Doueihi spoke glowingly about the coach and said: “Madge was pretty keen on me and he was probably the main reason why I did come here.”

The Tigers have three spots to fill on their roster, including two before the start of the season. They remain hopeful Parramatta will release teen prop Stefano Utoikamanu, who they have already signed from 2021.

Souths continue to hold out hope they can land their own front-rower, Jai Arrow, a year early from the Gold Coast. Should they land Arrow, the foundation club will be among the favourits to take the NRL title.

The Titans are open to granting Arrow an early release, but only if it is worth their while.

Thanks for posting that, hopefully we get him.

How the hell is he on 500 000 though!!!

Souths can chip in some if he comes to us.

500k for Doueihi is nuts. That is really poor cap management and they get Latrell and Arrow ? For that amount of money he is better at Souths.