@tiger5150 I actually think AJ is a back rower now . I think Blore needs to play a hybrid / middle edge game ;With Twal and Simpkin/Brooks bench .
To me that works . Backline cover , dummy half / halves cover , Middle and edge cover .
That’s what I’d be doing . AD/Talau/Toa in the other centre spot , Laurie/ Bula at the back . Brooks/Wakeham/Laurie halves . Whatever combination .
We should be looking to swap brooks with an SL player .
Exactly, why do we pick Brooks again, give Laurie a shot at 6, and I agree on Doueihi as wellI reckon next weeks team will be something like
1. Daine Laurie
2. Charlie Staines
3. Adam Doueihi
4. Brent Naden
5. Junior Tupou6. Luke Brooks
7. Brendan Wakeham8. David Klemmer
9. Api Koroisau
10. Stefano Utoikamanu
11. John Bateman
12. Isiah Papalli
13. Fonua Pole14. Kepoa
15. Joe Ofahengaue
16. Alex Twal
17. Sean Blore
they should upgrade Bula immediately and have him fullback. Laurie 6, Wakeham 7. Also Kepaoa is a far better centre than AD imo.
The team will be far more likely to win without Brooks and AD.
The ESL would be good for Brooks, out of the spotlight, and he might regain some form and enjoy it, but there is no future at the Wests Tigers for Brooks, and under no circumstances should he be offered a new contract@851 agree mate .As you know I’ve been a brooks advocate for a long time . But it’s not working , his mates not coming , and our forwards are bloody good .
It sux , but I think l he would win the Man of steel in England . He’s tough as nails , skilled , and his game would suit the , lack of needing pure precision all the time , that the nrl needs to attack .hes 28/29 he’s not a kid either . It’s time to move on .
I reckon next weeks team will be something like
1. Daine Laurie
2. Charlie Staines
3. Adam Doueihi
4. Brent Naden
5. Junior Tupou6. Luke Brooks
7. Brendan Wakeham8. David Klemmer
9. Api Koroisau
10. Stefano Utoikamanu
11. John Bateman
12. Isiah Papalli
13. Fonua Pole14. Kepoa
15. Joe Ofahengaue
16. Alex Twal
17. Sean Blore
they should upgrade Bula immediately and have him fullback. Laurie 6, Wakeham 7. Also Kepaoa is a far better centre than AD imo.
The team will be far more likely to win without Brooks and AD.
Ive never actually seen Laurie do anything that suggests he is a half. Id be just as nervous with him at 6 than Brooks. Better the devil you dont know I guess?
if you want to see what Laurie offers as a 6 play him in that position in the KOE for 4-6 weeks. Throwing him into our current setup in firsts with little recent experience in the halves would just ruin him.
The persistence to keep playing Brooks as a 7 has done him no favours. I know you have to try and maintain a player’s confidence but it is clear as day he is not an organising half. If he’d had a half like Cleary, Reynolds or even Townsend alongside him for the last few years and he could play second fiddle with less expectation and just have a licence (similar role to Luai) to run I reckon his output would have been so much better.
Think that ship has sailed now, though. His confidence has gone. He needs a new environment. Reckon he’s now at Milford / Ash Taylor stage and might struggle to ever get beyond backup level in the NRL again. Would possibly be better suited to England comp at this stage of his career.
It’s tough when 3/4 of our first choice spine are struggling & there are no suitable replacements in the lower grades. Ideally I’d drop Laurie, Douehi & Brooks for at least this week but who do we get to replace them? I really hope Sheens & Benji are chasing Williams & Welsby hard, I think they could help us big time!
In the meantime I’m going with:
1. Laurie
2. Tupou
3. Naden
4. AJ
5. Staines
6. Brooks
7. Wakeham
8. Klemmer
9. Api
10. Twal
11. Bateman
12. Ice
13. Pole
14. Simpkin
15. Stefano
16. Blore
17. Matamua
Twal & Klemmer we know can play big minutes, defend well & get decent metres. As can Bateman & Ice. Hopefully the bench can provide spark & impact when they’re called for. I’d be putting Bula on the wing as soon as we can & Staines to FB. I think Douehi is too slow for FB & too much of a defensive liability at 5/8 or centre. He needs to learn how to tackle in reggies, definitely has the frame for it. Brooks needs a spell too just to get some confidence & self-belief, but really who is there to replace him, at least his defence is solid. Laurie & Staines to alternate. I would’ve put Staines at FB but we don’t have any other wingers that I’m aware of.
Our boys just need to keep it simple & be patient. Run hard, tackle hard & support the ball-player to provide options.
Keep steering the right path
@loganr21 I hear you! Problem is I don’t think Laurie, Douehi, Smith or even Simpkin are better options to partner Wakeham in the halves. Unless we play Api in the halves but I don’t think we should move one of the best hookers in the game.
As Api said in the presser, we’re doing the tough stuff, now just need the pretty stuff to work!
I think it would be best for Brooks to go to the Superleague. Going to another NRL team would actually increase the pressure on him due to the expectations of seeing how he goes in another jersey.
