The Wests Tigers are set to land highly rated fullback David Bryenton on a two-year deal from 2027, @espnausnz can reveal.
He was on a 3 year deal at Canterbury and the 2028 season he was set to be on a development contract. This suggests he might not join WT as a top 30 player (which is a good thing)
Frizell official for 2027.
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I’m good with Frizell. Prior to playing with busted ribs in the GF, he was awesome in the finals series.
NBWT reporting Samuela and Latu are set to re-sign for another two seasons.
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allegedly samuela is signing for 800k a season for 2 years.
if so it makes Hudson Youngs 1.1 million look like an ok deal.
Worry is ehat have we paid latu, spends more time in rehab than on the field
Announcement coming from the club at 4pm this afternoon.
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Samuela - two more seasons, official.
https://www.weststigers.com.au/news/2026/10/22/samuela-fainu-re-signs-for-two-years-at-wests-tigers/
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That’s a vote of confidence in Shaun and Benji
More likely, it's a vote of confidence in his manager to get that amount. Maybe no other club was wiling to pay that much?That’s a vote of confidence in Shaun and Benji
More likely, it's a vote of confidence in his manager to get that amount. Maybe no other club was wiling to pay that much?That’s a vote of confidence in Shaun and Benji
Hard to know, I’m sure if he had been on the market he would commanded big dollars. Things are a little murky with the brothers being at the club, and the 4th potentially getting some kind of career lifeline.
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More likely, it's a vote of confidence in his manager to get that amount. Maybe no other club was wiling to pay that much?That’s a vote of confidence in Shaun and Benji
It has been reported at $800K pa. If true that is a great deal and there would have been other clubs offering more than that and obviously PNG could offer more in his pocket.
As I understand it, punting Luai early enabled this to happen. That’s good business.
As I understand it, punting Luai early enabled this to happen. That’s good business.
its the opposite of good business. Management signed Luai to a contract that was clearly going to cost us Samuela (and probably Bula and who knows how many others) if he had played out next year, let alone his whole Contract. That is terrible "business". In the end Tigers got lucky and Chiefs took him away and Parra jumped in for next year.
That isnt good business, its good fortune. Unfortunately typical for us, reactive, not proactive.
As I understand it, punting Luai early enabled this to happen. That’s good business.
its the opposite of good business. Management signed Luai to a contract that was clearly going to cost us Samuela (and probably Bula and who knows how many others) if he had played out next year, let alone his whole Contract. That is terrible "business". In the end Tigers got lucky and Chiefs took him away and Parra jumped in for next year.
That isnt good business, its good fortune. Unfortunately typical for us, reactive, not proactive.
We announced the signing of Luai in January 2024. At that stage Sam had played 5 first grade games for Manly, and Jareem had 18 first grade games ticked up with us. No one could have predicted how well these 2 rookies would progress, and WT needed to make a big statement in the player market at the time following 2 consecutive spoons and exit of the previous admin regime.
With hindsight, it’s reasonable to say that the Luai contract was a bad one. The delta between his best and worst games in our colours was far too wide for an experienced player on $1.2m notwithstanding the more intangible benefits he brought to the table. The guys on the pod have discussed this at length.
I don’t think WT got lucky around Luai’s exit. Sure the player market evolved, but there’s a beneficial side to that (we get out of an expensive contract) as well as being problematic (we lost a marquee following a distraction during the season). I think Sean and Benji handled a bad situation well. Luai was all about the money, they didn’t top him up to match the PNG offer, they recognised there was better value via Samuela and Jareem, treated Luai well during his negotiations, and called up the favours given by making him take a Parra contract.