RELEASED WTF? - viliame fifita and alec tuitavake

[Tragic Eagle]

Condon is a very good signing and gives us good depth. He is young and solid first grade forward and will keep improving. Boyle is on a minimum wage and is unlikely to be extended beyond this year. Fifita attracted a lot of attention with his performances during the trials and as a result his stocks rose and I expect his manager has been in his ear. Wouldn't be surprised if Tuitavake and Fifita have the same manager. They have a number of good forwards ahead of them at present so when another club starts waving more money at them with an opportunity of first grade sooner rather than they expect here that naturally is a big temptation. That's footy.

 

[Highflier]

Condon is a very good signing and gives us good depth. He is young and solid first grade forward and will keep improving. Boyle is on a minimum wage and is unlikely to be extended beyond this year. Fifita attracted a lot of attention with his performances during the trials and as a result his stocks rose and I expect his manager has been in his ear. Wouldn't be surprised if Tuitavake and Fifita have the same manager. They have a number of good forwards ahead of them at present so when another club starts waving more money at them with an opportunity of first grade sooner rather than they expect here that naturally is a big temptation. That's footy.

Very disappointed for us if true ,Fifi looked damaging in the trials and has been here awhile from what someone said. Also disappointed for him ,no quicker way to kill a career than go to that shytehole
Also unless the Goons have outlayed some foolish $ for him then not much we can do ,but I would like to think that we have someone else coming or a plan B, if we have just put our hands up that surprises me. On the sunny side I guess that means that we can upgrade GT to the top 30 for 2023 ?
And we also have one spare space for someonelse.
Anyways Go the Schu tonight and Go Manly !!!

 

[manly al]

Certainly must be a fairly open interpretation of anti tampering laws if Saints were making overtures to in particular Fifita who i understand still had some contractual arrangement for next season as well . in the practical sense and in regard to Fifita , obviously vying with Bully and Burbo for a bench spot or even eventually with Keppie , maybe would influence any promising player in the comp in similar circumstances but still would have been or could still be preferable to have him in the Manly system for at least this season and if even a moderate pay increase was manageable . No doubt will be indicated soon enough whether one or the both of them will be on the move

 

[patorick2010]

Best of luck to both of them.

Hope they do well.

 

[Bearfax]

Could this all be a salary cap issue where upgrades for some players such as Weekes, Samuela Fainu, Gordon Tong etc need to be retained

 

[winnyason]

Wonder if the players maybe were not up front with the club about the fact they were going to sign with Saints.
If Manly knew and didn't try to make a counter offer, then no fault.
But if they were off negotiating with Saints (totally legally) without telling Manly, that might throw a different light on all the close squad ties and community spirit everyone's been trumpeting for months.

Yeah I just wonder this too. If players where not honest and have club the option.

 

[winnyason]

Tuitavake I liked the look of and Fifita played well in the trial games this season, for me they both have the opportunities to demand selection with good performances in NSW cup.

There ain’t no easy way in getting selected unless injuries dictate it, both very promising players, but so was Sione Fainu who is at the Tigers and was released last season.

The forwards do look good this season, very hard to keep all of them and you can understand young blokes wanting chances to prove themselves, the Dragons though to join Suli would be way down tge scale on clubs to look at.

Does anyone know if Crown Sports International is their representation managers (Mario & Marcel Tartak), these guys have a large number of the squad on their books.

Yeah crown is them. We need to fairly careful as tartak is a grub to be honest.
I say this has alot to do with Hamuole upgrade being pushed for as well and yes he deserves.
This management group is a problem for our club.

 

[ElectricEagle]

Im guessing they had 4 - 5 players earmarked which they had to whittle down a bit. Damn I would have like to have kept Fifita, but Fainu was just a bees d!ck better. And Gordon was just awesome!

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

One plus if Fifita goes, should clear a path for Samuela a bit faster, he is the one tipped to be a really top player.

 

[nightster]

I would have preferred to release Oshay Olay and keep the two young Manly up and coming stars

 

[KaZa]

I would have preferred to release Oshay Olay and keep the two young Manly up and coming stars

Ofcourse... but the likes of Boyle Harper etc arent going to demand top dollar. So we let them go for minimum wage or 100-200k whatever they are on.. but Fifita may ask for 300k at the dragons and they could pay it. If each of our youth does that we just cant keep them all. Feledy got a big contract at the tigers apparantly. We just cant keep Koula and Weekes if we keep signing these youth players on big money and they want top 30 contract.

Its a hard balancing act. Especially Fifita who is 22 already. Why he hasnt debut already is the big issue. Dessie not wanting to play youth. Especially when the season was over or we have nothing to play for was bemusing.

 

[Stevo]

Could still move him into the 30. What’s your point?

The point is if they planned on doing that this year they probably already would have.

 

[Nordburg]

Take this with a grain of salt,but Rothfield is now saying Manly look like only releasing Tuitavake at this stage

 

[Woodsie]

Take this with a grain of salt,but Rothfield is now saying Manly look like only releasing Tuitavake at this stage

Jesus wept ... I hope so ... Fifita is the real thing .. need to get him to backflip..

 

[nightster]

Ofcourse... but the likes of Boyle Harper etc arent going to demand top dollar. So we let them go for minimum wage or 100-200k whatever they are on.. but Fifita may ask for 300k at the dragons and they could pay it. If each of our youth does that we just cant keep them all. Feledy got a big contract at the tigers apparantly. We just cant keep Koula and Weekes if we keep signing these youth players on big money and they want top 30 contract.

Its a hard balancing act. Especially Fifita who is 22 already. Why he hasnt debut already is the big issue. Dessie not wanting to play youth. Especially when the season was over or we have nothing to play for was bemusing.

Thats why I said Oshay Olay ... he is on big money

 

[ElectricEagle]

Maybe it's just a story/rumour that their management have cooked up to drive some interest in upgrading their current contracts

 

[KaZa]

Thats why I said Oshay Olay ... he is on big money

Yeah fair call. He had a good round 1 game. Happy to see how he plays under Seibold before releasing him

 

[ElectricEagle]

He plays fine when he's not injured (which isn't very often). He just shouldn't speak in front of cameras.

 

[Ben]

Take this with a grain of salt,but Rothfield is now saying Manly look like only releasing Tuitavake at this stage

Please be true!

 

[Not Paul Kent]

Please be true!

It depends on whether or not we can do something with the extra spots freed up in the squad for next year and beyond.

Realistically both those players wouldn’t feature in first grade unless there is a pretty severe injury crisis given where they are in the pecking order.

Why waste our time developing these guys in first grade for saints to take advantage of next season?

In saying that there’s no real weaknesses in the squad at the moment save a top shelf front rower or left centre (neither of which appear available).