Official Luke Thompson Signs for 2021

[kungfuman]

WE DID IT.

Now let's see if he lives up to the hype, everyone in England seems so impressed by him but from the limited time I've seen of him he looked to be nothing out of the ordinary. This is still something to finally lift my feeling about the club.

Well fuck if you think hes nothing out of the ordinary we must have got him cheap !

 

[bradyk]

At the end of the day it's not hugely important to me who we beat for his signature, just that we got it. I'd prefer to let the more negative crew dwell on the rumored signatures we lost out on. In reality some of the players that people think we may not have signed amid the medias quest to make 2,000,000 mentions of our war chest are players we mighht not have even been chasing. And while some may see it as a failure if we didn't chase every single player they think would have been ideal despite a few of them having personal issues, being dickheads and trouble off the field etc, I personally don't. To me the best teams tend to have squads that don't bring a huge amount of drama with them to training to distract those around them. I look at the final year that Barba was here and have heard enough stories about some internal division that he bought to the club and think that our huge slide from our last GF appearance had a little bit to do with the fact that some of the more level heads got the shits that the old board would let someone get away with that kind of thing.

I see in our current squad a tightly knit unit that has had some of the ego knocked out of them and some egos who have departed. To me part of that was the departures of guys like Klemmer, Mbye and Lichaa who all seemed a bit self centred in my opinion. I really hope that over the next few years we see a our squad develop into a wolf pack of sorts. Where no individual within the squad feels like they're individually responsible for the good performances, but exclude themselves from the responsibility for the shit ones.Time alone will show us whether the club is following the right path in potentially steering clear of talented drama queens to focus on having a team that seems unified, if not quite as packed with individual talent. But As I said in a previous post, I really like the feeling that our roster is starting to look like they value the man next to them on game day.

It's important to see how we stack up against the other NRL clubs in regards to attracting talent. This situation isn't all clear tho as the Rabbitohs signed Arrow and the Titans signed Tino a while ago now (I would of preferred both of them as players as they're more proven). Saying that it's still a good signing (depending on the $ but we don't know so can't really use that). I'm not going to get carried away tho and act like it's a marquee signing when it isn't. It's a good start but I don't think it's going to have that much of an impact regarding other top NRL players wanting to play with us.

We should at least be having conversations with every player which is how you determine if they fit what we're looking for (as a player, person and money). We also can't always say something bad about a player we've missed out on to justify him not joining us (that is where fans are being tricked by "Bulldogs DNA"). Napa one of our own for e.g. said the the media and what people were saying about Latrell isn't true (literally nothing wrong with testing your worth on the market either).

 

[CrittaMagic69]

Well fuck if you think hes nothing out of the ordinary we must have got him cheap !

Cool story.

 

[Straight to the point]

The doggies seems to be All about the forwards. I know it seems positive signing but it’s a signing where we are not lacking players. So I am not overally excited to be honest.

 

[AucklandDog]

Great signing.

Well done to the club and recruitment team

 

[TwinTurbo]

It's important to see how we stack up against the other NRL clubs in regards to attracting talent. This situation isn't all clear tho as the Rabbitohs signed Arrow and the Titans signed Tino a while ago now (I would of preferred both of them as players as they're more proven). Saying that it's still a good signing (depending on the $ but we don't know so can't really use that). I'm not going to get carried away tho and act like it's a marquee signing when it isn't. It's a good start but I don't think it's going to have that much of an impact regarding other top NRL players wanting to play with us.

We should at least be having conversations with every player which is how you determine if they fit what we're looking for (as a player, person and money). We also can't always say something bad about a player we've missed out on to justify him not joining us (that is where fans are being tricked by "Bulldogs DNA"). Napa one of our own for e.g. said the the media and what people were saying about Latrell isn't true (literally nothing wrong with testing your worth on the market either).

IMHO Thompson is "a marquee signing" as far as forwards go, he has already proven to be amongst the best in the ESL (many would say THE best) and now he wants to challenge himself and see if he can do the same in the NRL. That's an attitude I really like in a player, in fact anyone who isn't happy just being a standout in a limited competition. Competitions are not won by teams with average props.

Best of all we now have 2 x RANGAS in the front row (has to be some madness there).

Go Dogs

 

[Spoonman84]

The doggies seems to be All about the forwards. I know it seems positive signing but it’s a signing where we are not lacking players. So I am not overally excited to be honest.

We definitely needed another prop especially with Tolman not contracted after 2020. In saying that we don’t need anymore money spent on forwards for a while now.

 

[wendog33]

https://www.facebook.com/115347125148593/posts/3243998088950132/

 

[bradyk]

IMHO Thompson is "a marquee signing" as far as forwards go, he has already proven to be amongst the best in the ESL (many would say THE best) and now he wants to challenge himself and see if he can do the same in the NRL. That's an attitude I really like in a player, in fact anyone who isn't happy just being a standout in a limited competition. Competitions are not won by teams with average props.

Best of all we now have 2 x RANGAS in the front row (has to be some madness there).

