Not sure if anyone watched 100% footy but Phil Gould said the problem isn’t brooks, the tigers are the problem with brooks, he’s had 4-5 coaches in his career, close to 10 halves partners and different spine almost every other year with no forwards. How does he succeed with that? Phil Gould reckons he would fit in any top 6 side. 100% agree with that take.

Also believes there was absolutely nothing he could have done in the first half with our defence.

People need to stop blaming him. He’s leading in try assists for the comp. didn’t miss a tackle the other day and had only one error in the last 30 seconds. He is not the problem. Our defence and lack of line speed is killing us.

Put this into perspective
Brooks stats this year
Try assists brooks -7 reynolds -1
The only area reynolds beats brooks in is forced dropouts and that’s only by 3. But if you take into account the fact that brooks does all this in our weak team. It shows he’s much better than what people give him credit for.

We would be stupid to waste cap space and spot on the roster for mansour! He might strengthen us in the short run, but we risk the possibility of our young players not getting experience or worst case losing them to other teams.

So some of the people on this group are willing to offer a 2 year contract to a player who has a chronic back injury? No garuntee he will last 2 years. Shit defender btw and After the 2 years then what? We gotta find a new halfback and new combinations? It’s just creating more problems for our club. Decisions like this are the reason we are still rebuilding. If you wanna buy a new halfback, it should be a gun halfback who we can build around for years to come. not a player that’s at the end of there career or another rookie. Much prefer brooks over reynolds. I mean Souths won’t offer there halfback from the last decade longer than one year for god sake.

How are people actually blaming brooks for today? We scored 30 points, clearly our halves aren’t the issue. We shouldn’t even be complaining about our attack, we let in 34 points. Brooks didn’t miss a tackle?

I cannot believe the blokes on this page blaming him any chance they get even when the stats show otherwise.

People need to stop suggesting moving players around! This is one of the main reasons we struggle. The best teams have a spine that have played together for years! Our spine is 2 games strong! People are already suggesting to change it for next year? Then we start again! 1,6,7 sorted and 9 looks set for a while even tho Simpkin will definitely be an option for us in the near future. No to reynolds. There’s a reason Souths won’t offer him more than one year and he won’t make any difference if we play the way we did first 2 games. Lachlan Lewis weights about 40kg… idk how some people think he can play lock. Would much prefer hastings if that was the case.

2 players that would be great buys are Naden (center or wing) and Nicho Hynes (wing but quality fb and halves depth) hynes wants a full time gig somewhere next year, he most likely won’t get that at the storm. These 2 will give us strike and would be very affordable. We also need a meter eating big bopper for next year.

Mikaele didn’t have the best year in 2020, but Jesus some fans have short memories, he was strong in 2019! He can be a great of the bench player for us. Meter eater, if he’s injury free and playing with our new big pack all I can see is a good year ahead. Also no bubble so he can his young one all the time. He’ll have a good year.

its pretty funny people think brooks will be dropped from this weeks team, he’s had 2 good games in a row and you want to bring in madden who hasn’t been knocking down the doors in reserves. No logic but just jumping on the sheep bandwagon. Simpkin will play in the near future but idk if that will be this week. It will most likely be the same side barring injury. Twal needs to start great defender and improving his meters this year, no point playing him of the bench, won’t give you any impact.

Is it just me or I feel the boys look a lot closer this preseason, always hanging out after training, going out to dinners! good team bonding, this will definitely show on the field! Good to see, I also noticed Allan Fitzgibbon hanging out with a bunch of the first graders consistently on the weekends.

@69-05-41 said in Luke Brooks:

Brooks’ highlights package from his 2013 debut game runs for 4 minutes and 30 seconds which is exactly 4 minutes longer than his highlights reel for the entire 2020 season. Hard to believe a player that should be in the prime of his career has regressed so badly.

He had a bad season last year but hey so did the whole squad. But he’s getting better every game, so instead of the usual bashing every game how about you think about what he’s done better every game. He’s our half so support him or stay mute. He’s 5th in try assists for this season. Just imagine still getting still getting thrashed by fans.

