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Rumours (signings, sackings & other NRL stuff)

rightleftin

Juniors
Messages
1,888
Yeah not sure what happened to him, seemed to fall off the face of the earth about 2 years ago. You’d think he would have at least gone to England but looking at Wikipedia seems he’s been running around for Wentworthville. Maybe had injuries or lacked commitment as he surely had too much talent to be on a part time contract.

He did sign to play with Wenty in 2016 but retired before the season started, so it looks like he hasn't played for 2 years.
 
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BrotherJim05

Bench
Messages
3,399
The whole concept of needing "stars in the team" is completely subjective. The list of "stars" changes every year, with many falling from grace (and then causing salary cap issues) and a lot of unknowns becoming genuine stars. We had a number of "stars" in our team over the past few years and it didn't help us in the end. Cleary wants a team of first graders, peppered with young guns who could help turn the team into genuine stars.

More importantly, we have a team of players who all used to be stars at one point in their career:
Reynolds - former Origin player
Grant - former Origin player
Mcqueen - former Origin player
Lawrence - former AU rep (was on his way to Origin before injury)
Brooks - rookie of the year, was earmarked as future origin star
Matulino - former NZ representative, once considered best prop in the world
Packer - current NZ rep
ET - current NZ rep

Notice the pattern here? These are all players that have talent, but for one reason or another they fell away from being considered a "star player". If Cleary can get most of these players back to their best then suddenly we are the team with all the "super stars".

The star of the team is the team
 

Vic Mackey

Referee
Messages
24,489
While this is true, the pessimist in me still sees our roster as one of the weakest in the comp. We legitimately don't have one big name superstar. Have a look at the Sharks roster and the amount of stars and compare it to ours. It's beyond ridiculous.

Fair call and understand where you’re coming from. Since 2006 had a handful of ‘stars’ in the team every year. The likes of Farah, Benji, Ellis, Lawrence, Blair, teddy, Woods, Lote etc could probably all have laid claim to being in the top 1-2 of their positions at some point or another during their time with us. However with these guys all being high paid stars we’ve always had plenty of duds having to fill the team. From that we’ve made the finals twice in 12 years, which is the least of anyone in the comp.

For the first time ever we’ve got a squad with genuine competition for spots. I also feel that whilst we don’t have an out and out star, we have less weak points across the field.

Something interesting Ivan said in the Xmas interview was that this is the first time he hasn’t seen a ‘hierarchy’ at a club. I.e there’s no ‘cool’ group or little cliches amongst the squad. I dare say this is a shot at departed players who probably thought they were better then others at the club. I spoke to Mitch Brown at a wedding a few years back and he said the Tigers were the least inclusive club he had been at. The Dogs in particular and then the sharks made everyone feel apart of the club, yet at the tigers unless you were in ‘the group’ no one cared about you.

I think this is a huge thing on the footy field. The culture at the club has stunk from day 1. Getting the culture off the field sorted will go a huge way into getting the right results on the field. Everything I’m seeing from Ivan is saying this is what he is doing.
 

Das Hassler

Bench
Messages
2,960
Vic...your last paragraph.....an example of a "what if".....it's mostly agreed that for the start of the season fullback and hooker are the two positions that our current contenders will need to step up to and lock up as their own. If they respond as hoped to Cleary's and Hodgson's ( Lolo) coaching they will be fine. Now. ...imagine if we would have been able to get ...and afford good mates Farah and Hayne to the club....we would fill those spots instantly with past SOO winners but would anybody trully believe that we could possibly be better off in the long term insomuch as success and a change in club culture?....let alone have any hope of keeping Cleary long enough to see his vision realised before we became a regular on the back page of the Tele again? You could add Dugan...Ferguson...multi chance Carney etc etc to the " not at any price" list....i was a big fan of Farah as i am of Luke Lewis but Lewis and Petro were among the first that Cleary knew he needed out of Penrith to be able to be in control and have the place evolve despite their individual talent ...team unity and a 100% belief in where the bus is going is the ONLY hope of prolonged success in a team sport....well at least if money / salary cap actually has a bearing on your club
 

