EVERY season the NRL throws up some big surprises that catch out the experts.
Often they slip through the cracks because there’s so many hot takes that get tossed up someone’s bound to get it right and plenty more will get it horribly wrong.
It takes a brave pundit to put their hand up when predictions start to go awry but after Parramatta’s sensational start to the season Ben Ikin has done just that.
Coming into 2017 the biggest concern for the Eels was their drastically reshaped spine, with Corey Norman the only remaining piece of a puzzle that looked extremely well put together at the start of last year.
Nathan Peats, Kieran Foran and Michael Gordon are all at other clubs now for one reason or another and their exits have pitched three young and inexperienced players out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Kaysa Pritchard (22), Clint Gutherson (22) and Bevan French (21) are the men Brad Arthur has put his faith in for the key hooker, five-eighth and halfback roles with even the coach admitting to Fox Sports’ Market Watch podcast he’d taken “a gamble”.
It also had the effect of making Norman ‘the man’ a position he looks more than comfortable with. In fact his early ownership of the side has been so impressive he’s becoming one of the most dominant players in the competition.
Arthur’s gamble is so far paying off and it’s left Ikin with egg on his face after he voiced strong opinions about Norman’s place in the halves pecking order and French’s ability to compete at NRL level.
Speaking on the Market Watch podcast, Ikin put his hand up and admitted he was wrong.
Here’s what he said and what he’s seen from the duo that’s made him change his tune.
FRENCH DOUBTS ‘FROM THE START’
Bevan French is mobbed by teammates after scoring a try against Manly.Source: News Corp Australia“I had my doubts on Bevan French, but I think it was on this podcast, when he was tossed up as a future star following his performance at the Nines last year, that I said ‘he’s too small’, ‘he’s not on my radar’, I might have made some sarcastic quip about his size and ever since those words came out of my mouth he’s gone from strength to strength,” Ikin said, eating humble pie.
“He was in at Fox Sports to shoot a segment with Sterlo during the week and it actually surprised me how big he is.
“Throw in all that skill and that pace and he’s going to be hard to handle.
“He actually reminds me of Matty Bowen, and from what I’m hearing he does stuff at training where his teammates just stand back and go, ‘no way, we didn’t think that was possible’.
“As he gets more confident, and he’s a confident young man already, you’re only going to see more of that freakish natural ability shine through.
“The things he’s doing now at such a young age and in such an important position are just gobsmacking.
“Brad Arthur sees what we don’t get to see on the outside. We don’t turn up to training every day.
“Brad Arthur knows every year his job’s on the line and you don’t make rash decisions putting someone like Bevan French in such an important position in his side without the evidence to support that move.
“He’s been with him now for two or three years, he’s seen him around training, he’s seen him on the wing and at fullback late last year; this wouldn’t have been an overnight decision.
“This would have been a decision based on evidence that built up over a couple of seasons.”
NORMAN ‘NOT A FRANCHISE PLAYER’
French has adapted seamlessly to the No.1 jersey but it has been Norman who has made the Eels look like a force to be reckoned with in the first two rounds.
The Queenslander has yet to make an ‘Emerging’ squad and is rarely included in the conversation when the Maroons’ halves succession planning is discussed.
Ikin sees that changing in the near future but before this season started he was of the view that Norman was too flaky to build a team around.
“He’s another player who’s proven me wrong,” Ikin said.
“You asked me early this year ‘could Corey Norman be a franchise player?’ I said no, that he wasn’t at the same level as guys like Thurston, Smith, Cronk and Lockyer.
“Well, I’ve watched the first two games and I think I’ve got it wrong again.
“He’s been front and centre guiding the Eels’ attack and it seems to me he just gets better and better the more opportunity he’s got to own the result for that team.
“It’s a young spine and he’s the centrepiece of everything they do with the ball and he’s loving it.
“He sat out half the season because of wayward off-field behaviour last year and that might have been the kick up the backside he needed.”
Replies
Nothin better then egg on a QLDers face
Ikin has always hated Parra.
Americanism's.
I really dont know how ikin can get a word out with Waynes cock rammed down his throat for the better part of the last decade.
I think this calls for a Wayne Bennett/Ben Ikin's c**k performance from the fans like the WSW effort a few weeks back - that was class :)
(*sarcasm)
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