Steep

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Still has a learning curve...

[Teddy]

The kid is doing his job, which at this stage is as previous posters have said off the ball, defence, work rate and carrying the ball late in the tackle count.
Slow burn he will come good.

[Chook2]

Right now he's a lock who should be taking 3rd and 4th play carries as he has brillaint footwork, a good swerve and decent offloading ability. His value to the team currently though is his workrate in defence and the quality of that work. If we want to bring Leniu and Losalu/Va'a/Seve off the bench then you've got to balance that with some workrate in defence.

Long term you've got Radley, Foketi and Steep all competing for the lock position so depending on how Steep grows into his body he may end up in the front row.

The way Watsons going there is a good chance he will be playing 13 next year as they can’t leave him off the field
rads 14
so that leaves 2 x butcher, steep,l and Foketi all fighting for one or two positions
all similar players

at the moment with one decent front rower until Collins or Leniu find form it will keep pressure on Whyte every week to be our man! And if he gets injured we are limited for mtr options

[Chook2]

Steep's work off the ball and defence has been exceptional for a 19yo just starting off his first grade career.

If it was reversed and Steep was as good in attack as he has been in defence everyone would be raving about him and his deficiencies in defence would be overlooked or put down to something that could be worked through.

Appreciate the sentiment but as it stands I think Steep offers us good balance off the bench. He will build his game in attack over the next few years but until we have more bodies available I suspect Steep will continue to be selected especially now Nat has gone down. This is the attack bias we can all be guilty of even though we all know statistics show defence wins premierships.

At 19yo Whyte was a second rower in the NSW Cup struggling in contact. Last night he was the most powerful ball carrier on the field.

The latter not so much directed at you as I appreciate your post is not putting a cap on his development and you've been proportionate in your critique but I can see where this thread is going to go..

As a smaller forward you have to be exceptional work rate off the ball as you don’t have size to match! Any smaller player has exceptional work rate as that’s what keeps them in a spot as they are smaller then other forward and now many backs

[BTRD]

His defense against Brisbane (rd 6) was very good.

Happy to give him more time.

We need some ' ready to go ' front rowers now.

[Rooster_6]

The way Watsons going there is a good chance he will be playing 13 next year as they can’t leave him off the field
rads 14
so that leaves 2 x butcher, steep,l and Foketi all fighting for one or two positions
all similar players

at the moment with one decent front rower until Collins or Leniu find form it will keep pressure on Whyte every week to be our man! And if he gets injured we are limited for mtr options

Yeh I completely forgot about Watson because he's just been so good as an out and out dummy half I don't even think of him as a lock forward anymore, ironically after campaigning on here for the last 3yrs for everyone to stop looking at him as a dummy half because he's more of a lock forward.

But yes you are right Watson is going to have to pick up minutes at lock next season once Robson is in the team. I'd guess 30-40 at lock and 20 or so at dummy half which makes the lock conundrum a really interesting one. But more of an issue from next year onwards than for this season.

[Bates]

The way Watsons going there is a good chance he will be playing 13 next year as they can’t leave him off the field
rads 14
so that leaves 2 x butcher, steep,l and Foketi all fighting for one or two positions
all similar players

at the moment with one decent front rower until Collins or Leniu find form it will keep pressure on Whyte every week to be our man! And if he gets injured we are limited for mtr options

Watson is fast becoming too valuable to play 14. He can and should play 80 minutes and Lock potentially could be his best position next season. Savala potentially could be our 14 if he bulks up which would give us another kicking option when he's on the field.

[MKCS]

Watson is fast becoming too valuable to play 14. He can and should play 80 minutes and Lock potentially could be his best position next season. Savala potentially could be our 14 if he bulks up which would give us another kicking option when he's on the field.

It's a tough one because every year the utility position becomes more and more valuable and you wouldn't want someone young and inexperienced at it like Hugo but I also agree that Watson is too good to not play the majority of a game.

[Rooster90]

Steep won't get better by playing in NSW Cup, he is beyond that level.

Leave the kid in firsts, the current crop of kids coming through reminds me of 2007 when we debuted the likes of Pearce, Aubbo, Cords & Friend

[Rocky Rhodes]

Steep puts me to sleep, better than counting sheep.

He is currently plod...imagine offloading a gun like Sitili for this plod and waste of a bench spot.

Only a tard like Trobbo could do it.

[Insider]

Boyd was playing 12 yr 0lds when he was 9, 15 year olds when he was 12, first grade country footy playing grown men and ex nrl veterans when he was 15. Agrade bush footy is no picnic for a kid and he killed it.He had a tough run with injuries early on with us, but overcame that and killed it with us. Steep has a long way to go yet, but i think he will turn into a very good forward with us. He will fill out a bit yet which will help his game.

[BraveTheWorld]

Absolutely the least of our issues.