2023 Signings Grades

HarVeeGee13

HarVeeGee13

Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
I think we have enough info now to make a call on our new boys.

C is a pass, A is a big success, a master stroke, F is a fail, B and D obviously the in betweens.

Greg Marzhew: A. The pick of the bunch so far. Finally living up to his huge potential - at the Titans his defence, ball security and kick receptions were so bad he was unplayable despite how good he is in yardage. For us he’s been super reliable and I dread to think how bad we’d be in yardage without him. Signing of the season so far.

Tyson Gamble: B. Signed as cheap, reliable halves depth/utility. Can’t say he hasn’t done his job. Wish we had a better option at 6 but he goes okay while we try to find that player, and overall you’d have to say he’s outperformed his small contract.

Jackson Hastings: C. We needed an experienced, genuine 7 to get us around the park and get us into our attacking structures. He gives us that - we’re scoring more points despite being way worse in yardage and having less field position than last year. It would be a B but he’s earning good money and he’s pretty much just doing his job, and also the heavy cost of signing him in giving up our most reliable and hard working prop.

Adam Elliott: C. We wanted a ball playing 13 who’s a genuine middle forward. He gives us that. Has been dealing with obvious fitness issues but is gradually getting his legs back under him and providing some value. But yeah can only go a C because he’s basically just doing what he was signed on good money to do, it’s not like he then turned into Cameron Murray, so its not really a master stroke.

Lachlan Miller: D. Did look good at the start of the season, but this is really starting to look like a blunder, particularly given that middle forwards are a weakness at the club and we gave up a junior Origin rep to get him. He does show potential but his headless chook playing style and bizarre errors cause way more problems than he fixes with his tackle breaking and effort.

Jack Hetherington: F. A true “what was the club thinking?” signing. Seems to have no motor at all and couldn’t knock the head off a beer despite his reputation. I know he missed pre-season, but how could he not have improved his fitness base by now? Really hope there’s another club we can dump him on.

Dane Aukafolau: Okay, there’s one new signing we haven’t seen enough to judge. Has looked to have potential in NSW Cup.
 
Marzhew - A+++, been a powerhouse and fixed up his errors and defence a lot compared to what was shown at the Titans.

Gamble - D, showed what he has always been. A reserve grader that is a passion merchant and can come up with the odd good play mixed in with 5 brain dead plays.

Hastings - C-, same as above. A reserve grade standard half that can tackle and do some on field talking. Has a horrible short and long kicking game and is at best a 50/50 chance of coming up with the right play/option.

Elliott - D, started on the back foot with the injury and hasn’t recovered. Willing to give him a second chance next season with a full offseason under his belt. Showed quality last year after signing for the Knights.

Miller - D, started off great with his running game which was masking his big flaws for a fullback that were evident in the past. Running game dried up and his flaws were magnified.

Hetherington - F, another passion merchant that just isn’t first grade standard. Tries hard but doesn’t have it at NRL level and is prone to brain explosions.

Overall - D
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I think we have enough info now to make a call on our new boys.

C is a pass, A is a big success, a master stroke, F is a fail, B and D obviously the in betweens.

Greg Marzhew: A. The pick of the bunch so far. Finally living up to his huge potential - at the Titans his defence, ball security and kick receptions were so bad he was unplayable despite how good he is in yardage. For us he’s been super reliable and I dread to think how bad we’d be in yardage without him. Signing of the season so far.

Tyson Gamble: B. Signed as cheap, reliable halves depth/utility. Can’t say he hasn’t done his job. Wish we had a better option at 6 but he goes okay while we try to find that player, and overall you’d have to say he’s outperformed his small contract.

Jackson Hastings: C. We needed an experienced, genuine 7 to get us around the park and get us into our attacking structures. He gives us that - we’re scoring more points despite being way worse in yardage and having less field position than last year. It would be a B but he’s earning good money and he’s pretty much just doing his job, and also the heavy cost of signing him in giving up our most reliable and hard working prop.

Adam Elliott: C. We wanted a ball playing 13 who’s a genuine middle forward. He gives us that. Has been dealing with obvious fitness issues but is gradually getting his legs back under him and providing some value. But yeah can only go a C because he’s basically just doing what he was signed on good money to do, it’s not like he then turned into Cameron Murray, so its not really a master stroke.

Lachlan Miller: D. Did look good at the start of the season, but this is really starting to look like a blunder, particularly given that middle forwards are a weakness at the club and we gave up a junior Origin rep to get him. He does show potential but his headless chook playing style and bizarre errors cause way more problems than he fixes with his tackle breaking and effort.

Jack Hetherington: F. A true “what was the club thinking?” signing. Seems to have no motor at all and couldn’t knock the head off a beer despite his reputation. I know he missed pre-season, but how could he not have improved his fitness base by now? Really hope there’s another club we can dump him on.

