EELS’ BROWN REPLACEMENT?
Parramatta will toy with the idea of giving exciting young prospect Joash Papalii a crack at Dylan Brown’s vacant no.6 jersey. With Lachie Galvin-Belmore bound the Eels will consider a host of options as they work out who will be Mitch Moses’ long-term halves partner. There is support for Papalii to be given a shot given how quick and skillful he is. Papalii rose through the ranks as a fullback and finally made his NRL debut last week off the bench against the Sea Eagles.The other options include Sandon Smith and Jonah Pezet. Papalii, 20, has spent some time in the halves in NSW Cup this year and may get a crack at some point in first grade this year.
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Agree, Eels are every bit a top 8 chance the way they are progressing.
May not win a comp Mutts, but it would be great experience for some of these young guys to get a taste of finals footy with nothing to lose.
Also great for their confidence in Ryles.... coming from last to 8th would be a huge achievement.
Obviously a lot to go right for that to happen, but we've seen crazier runs.
I think from our internal options it would be a 3 way battle between
Joash - whilst not a natural 6 he oozes footy ability and work ethic
Lorenzo - i think given a full NRL pre season and hopefully some cup this year we will see if hes ready or not but hes is a natural 6 with elite athlectic ability and great jnr pedigree
Apa - this is my smokey above Volkman. I have been impressed with him ever since his SG ball days. Has handled cup well this year and played well in the trials at 6. Digs into the line well, excellent attacking out of shape and is a big body with a good motor. Not as flashy as the other 2 but very solid all round
Externally my preference would be Pezet as he has shown he can run the melb system and is competitive and has all ball playing skills. His recent injury history scares me a bit. I watched his first half back from ACL in cup and he was excellent
Its "speed" and the ability to cover tackle. Volkman who I initially liked lacks both of those ingredients, he plays more like a organising half but I don't think he has the skills for that. Where his development lies is what they have coming through. Hawkins is the obvious Cup half and that makes the half development difficult. You also have 2 young 5/8 coming through the patheways. Maybe a more imaginative situation where we can maybe lend some of the young players to ESL on a development basis on a retention contract back i.e. they have to fullfil the full deal and come back to Parra..
It's a no brainer anyway to me , Ryles had given them all a clean slate when started , you perform so the training , in with a shot for first grade .
also correct me if I'm wrong but this is first time in a while that all grades (bar first ) have been performing well so if we want to keep these players that have to see there actually is a pathway to first grade
I think it's worth trialing this by pushing Dylan Brown to left centre and giving Joash a crack at 5/8 in the back half of games this year. Dylan would accomodate the move and help him out in defence, it's worth investing in before we go signing someone.
Yes, if you do that, why not now?
and just when one was beginning to see a possible combination brewing with kutonga out wide off Dylan brown in a don lane type role. even though I still think Dylan brown is not quite enjoying his footy at the moment.... regrets ???
Big regret I reckon
Yeah... Once he starts getting the cheques from that new contract i'm sure any regrets he has will quickly disappear.
It'll be all dependent on how the next month or 2 of football goes if they continue to improve you don't make the change to jeopardise a potential finals appearance.Flipside if it does go south then by all means but like mentioned here changing out combinations is a death knell we saw this at the beginning of the season.
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