Three-year deal for Tigers duo
The Cronulla Sharks have confirmed the signings of West Tigers pair Chris Heighington and Beau Ryan on three-year NRL contracts.
England international Heighington’s departure ends a nine-year association with the joint-venture NRL club, while Ryan is exiting after five seasons.
“Both add to what we are trying to build here at the Sharks,” said coach Shane Flanagan on Tuesday.
“They are quality players and are quality people.
“Beau had a great season last year, he’s a try scorer and I see his best footy in front on him.
“With Chris, he played for England last year, brings experience and compliments the other players we have in our back row such as Paul Gallen, Wade Graham and Luke Lewis.”
Well done Sharks but the real question for the Tigers is whether Benji is leaving because of 3rd party payments not being met in his contract. Gasnier left St. George Illawarra for the same reason. Phil Rothfield wrote that the Dragons were chasing him hard. Highly doubt that Benji would leave the Tigers but who knows.
@Dr. Dragon: Beau doesn’t anymore.
Ha, ha…good one.
Happy to see Ryan at the Sharks but as for Heighington, I would have preferred it if Flanno had thrown the cash towards keeping Frizell.
Who will get done first for salary cap breaches?
Storm, Bullgrubs or Sharks.
awesome work champ!! good to see you writing the same thing every week…… hating those three teams, the finals next year will suck for you
Your just a jealous, stupid, and ignorant low life parramatta supporter. Funny how your team pays ordinary players millions of dollars to come to parra and get fat. Great recruitment lol. your the biggest dickhead on this site. Go have a cry u baby.
@ Dr. Dragon….. who on earth would want to come to the Dragons and play or be coached under Steve Price?! lol Benji is not that stupid let alone a park footballer, until that F..wit Doust comes up with another bell ringer (i.e getting Mr Bennet) no player will come to the Dragons, we will be in for another couple of tough years. Fancy our CEO (Oust Doust) replacing Bennet with our waterboy bahahahahaha!!
Well that’s exactly the problem isn’t it? Any Dragons fan would have a hard time disagreeing with you on that one.
I think our assistant (Steve Folks) would even be better than Price but time will tell.
Go for Dymock
@Dr. Dragon. To my suprise there are a few people on the V Bulliton site (rleague.com) who sound happy with the Price is not right, they think he did a reasonable job this year and think he could have a future as our first grade coach. lol One even gave him a 7 out of 10 for this year. I asked him what he would give Hasler and Bellamy, but didn’t get a reply. I think I gave Price a 3 out of 10 and that was being generous.
Red v, Agree 100% we are in trouble no doubt, doust albert and price should be in the line at centerlink..! Tigers having a go at saints now I’ve heard it all..!
Ih8cheatingbullgrubs the arlc and the salary cap auditor will decide that until then why don’t you take your hatred and conspiracy theories to a site that cares what you think.
I*8DICKHEADSTHATPOSTTHESAMESHIT>>> give it a rest buddy, im pretty sure the NRL have some sound procedures for salary cap audits by now,….
Ha Sharks signing nuffies who needs them theyre deadwood. We already have Utai and Tuqiri. More solid and consistent players. Utai, Tuqiri, Lawrence, Woods, Moltzen and Maqrshall are heart and sould of the team. If we didnt have Tuqiri or Utai there would be no soul or mongrel in the backrow.
Sharks are soft anyway full of soft players and Gallen so overated and his a softie Sharks are the mot ovearted. Tigers and Titans underated. Robbed by refs and injuries we were.
correct me if im wrong, they finished in the top 8 …. and the Tigers – >?
Hahahaha at least we beat you in 2005. Sweet victory and we flogged you 22-12 this year. Typical Dragqueen chokers. Dragons were the biggest underperformers of 2012. Failed toi live up to expectations
dude, you need to pay attantion to the subject in the forum… PS, you still finished behind us in the NRL for 2012, oh and we knocked you out in 2010 – good luck next year… well not you anyway, just the Tigers.
Hahahaha at least we beat you in 2010. Sweet victory.
Most people would agree that Wests Tigers were the biggest underperformers of 2012. Now you were the ones who failed to live up to expectations. lol You did start the year as premiership favourites, But failed to make the 8. lol Tigers the biggest underperformers in the last decade. lol
How many times have you failed to make the 8 in the last 10 years? What 7 times. So failure is normal for you guys. lol
Hopefully we will take Benji off your hands, call it karma for last years Molzen backflip. That would reallly piss you off now wouldn’t it. lol
You should have quit while you were behind. You still are behind and next year is looking pretty bad for you guys now. Not that it is looking too good for us at the momment either. But if we get Benji and possibly Matt Scott, things could be looking better for us.
How about Farrah possibly going to Parra? lol
@DS…. i was just warming up, but as usual u nailed him to a tree… LMAO
bahaha tiger jungle how can you call the dragons under performers the tigers were comp favorites at the start of the year…. i think you under preformed a little dont you? go cry to your mum you absolute Muppet!
how long have you been lost in the jungle for? dont seem to know shit all about footy. The heart and soul of the tigers are the players from the 05 season. All thats left now is benji and farah? moltzen is sh*# and tuquiri is being paid 400k to sit on the sidelines
they where your best all year you fool. the tigers for the spoon.
are you stupid. you know nothing about the nrl
Matt utai and lote tuquiri are past it
Upset tiger, I will shout you a beer if saints get benji, it’s the least I can do
that!
