3 Eels playing in the Aus schoolboys right now. Its been a scrappy game with plenty of drop balls and the ref blowing the pea out of the whistle so hard to get a gague on talent as to stop start.
Chris Petrus - Been his usual self. Hard running, light feet, big hits, couple of handling errors but that has been the theme of the game. Im at the point that its a matter of when not if he makes his NRL debut. Hes still SG ball eligible next year but id start him at cup and give him time against men
Cameron Bamblett - Has been quiet, has been moved around a lot and the stop start nature has meant there hasnt been much broken play where he excels at. Started at FB but was moved to bring Breyton on (Dogs have a good one here, kid looks like a superstar in the making, im getting Reece Walsh vibes)
Jackson Koina - New kid we recruited from the Broncos. Looks like a Ryles kind of prop. Big athletic build, very good mobility, good engine -saw some effort on effort plays where he was urgent to get back to his feet and contribute, and was used as a link in the middle and looked comfortable passing the ball
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Thanks SB. Good to read your thoughts on our next gen players.
Great stuff, Sonic! Thanks for this.
Hopefully, some of them make it.
I recon all 3 will start the season in SG Ball and get promoted to JF once SG ball finishes. I think Ryda Talagi is the only one that will skip SG ball and start the season in Jersey Flegg.
Yea I think Koina def will as he will need time to learn the system and embed himself. You are right with Ryda, the club has shown its hand there. However for me Petrus has has showed he too good for ball and was our best back rower when he stepped up to flegg. I'd be throwing him in cup and let him get a head start playing against men.
If they want to win ball then yea throw them all in. But if they are serious about development then I don't see him gaining much from playing ball again.
Thanks for the run-down SB its exciting to hear any news of Ryda an Petrus who are definetly first graders of the future. Koina has a good pedigree as the son of Nathan who wore the blue and gold in the late nineties.
Yea he and his whole family are mad parra fans as well from what I saw on his instagram. It's always a bonus to get players who grew up as fans
Yep I saw that too.
True. Petrus should definitely end the year in nsw cup. Whether he starts in JF or SG ball will be interesting but as you said, will he actually develop much in ball.
Yea there's also a lot of competition for back row spots in that cup side so it may make sense to give him time in flegg while we see how the other non flegg boys develop
Yea. Given Williams & Kautoga are the NRL backrowers. Latu, Samrani, Tuilagi, Guymer will be in cup. Then got Jezaiah, Lewis, De Stradis, Lokeni etc fighting as well