Clifferd

Coach
Messages
10,805
No egos in the team = brilliant

You can already tell by the pictures they look a tight knit bunch. Can only be a good thing

And then you look in contrast to a team like Parra, whilst they have a talented roster i think the added ego of Jayne will make them implode
 

BrotherJim05

Bench
Messages
3,399
Something interesting Ivan said in the Xmas interview was that this is the first time he hasn’t seen a ‘hierarchy’ at a club. I.e there’s no ‘cool’ group or little cliches amongst the squad. I dare say this is a shot at departed players who probably thought they were better then others at the club. I spoke to Mitch Brown at a wedding a few years back and he said the Tigers were the least inclusive club he had been at. The Dogs in particular and then the sharks made everyone feel apart of the club, yet at the tigers unless you were in ‘the group’ no one cared about you.

I reckon this is one of the reasons we signed Reynolds. Never met the bloke but by the sound of it he is the type of person to create a culture where everyone feels included. He's like that mate that goes out of their way to invite everyone to the pub and when you show up is genuinely interested in whats going on and introduces you to anyone you don't know.
 

Vic Mackey

Referee
Messages
24,489
I reckon this is one of the reasons we signed Reynolds. Never met the bloke but by the sound of it he is the type of person to create a culture where everyone feels included. He's like that mate that goes out of their way to invite everyone to the pub and when you show up is genuinely interested in whats going on and introduces you to anyone you don't know.

Agree mate

Just little things but on his insta stories in the last couple of days he’s had himself at the basketball with Twal and having coffee with JJ Felisse. You’d think it would be a buzz for those lower profile younger guys to have a state of origin player including them. Woods and Moses probably didn’t even know their names.
 

Clifferd

Coach
Messages
10,805
Are rumours true Liddle won’t be ready until around midway this season?

I find that hard to believe but if true we are well and truly fckd
 
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Vic Mackey

Referee
Messages
24,489
Are rumours true Liddle won’t be ready until around midway this season?

I find that hard to believe but if true we are well and truly fckd

First I’ve heard mate. He had a shoulder reco end of season which is usually 6 months so I’d think he’ll be close to good for round 1. Although keep in mind Suli has been out for 4 years with an ankle sprain.
 

Tigerm

First Grade
Messages
8,901
This from Fox sports...

TIGERS

Young gun Moses Suli is struggling to overcome stress fractures in his ankle. He and fellow youngster Jacob Liddle (shoulder) are unlikely to start the season.

Jacob Liddle (Shoulder, Indefinite)

Moses Suli (Ankle, Indefinite)

Chris McQueen (Neck, Trials)
 

Clifferd

Coach
Messages
10,805
It’s concerning for both players but I think the medical staff are playing it as safe as possible. Stress fractures are pretty common for young professional athletes and Suli being a huge kid doesn’t help his cause

Liddle is pretty wtf. Come round 1 it will have been 8 months since his injury, I have suffered from the same injury, and pretty much was 100% again in half that time
 

simmo05

Bench
Messages
3,783
I thought the club sorted out the bullshit with injuries? I got stress fractures training for sf selection and i was back to normal duties within months. Maybe they are too soft on the injured players. I remember a story in the townsville bulletin years ago when billy johnson was the trainer for the cowboys. He used to flog the guts out of the injured players, worse than the playing squad, and they used to dread getting injured. If i remember correctly they had the lowest amount of players used in their history while he was there.
 

Leigh Howlett

Juniors
Messages
661
Apparently the Press release on the injuries is from Mid December, McQueen features in a promo for the 2018 Jerseys suggesting he's good to go after his neck surgery!.
 

Clifferd

Coach
Messages
10,805
Apparently we signed Nathan Gardner on a nsw cup tier contract. Wasn’t announced though?

I remember he used to go alright for Cronulla 2011-13, if he could get back to that form could be a handy backup for Lolo if he doesn’t perform
 

BrotherJim05

Bench
Messages
3,399
I'm hearing that RTS is exploring his options for 2019....would be awesome to have him in our back line if we can get him for the right price
 

magpie_man

Juniors
Messages
1,973
Yeah if the All Blacks want him we have no chance. I remember reading that playing for them is his #1 sporting goal too.
 

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