Kevin naiqama : Thu Jul 21, 2022 6:50 pm  

Is a giant!
Fantastic experience - This will bring our youngsters on Excellent signing.

Re: Kevin naiqama : Thu Jul 21, 2022 11:42 pm  

Think that's a great signing. I know Watson wants to be like the Saints of now, but why has he got so many Saints that were, that's 5 now isn't it?

Re: Kevin naiqama : Fri Jul 22, 2022 10:03 am  

My only worry is, is he being signed to replace Leutele??

Re: Kevin naiqama : Fri Jul 22, 2022 10:47 am  

I agree with Welsh Giant I would rather have Ricky any day.

Re: Kevin naiqama : Fri Jul 22, 2022 12:41 pm  

On the full interview on giants TV. Watson has clearly stated this signing is not instead of leutele. They are still hoping leutele will sign although he has not as yet.

Re: Kevin naiqama : Fri Jul 22, 2022 1:03 pm  

As with any player of his age it is a real gamble, he will apparently be 34 when he starts so we are hoping he stays fit and playing at top level until 36, very very few players have achieved this. If it pays off AND we keep leutele we could have a real go next year. It does seem we are really going short term here and trying to win something in the next year or so, which makes it all the more disappointing we did not have the courage to try and win the cup final in the last 20, those opportunities come around so infrequently for a small club.

Re: Kevin naiqama : Fri Jul 22, 2022 6:56 pm  

Hangerman2 wrote:

As with any player of his age it is a real gamble, he will apparently be 34 when he starts so we are hoping he stays fit and playing at top level until 36, very very few players have achieved this. If it pays off AND we keep leutele we could have a real go next year. It does seem we are really going short term here and trying to win something in the next year or so, which makes it all the more disappointing we did not have the courage to try and win the cup final in the last 20, those opportunities come around so infrequently for a small club.

Especially if they have a small club mentality….

Re: Kevin naiqama : Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:18 pm  

Having a small club mentality is what cost us the cup final. Bottling it and trying not to lose instead of trying to win, almost as if we could not believe it was happening. We do have a very short term strategy at the moment with Niagama, Jerry, Cudjoe, McQueen, Hill, Leutele all 32+. I would really like to see some higher quality signings that were more for the mid to long term, look at what Warrington are doing in that regard at the moment. We have already lost one quality player (Wardle) because we persisted with Cudjoe in the centres. I agree he has had a really good year, but you really do have to have one eye on the future and it was pretty obvious that a player who was being selected for England was not going to hang around being back up for his own club.

Re: Kevin naiqama : Sat Jul 23, 2022 7:45 am  

Warrington are hardly signing youngsters other than their own already on the books. Dudson 32 Vaughan 31 McGuire 32, Kasiano 31 Matautia 31 Ratchford 34 (new 2 years deal). Dufty is young but has probably come over because he can't get an NRL contract.

Re: Kevin naiqama : Sat Jul 23, 2022 9:43 am  

Hangerman2 wrote:

Having a small club mentality is what cost us the cup final. Bottling it and trying not to lose instead of trying to win, almost as if we could not believe it was happening. We do have a very short term strategy at the moment with Niagama, Jerry, Cudjoe, McQueen, Hill, Leutele all 32+. I would really like to see some higher quality signings that were more for the mid to long term, look at what Warrington are doing in that regard at the moment. We have already lost one quality player (Wardle) because we persisted with Cudjoe in the centres. I agree he has had a really good year, but you really do have to have one eye on the future and it was pretty obvious that a player who was being selected for England was not going to hang around being back up for his own club.

Never in a million years would I have done the swap deal that sent Wardle to Wire, I'm still pretty angry at it now tbh.