https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=971 ... 7168214109 Thought it deserved it's own thread.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=971 ... 7168214109 Thought it deserved it's own thread.

This from the Trin website... https://wakefieldtrinity.com/player-sig ... gana-2024/

This from the Trin website... https://wakefieldtrinity.com/player-sig ... gana-2024/

They moved really quickly to get him. Great work.

That middle unit is looking really strong now

That finishes off the props now. They look quite good and very strong though we have yet to see Bain and Vagana.

Promptly exploited the new visa ruling to capture hopefully a real crowd pleaser, well done Trin

When does anyone remember Trinity to be quick off the mark to exploit any kind signings, we always trailed in last. It often worked but it is nice to be at the front for once.

We were quick with Sean Long. Alas hindsight suggests we shouldn't have been.

I'm really pleased with the recruitment so far.

He’s obviously been highlighted for a while as a player of interest, so nice to see a young enthusiastic player coming over to hopefully take his career to another level. With it been 2 years they obviously see him as a player of SL quality too. Looking forward to seeing him in action.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P_0TX9gri ... e=youtu.be Short highlight of him in action. Looks a big lad

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P_0TX9gri ... e=youtu.be Short highlight of him in action. Looks a big lad

Yes we certainly seem to have assembled a rip roaring big young pack. Some very exciting young signings and i am really looking forward to seeing them develop

This is different. This is being ahead of the curve. It’s a new rule and a good one for clubs like us. To implement it in days shows how on the ball we now are.

Whether this player works out who knows but it looks like we got the first pick.

Some stats for Isaiah Vagana https://www.warriors.kiwi/teams/nsw-cup ... ah-vagana/ And Caleb Uele https://www.nswrl.com.au/players/nsw-cu ... aleb-uele/

Some stats for Isaiah Vagana https://www.warriors.kiwi/teams/nsw-cup ... ah-vagana/ And Caleb Uele https://www.nswrl.com.au/players/nsw-cu ... aleb-uele/

I know we got to see a bit of Caleb at boxing day but you can tell from what we saw hopefully he's gonna develop as the year goes on, into a no-nonsense meter eater. Just looking at both their stats, at least on paper they're very similar. They play around 40 to over 50 minutes a game, with an average of 85 meters per game.
Caleb looks like he could have some big Bopper in him with 53 tackle breaks, and 836 post-contact meters, at a 7.3 m average hit-up. Both have defensive percentages in the 90's and they've both been used as starting Props to interchange.
They're both big boys that are only gonna potentially get bigger, better, and more experienced. Isiah from the video looks a little more athletic and has some pace, so hopefully we'll get to see him develop nicely over here. When you think how many seasons they've got till they hit their primes, hopefully, all the hard work by Steve and DP will have worked wonders.

Caleb didn’t do much for me on Boxing Day but that doesn’t mean much. It was actually Boothroyd who impressed me, he looked like one of those all action players that do really well with us, reminded me of Dean Hadley in style. Reckon he might be a hanfull once the season gets going.

Yeah, same here, thought Caleb looked a bit flabby tbh


Liked the look of Betty though

Agree with Boothroyd, looked a real handful to deal with.

I said that when he first came on, but I actually thought he ran it in with conviction. Get him match fit and I reckon we've a good one there.

Agree on Boothroyd, looked willing to put himself about.

I don’t know much about Isaiah… but the dynasty is strong…
agree Boothroyd looked OK …I thought Uele looked a bit lost in the structure… not sure how long he had been in the squad before Boxing Day …

If I remember rightly he'd only been here 2 weeks, so it's not that much of a surprise he wasn't up with some of the others but imo there was enough there that once he was fully match fit he'd make some serious meters in the Championship as you say.
My main point though was comparing the 2 new props with the stats that got posted, since apart from that boxing day runout and some highlights we don't know that much about either. It was a bit of a surprise even though they play differently they had surprisingly similar stats across the board, obviously you can only take so much out of them but they were both pretty impressive.
Agree with Boothroyd, wasn't looking out for him at first but there's no doubt he caught my eye. I don't know how long he'd been in the Country at that point but he was fit and ready to go. Looking forward to seeing Bain and Vagana hopefully in one of these warm-ups before the season starts and then we'll really know what kind of pack we've got on our hands.

Yep I think Caleb was the last to arrive which is why I didn’t said it didn’t mean much.

I think there is a belief that all Aussie RL players are these supercharged highly trained full time athletes - they are not.

Outside of the top flight they have jobs and train when they can. The club training is not FT and probably on a par with somewhere like Dewsbury. It’s certainly not what they will get with us which is basically SL.

I’m guessing Boothroyd may be different in that he was until recently part of the Aussie equivalent of a FT Academy? If so I think it showed in his fitness and eagerness.

Caleb and Bain have been playing part time footy and good though it is, it’s not SL standard. Fitness is down to the player mainly and some train and live better than others. Both will benefit hugely from a FT environment. I expect Vagane to be the same and I expect them to hit form at the Galway point of the season.

Exactly what happened with Atoni.

It'll be interesting to see where Vagana plays. From the very short YouTube clip I've seen he looks to have the athleticism of a second rower.

Currently for the 'middle' positions we've already got Atoni, Bowden, Bain, Cozza Uele, Shaw and rumours of one more coming in shortly. Wouldn't be surprised to see him used in the second row at some point.

He will play prop I expect. He played all but 1 of his games this season in that position.

Cozza played 13 Boxing Day and has a good pair of hands so I fully expect he will play 13.

Bain can play prop or 13 too. He could interchange with Cozza.

Just need someone now who can cover fullback and the centres.

I thought the same on what little I have seen admittedly. Looks quite athletic on the 6 hit ups I have seen. With a bit of coaching could be a nightmare to defend against playing on an edge.

This could be where the Wigan link comes into play short term. I would be surprised if Hampshire doesn't play a few games for us this term if we have a problem in the halves or fullback.