Rumours (signings, sackings & other NRL stuff)

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Bellamy has done some wonderful things whilst at Melbourne but let's be honest Slater, GI, Smith Cronk etc sure do make your job a heck of a lot easier. I would love to see him coach us the titans, knights etc and see how good he does.

He turned jaiman Lowe into a premiership winner. He’s a bit of a jerk though. Madge is more positive.

 

[Mario chalmers]

We should be signing aj for fullback. He’s the right stuff. Try scorer, strike player.

You need a ball player at fullback these days. Find me a stat that says AJ provides try assists while at No 1.

He's a decent NRL winger but not a great one and definitely not a fullback IMO.

 

[axl rose]

Bellamy has done some wonderful things whilst at Melbourne but let's be honest Slater, GI, Smith Cronk etc sure do make your job a heck of a lot easier. I would love to see him coach us the titans, knights etc and see how good he does.

They were already contracted and a couple of them graded before he got there as well. Then again he did make Blair look like a first-grader. Still an arrogant twat though. Still pretty amusing that Unca Waynes Broncos overlooked all of those players.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

You need a ball player at fullback these days. Find me a stat that says AJ provides try assists while at No 1.

He's a decent NRL winger but not a great one and definitely not a fullback IMO.

Yeah I see your point.

Bloody Souths too- jenno broke down last year.

So flat, bad decisions, a shadow of his known ability. He was embarrassing.

I’m not sure what it is, but when you buy a used Souths player you can expect some kind of instant or prolonged drop in performance.

Angus Crichton was another lemon last year by his own lofty standards ( he’s the nicest bloke in the game after rowdy).Can’t attribute his failure to Seibolds success with him the year earlier because the latter did a very ordinary job last year with side of contenders we would kill for. Seibs is still struggling, but a good off season will repair a lot of last years damage.

This loss of performance of used Souths players should be reflected in “play-away“ pricing and at least 25% - 40% off market value should be factored in by all sides. Our lad is the best of the Jennings lads easily on current ability. They just spent his powers, drove him too hard. We were ripped off.

Of course, it may work the other way say Penrith and DWZ, although Moylan has been a dogs breakfast since seeing real ocean waves for the first time instead of images on tv or the net.

I think it would be interesting to see which players kick on with new clubs and which don’t and see if there is a pattern of bad sellers out there by clubs.

We already know we are terrible buyers. We’ve been had so many times, the other clubs see us walking in and can’t quite hide their delight. With a couple of exceptions in the prestige roosters yard. Mattersons warrantee ran out, but Momo goes ok after a regular service.

Recruitment and retention are pleased when an ex players breaks down naturally. Justifies their decision, a bit of cash into the cap and praise from the ceo. A dollar saved is a dollar earned.

 

[Tigerm]

Packer, Mataulino, & Reynolds, Blair, etc were all considered great buys at the time (maybe the $'s a bit high) but that is the price you pay when you are a struggling club.

The club signed these players and most, if not all of us, thought they were great signings. They were considered top shelf players. We were all screaming for success (and rightly so).

The fact most of them didn't rise to the occasion is not the clubs fault. Certainly injuries played there part, but some just didn't seem to give a shit and they can't be sacked for that unfortunately, (besides we couldn't afford to pay them out and sign others).

Look at our coaches at the time? Maybe this was the real problem area. I think under Madge's watch, it wont happen.

 

[gordsy]

The fact most of them didn't rise to the occasion is not the clubs fault. .

Of course it's the clubs fault. That's the job of recruitment people, high performance people, the coach etc etc to get the most from the players and buy players that will give their best on the field. It's a professional game worth big money not under 7s.

 

[Tiger05]

Packer, Mataulino, & Reynolds, Blair, etc were all considered great buys at the time (maybe the $'s a bit high) but that is the price you pay when you are a struggling club.

The club signed these players and most, if not all of us, thought they were great signings. They were considered top shelf players. We were all screaming for success (and rightly so).

The fact most of them didn't rise to the occasion is not the clubs fault. Certainly injuries played there part, but some just didn't seem to give a shit and they can't be sacked for that unfortunately, (besides we couldn't afford to pay them out and sign others).

Look at our coaches at the time? Maybe this was the real problem area. I think under Madge's watch, it wont happen.

I don't want to have those really poor signings again and I think and hope you are right that Madge won't do this. I'm not sure if Madge is a great coach. He stuffed up a bit last year and we lost Matterson. At the same time he doesn't seem to just let shit slide and he appears to be trying to develop a team of forwards who can bend the line, creative halves and I hopefully some quality outside backs.

I feel more comfortable with where the club is heading despite being concerned about next season. I think we desperately need a couple of quality outside backs but we have money to retain them if they come through or purchase them.

 

[Tigerm]

Of course it's the clubs fault. That's the job of recruitment people, high performance people, the coach etc etc to get the most from the players and buy players that will give their best on the field. It's a professional game worth big money not under 7s.

OK, so please explain what the club could do for the players signed, for say Blair? You would assume that due diligence was done? From memory he wasn't injured, he just didn't perform as expected from his Storm days.
Should we have brought them? Well at the time, yes. Not sure how you could tell before hand he was going to be a dud.
We are not the only club to have this issue.

