2025 Squad, Signings and Rumours Thread

I struggle to watch games that don’t feature the Titans these days. I’ve lost my care factor for everything else, even Origin to an extent doesn’t have the same impact anymore.
That’s exactly what makes you a true diehard fan—when your heart is so tied to one team that nothing else quite hits the same. It’s about living and breathing our colours with every game, every play, every triumph, and every heartbreak. That kind of loyalty is the purest form of passion, and I truly do believe majority of us here on the forum are exactly the same with the club, which is what makes being a part of this community more enthralling as we all feel the exact same way about the team and the club as a whole.
 
God we went like a decade with our fullbacks being William Zillman, Josh Hoffman, some David Mead (was good), the rotting corpse of Jarryd freakin Hayne, Michael Gordon (past prime but also reasonable), and finally, after like a decade and a half, we get dumped 4 young rep/quasi rep tier fullbacks at once, one of which will win a Dally M, the others will be out of position or asking to move elsewhere. What a joke lmao.

Where tf was Jaylan De Groot when deer-in-the-headlights Tyler Cornish had his one game and then decided to head home afterward? 🤬
 
I watch about 6/8 games a week and find the product at the moment absolutely amazing, I do not miss the wrestle a-thons of a decade ago.
I wish I could too, Hungry. Have a look at 80s footy and how quick the PTB is. Yes there was thuggery, stiff arms, spear tackles, Xmas handshakes, stinks, shoulder charges etc but it was more often a genuine contest. The wrestle wasn't invented in the 90s. It was always part of the game that wasn't always tolerated, depending on the ref - looking at you Greg Hartley and Mick Stone. In defense of the wrestlemania the Daily Astonisher frothed over, I actually loved watching Cameron Smith hold a bloke down with one arm while appealing to the ref with the other, especially for Qld. The 10m rule was always going to evolve to that as soon as the refs allowed it. In the 80s, we would do the same thing, only grab his jersey with the other hand and jab him with it. That used to really slow the PTB down.

I'll also say this for the 5m rule - it encouraged more creativity with the ball. Running good lines was a prerequisite and ball skills were essential. You'll see plenty of this in 70s games as well. Arty Beetson standing as first receiver and feeding his halves as runners - unthinkable these days.
 
I point out that no matter finance, rule changes nor levels of fitness the most poignant change to the game is its total transparency. Before the invasion of the digital age the game developed around pockets of expertise, such as coaching, tactics and selections, all of which were shrouded in secrecy to create competitive edge. Now there are no secrets. Everybody copies and/or comments on everyone else. It used to be fun to guess who’s playing, how such and such coaches, or why a team had an edge. Not now. Even Joe Blowme can rattle off all the buzz insider jargon. Maybe that’s why Des plays it the way he does. I love him for it.
 
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I can see it when they get a run up or are on a break, I'd be surprised if anyone's quicker then Lofi over the first 20m, I'm still not sure we've actually seen him at full speed, I swear he stops in second gear.
 
He’s sneaky quick

But it’s not Lofi speed where he’ll bounce outside a defender and beat them over 5m to get into space (think Lofi is the best in the NRL at this)

or Keano speed where he changes direction 40 times at the same speed

But if JDG gets half a gap he’ll fly through it, and if he gets in the clear i wouldn’t expect him to get caught. His support play is exceptional because of it - gets himself in the right position very quickly
 
CG provides us with a brilliant opportunity to have an excellent big, mobile, ball playing lock, with a kicking game. An invaluable asset to any team. Our outside backs would reap rewards aplenty and oppositions would have another back foot inducing problem to deal with.
 
It's funny that we all seem to let our minds wander to the edges when it comes to areas we need to strengthen. In all honesty, we need to improve from wing to wing if we're going to do anything this year. In saying that, I thought I'd take a look at the stats.

Looking at where all sides conceded tries last year (left, middle and right sides) we can get a glimpse at how we stacked up against other clubs. Please bear in mind that according to the stats, if an opposition left side winger happened to burn us, and then ran around to score under the posts, that is still classed as a right side conceded try for us. (not a middle) Hope that makes sense.

So, our right side conceded 34% of tries scored against us last year (39 tries). For interest's sake, that put us equal with the sharks (also 34%) as the best right side defence in the NRL. All the other teams right sides were above 34%.

Our left side conceded 37% of tries scored against us last year (43 tries). Not too flash, but still better than the sharks, raiders, broncos, sea eagles, storm, knights, eels, rabbits, roosters and warriors left side defences.

Our middle was soft and let in 29% of tries scored against us (34 tries). When I say soft, I mean in comparison to other teams middles. We conceded the most tries through the middle than any other side in the comp. In equal second place were the cowboys, dolphins and dragons all on 25%.

Anyway, I'm sure that's all been fixed up over the off season. Lolopatamus! 🤞😊
 
Thanks Meno for those enlightening stats which point directly at our soft middles and 9's, and the pressure that applies to the other positions. Tino and RCG > Liu and Clark and in theory that will assist the middles but our 9's are the same, meaning Verrills and Randall need to step-up along with in particular Mo and JJ. 2025 should open doors for Hau, JAW and Pahulu if he plays.

Happy to be shouted down but arguably the transition from Yawnion to League is easier at halfback than the more specialist body-shaped positions. Especially for an elite athlete. Passing, kicking and game awareness are similar in both codes while defensive structures and more of a running game are the League skills to be mastered. I believe that CG should be weaned in via the 14 jersey around Week 4. By then the contentious AK, JC, Foz conundrum would have been exposed one way or another.
 
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Thanks Meno for those enlightening stats which point directly at our soft middles and 9's, and the pressure that applies to the other positions. Tino and RCG > Liu and Clark and in theory that will assist the middles but our 9's are the same, meaning Verrills and Randall need to step-up along with in particular Mo and JJ. 2025 should open doors for Hau, JAW and Pahulu if he plays.

Happy to be shouted down but arguably the transition from Yawnion to League is easier at halfback than the more specialist body-shaped positions. Especially for an elite athlete. Passing, kicking and game awareness are similar in both codes while defensive structures and more of a running game are the League skills to be mastered. I believe that CG should be weaned in via the 14 jersey around Week 4. By then the contentious AK, JC, Foz conundrum would have been exposed one way or another.
Not trying to shout you down at all mate, just wanted to share an opinion of a good mate I rate pretty highly in these matters lol.

I was having a couple of beers and enjoying some ripper yarns with Jason Hetherington the other day. Naturally, most talk centered around footy and I brought up my excitement about CG signing and progression. Jason's not so sure. He played union for Australia as a young bloke before league and reckons they are two completely different games/positions. I confess to knowing little about union. He reckons it'd be too difficult at NRL level. Of course, I brought up my Ricky Stuart argument to back my belief, to which he made a good (and stinging) point. He reminded me that Ricky walked into a pretty bloody good side at the raiders. The green machine. Remember some of the names in there?

We are not that. At least not yet.

I agree with you, T...Carter should be given the 14 until he really gets the game at NRL level. I also reckon he'd excel at 13. With the speed of the game and demands on the cardio side of things in regards to keeping up with play, our big boys knock up pretty quick. Would like to have Gordon and Randall out there when the big boys start to gas. I saw big RCG nearly pulling worms out of the ground sucking in the big ones last year! 😂

PS - Man I want Carter to kill it in the halves. It'd do us the world of good and Butch would owe me a carton of beer at the end of the year!!
 
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