Raiders player signing speculation 2018

[Botman]

For 10 years prior to Stuart we couldnt sign any marquee players. Our best signing was Ferguson.
Atleast Stuart recognised that and adjusted the recruitment strategy. As a result we got Hodgson, Paulo, Whitehead, Tapine, Leilua, Rapana.
Recruitment has been Stuarts main success.

Hold on... No one had any idea who Whitehead or Hodgson were. They were totally untested, identical to the Bateman/Sutton signings... Which isnt a bad thing btw, it's a feather in the cap of Stuart that he identified those players accurately as people who could transition their game... but lets not pretend these were high demand players

Leilua basically walked out on his club and was persona no grata for most teams due to his history. Again, not a lot of competition here.
Rapana was mulling around the local rugby scene, we had no competition, he was on nobodies radar and only came to our club because he happened to be in Canberra already playing another code, that feels a lot more like good luck than good recruitment.

Paulo and Tapine are probably fair names... though even Paulo had to, as a great man once said "GET OUT OF SYDNEY!" due to off the field issues. I guess he could have gone to a non sydney club so some marks here, and we've kee... oh wait, no we havent kept him at all, he **** off back to sydney as soon as he could.

Tapine, yeah i'll pay that. Gun young player, would have been highly sought after, and Stuart got his man. Full marks here and i'll give him full marks for Hodgson and Whitehead.

None of these guys could honestly be considered marquee player signings.

[greeneyed]

But to sign Joe Tapine... we offloaded Tevita Pangai Jnr. Can someone please tell me I've imagined it?

[edwahu]

But to sign Joe Tapine... we offloaded Tevita Pangai Jnr. Can someone please tell me I've imagined it?

I thought it was Barnett we released to get Tapine early.

[greeneyed]

Nope.

[Botman]

I can't quite remember exactly how the domino's fell, but we essentially traded in TPJ and Barnett for Tapine.

Now there are people who would know, who say that both of those guys had one foot out of the door anyways, but i've followed sports enough across many different leagues to know that it's not at all uncommon for a player to be 100% leaving their club and then suddenly find themselves happy to stay when given what they want, be that money, minutes, or starting position

And i'd love to know the alternate reality of what happens with TPJ had his development been supported better by our club. He had earned a shot in FG, and it never came. Maybe he leaves anyways, but maybe he doesnt... a recent high profile case in the NBA comes to mind with Paul Goerge being traded to OKC with one year left on his deal, and every man and his dog said he was going to LA at the end of the year, hell PG himself all but said he was going to LA... guess what? He re-signed with OKC.
This stuff happens all the time. If a player feels like they are valued, respected and are getting what they have earned, you give yourself a shot to keep them. We didnt do that with Barnett or TPJ.

That all being said... would you trade Tapine for TPJ and Barnett today? Im not so sure. Barnett hasnt really kicked on the way i thought he would and right now i think Tapine is a better player than TPJ. So it's pretty close imo

[nemesis]

which ever way you spin it hodgson is the 2nd or 3rd best hooker in the game so he is still a marquee signing and whitehead is a gun.

surely more credit is due to sign players before they become guns, it's easy to see a gun and wave bags of money at them

[greeneyed]

It is clear TPJ wasn't getting an opportunity at the Raiders... and that's why he left. Hey presto! He's a world beater at another club.

We didn't need to give up TPJ for Tapine. We should have given up OTHER players for Tapine.

[edwahu]

which ever way you spin it hodgson is the 2nd or 3rd best hooker in the game so he is still a marquee signing and whitehead is a gun.

surely more credit is due to sign players before they become guns, it's easy to see a gun and wave bags of money at them

Hodgo wasn't even 3rd best hooker in Super league when we signed him. It was superb scouting but he wasn't marquee.

I agree Stuart recruited very well in 2015 and 16, but it's approaching 3 years since he signed a starting NRL player.

