North Queensland have landed a massive coup, luring Luciano Leilua away from Wests Tigers on a three-year NRL deal from 2023.
In a big-money deal to be worth up to $2.2 million over the life of the contract, the Cowboys have confirmed that Leilua will join Jason Taumalolo in their back row.
North Queensland’s acquisition will give them a proper X-factor on the edge, as they fight to return to the finals for the first time since 2017.
The Cowboys had attempted to line up powerful Penrith second-rower Viliame Kikau on similar money, before he went to Canterbury.
At this stage no agreement has been reached for Leilua to follow his brother Joey out of the Tigers early and start with North Queensland in 2022.
“We’ve always been steadfast on our desire to add more experience to our forward pack, particularly in the edge back row position,” Cowboys general manager of football Micheal Luck said.
“Luciano is developing into an 80-minute backrower and he has some tools in his kit bag that not a lot of other players possess. He’s a threat with the footy and he can create for others through his passing, offloading and his ability to break the line.
“We believe he will add a significant point of difference to our attack and will be difficult for opposition defences to plan against.
“We’re also excited about the lessons Luciano can teach our young forwards through his experiences during the early years of his NRL career.”
It’s believed the Tigers weren’t willing to match the money the Cowboys were offering.
The club addressed Leilua’s departure on Thursday.
“Since his arrival, Luciano has made a strong contribution to Wests Tigers, and we have no doubt that he is firmly committed to delivering his best football with the club in 2022,” a statement read.
Just last week the Tigers picked up Isaiah Papali’i for $1.8 million over three years, or around $100,000 a season less than what Leilua was offered by the Cowboys.
But it comes in the same week they missed out on Josh Hodgson’s signature, after failing to come to an agreement with Canberra for an early release.
Again, the Tigers took the safe option with their money, refusing to budge on how much of Hodgson’s contract for next year they would cover.
The joint venture still have three spaces and more than $1 million in their cap left for next season, having long viewed 2022 as the year they get their cap back in order.
Rob
Guest
I’m trying to understand your rebuttal and I do believe many stats are flawed. Hindmarsh 2nd and 3rd man flop registers a tackle? I’ll use Tupounia as an example because he played an equally amount of games 24 and you probably watched him more intently? 626 and missed 88. Leilua made 616 and missed 58. I’m thinking the defending around Tupounia was responsible. Is Tupounia a bad defender? Leilua also carried the football for over 1000 metres more so 1 suspect his fatigue was higher than Tupounia. I get what you say about stats. Hess had Drinkwater, Masters, Feldt having to jam in and also slow lazy forwards like McGuire and Taumalolo switching off on the inside. Everyone says he’s hopeless defensively but Hess is a great one on one defender if he is allowed to commit to a tackle. Unfortunately he is ordinary running around grabbing and trying to cover up others missing there man IMO. He’d be a different defender with Morris on his outside I believe.
mushi
Roar Guru
As to the knowledge of the game. So you are telling me you can make tackles if your opponent isn't near you. Talk me through that technique. Or it's never seemed odd to you that the converted halves now playing hooker are some of the best defensive weapons in the game and better than the man mountains either side of them? As I said it indicates they attack that edge. Now that could be weakness on the players around them too. There's no way to tell using the stat. Which is why it's a rubbish stat
mushi
Roar Guru
Let's look at the stat first. It seems a widely held view that possession is roughly a positive stat (it's not a good/great one) aren't tackles just the opposite. Tackles are a count of your opponents possession. So team makes more tackles very generally = bad. But in your mind if a player makes more tackles = good. So if you had the 13 "best" defenders on the park...and in your view the attacking team doesn't play any role in who makes those tackles: You'd make more tackles than any other team per game.. which is bad. You've taken an inconclusive to negative team stat but then hung your hat on it being positive when apportioned out which makes no sense. Hence tackles at an individual are a rubbish stat.
