Will we have the youngest team in the comp next year?

[Guest]

Martin Kennedy is like Cusack alot, solid workhorse.

Myles and Warea-Hargreaves are a tonne like Morley, hard runners, hard hitters, plenty of hitups and aggression.

Masoe, Paea, Waqa and Nuuausala are the Polynesian hitup men. We should never have more than two of these blokes in the team, or we will struggle defensively.

[stephenj]

nate myles probably has a mental age of 16?

[melon....]

I heard not long ago that one of the junior competitions (SG Ball or Harold Matthews) had something like 65% Polynesians.

So get used to having "too many".

More Canoe.

[Cockadoodledoo]

Martin Kennedy is like Cusack alot, solid workhorse.

Myles and Warea-Hargreaves are a tonne like Morley, hard runners, hard hitters, plenty of hitups and aggression.

Masoe, Paea, Waqa and Nuuausala are the Polynesian hitup men. We should never have more than two of these blokes in the team, or we will struggle defensively.

Kennedy's hopeless... Can't make a dent in the opposition defensive line in the NYC. Forget him.

[novice chook]

It always amuses me how everyone 'rates' players differently.

One supporter's 'rock' is another supporter's 'diamond'.

And I'm sure the opinions of players vary within the Clubs as well, with the 'most important' view (whoseever that may be) winning out.


NC

[Johnny Tobin]

More Canoe.

Not you too!

[Guest]

Kennedy's hopeless... Can't make a dent in the opposition defensive line in the NYC. Forget him.

I agree everytime I've seen him he pulls the old handbrake up every time he hits the line, looks very pedestrian.

Hargreaves looks very promising he is big enough and tough enough to make it. But he has only come from rugby 2 years ago he is still pretty raw.

Snapper is our best prop by a mile the rest are quite ordinary.

[Rooster_6]

Kennedy's hopeless... Can't make a dent in the opposition defensive line in the NYC. Forget him.

Much like Civoncieva when he was very young, writen off by many. Jason Ryles... there's plenty of props who were criticised just because the 'didn't put a dent in the line' at a young age.

He is a real prop, not a backrower put there because he has the size to dominate an Under 20's competition. He has got the workrate just needs to work on his running, I'd invest some time in him tbh... too many times we have thrown away good prospects just because they aren't living up to every Roosters fans fantasies.

[Guest]

Exactly.

Kennedy will work as hard as he can. Cusack didn't dent the line in first grade. Kennedy dented the line many times last season:

23 games, 3 tries, 4 linebreaks, 46 tackle breaks, 14 runs for 129 metres

That was in an underperforming team too. Yes, James Tamou (now a Cowboy) made a far larger dent in the line, in fact he made around 80 tackle breaks in only 22 games. But he also made only 4 linebreaks, made less average metres, and played far less average minutes too.

Kennedy isn't flash, I don't think he ever will be. But he seems to be a solid workhorse frontrower who won't shirk the hard yards, and once he gets the hang of first grade, he will be much like Luke Douglas, and consistently get through 100+ metres and 25+ tackles a game.

Waerea-Hargreaves should not be forced to become a workhorse. He is in the Myles/Morley mold - best used as a prop or backrower who makes quality power tackles rather than a mass quantity, as well as being used as a battering ram out wide or up the guts. The sort of player who will make great yards, but shouldn't be worn out by an excess of defensive work.

I think that is where we miss Ricketson and even Harrison. Last year we were able to get away with it because Fitzgibbon stepped up to cover, but next season, where are those 40 tackles going to come from, I wonder...

[Cockadoodledoo]

Much like Civoncieva when he was very young, writen off by many. Jason Ryles... there's plenty of props who were criticised just because the 'didn't put a dent in the line' at a young age.

He is a real prop, not a backrower put there because he has the size to dominate an Under 20's competition. He has got the workrate just needs to work on his running, I'd invest some time in him tbh... too many times we have thrown away good prospects just because they aren't living up to every Roosters fans fantasies.

He's useless in U20's.. Do you have some morbid fascination with really crap players... No one wrote of Civoniceva.. Ryles was playing Firsts at Kennedy's age and was supposedly the next big superstar at the time...

[BUDDY]

Aren't we all glad that we let go that other crap prop we had in 2005?

Give Kennedy a go. It does take time with front rowers to reach their best.

[Guest]

Actually I think we underestimated the loss of Shillington. Before I get shot down in flames for this:

Yes, he was relatively soft.

Yes, he gave away penalties.

Yes, his handling wasn't the best.

But he always worked hard, made plenty of yards, was guaranteed to make around 90 metres a game, and he tried his hardest.

Look at 2006 and 2007, some of the shocker props we had. Mark Edmondson, Charlie Tonga, Lafi Manua, Danny Williams, Willie Brown, Chris Beattie, Glenn Hall (turned out to be a good backrower for Manly however). Throw in the unfulfilled potential of Steve Meredith and Mickey Paea, who were cut short by injury and lack of opportunity respectively.

Shillington was better than them. Shillington was better than Stanley Waqa, and we don't know how good or bad Martin Kennedy, Mose Masoe or Jared Waerea-Hargreaves will end up being for us. But we have to give the young kids a chance. Kennedy is 20, Masoe is 20, Warea-Hargreaves is 20, Waqa is 21. Give them time to settle, they will start off behind Paea, Myles and Nuuausala anyway.

[Guest]

Was he worth whatever Caberra paid him?

[BUDDY]

I was referring to Ben Hannant.

[Guest]

I would have loved to keep Hannant, and if anyone can correct me, please do, but I believe we let go of Hannant because he has attitude problems?