Official THE RUMOUR MILL - Player Signings/Transfers ONLY!!!!

[The Punisher]

Who'd ya pick outta NAS & Fifita - forget prices

Fifita every day.
Hes that generational player who is absolutely unplayable on form.
An absolute unit with hands and feet like a classy centre and the pace to match it.

You moving Teig to the bench or shifting him to lock?

Tieg can go anywhere if it was a choice between him and Fifita. Like comparing chalk and cheese.

 

[Sharkbyte]

Fifita bludges more often than not then turns up out wide to run over a centre or winger...no thanks

 

[HaroldBishop]

Fifita bludges more often than not then turns up out wide to run over a centre or winger...no thanks

Yep. Highlight reel, tick. Goes missing, most of the time.

 

[Proud Shark]

Fifita bludges more often than not then turns up out wide to run over a centre or winger...no thanks

You could replace Fifita with NAS in that sentence and I think it works. Except Fifita is good to run over the top of someone twice a game instead of once every two games.

 

[HaroldBishop]

You could replace Fifita with NAS in that sentence and I think it works. Except Fifita is good to run over the top of someone twice a game instead of once every two games.

NAS is doing the dirty work though. I reckon any spine would dominate if they had AFB/NAS on for 80 minutes.

 

[bort]

DFififta stepped up the effort levels a lot last season I thought

Be interesting to see how he comes back with titans in bad form. But difficult to save them from the edge

 

[Proud Shark]

NAS is doing the dirty work though. I reckon any spine would dominate if they had AFB/NAS on for 80 minutes

As in separately? You are right, but I don't think you're being fair on Fifita. He put together the most ridiculous season by an edge forward in regard to creating tries we'll likely ever see. And he did that in a crap side. Nas does his work with a top tier spine.

Put Fifita outside someone like DCE and he'd be unstoppable.

*Just looked it up again. 17 tries, 22 linebreaks, 44 offloads and 155 tackle breaks. Before you swoop in burgo I know the stats aren't everything, but he dominated that year.

 

[HaroldBishop]

As in separately? You are right, but I don't think you're being fair on Fifita. He put together the most ridiculous season by an edge forward in regard to creating tries we'll likely ever see. And he did that in a crap side. Nas does his work with a top tier spine.

Put Fifita outside someone like DCE and he'd be unstoppable.

*Just looked it up again. 17 tries, 22 linebreaks, 44 offloads and 155 tackle breaks. Before you swoop in burgo I know the stats aren't everything, but he dominated that year.

That's one season though mate, has been extremely inconsistent up until then.

Don't get me wrong, he's devastating when on, I'm just not convinced he has it mentally to sustain it.

 

[Johnny B Goode]

Who'd ya pick outta NAS & Fifita - forget prices

Neither. Fifita should be called foreskin

NAS doesn't want to play anymore. Why would anyone expect him to put in a better effort than he's showing now , for another club? What if coach tells him to pull his finger out? He cries and goes on strike.

 

[BurgoShark]

As in separately? You are right, but I don't think you're being fair on Fifita. He put together the most ridiculous season by an edge forward in regard to creating tries we'll likely ever see. And he did that in a crap side. Nas does his work with a top tier spine.

Put Fifita outside someone like DCE and he'd be unstoppable.

*Just looked it up again. 17 tries, 22 linebreaks, 44 offloads and 155 tackle breaks. Before you swoop in burgo I know the stats aren't everything, but he dominated that year.

Fifita’s physical attributes have never been in question. He was running over grown men when he was 17.

It’s what he does in the games that he can’t do those things that is the issue. $1.3m is a lot of money for a strike player who only helps you at one end of the field.

No coach has been able to change the trend. Is it the player? Will be interesting to see how Des uses him.

Handy player but is yet to live up to the hype or the paycheque.

 

[bort]

Fifita’s physical attributes have never been in question. He was running over grown men when he was 17.

It’s what he does in the games that he can’t do those things that is the issue. $1.3m is a lot of money for a strike player who only helps you at one end of the field.

No coach has been able to change the trend. Is it the player? Will be interesting to see how Des uses him.

Handy player but is yet to live up to the hype or the paycheck.