[BadnMean]

Yeah from what I recall no-one thought or said he looked like a worldbeater. I think his clips showed a few darts (not shredding teams, just a little dummy half dart) and a couple of cheeky dummy/pushovers on the try line.

The optimists just hoped he'd know how to pass a team around the park and not cost much or have some improvement in him. The pessimists thought he might be a scrawny, slowish dud basically.

He exceeded all expectations its fair to say.

(HODGO that is)

[Wiki Special]

That all being said... would you trade Tapine for TPJ and Barnett today?

Personally, I would not. I think both Tapine and TPJ are outstanding young players of very similar ability. Having another FG standard forward in Barnett (seeing as though we seem short in forward depth for next year) is what would sway me.

I actually like TPJ slightly more than Tapine but couldn't argue with anyone who thought the opposite.

I still get reminded by my mates for saying when we lost Milford to the Ponies that I would stop watching the NRL if we lost TPJ (our best young player at the time) to them too. Never thought it would happen at that time.

[MrPosh]

For 10 years prior to Stuart we couldnt sign any marquee players. Our best signing was Ferguson.
Atleast Stuart recognised that and adjusted the recruitment strategy. As a result we got Hodgson, Paulo, Whitehead, Tapine, Leilua, Rapana.
Recruitment has been Stuarts main success.

Hold on... No one had any idea who Whitehead or Hodgson were. They were totally untested, identical to the Bateman/Sutton signings... Which isnt a bad thing btw, it's a feather in the cap of Stuart that he identified those players accurately as people who could transition their game... but lets not pretend these were high demand players

Hodgson might have been unproven, but Whitehead was an established international.

I appreciate if you don't follow the English or international games you won't have heard of him - but he was always going to be a huge success.

[Ruben Daley]

I’ve really enjoyed Ricky’s moneyball recruitment and I’m hoping the two new poms will be the same.

I’d argue Paulo and Sezer were quite big signings. Both were established first-graders and Paulo, in particular, was regarded as a future rep player.

The issue we have now is that we probably only have one spot where we are desperate for a big signing and that’s in the halves but there appears to be very few options - even if he had heaps of coin. I think the club was working towards getting someone for next year but since resigned themselves to working towards 2020. Frustrating for us but I got over the idea of Corey Norman and don’t know who else we’d chase.

I’ve been lamenting having Sezer and Williams as our halves combo for a while now. But we can be a top eight team with them, if we play smarter and keep Hodgo on the field for the whole season. Then we launch for higher results the next season.

Just re-read that and it’s depressing. Not what I intended.

[woppadingo]

For 10 years prior to Stuart we couldnt sign any marquee players. Our best signing was Ferguson.
Atleast Stuart recognised that and adjusted the recruitment strategy. As a result we got Hodgson, Paulo, Whitehead, Tapine, Leilua, Rapana.
Recruitment has been Stuarts main success.

Hold on... No one had any idea who Whitehead or Hodgson were. They were totally untested, identical to the Bateman/Sutton signings... Which isnt a bad thing btw, it's a feather in the cap of Stuart that he identified those players accurately as people who could transition their game... but lets not pretend these were high demand players

Leilua basically walked out on his club and was persona no grata for most teams due to his history. Again, not a lot of competition here.
Rapana was mulling around the local rugby scene, we had no competition, he was on nobodies radar and only came to our club because he happened to be in Canberra already playing another code, that feels a lot more like good luck than good recruitment.

Paulo and Tapine are probably fair names... though even Paulo had to, as a great man once said "GET OUT OF SYDNEY!" due to off the field issues. I guess he could have gone to a non sydney club so some marks here, and we've kee... oh wait, no we havent kept him at all, he **** off back to sydney as soon as he could.

Tapine, yeah i'll pay that. Gun young player, would have been highly sought after, and Stuart got his man. Full marks here and i'll give him full marks for Hodgson and Whitehead.

