Signings/Losses

[typicalfan]

Kalifa FaifaiLoa is nothing like Taniela Tuiaki.

If you want to make a comparison perhaps a Chicka Ferguson or Ken Nagas with more size and strength.

Kalifa has killer footwork while Tuiaki has the Tongan sidestep.

I agree he will be a great signing.

Can I ask about James Segeyaro, he is a real good talent and with Watts out of the way he would be close to a bench spot at the very least. Round 1 possibility?

 

[Big Pete]

If he gets over his injury tf - I can call you tf right?

 

[elyod138]

The latest I've read is Segeyaro will be fit to play in round 1. Before that though he was expected to miss the first month, so who knows.

 

[Big Pete]

That would be good, he'll be deadly off the bench.

 

[Smiley]

Is it true that Ryan Williamson has quit the Cowboys and the game?

 

[Didgi]

Apparently so.

Williamson walks away from Cowboys

JOSH ALSTON | December 16th, 2010


MACKAY product Ryan Williamson will not be a Cowboy in 2011 after deciding to walk away from the game completely.
The club will not scramble to replace him, with management confident in the depth of the outside backs without Williamson.
The 20-year-old had been signed to a one-year deal for next season after moving to North Queensland from the Sydney Roosters under-20s mid-season.
But it is understood his head and his heart no longer lies in rugby league and the talented centre has moved to Mudgee in New South Wales with his partner to pursue interests outside of the game.
Cowboys general manager of football Peter Parr confirmed that Williamson had left the club.
"Through a mutual agreement Ryan will no longer be with the club, he is heading back to Mudgee," Parr said.
The loss of Williamson comes after star recruit Brent Tate was injured in Australia's doomed Four Nations campaign with the centre unlikely to play any significant part in the 2011 campaign.
But with the likes of Antonio Winterstein, Kalifa Fai Fai Loa, Dominic Walsh and young guns Alex Elisala and Wayne Ulugia on the books to bolster the likes of existing backs Willie Tonga, Ash Graham, Will Tupou and Michael Bani, it is unlikely a specialist outside back will be sourced.
One player who has been linked to a return to the NRL is former Penrith and Wests premiership-winning centre Paul Whatuira.
The troubled back has returned from England where he has been playing for Huddersfield in the English Super League and is understood to be looking for an NRL contract.
But Parr said the club would not pursue his services, with the young talent already signed providing enough depth in the wing-centre positions.
"(Whatuira) has been a good player for a while now ... but I doubt he would be a player that we would pursue," he said.
The hunt continues to find a quality forward and a utility to add further depth to the roster.

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2010/12/16/192971_sport.html

 

[Charlie124]

yep, already left town and back in NSW apparently.

 

[Talanexor]

Shame about Williamson, I would have loved to see him get his sh*t together and burst onto the first grade scene. But some players just don't kick on, it happens with all professional sports.

If Winterstein doesn't cut it in the centres, who's your next preference? Just remember that Ash spent most of 2010 on the wing, and he's had plenty of chances to make that right centre spot his own, and didn't.

 

[StinkyPete]

we signed ben jones from roosters 2 year deal.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/...-1225982009180

 

[Talanexor]

Good signing, although at this stage I think we should have been looking at players with more experience.

Where does he play? Centre or hooker?

 

[StinkyPete]

Good signing, although at this stage I think we should have been looking at players with more experience.

Where does he play? Centre or hooker?

he plays centre and hooker but I hope he's used as a bench hooker until segs is fit and that is all

 

[Smiley]

Good pick up just as versatile as Watts but not grubby and younger to boot.

 

[Packy]

Is Ryan Williamson the chap who was the "next big thing"? Sad to see him give it up huh.

 

[Didgi]

he plays centre and hooker but I hope he's used as a bench hooker until segs is fit and that is all

Junior Kangaroos captain and Indigenous all stars player but that's all the role you want him to play? The guy should be a genuine chance for a centre spot and backup in the halves and hooker.

 

[StinkyPete]

From what I saw from him at roosters at centre I wasn't all that impressed. and I think Tupou should be centre

 

[elyod138]

Tupou's defence last year was just as bad as Ash Graham's.

Hopefully he has improved a lot.

 

[Big Pete]

Giving Tupou too much credit, it was easily worse than Ash's.

 

[Talanexor]

Agreed. Tupou's a good prospect, but he's no centre. He had some good games on the wing, but mostly because of safe hands and good kick returns. He lacked a bit of pace and made bad defensive reads - it just wasn't as noticeable on the wing.

I have no problem using him as a winger, as long as we play him like a Tuqiri/Tuiaki/Sailor type winger who crashes through the defence instead of running around it or jumping over it.

Ben Jones I haven't seen heaps of, but what I have seen I've liked.

 

[Smiley]

I always thought that Winterstein would go good in the centres.

Played all his juniors there and is very much in the mold of Junior Sau.

Another plus is it would reduce the number of knock ons he gives away from his fumbling hands when contesting bombs on the wing.

 

[Didgi]

We've signed Glenn Hall from Bradford.