Jets - offering little?

[Guest]

Personally, I think of the jets boys, ahern, maori, waqa, foran and maori have futures. Ahern and Waqa we all know have the potential. I think ahern just needs to work on his upper body strength - is a great leader, has great skills and a great work ethic but can be bumped out of tackles easily by the big boys so if he can fix that up he will be dynamic. Waqa i still think has the potential to be anything. Adjusting and a few attitude problems seem to be weighing him down. With carney into 5/8 and smithy at the club i think his attitude will improve and he will get better and faster ball so will be more dangerous. Maori is really impressing me from the jets. He is very strong and fast, hits holes, has great skills and scores tries. He might be a little project for us and could be handy in the backs as we wait for the likes of bliar and moeakiola to come good. I can see him partnering williamson in the centres next year and making up a strong centre pairing. Interesting to see how he develops.

Tuigamala and hauraki show promise but both are probably a little small. Id say those mentioned above have a high the highest chance of success at the top level but tuigamala is very quick and skillful and stronger than many of us think. He is also ironically pretty good under the high ball and has a good leap on him. I dare say its a confidence thing.

Really ? I think the rags are being carried by the two front rowers - Moujalli and Deeb. They both set up a great platform and run hard every run. Both are tall-ish and get and arm free a lot of the time. The clean-up work that they do around the ruck is top notch, dare i say if it wasn't for these two Newtown's forward pack would crumple. Honourable mentions go to Ahern who if i'm not mistaken had shoulder surgery last season ? He still looks a bit tender but at least his mindset is right. Jimmy Andersen goes pretty good too, but is a roughie at best.

Our backs are horrible. No size, no strength, no speed. Last week the Vulcan's winger just carved them up without even looking like he is going to pass. They are lucky they are getting great ball from Foran who is benefitting from the extra room.

For a future superstar, Sisa Waqa is not even standing out in Newtown. Every one of his run screams of Famous Amos to me with the constant stepping and sideways running. At least Amos had the acceleration and great support play.

Tuigamala is better than what people give him credit for, however for me he still doesn't cut first grade.




I just don't understand how two blokes - Deeb and Moujalli can keep consistant form, over a season yet still not get a crack at 1st grade especially when our forward pack has been our weakness this year (not counting the 10 min spell moujalli got in 1sts). These two consistantly win player's player and you can see them labouring on the pitch. Yet a bloke like Stanley Waqa - who lets face it, has the size and not much else is getting a run based on his potential ? Charlie Tonga had potential and look what happened to him.

For me, this is why Freddie has failed this season, not selecting blokes who will bleed for a chance to run out in the jersey, but picking players who apparently have potential and commit the simplest errors that i have ever seen.

[Guest]

Agreed. The Newtown pack for the past few years has always been impressive thanks to consistently strong performances from regulars like Moujalli, Deeb and Anderson. Help from Rudder and Foran has given them a much better structured team that makes the hopeless outside backs look alright at times.

Look at the backs we have playing there. Tu'u Maori (Sharks NYC > Roosters NYC), Smith Samau (Storm Reggies > Titans Reggies), Sisa Waqa (Gordon RU), Sonny Tuigamala (Panthers NYC), Iwi Hauraki (Wentworthville NSW Cup), Chris Tuatura (Balmain NSW Cup), Luke Hume (Sharks NYC), Ryan Millard (Dragons Reggies > Bulldogs Reggies) and Kyle Lodge (QLD Cup)...

None really stand out as top notch players in any way whatsoever. I don't think any are even better than SKD, who is the weak link of our backline at the moment.

[Guest]

Personally, I think of the jets boys, ahern, maori, waqa, foran and maori have futures. Ahern and Waqa we all know have the potential. I think ahern just needs to work on his upper body strength - is a great leader, has great skills and a great work ethic but can be bumped out of tackles easily by the big boys so if he can fix that up he will be dynamic. Waqa i still think has the potential to be anything. Adjusting and a few attitude problems seem to be weighing him down. With carney into 5/8 and smithy at the club i think his attitude will improve and he will get better and faster ball so will be more dangerous. Maori is really impressing me from the jets. He is very strong and fast, hits holes, has great skills and scores tries. He might be a little project for us and could be handy in the backs as we wait for the likes of bliar and moeakiola to come good. I can see him partnering williamson in the centres next year and making up a strong centre pairing. Interesting to see how he develops.

Tuigamala and hauraki show promise but both are probably a little small. Id say those mentioned above have a high the highest chance of success at the top level but tuigamala is very quick and skillful and stronger than many of us think. He is also ironically pretty good under the high ball and has a good leap on him. I dare say its a confidence thing.

Ahern had shoulder surgery last season so that can maybe be a reason why he is getting bumped around by the big boys. I think we need to keep him because once he fills out and has another season of full-time training, he will become a very good player. Stanley Waqa seems to be getting better and better each week and is starting to fill his potential. I just think he needs to lose just a bit more weight and he'll be a bit more agile which will help his game. These two, along with Maori, are a perfect example of why we need a good reserve grade competition for players over 20 because they need a little more time to develop.

Maori should get a shot at the top grade soon hopefully because he is a very good player. Centre is his best position and can be a very handy back-up if our centres go down injured. I don't think wing is his spot, he would be a waste there as he is very good at getting on the outside of his man and setting the winger up. Players with a bit og gas like Towers, Tuigamala or Moeakiola outside this guy would have a field day making breaks down the sideline.