Go Dogs

and if RFM and Toomaga grow their afro's back we'll have that off the bench.

 

[TwinTurbo]

The doggies seems to be All about the forwards. I know it seems positive signing but it’s a signing where we are not lacking players. So I am not overally excited to be honest.

Tolman has at best 1 to 2 more years, with the latter likely to be at reduced minutes. That's IF he gets resigned. We need a long minutes replacement and Ogden has displayed a distinct lack of mobility, particularly lateral movement, and no ability to play long minutes. RFM seems to be injury prone, not a quality we would want in our big minutes forward. A rotation with Napa, Thompson, To'omaga and Ogden for impact minutes looks pretty good to me. Plus Thompson is only 24 so most likely hasn't hit his peak as a prop as yet and, before he carries the heavy load, a year of NRL experience won't hurt either.

Go Dogs

 

[DinkumDog]

Tolman has at best 1 to 2 more years, with the latter likely to be at reduced minutes. That's IF he gets resigned. We need a long minutes replacement and Ogden has displayed a distinct lack of mobility, particularly lateral movement, and no ability to play long minutes. RFM seems to be injury prone, not a quality we would want in our big minutes forward. A rotation with Napa, Thompson, To'omaga and Ogden for impact minutes looks pretty good to me. Plus Thompson is only 24 so most likely hasn't hit his peak as a prop as yet and, before he carries the heavy load, a year of NRL experience won't hurt either.

Go Dogs

I'd agree that I wouldn't rule out Tolman being extended on a short deal for forward depth off the bench. If retained his role would be significantly different but it's not out of the question.
I've never been a hater - he's been one of our hardest working for years (many times playing 80min) and is a great club man to mentor some of the younger fellas coming through.
It possibly depends on whether he wants to chase a longer deal and bigger pay cheque in England to close out his career - or also who the club might be able to nab for 2021.

 

[bradyk]

I'd agree that I wouldn't rule out Tolman being extended on a short deal for forward depth off the bench. If retained his role would be significantly different but it's not out of the question.
I've never been a hater - he's been one of our hardest working for years (many times playing 80min) and is a great club man to mentor some of the younger fellas coming through.
It possibly depends on whether he wants to chase a longer deal and bigger pay cheque in England to close out his career - or also who the club might be able to nab for 2021.

It's hard to see what Tolman offers off the bench. He is one of the worst forwards in the final third due to his play style and where his strengths are. I feel like he's massively wasted not starting if he's in the 17 (just no impact in a short period of time). The biggest + for me is his leadership and just being around while we're rebuilding. I still prefer him over Napa personally (Napa would be better off the bench too). If they both give me 50 minutes I prefer Tolman, if they both give me 30 minutes I prefer Napa if that makes sense.

 

[DinkumDog]

It's hard to see what Tolman offers off the bench. He is one of the worst forwards in the final third due to his play style and where his strengths are. I feel like he's massively wasted not starting if he's in the 17 (just no impact in a short period of time). The biggest + for me is his leadership and just being around while we're rebuilding.

Hard to see him being in the 17 beyond this year - unless you bench Napa?
And yes, I agree re: leadership etc.
Decent chance however that he'll seek a 3 year deal in England to close out his career and I wouldn't blame him.

 

[bradyk]

Hard to see him being in the 17 beyond this year - unless you bench Napa?
And yes, I agree re: leadership etc.
Decent chance however that he'll seek a 3 year deal in England to close out his career and I wouldn't blame him.

It'll just depend if he's willing to relocate from Australia or leave him family behind for a couple of years. If so I think he'll go.

 

[David holland]

Hooker has to be a priority and the club has recognized this with the pursuit of Api last season,Cameron mc innes has to be the man,his a bulldog type of player who would slip in easily

 

[CrittaMagic69]

We definitely needed another prop especially with Tolman not contracted after 2020. In saying that we don’t need anymore money spent on forwards for a while now.

Our starting pack should be sorted but our bench is questionable at this stage, not really keen on seeing Elliott, Smith and Britt filling those roles, all basically the same sort of player.

 

[Spoonman84]

Hooker has to be a priority and the club has recognized this with the pursuit of Api last season,Cameron mc innes has to be the man,his a bulldog type of player who would slip in easily

McInnes is a hard worker and puts his body on the line but he totally lacks the attacking play you need from a hooker these days.

 

[David holland]

Aiden tolman won't be a bulldog in 2021,

 

[David holland]

Number 1 priority for 21

 

[bradyk]

Hooker has to be a priority and the club has recognized this with the pursuit of Api last season,Cameron mc innes has to be the man,his a bulldog type of player who would slip in easily

McInnes would be massive. He Literally stands for what we're trying to build. Maybe Dragons will have some cap issues and we'll be able to get him one year early (It'd have to be an offer he can't refuse and Dragons can't match). That'd be the dream. He is their captain now tho. It's a shame we missed out on Koroisau he'd of been great for us. Now as payback we just pray he has injury issues (even tho he's in my Fantasy team...)