After 192 games for the Wests Tigers, David Nofoaluma has been released by the club.
Nofoaluma's deal was till the end of the 2025 season, but he has accepted a buy-out of $300,000. I'd be interested to know the impact that will have on the cap and whether it applies to this season, or whether the Tigers can spread that across the two seasons as they see fit.
This felt like it'd been months in the making, if not years. Nofoaluma made some really interesting comments when he was at Melbourne and you got the sense that if he could, he would stay there. It all came to ahead recently when he had been handed a sanction for missing training and Nofoaluma felt he was being unfairly targeted. Then there was a recent sanction where he complained about having gastro but couldn't get a doctor's certificate to verify the claim.
There hasn't been any suggestion that he's headed to Melbourne. Unless he was happy to play reserve grade, I'm not sure if they could fit him in with Coates, Warbrick and Meaney all fighting for spots on the wing. There's a few clubs that could certainly use him - Warriors, Knights and Eels come to mind straight away.
It also leaves the Tigers short going into 2025. Wing is one of those developmental positions, so there's always plenty of turn-over but clubs often take the position for granted so you don't want to be caught short. They're already set to lose Junior Tupou for 2025 so you'd have to expect some movement in that position.
They could always move a Starfield To'a or Brent Naden over to the wing, but a move like this suggests to me they have somebody coming through that they're excited about. It may not be 2024, but in 2025 they might have another exciting outside back and keeping a 30+ year old winger around just wasn't seen as the best move going forward.
Currently, their other two options include the 28-year old Rugby convert Solomon Alaimalo and the St George Illawarra reserve grade winger Alex Lobb. Of the two, Lobb would be the more likely option considering he's just 22 and has that NSW Cup experience behind him. Lobb would have to take his game to another level if he was going to make a career out of this. He's one of those prospects that deserved a look in but outside of his size (196cm) he hasn't really stood out.