Greg
Roar Pro
The POPE score is a measurement of performance that Arcturan Mega Dragon first wrote about in this article: https://www.theroar.com.au/2021/10/17/of-bryan-fletcher-pythagoras-and-the-pope-measuring-the-value-of-nrl-players/ but has since wrote a couple more articles based around this. He didnt show his actual formula for it (not sure if he would/should share his intellectual property in any case) so i cant tell you what Leilua's score was. Theoretically it is not dissimilar to a fantasy or supercoach score but i believe far more detailed. It is also different in how it attributes its value. E.g. creating a try is valued higher than scoring a try whereas the opposite is true of fantasy sports. Perhaps he may see this comment and let us know where Leilua ranks in terms of 2nd Row scores? But, funnily enough he did have Capewell in his over-rated team of the year.
Rob
Guest
So what’s the Pope score? He hasn’t missed a game in 2 years. Leilua ran 1000 metres more than Tupounia and Capewell, and also made a similar amount of tackles but missed half as many. He broke way more tackles but I suppose he was doing far more work carrying the football.
Rob
Guest
LOL.” More tackles means the opponent ran your way more often”. According to that garbage Capewell, Crichton, Tupounia, Liam Martin and M.Barnett are the worst back rowers defenders in the comp. I guess you know a lot about rugby league?
Nat
Roar Guru
There would be a riot in the north.
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
I’m guessing that an italicised parasite is even worse than your regular old parasite :shocked: I could’ve been a capitalised parasite too. Thank (your) God that wasn’t the case! Your school work experience in Ultimo - this would be more on-topic stuff - your insider intell conclusion being: watch Sky. They’ll save you all the effort & tell u what to think. Cool slogan, huh? Mr IT/Bus academic.
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
Sorry: or “personal insult.”
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
— COMMENT DELETED —
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
From the super spy to Soviet sabotage to washtubs on a mission (yet in reality floating aimlessly at sea) to JFK..what wonderful imagery, TB. I never quite grasped existentialism…but I think your post may well have nailed it. Huh-larious!!!
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
Do you know how many times you’ve said all that before? Many times. Show me some evidence of my grammatical corrections, Latin aside. You deserved that. Actually, I do remember one post I made to you, in your defence. You referred to a “wide birth” & I responded that that sounded particularly painful. It was just banter though.
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
Incidentally, I couldn’t give a rat’s ar&e what you are waiting for.
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
Oh, you mean like on-topic repeated accounts of your opera singing?
The Barry
Roar Guru
All I’m doing is banter…
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Given that you are the queen of personal attacks, I make no apology to you. You deserve none. It would be the simplest thing in the world for you to just ignore me and post your own on topic thoughts on these forums. But you don't. No thoughts, just venom, vengeance and vitriolic attacks in lieu of an actual original idea and relevant contribution to this or any forum. I'm still waiting for you to make one comment on this forum that is on topic and not about me in any way. Yet you keep coming up short time and again.
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
Is calling me a parasite multiple times a personal insult/ personal attack? Or was that a rationalised personal opinion? You are the absolute embodiment of hypocrisy & I’m starting to believe you can’t see that…making me seriously questioning your sanity. The first time you labelled me so, I hadn’t even posted. You took offence to me ‘liking’ someone’s post. Sensitive, much? I’ll leave that with you while you take that “on the chin”.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
You have lived off my comments for years. Virtually all your posts are a direct criticism of me. You have no engagement with the game or real understanding of the sport. Just like in the days of Zero Tackle when your major contribution was to belittle people but picking up their spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. You live off the mistakes, controversy and ideas of others. You have nothing to offer other than the venom of vitriol. Hence, you are a parasite.
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
Yes! What a victim you are. And your whole team. Your reliance on Murdochisms to deliver an apparent insult simply proves that your vocabulary is highly limited. I’d much rather be “woke” (your “personal attack” actually doesn’t offend me - I’m not nearly as fragile as you) than be rightly accused of frantically & idiotically regurgitating the uneducated redneck unsubstantiated garbage that you feed on coz you are incapable of thinking for yourself.