Tuatua Moga comes of age in 2012!

[Roosterfarian]

That's one hell of a backline if Mini pulls his finger out!

[Guest]

Heard from someone last night that he will start the season on the wing.

that is exactly what i would do. play him on the left wing for next year and keep BJ in the centres. then shift them both in one in a year or so once they have filled out a bit more and fully aclimatised to first grade to allow them to play their best 2 positions (BJ - backrow; moga - centre). this will allow tagive or blair to nail down the left wing spot in 2013 which would be perfect. all we are short is a fullback post mini and a 5/8 depending on what happens with carney and how littlejohn develops beacuse imo, anasta is only a short-term solution and should be released at the end of next year so we can retain our young players

[novice chook]

Brian Smith mentioned in the post match presentation on Sat night that he wanted to play Moga this year but the NRL had bought in a rule that players couldn't play first grade until the age of 18.

That rule must have come in since 2007 because Pearce played first grade then when he was 17 and there were plenty before him as well. Maybe it came in with the creation of the NYC?

NC

[Roosterfarian]

Good call by the NRL. You have to put some cap on these things as players seem to be making grade earlier and earlier. By 2020, you'll have 16 year olds making grade and 21 year old NRL captains.

Plus it gets them off the papers when they act like normal young kids.

[chook 56]

Good call by the NRL. You have to put some cap on these things as players seem to be making grade earlier and earlier. By 2020, you'll have 16 year olds making grade and 21 year old NRL captains.

Plus it gets them off the papers when they act like normal young kids.

Correct. Plus the early burn out that sometimes hits some sports stars, if they are thrown in the deep end too young.

[fletch]

Moga certainly is a talent but has still got to work on a couple of areas before he should be thrown to the wolves in first grade, if he is going to start on the wing he must work on his taking of the high ball, he has been caught badly out of position several times this year when trying to field bombs, secondly he can be an arm grabber in defence, hence why I think Smith wants to ease him into the team on the wing.

without question he is one of the most talented youngsters we have unearthed in a long time, hopefully an off season with the top grade can iron out a few of his problems and he can put his best foot forward and claim one of the vacant backline spots for next season, he adds something we lack at the moment in the backline speed/footwork.

[Rooster_6]

Moga certainly is a talent but has still got to work on a couple of areas before he should be thrown to the wolves in first grade, if he is going to start on the wing he must work on his taking of the high ball, he has been caught badly out of position several times this year when trying to field bombs, secondly he can be an arm grabber in defence, hence why I think Smith wants to ease him into the team on the wing.

without question he is one of the most talented youngsters we have unearthed in a long time, hopefully an off season with the top grade can iron out a few of his problems and he can put his best foot forward and claim one of the vacant backline spots for next season, he adds something we lack at the moment in the backline speed/footwork.

Leilua has got more to work on that Moga, his defence has been deplorable this year. i see them both fighting it out for the left centre position with Tagive taking the wing spot.

[fletch]

Leilua has got more to work on that Moga, his defence has been deplorable this year. i see them both fighting it out for the left centre position with Tagive taking the wing spot.

Smith killed Leilua by trying to make him a winger this year, he lost confidence every time he made either a bad defensive read or handling error, he needs to be a wide running backrower or at worst centre, he offers a powerful running game and a great offload which we have missed this year until Takarangi was brought into the side.

its hard to compare defence of Moga/Leilua one is playing touch football in NYC the other has been left stranded plenty of times on the end of a pretty ordinary football team at times this year.

without question Leilua/Symonds have a lot of work to do to get a spot in the top 17 next year with Maubs/Kennedy returning and Moga/Evans/Lowe pushing for positions.

[Guest]

Yep agree! Leilua was more dangerous at centre or wide running backrower. If he plays centre in 2012 he will be a handfull for oppos teams and be able to set up his outside runners, I think centre will be his position.

[Guest]

Agree that the centres is the place for BJ. Like Fletch said it just destroyed his confidence. Brian Smith seems to be a stubborn son of a bitch when he chooses to be so.