Toafofoa Sipley to Manly - Why?

[Blair]

We may as well put this in its own thread, it deserves it.

What's going on where we let a player of his ability leave the club? Is there an official club response?

Watching him today, it's not just the size it's his attitude, he goes really hard into the tackle, drags defenders. When defending he's up and straight back into the defensive line, low down to the ground and ready for more.

Is it the case of him wanting to go to Manly? That would make the most sense to me, otherwise I think our club's made a big, incompetent mistake.

 

[JJ]

Not sure what the club has done, but to me it suggests the kid has a good future - he's much better off imo

 

[Beavers Headgear]

We have an absolute truckload of salary cap space becoming available next year, looking like at least 1.5mil, so if we really wanted him I've no doubt we could have given him an offer he couldn't refuse, and would probably help that his brother has history at the club

Original rumour I heard was they were trying to get both of them so not sure what's happening with Patrick

Is looking extremely likely that Myles will be at Melbourne within a couple of weeks so Tof could be at Manly pre June 30

 

[BLN2]

Where's all of Manly's cash going to come from? Matai, Myles and Stewart were on decent contracts, nothing massive though, the Turbo's recent upgrades were huge ($900k + $700k apparently) and would suck up a good chunk of that, who else are they losing?

Don't forget Jono Wrights huge wage bill mate

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Where's all of Manly's cash going to come from? Matai, Myles and Stewart were on decent contracts, nothing massive though, the Turbo's recent upgrades were huge ($900k + $700k apparently) and would suck up a good chunk of that, who else are they losing?

Don't forget Jono Wrights huge wage bill mate

Stewart and Matai are still being paid around the million on this years cap, Myles would have been 400+ and rumours of Lawrence and maybe Lussick heading away too

 

[Shaun Hewitt]

I wouldn't be questioning Manlys salary cap after signing who is yet to debut......

 

[BLN2]

I was generally interested in where BH's call they are $1.5 mill easily under cap comes from. I wasn't being cynical at all.

Barrett/Manly is doing well with his bargain basement purchases for this season, Tof is potentially a good addition to this strategy.

 

[Shaun Hewitt]

So, effectively, have we swapped Toa for Ligi?

 

[Leber]

So apparently we really wanted him to stay and made him a decent offer, but he told the club he wanted to sign for a Sydney club as he wanted to live there.

If that's the case, then it isn't really the clubs fault for 'letting him go'.

I don't know why anyone would want to live in Australia.... It's full of bloody australians.

 

[Cold Roses]

It's full of bloody australians

And successful clubs with a chance of winning a premiership.

The kid sounds like he has a good head on his shoulders.

As pissed off as I am, I can't honestly blame the bloke.

 

[Iafeta]

I can't blame the club either. They tried to keep him. He had no interest it seems.

 

[Fufu Andronez]

I can't blame the club either. They tried to keep him. He had no interest it seems.

If he got more chances to play and learn, rather than Cappy and Kearney constantly trotting out Gubb in front of him, he probably would have felt different about staying. My opinion on it anyway..

Still, there is no point crying over spilled milk. We need to focus on players who want to be here

 

[JJ]

I can't blame the club either. They tried to keep him. He had no interest it seems.

Smart kid is he?

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

If he got more chances to play and learn, rather than Cappy and Kearney constantly trotting out Gubb in front of him, he probably would have felt different about staying. My opinion on it anyway..

Still, there is no point crying over spilled milk. We need to focus on players who want to be here

He spent a decent portion of his time here being injured or working his way back from injury.

On top of that despite his potential he had some very noticeable rough edges to his game and some parts were not first grade standard.

If he left because he wasn't being played then....meh.

 

[playdaball]

I heard that Tof did want to stay. He trained hard dedicating himself to his football. The Warriors management told him he had a future but didn't offer him a decent contract. He does have friends at Manly (AKA Norths) so you can't blame him for leaving. Hopefully he does well at Manly, meantime the Warriors only have a small hanfall of 1st grade props next year.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

I can't blame the club either. They tried to keep him. He had no interest it seems.

No they didn't. They played him twice in 2 years, for a total of 31 minutes despite his obvious ability and point of difference to our pack. So he had rough parts to his game, sure. McFudd wasn't prepared to put in the hard work and actually coach him, give him exposure and instead went the soft cock route on picking plodders like Gubb instead. Even when the season was dead and buried, McFudd defaulted to arse-saving mode through safer options. Think he's been injured this year so Kearney gets a pass on Tof..

This stinks. Bull is on his final legs, Matulino is going, so is Gubb (thank lord), there's no props coming that we know of but we can't make a decent offer to this guy?

Just the complete inability for our organisation to turn obvious talent into bonafide FG standard is just incredibly bad.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

He spent a decent portion of his time here being injured or working his way back from injury.

On top of that despite his potential he had some very noticeable rough edges to his game and some parts were not first grade standard.

If he left because he wasn't being played then....meh.

Here's the thing - people don't want to come to us because we haven't made the finals in 6 years, we've got a 30% career winning coach, we have a reputation - wrong or right - for sucking the life out of careers. So top class rep players who aren't Kiwis, aren't coming here. Even fringe Origin players etc won't.

So who can you sign? You can sign guys with massive upsides and potential, and back yourselves to smooth the edges and make them great bargain basement signings. Those are the guys that will get you back to where you need to be. But our coaching team is rubbish and they're not able to do so. So off goes SST, Paasi, Tui, Tof, Feki, Hiku, etc etc across the Tasman where their superior coaching makes these guys FG standard.

If we throw away the 'rough edge' guys we'll be left with dead-end Aussie plodders and ex-pat locals. Oh yeah, and SJ who has very noticeable rough edges and things that aren't FG standard after 6 seasons, but now gets $1m per year.

 

[Mixmasterreece]

You know what I've heard this before. Likiliki, ligi Sao, Abraham papalii, brad abbey, nafe seluini, the fish. We were up in arms. Not for long. The club has often been right on who've they've let go.

Will Sipley join this long list of promising juniors who flopped? Maybe, but I hope not. We need more kiwi props in the Aussie system.

 

[PhantomChief]

The idea of a rampaging Tof and Taupau together frightens me TBH.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Here's the thing - people don't want to come to us because we haven't made the finals in 6 years, we've got a 30% career winning coach, we have a reputation - wrong or right - for sucking the life out of careers. So top class rep players who aren't Kiwis, aren't coming here. Even fringe Origin players etc won't.

So who can you sign? You can sign guys with massive upsides and potential, and back yourselves to smooth the edges and make them great bargain basement signings. Those are the guys that will get you back to where you need to be. But our coaching team is rubbish and they're not able to do so. So off goes SST, Paasi, Tui, Tof, Feki, Hiku, etc etc across the Tasman where their superior coaching makes these guys FG standard.

If we throw away the 'rough edge' guys we'll be left with dead-end Aussie plodders and ex-pat locals. Oh yeah, and SJ who has very noticeable rough edges and things that aren't FG standard after 6 seasons, but now gets $1m per year.

Top class reps and fringe Origin players have almost never come here unless it was right time right place circumstances. They have options where they live so we're always an afterthought.

People are pissing and moaning because we let him go without giving him an opportunity. These same people complain that we rush players from NYC straight to first grade and set them up to fail.......which one is it?

IF (and I have no inside info) IF he left purely for an opportunity then meh. What had he "really" done to demand first grade here when he spent a lot of time injured and showed that parts of his game aren't up to first grade?