NRL & NSW Cup Team
So for the purpose of this blog I am going to assume our full strength NRL and NSW Cup side is something like this.
Firstly, before I name the Jersey Flegg team the following players; Sam Tuivita (20), Joash Papalii (21), Richie Penisni(20) and Charlie Guymer(21) are the only 4 from these two lineups that could play in Jersey Flegg. Obviously with injuries many more players under 21 have/will be given the chance to play NSW Cup. Twiddle, Lewis, Nanva, Hunter, & Lokeni have all played a few games of cup this year already. Alamadine, Lynn, Brown, Neemia, De Stradis & Spence have played NSW Cup last year or played one game this year.
Jersey Flegg Team
The Jersey Flegg team is very hard to pick. The coaches have a key decision to make on developing vs winning the competition. The players listed beyond 18 are ordered by position and pecking order if spots become vacant in Jersey Flegg due to injuries/suspensions/promotions of first choice players. So this also gives you a good idea of players pushing to be a part of the playing 17 in their relevant position. However this was difficult to order 100% accurately as the team has been rotated around a lot due to injuries/suspension/form/giving younger players a go. I tried making the extended team list as small as possible so I refrained from adding any SG Ball players who have not made their Jersey Flegg debut.
Player Analysis
As you can see there is an influx of talent coming through the grades. Lot of these players are 21 years old so will not be eligible for Jersey Flegg next year. It is a make or break year for many of these players if they want to have a future at this club. So I hope the club has a strong focus on this development by pushing these players through the grades and giving them more chances in the NSW cup. This means players who have already reached their ceiling need to be moved on whilst having experienced heads to guide these players on their journey in becoming better players. In the current Jersey Flegg team the 21 year olds that we should persist with are Twiddle, Lewis, Nanva, Hunter, Brown, Neemia and De Stradis. Give them an NRL pre-season on train and trial contracts so they can fight for a spot in NSW Cup. Need to remember that there are 30 players on Top 30 contracts and 6 on development contracts. Thats 36 players and only 34 spots in NSW cup and NRL playing 17. Obviously injuries and suspensions happen but the main point is that there is not much space in developing players over 21 years old when there is no guarantee of them being good enough for the NRL. So it is critical that we choose the players to develop as some of the names listed above in this paragraph actually have good potential.
Replies
Yep thats fair. From my point of view for this exercise i assumed the players will be given the opportunity to work through the development pathway rather than be thrust into NRL.
A lot of the players on this list could debut early and may sink or swim, but ideally youd want them to work their way through the grades.
This is the way to go, you want them all to have the best opportunity to swim rather than sink. Too many young players are rushed into first grade and end up not reaching their full potential or even falling by the wayside.
Also since many of them have barely played NSW Cup it is important we be a bit reserved until they play All Age footy in cup.
I also think with halves the risk reward of throwing them in too early is great. For every sucess there are alot more failures.
In my view we have Moses + a lot of depth in the halves so theres no need to risk ruining Lorenzo becuase we were impatient and debuted him before his game has fully developed.
By all means let him compete for the jersey during the pre-season but given we have Hawkins, Volkman, Hunter, Joash as well we dont need to risk him if hes not ready.
It does depend on the situation and position within that team. Mam had Reynolds, Stange has Fogarty, Lorenzo would have Moses guiding the team around the paddock, his job would be to make use of the opportunities Moses allows him to get which would be limited, similar to how Talagi is being used next to Cleary. You look at someone like Ash Taylor who was given the keys to the team at such a young age and really struggled with the pressure
Yep both your points are really strong. I guess its just really hard for anyone to make a prediction about Lorenzo without having a inside source. I do hope we give him a couple games in NSW cup this year as the 14 so he knows what its like versing grown men heading into the pre-season.
Personally, all I believe for now is that Joash is not the answer at 6. He could be a gun NRL fullback and decent utlity but not a 6 in my eyes. He has played fullback in junior grades and 9 for his school. So 6 is very foreign to him. A pre-season will help his attack but won't change his size and how opposition teams will use him to generate quick play the balls.
And you make a strong point too. It's hard to know from the outside because the players character is an important variable that needs to be considered in all this too
Pretty sure I saw clips of him training a bit with the NRL team already.
Great blog guys, really informative.
Unbelievable effort guys. Always a pleasure to read your thoughts on the guys I haven't seen yet ...
Will probably ask some questions once I have digested the info more thoroughly.
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