 

[Mario chalmers]

I don't want to have those really poor signings again and I think and hope you are right that Madge won't do this. I'm not sure if Madge is a great coach. He stuffed up a bit last year and we lost Matterson. At the same time he doesn't seem to just let shit slide and he appears to be trying to develop a team of forwards who can bend the line, creative halves and I hopefully some quality outside backs.

I feel more comfortable with where the club is heading despite being concerned about next season. I think we desperately a couple of quality outside backs.

Agree with you re Matterson. There is absoutely no excuse for letting him go for nothing. Matterson is an Orr brothers client. The Orr brothers have a long list of NRL player talent on their books. A smart negotiator would have said to the Orr brothers "Hey if Matterson wants out we'll release him but only if you bring us another player."

If we were targetting Stefano from Parramatta (who we subsequently signed on Nov 21), why didn't we hold out and make Matterson stay on our books and then try and negotiate a direct trade of Stefano for Matterson? What happens if Stefano absolutely kills it for Parramatta this year alongside Matterson and then backflips on his deal with us. It's pretty poor management.

It's worth noting that at a critical point in negotiations with Matterson in November, Pascoe & Co were on a junket in the USA. Following on from the holiday which cost us Addo Carr, it's pretty bad management IMO

 

[Mario chalmers]

Of course it's the clubs fault. That's the job of recruitment people, high performance people, the coach etc etc to get the most from the players and buy players that will give their best on the field. It's a professional game worth big money not under 7s.

The crap signings are one cross against management but the players who have walked out the door are even more of a problem.

No club has lost as many representative level players as WT in the past 5 years. It's almost embarrassing when you go through it. There's a premiership side worth of talent who have walked away from the club

 

[benched tiger]

Regarding talent I’m still dumbfounded how Jordan Rankin ever played ahead of JAC at the WT.

 

[Ron's_Mate]

Regarding talent I’m still dumbfounded how Jordan Rankin ever played ahead of JAC at the WT.

 

[axl rose]

Regarding talent I’m still dumbfounded how Jordan Rankin ever played ahead of JAC at the WT.

I'm not sure about the due diligence we do on coaches over the years, but it has netted us the likes of Terry Lamb and Jason Taylor.

 

[Shredder]

Rankin came to us as a half.
He played on the wing.
Sheens kept playing him because he was a good trainer whatever the f**k that means

As much as he wasnt great for us, he was also out of position the entire time he played for us.

 

[Front-Rower]

Rankin came to us as a half.
He played on the wing.
Sheens kept playing him because he was a good trainer whatever the f**k that means

As much as he wasnt great for us, he was also out of position the entire time he played for us.

I don’t think Rankin was with us when Sheens was here. Pretty sure he played under Taylor and Clearly

 

[Wizardman]

I think Rankin played wing because he was a goal kicker.

 

[Front-Rower]

Packer, Mataulino, & Reynolds, Blair, etc were all considered great buys at the time (maybe the $'s a bit high) but that is the price you pay when you are a struggling club.

Packer was a great signing. The guy played out of his skin before he got hurt in his first year with us.

The club really, somehow, needs to buy a player that will attract other players to come to the club. Who that is, I have no idea though I would suggest they would have to wear the 7 jersey.

 

[Wizardman]

Agree with you re Matterson. There is absoutely no excuse for letting him go for nothing. Matterson is an Orr brothers client. The Orr brothers have a long list of NRL player talent on their books. A smart negotiator would have said to the Orr brothers "Hey if Matterson wants out we'll release him but only if you bring us another player."

If we were targetting Stefano from Parramatta (who we subsequently signed on Nov 21), why didn't we hold out and make Matterson stay on our books and then try and negotiate a direct trade of Stefano for Matterson? What happens if Stefano absolutely kills it for Parramatta this year alongside Matterson and then backflips on his deal with us. It's pretty poor management.

It's worth noting that at a critical point in negotiations with Matterson in November, Pascoe & Co were on a junket in the USA. Following on from the holiday which cost us Addo Carr, it's pretty bad management IMO

I think we let him go due to us having extra cash to spend on the open market instead of dealing with the sooks in Parra for a player who burnt every bridge he had when here and still was contracted. I blame Wests Tigers management for a lot of things but this issue is not one of them. Mattherson's position at the club was pretty untenable.

 

[Wizardman]

Matterson acting like a twit pretty much forced our hand. If he behaved himself and would have given 100%, it would have been easier for us to get some kind of deal for him

 

[gordsy]

OK, so please explain what the club could do for the players signed, for say Blair? You would assume that due diligence was done? From memory he wasn't injured, he just didn't perform as expected from his Storm days.
Should we have brought them? Well at the time, yes. Not sure how you could tell before hand he was going to be a dud.
We are not the only club to have this issue.

Maybe the coach should have done his homework and realised Blair was a system player not someone who carried the storm pack. Bottom line is Sheens and co met with him and thought they could make him work and work well in our system given the player he was / is, they couldn't. That's on them and they failed. If you give praise for good signings and performances it's only logical that you are criticised when you f**k up.