Highlanders 2024
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TUJ did his ACL? Didn't see that... will be it for him and the Highlanders sadly. I think as a short-term thing, M Whaanga the likely pickup, unless they look at Grindlay from Taranaki if he doesn't have a contract. Still think they were looking at him as more of a 13.
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@Chris Haha yes, I was being satire. Would be quite the midfield for the Highlanders though...
Umaga-Jensen and Timu both perennially injured, one of whom will miss nearly the whole year, and the other who will be coming in off about 7 months out. Add in Te Hiwi, who has spent a lot of time on the sidelines in his brief career to this point, and Ennor, who has done his ACL at least three times, and you might as well rent out an entire hospital!
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@Canes4life said in Highlanders 2024:
@frugby Ennor isn’t going to the Highlanders.
I’ve got a family member that sees Razor almost daily down at Sumner beach and he confirmed that Ennor going to the Landers was definitely news to him.
We all know... It is fun to joke though. We are just a bit short of midfielders at the moment. Even five months out from the season.
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@SouthernMann slim pickings around the traps really. I wonder if PUJ would be enticed down there, not sure if he’s signed up yet. The other Hurricanes player going to Moana Pasifika could be him though.
Young Kyle Brown from Manawatu could be an option. He’s playing well this season in an up and down Manawatu side.
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We might just have to bite the bullet and sign Josh Whaanga earlier than expected.
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Grindley from Taranaki looks pretty decent as another option.
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@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2024:
We might just have to bite the bullet and sign Josh Whaanga earlier than expected.
Whaanga will be in and around it when injuries strike, but as I already touched upon, with the injury record of our current midfielders, I don't want to end up putting a ton of pressure on a 19/20 year old, who himself had a few injuries whilst at school. Matt will be injury cover if he isn't going to MLR, it is whether we sign a Grindley, or a Walden, or a Brown, or a whoever as a TUJ replacement.
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sign him up....literally just want someone that can stay fit
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@Kiwiwomble Fine is a good Petone boy. If you sign him up you may aswell go for someone like Losi Filipo who's been pretty effective for Wellington on the wing, plus he can play 12/13 aswell.
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@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2024:
sign him up....literally just want someone that can stay fit
Have you not learnt anything from watching the likes of Gregory, Paea, Timu etc. These NPC trundlers are ineffective at Super Rugby level.
How many tries has he scored for Southland.
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@Canes4life said in Highlanders 2024:
@Kiwiwomble Fine is a good Petone boy. If you sign him up you may aswell go for someone like Losi Filipo who's been pretty effective for Wellington on the wing, plus he can play 12/13 aswell.
Not sure we should be looking at someone unwanted by the Canes... not to mention his patchy off-field history.
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@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2024:
@frugby .....i literally made the comment about someone that manages to stay fit...it was a commentary on how injury prone some "good" players are....i wasn't serious about signing him
Haha, sorry for some reason I thought you actually wanted us to go for him. I think with the way we have overhauled our things off the field, we'll find someone decent to fill the TUJ void.
If the Chiefs are all full up, I think they'll look at a Grindlay, I don't think the new strategy is as simple as signing guys from the region... it is more centred around younger players, and within that holding onto local talent/players who have come through our pathways. A player like Matt Whaanga is probably someone they are happy to call in if Josh Timu gets injured in April, but with TUJ injured for so long so early, I suspect they'll take the chance to find the best young player without a Super Rugby contract... ala Reece to the Crusaders in 2019.
Is that Grindlay? Is it a guy like a Murray or Tito-Harris, where we use it as an opportunist chance to take the best unsigned outside back?
Looking in recent times, off the top of my head, Tu'inukuafe, Bower, Vaa'i (In region), Reece, & Roigard are all guys who have been signed as injury replacements, largely to teams not in their NPC region and have gone on to be All Blacks. On top of this, there are guys like Rona, Gilbert, Renton and Eklund who went to teams in other regions as injury replacements and have become good SR performers. The way the contracting is done so early these days, a late injury like this give you the chance to sign a gem, because I'd be guessing all the teams have at least 36, if not 38 players already signed up, by the time the NPC is a couple of rounds in. Let's see if the Landers can take what could be a blessing in disguise.
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And more than anything, it is important we have the right idea. We grabbed Tima Fainga'anuku when someone got injured before the season had even started in 2020, and it didn't quite work out, but it was the right idea. I think in the predicament we are in, I'd rather see us take a risk, then go for a M Whaanga or a Walden type. Even going for J Whaanga, I think there is no harm in bringing in someone else from somewhere for a year to see if they are any good, because on the basis we haven't seemingly signed PUJ (You'd think it would have already been announced), the midfield will still need some serious work for 2025.
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And with Fine, if we are taking a Southland winger, where we have no space, it'd have to be Michael Manson.
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@SouthernMann once again....wasn't serious about signing him
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@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2024:
And with Fine, if we are taking a Southland winger, where we have no space, it'd have to be Michael Manson.
Yep, and would fit into our culture of signing players who get injured every two seconds. Hamstrings made of string that boy.
