Reading some articles about Josh Schuster's wasted talent recently reminded me of Feleti Mateo. Similar size but Feleti had greater skills I reckon. It also made me think about our best ever naturally gifted 17. A couple of the players I named reached their potential but most never did due to injuries or lack of desire. But here is my list. What's yours? Note: I had to name John Simon out of position as there were no standout hookers.
1. J Hayne
2. E Grothe Snr
3. J Lyon
4. D Woods
5. T Tahu
6. B Kenny
7. T Smith
8. A Ritson
9. J Simon
10. D Solomona
11. J Smith
12. F Mateo
13. J Dymock
14. D Penna
15. D Widders
16. B Cartwright
17. D Sullivan
Replies
Tim Snith was actually one of my favourite ever players to watch during his brief stint . As close to Andrew John's in attack as I've ever seen . Such a wasted opportunity. Obviously a totally different era and example to your Kenny's etc , Tim Smith could've been anything . Didn't have the ego and self importance of your Haynes , just a kid who didn't realise what he could be and with poor guidance hanging out with blokes like Piggy Riddell . Tim Smith not reaching his potential almost hurts as much as losing the 2001 grand final for me.
I remember some of his kick try assists were amazing. One game against the warriors over in NZ he had the confidence to kick from within our 20m. Unbelieveable but wasted talent. Could have been anything
Tell me numbers, what year does your Best Ever team start from. Semi Radradra over Grothe senior ? That's fucking laughable.
Semi scored 82 tries in 94 games, Guru scored 78 in 152. Don't know how that's laughable.
Tell me, how much of Grothes career did you see live , semi was a terrific winger, Eric was from another planet. Live in the world of statistics if you need to.
Guru had a lot more players inside him that could score from all over the park so his opportunities were limited !
Seth it starts from when I can remember watching the footy so around mid 1980s. I included Guru over Semi because of his raw power. I heard he didn't do much gym work and was just naturally strong. Semi actually had to work quite hard when he joined from rugby.
Fair enough Numbers, you said the best ever .There were 40 years of gifted players before the mid 80'. Tim Smith in front of Sterlo, not in 10 lifetimes.
For me, Semi becoming as dominant as he did without a background in league is an indication of his talent. Just natural instinct and ability basically got him into the NRL and one of the top wingers in the game.
Yeah I wanted to include Inu too but not over Tahu. Woods was an obvious choice to miss out but man I remember how naturally classy he was in the early 90s when we were shit. He just played too few games due to injury.
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