https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZa_LicJ7p8
Played full back for Tonga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZa_LicJ7p8
Played full back for Tonga
It's difficult to tell what sort of player we're getting as he's been playing in an awful Bulldogs team where the backs get no decent ball. As can be seen in the clip Rommel posted he has good hands and a good step, he's also a good metre maker from kick returns and taking it in early in the set. From the limited time I've seen of him at full back he's not the best one on one defender but seems to do ok in the air. Not got the raw speed he had when he was younger anymore but still no slouch. I'll be interested to see whether he'd be playing full back or centre, presumably with Welsby taking the other slot, at least though with his ability to cover 1-5 we should still see plenty of Simm as first cover. It's very much a wait and see signing for me but he seems to be around the top of the options available.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
Think he’d go alright over here at centre and I wouldn’t be upset if we did sign him. Nice replacement for Naiqama but can also cover elsewhere.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
An upgrade on Naiqama from what I’ve seen of him
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Seems an astute signing as he and Welsby will take the full back and centre shirts, whichever way round that turns out to be. If Jack doesn't settle at FB then there's a solid back up solution
I feel Woolf will have Hopoate playing at full back, much more effective in that position and Welsby will take Kev’s centre position.
Pretty pleased overall with Hopoate, good runner of the ball, has a long and short passing game. Outside of the goal kicking it’s a decent replacement for Coote.
I hope to god this isn't true - absolute bl***y awful signing, right up there with the worst of the worst of all overseas signing we will have ever made.
We are seriously scraping the bottom of the NRL barrel if we put Hopoate in the Red V.
The guys garbage, even by the standards of the Bulldogs, and thats saying something given how poor they are as a team.
Saints fans will be wishing for Jack Owens back once they've seen Hopoate
good get him signed and onto a second row next
Think your mistaking the quality of the NRL to what we turf up over here. Coote should be your example of this, Cowboys were more than happy to get rid as were their fans and look what we got. Comparing Jack Owens is laughable, he’s a championship player at best who masqueraded as a SL player, Different all together .
Judging by previous posts I’m not sure Toppy would be happy with the current NSW team signing for us, so anyone else has no chance. Ignore the fact Dragons tried to sign him (and that we won out for the same reason HKR won out on Coote - offering 2 years vs 1), that Woolf will have worked with him over the years and know the player (like Paasi and Mata’utia, compared to Thompson who he hadn’t…) and we need a niche squad role of covering centre and fullback to ease Welbsy into the spine/ backup for if it doesn’t work out.
And if he does turn out to be awful, it’s up to Simm to keep him out of the side, like Bentley did Peyroux and so many youngsters before.
Have you actually watched Hopoate play over the last few years ? - he's been truly awful. The Dogs have been desperate to get over the SC issues so they can clear out the complete deadwood like Hopoate.
Maybe 5-6 years ago he was playing well, but for several years now he's been lazy, uninterested, and slower than your nan on one leg, just stealing a living in the NRL.
I try to get as much in as I can. I watched the Bulldogs game against the Roosters and most of the attacking play goes down Schoupp’s wing or through the middle. It’s hard to do anything in what is probably the weakest current NRL team on the end of a hiding most weeks.
That Luke Thompson looks turd also, shadow of his former self should we resign Ricky Bibby instead… tongue in cheek just trying to put my point into context
Why, he signed the likes of Owens, Howarth and Hohia & Perry from the NRL so has signed plenty of donkeys in the past. Hopoate will be right up there with the worst of them. No doubt those on here supporting this kind of signing will be the first ones moaning when he's utterly useless in the Red V.
Well its a "thumbs up" all round then.
On the Back foot looking for the front one.
…And for every Perry & Lance we have a Coote, Fairleigh or even Gidley for that matter. All apparent washed up Aussies, can’t run, bodies shot, coming for pay day Aussies. All proved doubters completely wrong. All comments made by Australian Fans & Journo’s about departing players.
Scroll back a couple of years to read the Saints sign Coote thread for all examples of this from our very own support. Not been bad has he?
It’s a thumbs up “in context” for me. He fits a really specific brief (I could even see him getting the 1 shirt next year and then the 3 shirt the year after) and beating another NRL club for his signature is no small feat in the current climate.
If he’s signed with Brierly and Cator it would be a downer, if he signs with Sao and Jones (and a knowles extension) it’s a really successful recruitment period in a difficult time.
Not from me it wasn't. If you read back I said at the time I thought he would be a good signing, not flashy like Barba but a cool head & steadying influence, which is exactly what he turned out to be. The only recent signing i've been proved completely wrong on has been Thompson, who's not played anywhere near the level he was in the NRL before he came here.
I've followed the Doggies for years after living in Aus and going to ANZ to watch them. Hopoate had a couple of really good years but other clubs wouldn't even look at him at that time because up until fairly recently he refused to play on a Sunday because of his Mormon religion. By the time he decided to start playing on a Sunday to boost his chances of getting another big NRL pay-day his form had dropped drastically and nobody else was interested. SL is his last resort.
The Hopoate of 5-6 years ago i'd gladly have taken to play in a Saints shirt, but now he's so far past his best he's just not worth having
Some of the opinions on here are way OTT.
He’s a very solid centre or full back. Great hands and rugby brain. At least on a Par with Naiqama.
Good option to interchange him with Welsby through the year.
Would be good to get Lachlan Lewis with him too. The dogs are dire and its hard to judge a lot of players there….
Who would you have gone for Saint Toppy? It's true what you say about Hopoate not being offered a new deal at the Bulldogs, but would you agree Saints needed to make a signing in the backs? KW knows his skill set from their work with the Tongan team.
He wasn't top of my list as you know, but a lot of the players I've suggested have been snapped up or re-signed. Milford doesn't want to come over either - https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...4af5dd6cace229
*Not to be confused with Mike Stephenson, MBE
If its true they've signed Hopoate for 2Yrs then surely they would have been better keeping Coote for 2Yrs. That would seem an awful piece of business by Saints of this was the case.
There aren't many decent FB's or Centre's out there at the moment but 'panic buying anyone' isn't the answer at all.
If the plan is to sign a centre then Esan Marsters at the Titans is I think a far better player than Hopoate and at 24 certainly still has a lot to give. He never really seems to have settled at the Titans so a move to SL could well see him regain his Test form from a couple of years ago.