2022 Squad, Signings and Rumours Thread

[Upthetits]

Sorry to change the subject HS, but if anyone wants to see a smartly coach team watch the titans vs cheifs NFL mini on kayo, just the first 2 quarters. They have the best RB potentially ever in the NFL. Big, strong, powerful and lighting fast. He reminds me of fifita.

The way they use him is so smart, I really hope next season the team is alot smarter with the way the use fifita. Personally I feel he isn't properly utilised as good as he could be

[Hail Sezer]

Much the same as this year, including Fifita off the bench.

Liu 13 or prop?

[willhelm]

Liu 13 or prop?

Wallace and Tino props, Liu 13, Mo off bench I guess. I like Liu as the reliable cleanup guy and Tino as an impact prop/hitman.

[Whats Doing]

Positive article from a Tino perspective

Brandon Smith Titans: Inside Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and David Fifita’s years-long sales pitch to woo Storm hooker

Fa’asuamaleaui and fellow marquee recruit David Fifita have run their own guerilla tag-team recruitment campaign to convince Smith to join their premiership nucleus on the Gold Coast.

TINO Fa’asuamaleaui has promised Brandon Smith’s off-field mistakes will not follow him to the Gold Coast should the Titans win the race for the off-contract Dally M hooker of the year.

Smith was fined $50,000 and suspended for one match after leaked video footage showed the Kiwi international partying with Storm teammates in a hotel room with an unidentified white powder after this year’s grand final.

Melbourne’s initial offer to retain Smith was more than $800,000 a season, so it will take even more to coax the 25-year-old away from Craig Bellamy and the Storm.

Fa’asuamaleaui said that Smith was worth the risk to secure a premiership-*calibre No.9 and complete the Titans’ spine from 2023.

They have been close friends since Fa’asuamaleaui first moved to Melbourne aged 17, when he slept under Smith’s roof.

“He’s like a brother to me,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.

“I haven’t looked too much into it (the incident) but that’s not the way Brandon is.

“I have faith if he came here we wouldn’t have any off-field drama. No way.

“It might have been in the past when boys come up here (to Gold Coast) and run amok but we’ve got a strong culture that we’re building here where the boys know not to get out of line.

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“If he did ever want to come here or any other club, his reason is to win pre*mierships and be a starting hooker.

“If we happen to get him one day, it would be pretty amazing."

Titans chief executive Steve Mitchell said the club would make a decision on whether Smith’s actions were an isolated incident or part of a broader pattern of behaviour at a monthly recruitment and retention committee meeting.

The Titans are keeping whatever conclusion they reached close to their chest, only days away from the launch of the NRL’s negotiation period on November 1.

Mitchell has said previously that the Titans’ recruitment strategy was based around bringing in high-character players who would make the community proud.

“Your behaviour and the way you perform on the field will engender that,” he said.

“That also has an obligation on how you act as a whole off the field, with your pushback in the community and the way you behave.”

Smith was sacked by the Cowboys in 2014 after being arrested for pushing a police officer at a Townsville house party, aged 16, only to re-sign with the club six months later.

Until September that had been Smith’s only off-field controversy.

n 2016, he was named the NRL’s under-20s hooker of the year and earned a place in the Junior Kiwis representative team under current Titans recruitment manager and then New Zealand assistant coach Ezra Howe.

Their paths crossed again in 2018 when Howe was again on the coaching staff as Smith made his senior international debut for New Zealand.

Fa’asuamaleaui and fellow marquee recruit David Fifita have run their own tag-team recruitment campaign to convince Smith to join the burgeoning premiership nucleus on the Gold Coast.

Fifita used his first press conference on the Gold Coast in 2019 to fan the flames, labelling Smith the NRL player he most wanted to join him at the Titans.

“Me and David have always made jokes to Brandon that we’ll hopefully have him here one day, like ‘I can’t wait to see you at our new house at the Gold Coast’,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.