Yes the Titans are so underrated, I agree
Mate I heard from a very good source that benji hasn’t been Paid up to 5 months of 3rd party agreements he has given the tigers untill the end of the week or he will be tacking up a 4 year deal at the dragons worth 770,000 a year guys I don’t spin shit so take it as fact if he goes to the chokers I will not renew my family’s membership
There’s definitely something big going on. Maybe the Tigers are cleaning out so they can cover for the 3rd party payments within their salary cap instead of it being outside the cap. Maybe all the rumpled about Benji & Robbie are true. It sure is good theatre to keep us interested in the off-season.
*rumours, not rumpled*
I would like us to sign Marshall. But I do have big wraps on Kyle Stanley and they are both 5/8s. Yes Marshall can play halfback, but he is more suited to 5/8, with a classic style of halfback who can steer the team around the padock and who is technically good, like in the Scott Prince or Cronk mould. That kind of halfback allows Marshall the freedom to be spontanious and do his add lib flamboyance. But if we are prepared to pay him 770K a season, then why didn’t we go the 800K a season for Cronk? Then we would have had a top halfback to play with Kyle in the future. Cronk would have made Jamie Coward obsolete as he has a strong kicing game. You take away Coward’s kicking game and he basically has got nothing.
We should have gone the 800K for Cronk and built a team around him, with Rein at hooker and Kyle 5/8. Cronk is a classic halfback and is very consistent and he makes very few errors. Mashall has a lot of flair, but makes a few errors and can be inconsistent. But I would still like us to sign Marshall.
Tiger jun u are a Goose
the tigers could line-up like this if Benji and Farah leave as well: Tedesco, Tuqiri, Reddy, Lawrence, Utai, Sironen, Moltzen, Woods, Iosefa, Galloway, Anasta, Blair, Fulton bench: Murdoch- Masila, Pettybourne, Bell, Thompson
tigers are screwed next year
The thing i cant deal with is when players are at a club the fans love them and they are the greatest players in the world but then they leave and suddenly they are shit and were never good players
No Adzynero, they are still good players, the problem is the D#%K heads that post rubbish like some above in this forum cant handle the fact that quality players move on….
Thats exactly what i mean there was a comment earlier saying that beau ryan and heighington are deadwood players or whatever he said its stupid… Isaac de gois left my team but hes still one of my favourite players.. Just because a player leaves your club doesnt mean there. Ot good anymore its just ignorance
Beau already knows Gibbs, Fafita and Heighington at Cronulla.
Tiger jungle you are the biggest dickhead on this site. Deadest u got no idea. Do everyone a favour and **** off.
Flanno. here’s my number so call me benji
the nrl should let the sharks sign cooper and sbw now so they can finally win a comp
sbw will not not win a comp he will be lucky to make a year before he runs away again. and cooper bahahah he cant tackle.
The one problem Flannagan has is blending all the new players into a team. Gordon only wants to play fullback; Lewis spits the dummy very quickly; Ryan is a good winger but likes the limelight; Wright drifts infield and loses the plot. I really do hope the Sharks can get it together but I feel sorry for some of their juniors who will miss out on chances in first grade. A champion team will beat a team of champions.
I agree Chalkie. I’m really upset that the Sharks haven’t given a fair go to some of their junior talent like Townsend, Peachie and Mills.
I’m also gutted that Friz is leaving – and then they sign Lewis for 400k? WTF. But it seems like Friz and his camp made a good decision in getting him out of there. What opportunities are left for young blokes at the Sharkies??
Townsend will be 7 next year. Peachey has maaaaaasive attitude problems and Mills was chronically injured this season.
The Sharkies are definately a team on the rise. Id be surprised if they dont make the top 4 next year.
Apart from merchandise and ticket aspeect aka bums on seats Why would any club sign SBW given you can’t trust him, track record with injuries and the fact he wants to risk further injury to his hands by boxing as well as playing in the NRL. Shoudlnt SBW’s top priority be his league career at what ever club he plays for in 2013
Sonny Bill is the chosen one, special, the big kahuna, the numero uno, just ask him. Do what I say or I’m gone. Don’t slam the door on the way out SB.
Chalkie dunno what you think but I believe its about time NRL clubs leave SBW where he truly wants to be and that is out of NRL forever. Time to move on
The reason a club would sign Sonny Bill is because he is one of the best players to ever play the game. One of the best running games a backrower has ever had, offloads, pace or a back, one of the hardest hitters, ability to make one on one strips, he is inspirational, he has the most complete game of a back rower I have ever seen. He is a matchwinner.
He and young Brad Clyde are the 2 best backrowers I have ever seen in 30 years of watching footy closely.
How many back rower do they want
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I couldn’t have said it any better.
the shark’s are definately going place’s and that’s good to see and is healthy for the sport, how is stmerge doing?maybe they should do another merger ? it seems that the nrl run your club it didn’t run my club did it?”"never say die”" wow how times have changed a bit like the chooks envy souths now.