Another thing, I of course hope that Bula is a future super star but needs to be handled correctly. Racing him in because our current fullbacks are rubbish may end up hurting his development. A bit of a disclaimer: I haven't seen him play so I don't know how close he is to first grade material
I love Brooksy as a bloke (from afar). He stuck by this club through our absolute worst period and I think he has always tried his best. It seems that Sheens and Benji wanted to see what they could do with him but it doesn’t appear to be working out and that’s ok, that’s what we are trying to figure out in this transition period: who to keep and who to move on. The first round of that was over the off season when we moved on liddle/mushrove etc. whilst Hastings is an out and out 7, Sheens and Benji wanted more than just being a capable 7, they wanted a top notch athlete as well and I will cop that if they are trying to really build a top 4 capable roster. They have assembled a top 8 pack and that is a great starting point and something that is required to try and attract quality spine players from outside the club. They were all in on Moses and that hasn’t worked out so it will be interesting to see what they do next. We are such a joke now in the NRL it seems basically impossible to recruit marquee players from other NRL clubs (look at the ficus around Papi last year where he was basically teased for 12 months after choosing to sign here). The UK I think is really our only option and I think there should be a couple of reasons to be optimistic about that. The salary cap in Australia is now multiples of that in super league and the GBP exchange rate is low. We also have Bateman who seems to be a popular player amongst the UK internationals and Sheens should have contacts/know who is good over there. Sydney is also more appealing place to live than Canberra so we should have that going for us. Lastly, we have lots of money to spend and transfer fees are something that is regularly done to live players between clubs quickly (outside of salary cap). So a couple of quality spine players from the UK should be something to mix in with our strong pack and young emerging back row/outside back juniors.
I feel sorry for people who come to forums and after a while they say goodbye because it affects their mental health reading negative posts.
It must be like smoking, you get to the point where you know you shouldn’t but you just have to log on in case you miss something important and simply must reply.
My thing is to log on (both sites) read comments from those that I have respect for and quickly skip through those posts from people who I don’t respect. I’ve used the Ignore button quite a bit on the other forum.
One thing I’ve noticed is the amount of posts from a lot of people who have joined long after me. They are in the thousands! My post count over all these years is tiny, meaning I don’t get into too many post debates - I make a comment and leave or I just don’t reply. Simple.
This forum started off as a separate entity to the other Tigers forum and I see quite a few of the same monikers from the other forum migrate over to here. I’m one of them.
The other forum has digressed to a swamp I think mainly due to the mods there just giving up on trying to deter poor behaviour.
Someone also mentioned Rob Bechara from the other podcast … I agree - that podcast is close to a swamp of negativity and I much prefer this forums podcast (good work Joel, Garry, Declan, Steve and the other guy who hosts it lots but goes missing quite a bit).
I’ve been down in the dumps a bit lately because of our poor performances but as always I won’t give up … they’ll come good. Unfortunately, my youngest son (30 year old) has quit and now goes for the Dolphins.
Good luck Tigers
I think a lot of people are writing off Adam. Yeah he needs to work on his defence but he’s coming off a serious injury. Think he needs a chance to prove himself. He and Brandon blended well in our trial game. Laurie should be in reserve grade and I don’t think jakey should play for a while. Our skipper is going well at 80.@loganr21 I hear you! Problem is I don’t think Laurie, Douehi, Smith or even Simpkin are better options to partner Wakeham in the halves. Unless we play Api in the halves but I don’t think we should move one of the best hookers in the game.
As Api said in the presser, we’re doing the tough stuff, now just need the pretty stuff to work!
Keep steering the right path
At this stage of his career and based on what I see of his on field performance he is just a average first graded.I reckon next weeks team will be something like
1. Daine Laurie
2. Charlie Staines
3. Adam Doueihi
4. Brent Naden
5. Junior Tupou6. Luke Brooks
7. Brendan Wakeham8. David Klemmer
9. Api Koroisau
10. Stefano Utoikamanu
11. John Bateman
12. Isiah Papalli
13. Fonua Pole14. Kepoa
15. Joe Ofahengaue
16. Alex Twal
17. Sean Blore
they should upgrade Bula immediately and have him fullback. Laurie 6, Wakeham 7. Also Kepaoa is a far better centre than AD imo.
The team will be far more likely to win without Brooks and AD.
Long way from what we need right now at fullback.
@greatodensraven problem with Williams is you would be looking at a transfer fee of 800k to 1 million as he is contracted until end of 2025 I believe. Tigers baulked at paying 250k for Bateman for a transfer doubt they will touch a large transfer
don't thinknany changed to the side until the bye so after the parramatta game
Mirroring my thought exactly.I feel sorry for people who come to forums and after a while they say goodbye because it affects their mental health reading negative posts.
It must be like smoking, you get to the point where you know you shouldn’t but you just have to log on in case you miss something important and simply must reply.
My thing is to log on (both sites) read comments from those that I have respect for and quickly skip through those posts from people who I don’t respect. I’ve used the Ignore button quite a bit on the other forum.
One thing I’ve noticed is the amount of posts from a lot of people who have joined long after me. They are in the thousands! My post count over all these years is tiny, meaning I don’t get into too many post debates - I make a comment and leave or I just don’t reply. Simple.
This forum started off as a separate entity to the other Tigers forum and I see quite a few of the same monikers from the other forum migrate over to here. I’m one of them.
The other forum has digressed to a swamp I think mainly due to the mods there just giving up on trying to deter poor behaviour.
Someone also mentioned Rob Bechara from the other podcast … I agree - that podcast is close to a swamp of negativity and I much prefer this forums podcast (good work Joel, Garry, Declan, Steve and the other guy who hosts it lots but goes missing quite a bit).
I’ve been down in the dumps a bit lately because of our poor performances but as always I won’t give up … they’ll come good. Unfortunately, my youngest son (30 year old) has quit and now goes for the Dolphins.
Good luck Tigers
One thing I noticed lately is that some comments on here are bit ordinary and getting personal.
Hope we don’t get to where the other forum is right now.
@greatodensraven I think Sheens needs to stop this playing silly buggers Brooks as a 7 on his back and just give him the 6