We were told to forget prices.
I’d take a free D Fif for sure

1.3m very different conversation

 

[BurgoShark]

We were told to forget prices.
I’d take a free D Fif for sure

1.3m very different conversation

Oh - didn't see that.

Sure - $80k dev deal if is then. Get him on board. Could use an extra edge back rower this week and under the new rules dev players are good to go.

 

[BurgoShark]

I’d also say that some of the criticism of Fifita is actually stats-based. His metres went down because his minutes went down. That’s pretty well known. Not really an issue. His coach was trying to find the right balance of minutes/impact.

The shuffling around positions, playing from the bench, being dropped from origin, hooked in an origin game etc. - all of those things show imo that his coaches think he isn’t quite playing at the level he could or should be.

 

[Proud Shark]

That's one season though mate, has been extremely inconsistent up until then.

Don't get me wrong, he's devastating when on, I'm just not convinced he has it mentally to sustain it.

Although not as devastating as 2021, I still thought he was great last year. Agree to disagree I guess!

 

[Sevshark]

Tieg can go anywhere if it was a choice between him and Fifita. Like comparing chalk and cheese.

I didn't compare the two, just asked if he saw Teig shifting to another position.

 

[Western Sharkie]

Some Interesting stats….

Salary cap futures market: How each club stacks up long term as player swaps, releases and contract standoffs loom

Such is the state of the NRL’s laissez-faire player transfer system, the competition is just three weeks old and there is already speculation surfacing…

www.theroar.com.au

Most clubs have tied up their main players beyond next year with the majority of players who will be free agents at the end of this season at the end of their career, not yet proven commodities at NRL level or journeymen who subsist on short-term contracts.

The Warriors are set to be the least active club in the player transfer frenzy this year with only three of their current senior squad coming off the books.

	2024	2025	2026	2027+
Brisbane	6	13	4	5
Canberra	7	11	6	5
Canterbury	8	12	5	6
Cronulla	6	14	8	1
Dolphins	9	11	5	5
Gold Coast	6	11	11	2
Manly	7	9	7	4
Melbourne	8	8	7	5
Newcastle	8	12	6	3
Nth Qld	11	12	1	4
Parramatta	8	14	4	4
Penrith	10	4	7	7
St George Illawarra	12	10	6	1
Sth Sydney	10	9	2	7
Roosters	10	9	5	5
Warriors	3	15	10	0
Wests Tigers	6	10	8	6

They are also the only club with nobody signed beyond 2026 – Cronulla have just one in Nicho Hynes while every other team has at least three long-term signings.

Not surprisingly, St George Illawarra have the most players not signed beyond this year at 12 as they try to overhaul their roster following the failed Anthony Griffin.

 

[BurgoShark]

Cheers.

It’s missing AFB btw. He’s signed through 2028.

 

[Sharkfox]

Who would you want over Nicho in the halves right now? Honestly. I can only think of 3, Cleary, Munster and Moses.

That's not say he's currently the 4th best half, just that the other good ones are at the end of their careers. Of the other current halfbacks that are playing better (IMO) SJ, Reynolds and Hunt are 33 and DCE is 35. Nicho could spend the next 2-3 years developing, then still potentially have 5 or more years at the top of his game, being as good or better than these guys are now.

If Sezer goes good this year, try sign him for next year onwards, he's on a mutual option 2025 and Tigers have got Luai on the way. Put him at 7 game manager, Hynes Five Eighth

 

[Gumby]

Lomax won’t be at the dragons next year it seems.

They’re in talks already with Sunia Turuva and wallabies player Jordan Peteita (can’t spell his name).

Dragons also in talks with Williams, David Fifita, Angus Crighton and Josh Schuster.

They’re set to re sign Jayden Su’a along with a few others but a massive clean out will be happening this season.

 

[MrDravid]

Lomax won’t be at the dragons next year it seems.

They’re in talks already with Sunia Turuva and wallabies player Jordan Peteita (can’t spell his name).

Dragons also in talks with Williams, David Fifita, Angus Crighton and Josh Schuster.

They’re set to re sign Jayden Su’a along with a few others but a massive clean out will be happening this season.

If I'm the Dragons I'm doing a player swap this year... Not sure Creighton or Schuster will add much though