“He’s such a good player and a character of the game. It would be exciting for him to come here and hopefully we can build some combinations between him and the other boys.

“We can’t really say too much when he’s not here but it would be special one day if he is.”

[Ausphin]

What do you guys anticipate the makeup of our pack and bench to look like next year? Middles in particular looks to be hotly contested

My thoughts-

Mo
Boyd / Clarke
Tino
Fifita
Fermor
Liu

Bench

Will Smith
Wallace
McIntyre
Lisone

Prefer Boyd at hooker, but either way that is a really young spine. Mind you i guess Penrith were in a similar boat a couple of years ago.

Really watched Liu after we signed him and he does so much clean up work and was also doing the link-up ball playing at 13 for Roosters when Radley was out.

I really like Joliffe but thought on the bench him and Wallace are too similar so went for Lisone for some impact. Joliffe, Proctor and Ese Ese for depth.

[hungryjacks]

Wallace will start every match for the first 20-25 and Lui will replace him as the link man.

[Titans83]

I really like how tino talks about trying to recruit his friends and constantly talks positively about the club. He said he would try to recruit Fifita and how they were mates.
The thing that tino and smith both have is a kamikaze style way of playing the game. It’s a very good quality and that fans love. It really does make players around them play better. I wonder if some of that rubbed off onto tino when they lived together. Not that Tino wouldn’t have had that heart already in his DNA.

[hungryjacks]

When discussing a middle rotation it's best to also include if they have a pass in them or not. Holbrook loves a forward on the field who can pass at the line. For next year the 3 who can achieve that are Wallace Lui and Lisone. The rest of our middles are hit up and tackle merchants. So what will be in the field and on the bench will be a mix of both. I doubt we will see Wallace and Lui on the field at the same time.

[willhelm]

When discussing a middle rotation it's best to also include if they have a pass in them or not. Holbrook loves a forward on the field who can pass at the line. For next year the 3 who can achieve that are Wallace Lui and Lisone. The rest of our middles are hit up and tackle merchants. So what will be in the field and on the bench will be a mix of both. I doubt we will see Wallace and Lui on the field at the same time.

Yeah maybe. I dunno if it’s the be all end all if we have two middles who can pass on the field at the same time. Liu would generally play 80 mins at lock or 50-60 at prop for the Roosters. I can’t see Wallace being only a 20-30 min player.

[hungryjacks]

Wallace will play a similar role as he did during the backend of this year, 25minutes at the start and about 18 minutes towards the end. Interested in actually knowing how many minutes he played per game as the season progressed because at the start of the season it seemed we left our forwards on the field for too long.

Ok so I looked it up and here are his minutes played and it literally seems ro be situation dependant on how quickly he returns to the field in the second half (btw I can't upload the image it says it's too large even tho it's only 250kb)

[JunctionBlock]

What do you guys anticipate the makeup of our pack and bench to look like next year? Middles in particular looks to be hotly contested

What I want

JWal
Clarke
Mofo
Fermor
McIntyre
Tino

Fifi
Jaimin
Lisone
super sub


What I'll get

JWal
Boyd
Mofo
Fermor
Proctor
Tino

Fifi
Liu
Lisone
Super Sub

But if it meant I never have to watch Sami in a Titans jersey again I'd happily watch Fermor in the centres to allow for some more forwards that are just as deserving to get a spot.

I watched Liu toward the end of last season and thought he was about as impressive as Herman when we watched him leaving Newcastle.

[willhelm]

I suspect you're not looking at the right things if you have such a poor opinion of Liu, JB

[JunctionBlock]

I suspect you're not looking at the right things if you have such a poor opinion of Liu, JB

Must be...

[psmitty]

How much do we think will be the magic $$ figure to lure Brandon Smith up here?

[Hail Sezer]

How much do we think will be the magic $$ figure to lure Brandon Smith up here?

900-1mil I reckon