Oliver Gildart to join Jackson Hastings at West Tigers.

[Manfred Mann]

Announced on Sky by the ace Australian reporter Jenna. 

The source is West Tigers Twitter account.

[DavidM]

Brilliant multitasking by Jenna . 

[Mr Frisky]

Well, as many on here tell us he's just an average SL player- but as we all know as soon as he steps on that NRL grass........

 

[Curly perm]

Good luck to him but can’t help feeling he’s on a hiding to nothing joining Wests. They’ve been average at their very best for years and no finals appearances for 15.

Had a lot of very good players on their books who couldn’t do anything there but went on to much better things elsewhere. 

[Scubby]

5 minutes ago, Curly perm said:

Good luck to him but can’t help feeling he’s on a hiding to nothing joining Wests. They’ve been average at their very best for years and no finals appearances for 15.

Had a lot of very good players on their books who couldn’t do anything there but went on to much better things elsewhere. 

To be fair the the lad he has probably been getting unders at Wigan for years and this gives him 2 years at more than double his wages. If he wants to follow the well trodden path back to Wigan after that it is up to him. Good luck - it is a short career.

[THE RED ROOSTER]

36 minutes ago, DavidM said:

Brilliant multitasking by Jenna . 

Absolutely she is the pearl of the SKY broadcasting team.

Good luck to Oliver Gildart in testing his skills against the best. Might have been recommended by Jackson Hastings and Michael Maguire as an ex-Wigan coach would have had his contacts at the club who could vouch for Oliver Gildart on and off the field.

[Curly perm]

3 minutes ago, Scubby said:

To be fair the the lad he has probably been getting unders at Wigan for years and this gives him 2 years at more than double his wages. If he wants to follow the well trodden path back to Wigan after that it is up to him. Good luck - it is a short career.

Oh yeah, I agree. I’m coming only from a playing perspective and being ‘successful’. I hope he does well (as I do all the British players that go over), I just think it’s stacked against him in that sense because of the club. 

[Scubby]

1 minute ago, Curly perm said:

Oh yeah, I agree. I’m coming only from a playing perspective and being ‘successful’. I hope he does well (as I do all the British players that go over), I just think it’s stacked against him in that sense because of the club. 

It's hard to define what being successful would be. Ryan Hall was there at one of the high flying NRL clubs and basically sat in the stands for 2 years. Had he been at a Wests or Cowboys he may have made a name for himself through his strong carries. Gildart could be on a hiding to nothing or he could be part of a team that gets into the play offs for the first time in a decade or whatever it is.

[Harry Stottle]

16 minutes ago, Scubby said:

To be fair the the lad he has probably been getting unders at Wigan for years and this gives him 2 years at more than double his wages. If he wants to follow the well trodden path back to Wigan after that it is up to him. Good luck - it is a short career.

That's a bloody long path to tred Scubby.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, Manfred Mann said:

Announced on Sky by the ace Australian reporter Jenna. 

The source is West Tigers Twitter account.

Hopefully he'll be a success and another pom to follow in the NRL for us

Hope he gets an Aussie bird over there and settles though..... It would be embarrassing if another one cried off home early 

[Curly perm]

29 minutes ago, Scubby said:

It's hard to define what being successful would be. Ryan Hall was there at one of the high flying NRL clubs and basically sat in the stands for 2 years. Had he been at a Wests or Cowboys he may have made a name for himself through his strong carries. Gildart could be on a hiding to nothing or he could be part of a team that gets into the play offs for the first time in a decade or whatever it is.

I’m not really talking about him being at a top 4 team, it’s more about Wests themselves.

He’s joining a team who constantly lose their best / up-and-coming players, sign average and underperforming players to high salaries, 2018 they have one of the best young halfbacks in the league and 2yrs later he’s suddenly no good and they need to offload. It’s difficult to perform well there but who knows, fingers crossed. 

[Mr Frisky]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Hopefully he'll be a success and another pom to follow in the NRL for us

Hope he gets an Aussie bird over there and settles though..... It would be embarrassing if another one cried off home early 

Yep we don't want an English version of Greg Eastwood, Trent Merrin etc etc

[Manfred Mann]

3 hours ago, Curly perm said:

Good luck to him but can’t help feeling he’s on a hiding to nothing joining Wests. They’ve been average at their very best for years and no finals appearances for 15.

Had a lot of very good players on their books who couldn’t do anything there but went on to much better things elsewhere. 

Part of the problem has been the lack of a consistently good set of halves. Luke Brooks is the embodiment of that problem. Another example is Josh Reynolds, whose inconsistent form at West Tigers has now been exported to Hull FC.

Hopefully Jackson Hastings will reverse this situation, and inject his talents in such a way as to inspire the rest of the team. In those circumstances Oliver Gildart will be part of a reasonably successful team.

[JohnM]

8 hours ago, Mr Frisky said:

Yep we don't want an English version of Greg Eastwood, Trent Merrin etc etc

What about what about what about..... 

I trust the cub and agent involved have addressed the issues that resulted in the premature return of Williams, Bateman and others. Surely Gildart can stick it two years. I wish him the best. 

 

[ELBOWSEYE]

2 hours ago, JohnM said:

What about what about what about..... 

I trust the cub and agent involved have addressed the issues that resulted in the premature return of Williams, Bateman and others. Surely Gildart can stick it two years. I wish him the best. 

 

Have you checked how long they have rented/sorted accommodation for 1 or 2 years?. Maybe a 1year with a another just in case.

[Rupert Prince]

3 hours ago, JohnM said:

What about what about what about..... 

I trust the cub and agent involved have addressed the issues that resulted in the premature return of Williams, Bateman and others. Surely Gildart can stick it two years. I wish him the best. 

Hopefully he will be taking his mother in law.

Have to say I fail to see the charm in all these blokes going to the NRL, for what is some marginal extra money.  Aussie society is inferior to our own.  Our spiders are more benign, our bush fires less rampant and their newspapers and polititians far worse.  And as far as I can see their women far more crass... admittedly I am out of date with what goes on in "Neighbours".

And to top it all if you want a day trip, all you can do is go to New Zealand... if it's open.

[Davo5]

13 hours ago, Curly perm said:

Good luck to him but can’t help feeling he’s on a hiding to nothing joining Wests. They’ve been average at their very best for years and no finals appearances for 15.

Had a lot of very good players on their books who couldn’t do anything there but went on to much better things elsewhere. 

15 yrs ?

[Curly perm]

1 hour ago, Davo5 said:

15 yrs ?

I guessed but it’s a while though 

[Davo5]

23 minutes ago, Curly perm said:

I guessed but it’s a while though 

They had some Grand Final near misses when Gareth Ellis was there,2009-2011 but they fell away after the sacking of Tim Sheens.

[Futtocks]

11 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

They had some Grand Final near misses when Gareth Ellis was there,2009-2011 but they fell away after the sacking of Tim Sheens.

Wests made some recent positional changes, and things are improved from the start of the season. They are still a distance away from being contenders, but maybe a corner has been turned.

Still not sure about Mbye, but Brooks has looked much more effective in the last two rounds. Moving Doueihi from the halves to the centres gives them three creative players in attack.