NRL young talent - how does ours compare?

[Guest]

John Sutton would be the last person on earth i would pay to play football..

Biggest imposter in the NRL...

I think much of his problem is his coach is an even bigger imposter than ours. For a big bloke he has a pretty complete, if not raw skillset. No chance in hell he deserves the praise he gets, but he definitely has talent.

To be honest, Campese impressed me last year, but this year he's proving to be the biggest imposter in the NRL. Lost his running game, makes poor decisions, and his kicking game is one of the poorest in the NRL.

[novice chook]

John Sutton is an asshole but he does have talent - as a backrower/lock.

5/8 isn't his spot. He doesn't play well with the extra organising responsibilities under pressure, espec when he's playing alongside an inexperienced indivualist player like Sandow, who is a bloke who doesn't know what he's going to do when he gets the ball, so what chance does his team mates have.

As for Campese, most players have a stellar year where they excel - his was 2008. He just hasn't been able to replicate it in 09.


NC

[Guest]

To me, Sutton is almost exactly like Setaimata Sa. Big, strong, can offload in traffic, skillful, probably a better kicking game though. But both are prone to going quiet.

[Kingbilly]

I agree with some of those points, Sutton has absolutely no idea what to do.

[Guest]

I think Symonds, Cherrington, Jones and Earl all seem to look pretty comfortable in First Grade. Never at any point do they make me feel nervous when they get the ball - never overawed. The Aubusson brothers, Nuuausala, Friend, Sa, Perrett, Kenny-Dowall and Pearce all took time to really settle in. Tuigamala and Sisa Waqa didn't at all.

I feel that Luke Towers is definitely ready for FG, Moeakiola and Williamson need a little bit more time. Isaac Maliota is a lot like Stanley Waqa, plenty of oomph, but I don't know if he could keep up in NRL level. Great prop though.

Cordner is the man that will save us in a few years.

You make reely good points about the Aubusson brothers, Friend, Pearce, Kenny-Dowall etc. taking time to settle in. The young players need to be eased in at the right time for their development to continue. Symonds has been excellent since coming into FG, as has Cherrington, Friend and Jones previously before him. The next bunch of young players that should graduate soon to the top grade have already been mentioned in Towers, Moekiola, Maiota and Williamson but I'd chuck in Samuela and Smith Samau from Newtown. He's been a great buy in the NSW Cup but just can't make the transition to NRL.

Boyd Cordner will definitely be a star in years to come. Has all the attributes of a classy back-rower and should be ready to go up to NRL maybe next year or the year after.

Setaimata Sa is a Sutton-clone although I think Sutton has a better kicking game. Sa is a class player but just needs to be involved a little more.

[Guest]

Look at Mitch Aubusson for example. He played Round 1 at 5/8, Round 2 to Round 15 off the bench, Round 16 at lock at Round 17 at centre. In that time, he only made more than 5 hitups once, only made more than 13 tackles twice, and he made only 2 linebreaks for a solitary try. Very quiet start to his career.

Freddy took over and shifted him to the centres permanently, where he played 6 games under Freddy, for 2 tries but a much improved 6 linebreaks. He began breaking tackles regularly and getting far more involved.

After injury ended his 2007 season, he started 2008 occasionally off the bench, still recovering slowly. From Round 2 to Round 7 he was switched between centre and the bench in an effort to ease him into the season. From Round 8 onwards, he found himself a permanent fixture in the centres (with sporadic appearances at lock during Origin time), where he scores 9 tries, broke the line 7 times, busted plenty of tackles, and was very good defensively.

Again, in 2009 he suffered injury early on in the season, but since easing into his return via the interchange bench, he has proven to be our most incisive linebreaking centre yet again.

He is a player that we have nurtured very well, I believe. He has a great defensive technique, ability to break the line, bust tackles, as well as possessing good mobility to make up for his lack of genuine pace. He will make a great versatile centre/backrower in the Flannery mould in years to come.

Symonds is an example of a player who has had a baptism by fire, yet is performing well. Coming into a losing team, he has been a standout performer on a pretty regular basis. The same applies for Nuuausala, who last year was relegated to a bit-part impact role, but this year has taken the responsibility of shouldering an above-average workload for someone of his age and experience. Cherrington is similar, except he seems to sometimes slack off a bit when he is on the field. But he is strong, and a hard-runner too. Much like Sa, I believe if his mental side gets a bit of fine tuning, his physical game will come along in leaps and bounds.

Perrett and SKD have progressed steadily, Perrett was a bit-part player in 2004 and the end of 2005, and was our regular winger at the start of 2006. However, poor form and defence saw him dropped in Round 11. Came back into the team in Round 19, and from then onwards he has been probably our most consistent outside back. SKD was thrust into the team in 2007, and was our regular winger and top tryscorer before he was discarded for poor defense in Round 16, but returned for the final two games. Since then, he has been our most consistent winger (barring an injury that cut short his 2008 season near the end). Errors still plague him, but he scores tries, makes metres, and plays with a tonne of heart.

Friend and Pearce can be criticized very easily, but remember that they are playing in crucial, high involvement positions which is a great weight on the shoulders of two blokes who are at the end of their teenage years. They will be great players in years to come, rest assured.