None of these guys could honestly be considered marquee player signings.

My point was that its not a new thing that we cant attract marquee players. I was responding to a comment that implied he cannot attract marquee players. Believe me I wish we could. But Stuart quite smartly adapted to that and identified talent in other markets, as well as taking opportunities to poach some overlooked talent as well as some others who had greater potential but werenot performing.
So in terms of recruitment I think he has done well, overall. Agree Rapana was lucky but atleast he gave him a go a rightly saw the talent there.

[Botman]

Yep, I’d agree with that

[bonehead]

Rapana was a mid season furner recruit

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[edwahu]

Recruitment has to measured against retention and development. Ignoring the Campos and depth players, he has failed to retain: Milford, TPJ, Vaughan, Boyd, Paulo, Austin, Barnett, Waqa, Taylor, Shillo, Baptiste, Fensom, E.Lee, Brenko.

Developmemt wise he has only developed two real first graders of any note in Boyd and Cotric.

So overall I think he is behind on the ledger.

[nemesis]

Recruitment has to measured against retention and development. Ignoring the Campos and depth players, he has failed to retain: Milford, TPJ, Vaughan, Boyd, Paulo, Austin, Barnett, Waqa, Taylor, Shillo, Baptiste, Fensom, E.Lee, Brenko.

Developmemt wise he has only developed two real first graders of any note in Boyd and Cotric.

So overall I think he is behind on the ledger.

haha, really? Lee's are crap, milford was offered heaps, vaughan was a douch bag, barnett was nuts and is not really looking that great anymore with better players in that team now, waqa was lost cause, shillo was at retirement time, austin stuffed up and wished he could take that old contract back and still not sold he is good enough defensively for 80 min NRL, boyd and paulo are too big for the game now and are slow, Taylor is well, Taylor, baptiste wants back and fensom as much as i loved him his style is not suited in the game as much.

so many players have developed and become better players under him, the whole team really, not many players other than austin have gone backwards after coming here.

That was just a terrible attemp to make stuart look bad really, ricky is by far the best coach we have had since sheens by far, on and off the field.

[edwahu]

Let's just give him credit for anything good that's happened while he is here and make excuses for anything bad. That way we can be happy we have a great coach.

Recruitment and retention has been woeful for 2 years, and unless Bateman is a Hodgo level miracle it's going to be 3.

[sprintman]

We didn’t give up Barnett and TPJ for Tapine.

[Pete Cash]

Milford was out the door before Stuart came here. The campaign from the QLD press to get Milford home to his poor old daddy was the final nail in the coffin of furners last season here (and what a terrible season it was)

Now I guess it was technically possible that Stuart could have stopped Milford somehow and he did offer him a million bucks a year it is harsh to lob that at Stuart.

The rest fair enough

[-TW-]

Recruitment has to measured against retention and development. Ignoring the Campos and depth players, he has failed to retain: Milford, TPJ, Vaughan, Boyd, Paulo, Austin, Barnett, Waqa, Taylor, Shillo, Baptiste, Fensom, E.Lee, Brenko.

Developmemt wise he has only developed two real first graders of any note in Boyd and Cotric.

So overall I think he is behind on the ledger.

haha, really? Lee's are crap, milford was offered heaps, vaughan was a douch bag, barnett was nuts and is not really looking that great anymore with better players in that team now, waqa was lost cause, shillo was at retirement time, austin stuffed up and wished he could take that old contract back and still not sold he is good enough defensively for 80 min NRL, boyd and paulo are too big for the game now and are slow, Taylor is well, Taylor, baptiste wants back and fensom as much as i loved him his style is not suited in the game as much.

so many players have developed and become better players under him, the whole team really, not many players other than austin have gone backwards after coming here.

That was just a terrible attemp to make stuart look bad really, ricky is by far the best coach we have had since sheens by far, on and off the field.