Look both bj and jet will start the season unless injury! Talau has shown more promise than Momo so he starts. I like Momo he’s solid and great to have in our lineup just incase injury or suspension. He will be very useful for us this year! Really strong depth to have Momo in our lineup! It is what it is, he will definitely get a go sometime this year and let’s see how he goes.

The boys don’t look like they enjoy playing atm, our attack looks robotic, hope Madge knows when to change structure, great coaches know when it’s not working, our second half was the total opposite of what we’ve been playing. It was messy but I’m assuming that’s because the boys played the way they wanted to. Let them attack how they want and focus on defence. Stop training as hard throughout the week. Get feedback from the boys and try it out, that’s what a great coach would try.

We definitely have an attitude issue! But everyone’s picking up on it, somethings wrong!
Maybe Madge is training them way too hard during the week and they are fatigued come game day. Madge is old school and the game has changed. The jet looks buggered before kick of these days, line speed is non existing.

Bennet trains his teams really hard during pre season and as the season starts he reduces it to keep the players fresh and he focuses on team building exercises for morale and plans for each team, one of the Souths boys said they had a session of touch footy, because the game was almost similar to the speed of the current game. (Notice Souths and parra both don’t look structured like our attack)
Overall Bennett expects his players to get better towards the end of the year.

I feel Madge is the opposite and just pushes and pushes, the game is quicker now days the boys need to be fresh, you would think they are over training by the way they play at the start of our games. Lathergic and flat. Signs of being overtrained or something more serious.

We need to hire someone who can work between the coach and players to give both sides a fair go. Kinda like a coaching director. Throw cash at Bellamy or Bennett for next year. Will be pricey but go a long way.

Bennet has plans to coach the next Brisbane side in 2023 which means next year is mostly free for him.

Thoughts on giving him a coaching director gig for next year? Obviously make him sign a contract that states he can’t steal any players from us. Or even Bellamy, sharks are tying to get him for the same gig. Throw as much cash as possible, could change the club and make it more appealing for players to come to and even help the current squad we are having issues with Madge (if the rumours are true)

@watersider said in OFFICIAL Wests Tigers Team v Souths:

Anyone know what the thinking is in dropping Musgrove to the bench? I thought he’s been really good, our best prop in terms of hit-ups anyway. Stefano and Musgrove would probably be a better starting combo, yeah?

Other thoughts: I agree with others that Twal also isn’t right at 13. I know this is unpopular but I still want Mbye at 13. I think as a runner who also has a passing game, he’d be effective at 13. He defends well in the middle when he’s there too.

I would prefer Talau at centre. Wish he’d get more of a chance to establish himself there because I don’t think he’s a long-term winger and he’s probably not better than other options when he’s put on the wing. He’s one of our potentially good players that we need to see progress, why play him out of position in a spot he doesn’t really suit? I’d also give him a go at 13 if Mbye didn’t work there.

Twal starts at 13, great in defence and extra prop making meters, once the defence softens, mybe goes to lock. He stay there till Jake needs a rest.

Agree with Talau but our halves seem to not be using our edges correctly. So moving AJ who has a few issues with his eyes might be smart, just run hard and get those meters. Pushing Talau to wing gets him more involved in terms of running kicks back, great finisher if you give him a hole or space.

Not sure if anyone watched 100% footy but Phil Gould said the problem isn’t brooks, the tigers are the problem with brooks, he’s had 4-5 coaches in his career, close to 10 halves partners and different spine almost every other year with no forwards. How does he succeed with that? Phil Gould reckons he would fit in any top 6 side. 100% agree with that take.

Also believes there was absolutely nothing he could have done in the first half with our defence.

People need to stop blaming him. He’s leading in try assists for the comp. didn’t miss a tackle the other day and had only one error in the last 30 seconds. He is not the problem. Our defence and lack of line speed is killing us.

Put this into perspective
Brooks stats this year
Try assists brooks -7 reynolds -1
The only area reynolds beats brooks in is forced dropouts and that’s only by 3. But if you take into account the fact that brooks does all this in our weak team. It shows he’s much better than what people give him credit for.