My point is, we can't simply give up on Perrett, SKD, the Aubusson's, Jones, Symonds, Nuuausala, Cherrington, Sa, Friend and Pearce by dismissing them as poor players because of our dismal form. A lot of them have had a baptism by fire in 2006/2007 (Perrett, SKD, Mitch Aubusson, Nuuausala, Sa, Pearce) before experiencing brief success in 2008, while some are just finding their feet in an already struggling. team (Friend, Cherrington, Symonds, Jones). It doesn't mean they are bad players. They just need the right role models around them, in a structured coaching system which gets the most out of the players. That is what we are lacking right now, the ability for our staff to make the players perform to the best of their ability...

[Guest]

Very well said. The current situation is a lot like the Dogs last season. We just need to recruit a few more players with a good attitude and a good work rate and the rest will follow. It's just about creating a positive environment and that's what Bennett excels at. It then rubs off on the young players coming into the team and they continue to all develop.

[Guest]

Difference I think with them, is that they recruited a LOT more than we had to.

Look at their team.

Bryson Goodwin
Darryl Millard
Michael Hodgson
Greg Eastwood
Yileen Gordon
David Stagg
Brett Kimmorley
Ben Hannant
Josh Morris
Daniel Holdsworth

They just built a team out of bargain-barrel outcasts + a few big name signings, with good coaching and strategy.

We have TALENTED youngsters, some with probably twice the talent of theirs, but our coaching, development and strategy is very poor.

[Guest]

Difference I think with them, is that they recruited a LOT more than we had to.

Look at their team.

Bryson Goodwin
Darryl Millard
Michael Hodgson
Greg Eastwood
Yileen Gordon
David Stagg
Brett Kimmorley
Ben Hannant
Josh Morris
Daniel Holdsworth

They just built a team out of bargain-barrel outcasts + a few big name signings, with good coaching and strategy.

We have TALENTED youngsters, some with probably twice the talent of theirs, but our coaching, development and strategy is very poor.

I agree with you on the coaching and development aspect of things. I stated in another thread that Freddy needs to learn who to translate what he's thinking into a gameplan that the players can play out. I'm sure he has a lot of football knowledge but needs some advice from someone like Gus to help him out.

[Guest]

Difference I think with them, is that they recruited a LOT more than we had to.

Look at their team.

Bryson Goodwin
Darryl Millard
Michael Hodgson
Greg Eastwood
Yileen Gordon
David Stagg
Brett Kimmorley
Ben Hannant
Josh Morris
Daniel Holdsworth

They just built a team out of bargain-barrel outcasts + a few big name signings, with good coaching and strategy.

We have TALENTED youngsters, some with probably twice the talent of theirs, but our coaching, development and strategy is very poor.

I can't see how anyone could see these guys as outcasts, everyone knew of their talent and usefulness.

Every fan thinks their team has the best young blokes coming through, question I have to ask is, if this is the case, why are all our lower grades performing so poorly? At that level, individual talent can get you over the line.

Bulldogs recruited intelligently, no question. But many of their players were known qualities when they purchased them. With the exception of Goodwin, the other guys can't break into the side.

[Guest]

We have great individual junior talent, there's no doubt about that but that doesn't guarantee success.

The players that we're recruited to the Bulldogs were done so for a certain purpose. They recruited very well, Kimmorley and Ennis were always going to be their main buys and they've done well to get to where they are now.

[Guest]

Hodgson and Stagg were viewed by many as solid but not spectacular first-graders. Josh Morris is an outstanding talented player but had a poor season with Dragons mainly due to handling errors. Kimmorley was always a solid player but recently had been a bit down on form and no-one expected him to do as well as he has been this year. Eastwood is a talented player notorious for being lazy.

[Guest]

Hodgson and Stagg were viewed by many as solid but not spectacular first-graders. Josh Morris is an outstanding talented player but had a poor season with Dragons mainly due to handling errors. Kimmorley was always a solid player but recently had been a bit down on form and no-one expected him to do as well as he has been this year. Eastwood is a talented player notorious for being lazy.

Stagg and Hodgson were known good toilers, that's all they are at the dogs as well.

Morris had a blinder of a season last year from about round 7 or 8 onwards.

Kimmorely was the sharks best player for a number of years, he got much undeserved criticism and Eastwood always still had the talent.

It was still very strong recruitment, regardless of what spin you put on it now, and we all knew it at the time. Perhaps the rise was not expected to be as large, but they were always going to contest the 8 from winning the spoon.

[Guest]

I know it's a bit early but can anybody put together who is been retained next year and who isn't? I'm not really sure at all about what the team might look like next year. I know we've seen a young South African, but that's about all I know. Have we signed any big name players for next year and have we retained any of our Toyota Cup players or signed any good ones from other clubs?

[Guest]

Dare i say, that besides looking at some speed out wide we shouldn't really be active this season in the FA market ?

I think with the right coach, and the young talent we have coming through we should bite down and aim for 6th or 7th position. By then we'll have a good idea as to what we actually need and can buy accordingly.
I know some won't accept the fact that we won't be a top 4 side next season however this is how rebuilding works.
The last thing we want to do is stack our player ranks and dour the young players hoping to crack 1st grade.