I really hope this is a piss take

[EVH]

What about Jack Bird at 6? He seems unwanted at the Broncos. Imagine having a player in our team that has previously won a premiership.

[Matt]

I can't quite remember exactly how the domino's fell, but we essentially traded in TPJ and Barnett for Tapine.

Now there are people who would know, who say that both of those guys had one foot out of the door anyways, but i've followed sports enough across many different leagues to know that it's not at all uncommon for a player to be 100% leaving their club and then suddenly find themselves happy to stay when given what they want, be that money, minutes, or starting position

And i'd love to know the alternate reality of what happens with TPJ had his development been supported better by our club. He had earned a shot in FG, and it never came. Maybe he leaves anyways, but maybe he doesnt... a recent high profile case in the NBA comes to mind with Paul Goerge being traded to OKC with one year left on his deal, and every man and his dog said he was going to LA at the end of the year, hell PG himself all but said he was going to LA... guess what? He re-signed with OKC.
This stuff happens all the time. If a player feels like they are valued, respected and are getting what they have earned, you give yourself a shot to keep them. We didnt do that with Barnett or TPJ.

That all being said... would you trade Tapine for TPJ and Barnett today? Im not so sure. Barnett hasnt really kicked on the way i thought he would and right now i think Tapine is a better player than TPJ. So it's pretty close imo

TPJ has a higher ceiling than Tapine. He can win a game in less than 30mins, as shown last wk vs Panthers.

Tapine is quality, no doubt, but not a game breaker.

[Matt]

What about Jack Bird at 6? He seems unwanted at the Broncos. Imagine having a player in our team that has previously won a premiership.

Thats a joke right?!?
There is a reason Bronx dont want him. Worst buy of 2018. He played 8 games apparently, which is twice as many as i remember, which speaks volumes

[schnitzel]

EVH could be onto something. Only 12 months ago Bird was a gun and in the frame for NSW. Whatever has gone wrong at Broncos he hasnt forgotten how to play. Change of scenery with Brisbane paying half the freight worth a gamble. He at least would tighten up our defence and provide a running foil for Sezer. Won't happen tho

[Botman]

As a 5/8th? Absolutely not

If we ended up sacking Wighton, had to move Cotric to fullback full time and one of our centres moved on, I’d consider him at a discount to play centre

[CJ42]

Hard pass on jack bird, as pigman says maybe as a centre but that’s it.


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[Dusty]

What about Jack Bird at 6? He seems unwanted at the Broncos. Imagine having a player in our team that has previously won a premiership.

Not sure how or why we would think this was bad... It'd be a definite upgrade. Jack Bird (based on playing ability, not sure if there is something else going on) is a significant upgrade on all our halves or potential halves. The problem is a) we apparently don't have the cap space , b) we are happy with what we have

[Dusty]

As of November 1 Cameron Munster is a free agent.... We should go hard for him

[nemesis]

Recruitment has to measured against retention and development. Ignoring the Campos and depth players, he has failed to retain: Milford, TPJ, Vaughan, Boyd, Paulo, Austin, Barnett, Waqa, Taylor, Shillo, Baptiste, Fensom, E.Lee, Brenko.

Developmemt wise he has only developed two real first graders of any note in Boyd and Cotric.

So overall I think he is behind on the ledger.

haha, really? Lee's are crap, milford was offered heaps, vaughan was a douch bag, barnett was nuts and is not really looking that great anymore with better players in that team now, waqa was lost cause, shillo was at retirement time, austin stuffed up and wished he could take that old contract back and still not sold he is good enough defensively for 80 min NRL, boyd and paulo are too big for the game now and are slow, Taylor is well, Taylor, baptiste wants back and fensom as much as i loved him his style is not suited in the game as much.

so many players have developed and become better players under him, the whole team really, not many players other than austin have gone backwards after coming here.

That was just a terrible attemp to make stuart look bad really, ricky is by far the best coach we have had since sheens by far, on and off the field.