I’m sick of sacking coaches every few years, but the question is if the rumours are true, this is not a good thing for us.

If Tamou a veteran of the game who’s played for his country, state and over 250games and only just come to our club has the need to chat to the coach at half time because the team and him believe the game plan isn’t working. Gets punished for it aswell… This only sounds like the rumours we heard last year about egg shells, bad communication and lost the room… somethings up!

Why was tamou hooked after just 25ish mins… Madge was coy about it during the post game interview.

Secondly benji hinted at similar things, Josh aloia also said stuff happened Behind the scenes, also contracts being offered but not being registered for McIntyre.

Madge is the kiwi coach and somehow can’t recruit any top stars? Watching the Shaun Johnson interview it’s clear players talk to other players about the coach. What are players saying about our coach? We haven’t signed anyone major and we have premiership winning coach.

Madge is supposed to be a defence coach but somehow our last 12ish games we have let in over 20 points… why do we have no line speed this early in the comp? The players shouldn’t be fatigued already. We know Madge is old school do we think he can adapt to what is relevant now days? You can’t treat every player the same, the game has changed in regards to rules. Old techniques don’t work and you need to adapt? Is madges game plan outdated?
Does Madge train them too hard during the week that by game day the boys aren’t 100% up for it. (Sure seems that way)

If we get rid of Madge is there anyone better on the market?
( we put a clause in the contract funnily enough just incase there was a mutiny)

Maybe we can hire someone like Morris to work between the coach and players… will be hard if Madge is as hard nosed as reported

Long read I know but at the end of the day, I don’t want this to stall us anymore, I don’t want to lose players because of it. Talau, Simpkin Blor, Laurie, Tuki. If it’s the players or the coac, I choose the players.

@fraze23 said in Ultimately it is the D...and it is on Madge...:

Madge says all the right things. Reality is he can’t make it happen.

That first half made it pretty obvious the boys aren’t playing for him. A full house at Leichhardt, the emotion surrounding Tommy and playing a Cowboys side that has had a tonne of last minute changes and he can’t get them up for it.

Defense is poor, attack is worse. I’m failing to see any evidence of quality coaching at all. This team has gotten worse under Maguire’s guidance.

How do they perform like that In the second half if they don’t want to play for the coach?
-look something’s definitely up! I just hope the club finds a way to deal with this ASAP!

Since we can’t defend, maybe the plan should be out score Souths next week, hopefully the boys aim up in defence if we have a lead.

I honestly don’t understand why you blokes want brooks dropped every game? He’s literally leading the comp in try assists.
His stats for today’s game, we where also losing 28-6 at one stage.
7 runs (34m)
15 tackles (0 missed)
4 tackle busts
2 off loads
1 line break assist
2 try assists
1 error (the drop off the kick-off)

The fact some of you are blaming him just shows you have no clue about the game, we could loose by 60 next week and the blame will will still be brooks.

Our defence cost us today not brooks.

That being said I don’t really understand the way we are using our bench, mikaele not getting much game time and tamou only 27mins today? Was he hooked?

I have this feeling we might see Amone in the lineup this week. Idk if Madge will drop the captain though.

Also what do we do with Joey? Unfortunately got concussed today and would be tough to drop him. (Big risk with joey) he could cost us points down his end next week or he could literally come out play the house down. Maybe even take on latrell.

I have no answers when it comes to defence. Idk what’s wrong. Something needs to happen or we are getting flogged. But then again we are west’s tigers, we lose against the shit teams and come out playing a great game and somehow almost beating a top team.

How are people actually blaming brooks for today? We scored 30 points, clearly our halves aren’t the issue. We shouldn’t even be complaining about our attack, we let in 34 points. Brooks didn’t miss a tackle?

I cannot believe the blokes on this page blaming him any chance they get even when the stats show otherwise.

@wt2k said in Sack Madge:

Club needs a psychologist

Yeah I would be down for that, spots psychologist for the whole team. Including coach. Tedesco has that whisper dude on speed dial.