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Pangai Jr

SGMax

Juniors
Messages
460
Disappointing that the Dragons have ruled out TPJ.
Do they not see how soft our front row options are?
Vaughn is our best and is tough but very timid and mild. Don't bother looking at our bench for impact either.

Even if TPJ is a possible problem signing or overrated, he is way better than all of our props.
We don't seem to have much coming in the juniors with most saying Blacker isn't quite up to it.

If we could, I would sign TPJ, Welch and even Tamou and then make sure we kept DeBelin.
If there is not enough cap space, move on whoever we need to, but make it happen.
After the departure of Graham and Frizell and now Aitkin, we should be able to do it.

We can't keep depending on Lawrie, Merrin, and K.Simms for forward drive and impact off the bench.
They are depth players at best....we can't have them as our main props. Don't need all three.
Keep Vaughn and Kerr and with the 3 new guys, we will have some authority up front.
 
Messages
3,921
If we had Bennett at the helm I would say sign him on a performance based contract for 1 year with an option in our favour for a further 3 years.

Without a highly experienced and successful man manager at the helm, the guy is of no use to us.
 

Phantom V

Juniors
Messages
624
If we had Bennett at the helm I would say sign him on a performance based contract for 1 year with an option in our favour for a further 3 years.

Without a highly experienced and successful man manager at the helm, the guy is of no use to us.
I agree mate, it would all depend on who they settle on as our coach if that ever happens. If he’s the type of coach that can handle a character like him, then I say sit down with him and offer a performance based contact.
 

slippery5

Juniors
Messages
1,705
Your point is well made but unfortunately
Pangai Jnr is a completely loose cannon and a law unto himself.

We have no one in our ranks anywhere near having the requisite skills to manage this young tear away and if we had of managed our own affairs better over the last 2-3 years then it might be a completely different story.

We have no discipline at any level of our club and until that is sorted we as a club should be looking to attract a good coach and quality players and should now avoid players with baggage at all costs.
How do you think he would go under Bellamy???
 

Old Timer

Coach
Messages
17,994
How do you think he would go under Bellamy???
Pangai is interesting character someone not unlike Joey Leilua.

Lack of self discipline and selfishness will impede what should be a Stella career.

Whilst I think Pangai would truly prosper under Bellamy I doubt very much that Pangai would go there as he would work out it would be a crash or burn scenario with nowhere to go afterwards.

Instead NRL HO dependant of course I see him as being a player that sees his career out at lesser clubs like Dogs, Warriors, Tigpies with maybe just 1 stint of a couple of years under Sticky if he stays at the Raiders.
 

thebigredv

First Grade
Messages
5,407
Sign a coach who can handle and nurture someone like Pangai Jnr and I will welcome them both to the club in Frizell's absence. We need a a really good player with presumably no JDB around.
 

jak

Bench
Messages
3,493
Tbh rather that buy some :chicken:head or old journeyman we could do a lot worse than replacing Friz with Host. Sure I’d have preferred a real strike backrower but Host could be a real gem. He reminds me of JDB. Started out a solid workhorse but I’m starting to see some real venom in his tackles and underrated speed too.
He reminds me of john jansen when gets into the open
 

possm

Coach
Messages
15,966
Disappointing that the Dragons have ruled out TPJ.
Do they not see how soft our front row options are?
Vaughn is our best and is tough but very timid and mild. Don't bother looking at our bench for impact either.

Even if TPJ is a possible problem signing or overrated, he is way better than all of our props.
We don't seem to have much coming in the juniors with most saying Blacker isn't quite up to it.

If we could, I would sign TPJ, Welch and even Tamou and then make sure we kept DeBelin.
If there is not enough cap space, move on whoever we need to, but make it happen.
After the departure of Graham and Frizell and now Aitkin, we should be able to do it.

We can't keep depending on Lawrie, Merrin, and K.Simms for forward drive and impact off the bench.
They are depth players at best....we can't have them as our main props. Don't need all three.
Keep Vaughn and Kerr and with the 3 new guys, we will have some authority up front.
We need a class prop to replace Graham. If we have Welch than that is ok but if not we need to sign a good prop as a matter of urgency. Hopefully, during the off-season the likes of Kerr, Ellis and Blacker will take a step up under a new highly experienced first-grade coach.

I'd say we need to off-load the likes of K Sims and Merrin to balance our forward pack and make the necessary room we need under the salary cap to improve the to 30 squad.

Hunt is doing well at hooker so if we can keep him there and find a like for like replacement for Frizell, then our forward pack should be competitive. I am sure that with the new blood coming through we should be fine for season 2021.

What is most important during this interim coach period is:

  • That we sort out our top 30 roster for 2021.
  • That we provide individual coaching for those youngsters coming through.
  • That as well as working on fitness, we work on player combinations in the off-season.
So, the key areas of concern to me are:
Fullback - we need a more robust solution. Ramsey or Schiller may be the solution.
Left centre - we need to trial Feagai over the rest of this season.
Five-eighth - both Sailor and Dufty need to be trialed in the 6 jumper.
Prop - we need to recruit a player like Welch to stiffen up the middle third.
Hooker - Hunt is fine.
Right Edge - we need a like for like replacement for Frizell.
Lock - McInnes is fine.
 

Inisai Toga

Juniors
Messages
1,580
We need a class prop to replace Graham. If we have Welch than that is ok but if not we need to sign a good prop as a matter of urgency. Hopefully, during the off-season the likes of Kerr, Ellis and Blacker will take a step up under a new highly experienced first-grade coach.

I'd say we need to off-load the likes of K Sims and Merrin to balance our forward pack and make the necessary room we need under the salary cap to improve the to 30 squad.

Hunt is doing well at hooker so if we can keep him there and find a like for like replacement for Frizell, then our forward pack should be competitive. I am sure that with the new blood coming through we should be fine for season 2021.

What is most important during this interim coach period is:

  • That we sort out our top 30 roster for 2021.
  • That we provide individual coaching for those youngsters coming through.
  • That as well as working on fitness, we work on player combinations in the off-season.
So, the key areas of concern to me are:
Fullback - we need a more robust solution. Ramsey or Schiller may be the solution.
Left centre - we need to trial Feagai over the rest of this season.
Five-eighth - both Sailor and Dufty need to be trialed in the 6 jumper.
Prop - we need to recruit a player like Welch to stiffen up the middle third.
Hooker - Hunt is fine.
Right Edge - we need a like for like replacement for Frizell.
Lock - McInnes is fine.
I certainly agree with many of the points you make here Possum and believe the Dragons staff would also recognise the important factors your mention.

I just think that the language used here like hopefully, ‘should be fine’ and ‘ competitive’ could be replaced with expect and ‘dominate’. I think we’ve fallen for this level of thinking and acceptance for too long.

In my opinion, we need a more than Fritzell and an ageing Graham have offers/ed. They were/are always competitive, yet I’d argue they haven’t don’t dominated for a while. This could be due to poor and stale game plans from previous head coach...., but we need to ask more of our forwards to win a comp or be top 4.

Great opportunity now for any of our young and/or seasoned forwards to put their hands up and own it! Should be interesting to see how this plays out.
 

Como Connection

First Grade
Messages
6,078
Tbh rather that buy some :chicken:head or old journeyman we could do a lot worse than replacing Friz with Host. Sure I’d have preferred a real strike backrower but Host could be a real gem. He reminds me of JDB. Started out a solid workhorse but I’m starting to see some real venom in his tackles and underrated speed too.
Correct the obvious replacement is Host in my opinion
Front rowers are the issue.
CC
 
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