I really hope this is a piss take

No it's not, i thought the original comment was a piss take actually.

The problem is this page has become rubbish, most just sook and wine about everything.

To say stuarts recruitment and retention has been rubbish while bringing in good and great players such as josh, whitehead, paulo, tapine,sia, havilli, and being able to keep all of them we want to keep, papa,croker, rapa, get 2 more poms who might be good and get sezar even thought he has not played his best is a bit of a piss take in it's self.

the 3 guys i think we needed to be moved on for what money they wanted compared to what they bring the team have been so that is a plus.

Anyone can see we are fast tracking some young guys along in the lower grades for showing form and that is also a plus.

We have a record number of memberships.

We have a team that is capable and skilful, we just need to tweak a few things and get a fair go by the refs and we will be fine.

Not sure exactly who replaces all the players you guys want gone or who replaces stuart and the whole board if we fired them like many here want??

[edwahu]

Yep, all is rosey and clearly every decision made has been right. Literally no one could replace Stuart he is so good.

[LastRaider]

Unfortunately we are not going to attract the talent we need now with Stuart at the helm. Players won’t come now after seeing players performances across the park deteriorate under his tenure. Even our assistant coaches are not good which makes it twice as hard


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[T_R]

As of November 1 Cameron Munster is a free agent.... We should go hard for him

We can't go hard for anyone. We don't have any money. The club has been mismanaged into a pit.

[T_R]

Recruitment has to measured against retention and development. Ignoring the Campos and depth players, he has failed to retain: Milford, TPJ, Vaughan, Boyd, Paulo, Austin, Barnett, Waqa, Taylor, Shillo, Baptiste, Fensom, E.Lee, Brenko.

Developmemt wise he has only developed two real first graders of any note in Boyd and Cotric.

So overall I think he is behind on the ledger.

haha, really? Lee's are crap, milford was offered heaps, vaughan was a douch bag, barnett was nuts and is not really looking that great anymore with better players in that team now, waqa was lost cause, shillo was at retirement time, austin stuffed up and wished he could take that old contract back and still not sold he is good enough defensively for 80 min NRL, boyd and paulo are too big for the game now and are slow, Taylor is well, Taylor, baptiste wants back and fensom as much as i loved him his style is not suited in the game as much.

so many players have developed and become better players under him, the whole team really, not many players other than austin have gone backwards after coming here.

That was just a terrible attemp to make stuart look bad really, ricky is by far the best coach we have had since sheens by far, on and off the field.

I really hope this is a piss take

No it's not, i thought the original comment was a piss take actually.

The problem is this page has become rubbish, most just sook and wine about everything.

To say stuarts recruitment and retention has been rubbish while bringing in good and great players such as josh, whitehead, paulo, tapine,sia, havilli, and being able to keep all of them we want to keep, papa,croker, rapa, get 2 more poms who might be good and get sezar even thought he has not played his best is a bit of a piss take in it's self.

the 3 guys i think we needed to be moved on for what money they wanted compared to what they bring the team have been so that is a plus.

Anyone can see we are fast tracking some young guys along in the lower grades for showing form and that is also a plus.

We have a record number of memberships.

We have a team that is capable and skilful, we just need to tweak a few things and get a fair go by the refs and we will be fine.

Not sure exactly who replaces all the players you guys want gone or who replaces stuart and the whole board if we fired them like many here want??

And all those rosy thoughts added up are why the Raiders juggernaught roars into the finals as often as once in every five years!

That's HEAPS more often than many comets pass the earth!

[greeneyed]

Unfortunately we are not going to attract the talent we need now with Stuart at the helm. Players won’t come now after seeing players performances across the park deteriorate under his tenure. Even our assistant coaches are not good which makes it twice as hard


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One of the assistant coaches has built the Raiders into one of the best attacking teams in the competition. And he's one of the best attacking coaches in the competition.