Rumoured and Confirmed signings - Part 4

[umina panther]

Ill try to be objective. He is quite quick and can look very good at fullback in NSW cup. He can't kick or pass and should never play in the halves. Also a turnstile in defence but some people think he can play centre...

Too good for NSW cup and no where near good enough for NRL, should go to England imo

 

[betcats]

Hiku is a very good player. He was defending next to soward but I am not sure why guys think DWZ is any better. Hiku can cover 1-6 and that adds value . Blake is a centre - Whare is a centre - DWZ can cover fullback and wing. Moylan fullback /halves and Mansour strictly the wing.

I think it would be silly to lose your most versatile back. He was bopping up and scoring tries. He averaged 100mtrs a game which is solid and 2 offloads a game which is great.
His worry was some poor defending but lets see how he goes without soward.

Hiku is a good player but we played our best footy when he was out. Im not saying that's the reason we played well but we certainly weren't missing him. He is a poor defensive centre and that has nothing to do with Soward, he rushes up like Matai but has shit timing or he plants his feet and goes low for a tackle when the attacker is still two metres away and can easily step around him, this happened 2 or 3 times a game, I'd much rather keep Dallin who once fit was in great form over the back third of the season.

 

[hindy111]

Hiku is a big body and for that reason a bit of coaching will fix his defense. I would not be to concenred. He is also 23. I doubt he is at his peak.

DWZ went backwards the last few years IMO. Or should I say he has not become a whole lot better then the player I saw in his debut season. At which point I thought gee in 3 yrs this kid would be a star.
In that time Mansour has gone to a new level. Remember plenty a few years ago would of taken DWZ over Mansour. And Blake improved out of sight this year.

DWZ is still very young but I get the feeling he may just be a very good winger and that's about it.

 

[franklin2323]

Hiku is a big body and for that reason a bit of coaching will fix his defense. I would not be to concenred. He is also 23. I doubt he is at his peak.

DWZ went backwards the last few years IMO. Or should I say he has not become a whole lot better then the player I saw in his debut season. At which point I thought gee in 3 yrs this kid would be a star.
In that time Mansour has gone to a new level. Remember plenty a few years ago would of taken DWZ over Mansour. And Blake improved out of sight this year.

DWZ is still very young but I get the feeling he may just be a very good winger and that's about it.

DWZ hasn't really developed further but is better than Hiku regardless

 

[betcats]

DWZ was progressing nicely until he punctured that lung. Before that he was playing FB and doing a brilliant job. He struggled for form for a lot of this season but he didn't look very fit imo, the back end of the year he was back to his best running over forwards and making breaks etc I don't see how he has gone backwards. You can look at his numbers to see the improvement he has made.

 

[umina panther]

Laughable Nightingale was picked on the wing over DWZ for NZ

 

[franklin2323]

DWZ was progressing nicely until he punctured that lung. Before that he was playing FB and doing a brilliant job. He struggled for form for a lot of this season but he didn't look very fit imo, the back end of the year he was back to his best running over forwards and making breaks etc I don't see how he has gone backwards. You can look at his numbers to see the improvement he has made.

I don't think he has gone backwards though I don't think he's better then he was in 2014. Numerous reasons behind it Hopefully he has a good pre season and comes back and keeps on inproving

 

[martielang]

I always disagreed that Will Smith was as bad as people made out. He is every bit the confidence player though, and is very average when he lost it but when he got a sustained run in first grade without fear of being immediately dropped - back end of 14 & 15 - he played some decent footy IMO.

 

[Kilkenny]

I always disagreed that Will Smith was as bad as people made out. He is every bit the confidence player though, and is very average when he lost it but when he got a sustained run in first grade without fear of being immediately dropped - back end of 14 & 15 - he played some decent footy IMO.

I agree, will be good depth for the Eels. It is sometimes a disadvantage to being a utility player. Even in NSW Cup he always had to play in various positions which ultimately was to his detriment.

 

[Kilkenny]

Rough List of our squad for next season and beyond;

OFF CONTRACT 2017.

Sitaleki Akualola. Waqa Blake. Zac Docker Clay (Rumoured to be looking for NRL opportunity elsewhere). Josh Hall. Andrew Heffernan. Sione Katoa. Viliame KIKAU. Jeremy Latimore (Rumoured to be of interest to the Storm). Moses Leota. Darren Nicholls. Michael Oldfield. Dean Whare. DWZ.

OFF CONTRACT 2018.

Oliver Clark. Dylan Edwards. Chris Grevsmuhl. Peta Hiku. Soni Luke. Josh Mansour.
Te Maire-Martin. Tyronne May. Peter Wallace. Isaah Yeo.

OFF CONTRACT 2019.

Tim Browne. Regan Campbell Gillard. Nathan Cleary. James Fisher Harris. Sam McKendry. Tyronne Peachy.

OFF CONTRACT 2020.

Bryce Cartwright. Leilani Latu. Trent Merrin. Matt Moylan. James Tamou.

There are no doubt a host of others whose status at this time is not clear including the Stantion brothers, MWZ, etc etc.

 

[mxlegend99]

I always disagreed that Will Smith was as bad as people made out. He is every bit the confidence player though, and is very average when he lost it but when he got a sustained run in first grade without fear of being immediately dropped - back end of 14 & 15 - he played some decent footy IMO.

He did next to nothing in 2014. But that was good as it meant he didn't hurt the team with crazy mistakes. I don't think anyone cared one way or the other due to Moylan, Soward and Segeyaro all carrying the team with him.

In 2015 he had 2 or 3 games where he wasn't horrible against awful teams.

He's an exceptional NSW Cup player... and has looked solid against awful NRL teams. He's nowhere near an NRL quality player though. All he offers as a backup is experience... but that doesn't count for much if you're not good enough. He's not the first and won't be the last to be above the rest in NSW Cup but not up to it in first grade.

 

[ashton]

Danny Weidler report in the smh that Mitch Rein to Penrith watch this space.

 

[umina panther]

Rein is f**king garbage

 

[umina panther]

@God-King Dean opinion on your ex fav player

 

[mxlegend99]

If he was on a small contract and only a depth player I could handle having him. But if he was viewed as our successor to Wallace and on big money it would be a huge step backwards at 9.

 

[umina panther]

Honestly rather Wallace play till 50

 

[maple_69]

Rein would be a gamble but not one with out potential reward. He'd likely be cheap and with a top 4 side around him he could start living up to his potential. I'm pretty high on Luke though so I'm not fussed.

 

[seal]

Rein would make a useful squad player and very handy backup to Wallace, but would stall the development of young guys such as Sione Katoa and Soni Luke imo

 

[Panther Pete]

Today's Tele rumours.....1) we are set to offload a forward who is still on contract. 2) we could be signing a country origin rep player as soon as this week.

 

[mxlegend99]

That signing would be Mitch Rein. Not much to get excited over.