Dane Aukafolau: Okay, there’s one new signing we haven’t seen enough to judge. Has looked to have potential in NSW Cup.
Click to expand...
I'm sure Barry Toohey mentioned last week that a unknown club offered Jack Hetherington a deal to leave the Knights 6 months into his deal here to go elsewhere. Marzhew definitely our best signing this year.
 
Elliott would have to be a D- at best, ballplaying element is now helping our attacking structure a lot more after a very slow start but his carries have been largely poor.

Defensively the bloke has been straight up horrific in 90% of the games so far, tackling has been extremely ineffective and the linespeed he had at Canberra has descended into myth now. When we have the Safs we need extra mobile middles to mop up their lack of mobility around the ruck and help turn 2-3 man tackles into dominant ones, Elliott has provided none of the above and rather created an extra ineffective tackle liability in the middle. Combine this with a constantly gassed Crossland due to his insane rotation protocol and you've created our woeful middle which loses the ruck every single game.
 
cowboyman said:
Marzhew - A+++, been a powerhouse and fixed up his errors and defence a lot compared to what was shown at the Titans.

Gamble - D, showed what he has always been. A reserve grader that is a passion merchant and can come up with the odd good play mixed in with 5 brain dead plays.

Hastings - C-, same as above. A reserve grade standard half that can tackle and do some on field talking. Has a horrible short and long kicking game and is at best a 50/50 chance of coming up with the right play/option.

Elliott - D, started on the back foot with the injury and hasn’t recovered. Willing to give him a second chance next season with a full offseason under his belt. Showed quality last year after signing for the Knights.

Miller - D, started off great with his running game which was masking his big flaws for a fullback that were evident in the past. Running game dried up and his flaws were magnified.

Hetherington - F, another passion merchant that just isn’t first grade standard. Tries hard but doesn’t have it at NRL level and is prone to brain explosions.

Overall - D
Click to expand...
You know I disagree on Hastings, and I think a lot of the eyes up play he showed to improve a genuinely awful Tigers side has been coached out of him and he’s just a game plan robot at the moment, but hard to disagree too much on the rest.

I certainly don’t think Gamble is very good, but he was supposed to be depth and isn’t getting paid much, so I’m not gonna mark him harshly for not being a regular starting calibre half.
 
Greg Marzhew - A

The rest are reserve grade standard.

* Elliot - on the peripheral of first grade in a side challenging for a premiership.

* Hetho - a recruitment horror show given the money he is on he is nothing short of a thief.

* Recruitment Officer Rating - F-

Edit - Hastings is a pass, I think playing behind a powder puff pack doesnt help his game
 
Hastings is what he is. Needs to be balanced with another dangerous running player like KP. Obviously guys with KP’s combination of acceleration, tackle breaking and ball skills don’t exactly grow on trees, but this I think was the logic with Miller.

Would have been nice to be ahead of the curve on the decision to move KP to 6, which would have allowed us to compete in the Hammer sweepstakes, but that’s not really how we do things. We make decisions late and then frantically try to recruit to justify them.

We pretty desperately need Will Pryce to pan out I think, especially considering I’ve heard he’s on pretty fair money…
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
would have allowed us to compete in the Hammer sweepstakes, but that’s not really how we do things. We make decisions late and then frantically try to recruit to justify them.
Click to expand...
Reactive management vs Proactive. A great frustration from a club that is a multi-million dollar business, it's not good enough from whoever is running the show.
 
Cooper Jenkins is 3 cm taller, 3 kg heavier and has a similar build to Hetherington. He is also 6 years younger and earning about 450k less.
I don't think we'd notice much difference if we dropped Jenkins in for the 20 or 30 minutes that Hetherington plays.
 
There's something seriously wrong, if it's true we sign Herthingion at 500K. What the hell is going on with this guy? For that price, he should be making a minimum 10 hit-ups a game, and be playing 60mins. He adds sweet FA to a forward pack.
 
Has it ever been reported that we paid $500k for Hethrington?

Someone said something about his player option at the Dogs, but they could be paying part of his wage. Also the Dogg's probably told him they didn't want him and maybe he just wanted a longer term deal for security.
 
krustykraz said:
Has it ever been reported that we paid $500k for Hethrington?

Someone said something about his player option at the Dogs, but they could be paying part of his wage. Also the Dogg's probably told him they didn't want him and maybe he just wanted a longer term deal for security.
Click to expand...
I read it is 550K per season we pay him, but who really knows.

If it is above minimum Hetho is bending the club over big time.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I think we have enough info now to make a call on our new boys.

C is a pass, A is a big success, a master stroke, F is a fail, B and D obviously the in betweens.

Greg Marzhew: A. The pick of the bunch so far. Finally living up to his huge potential - at the Titans his defence, ball security and kick receptions were so bad he was unplayable despite how good he is in yardage. For us he’s been super reliable and I dread to think how bad we’d be in yardage without him. Signing of the season so far.

Tyson Gamble: B. Signed as cheap, reliable halves depth/utility. Can’t say he hasn’t done his job. Wish we had a better option at 6 but he goes okay while we try to find that player, and overall you’d have to say he’s outperformed his small contract.

Jackson Hastings: C. We needed an experienced, genuine 7 to get us around the park and get us into our attacking structures. He gives us that - we’re scoring more points despite being way worse in yardage and having less field position than last year. It would be a B but he’s earning good money and he’s pretty much just doing his job, and also the heavy cost of signing him in giving up our most reliable and hard working prop.

Adam Elliott: C. We wanted a ball playing 13 who’s a genuine middle forward. He gives us that. Has been dealing with obvious fitness issues but is gradually getting his legs back under him and providing some value. But yeah can only go a C because he’s basically just doing what he was signed on good money to do, it’s not like he then turned into Cameron Murray, so its not really a master stroke.

Lachlan Miller: D. Did look good at the start of the season, but this is really starting to look like a blunder, particularly given that middle forwards are a weakness at the club and we gave up a junior Origin rep to get him. He does show potential but his headless chook playing style and bizarre errors cause way more problems than he fixes with his tackle breaking and effort.

Jack Hetherington: F. A true “what was the club thinking?” signing. Seems to have no motor at all and couldn’t knock the head off a beer despite his reputation. I know he missed pre-season, but how could he not have improved his fitness base by now? Really hope there’s another club we can dump him on.

Dane Aukafolau: Okay, there’s one new signing we haven’t seen enough to judge. Has looked to have potential in NSW Cup.
Click to expand...
Looking at it again at the end of the season:

Greg Marzhew: Still an A. One of our most valuable this year. Might quibble about whether we needed to extend him but I’m gonna assume he didn’t ask for *that* much more money and the club bit his hand off to get an extra cheap year of his prime. A key plank if we’re to open up a premiership window while he’s here.

Tyson Gamble: Gotta be an A at this point. Has looked more composed and more important to the team as the year has gone on. Legitimately a starting calibre five-eighth, on peanuts, which will allow us to invest in a strong pack to play behind and elite backs for him to pass to.

Jackson Hastings: Bumping up to a B. I think he’s a better and more valuable player than either of the two above, I think he’s so central to why we attack so well atm & he understood what the coaching staff wanted before anyone else, but at about $600K/season he’s not an insane masterstroke/bargain like the two above. I honestly wouldn’t trade his contract for that of any other halfback atm though.

Adam Elliott: Also a B for mine now. Like Jackson, I reckon he’s outperforming his contract, just not by as massive an amount as Greg and Tyson. Now at full fitness, he’s by my estimation the 6th best lock in the comp. I’d have Murray, Yeo, Carrigan, Harris and Cotter ahead of him (not listed in any particular order), with Adzy fighting it out with Tom Gilbert for 6th. For about half a million bucks a year, hard not to be really happy with him, and his ball playing gives us that sort of extra dimension in attack those teams above get from their star 13’s.

Lachlan Miller: Still a D. It didn’t work out but he had a few good performances which contributed to early season wins. Best of luck at Leeds.

Jack Hetherington: I’d go a D now. He’s got his legs back under him and I do think, while his motor isn’t the best, he does have some impact while he’s out there with his hard running and aggressive defence. If he gets sin binned or sent in a finals game I’m downgrading him to F again.

Fa’amanu Brown: I’m pretty sure we’re paying him $0 this season, whole salary covered by the Dogs. For that reason, his grade is INFINITY, because even if he provided $1 worth of value that’s still infinity % more than 0. Anyway I reckon the dude can play and I’d be happy if we kept him on.

Dane Aukafolau: Same same.
 
Last edited:
With Tyson signed for another year only I am not saying he will go for huge dollars on the open market but surely he deserves an upgrade and an extra year? $350k a year for 2 years?

I know we have Cogger and the English fella coming but surely Tyson is a must keep especially with Mann going, would make a good 14 again worst case scenerio.
 
Grandpa Joe - Prev Lord said:
With Tyson signed for another year only I am not saying he will go for huge dollars on the open market but surely he deserves an upgrade and an extra year? $350k a year for 2 years?

I know we have Cogger and the English fella coming but surely Tyson is a must keep especially with Mann going, would make a good 14 again worst case scenerio.
Click to expand...
I would absolutely do that. His team has the most tries scored in the comp. He has to be doing something right. The one question mark I had over him was how good he could be over a whole season, as a guy who previously stood out as a “come in and bring some energy for a few games” guy, and he’s answered that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top