Keating pulled up a little tender after his final contact session and the Eels have decided not to risk the City five-eighth, giving Humble his opportunity in the top grade.
Keating injured his knee during his first representative match, and there were initial fears he would be out for up eight weeks. However, in the end he experienced a slight strain on both sides of his knee and he was named for this week's match with Humble on stand-by.
However, the Eels have now settled on Humble for the Sea Eagles clash. The North Queensland-product was acquired by the Eels for the 2010 season after a stand-out year as Player of the Club for Qld Cup grand finalists, the Northern Pride.
Playing five-eighth outside former North Queensland half-back Chris Shepherd, Humble was a relevation at five-eighth after playing much of his junior football at fullback. It was reported that he nearly signed with the his former NYC club, the North Queensland Cowboys, however with the Eels keenest for his signature, Humble decided to try his luck with the Eels and will be rewarded with his first grade debut in his first year with the club.
After initially starting the year at fullback with Parramatta feeder club Wentwprthville, Humble was moved to five-eighth around the time that the club made the decision to shift Jeff Robson to hooker. Since moving to five-eighth his form has lifted a notch and his impact has seen Wentworthville record much improved performances in recent weeks.
In many ways, Humble is a throw-back to an old-fashioned five-eighth. Blessed with plenty of speed and an evasive step, he plays a game that is the not dissimilar to the greatest Eels five-eighth of them all Brett Kenny.
Replies
Hope KK is back soon but all the best to Tommy. Hope he stars.
Regardless of whether or not Tom Humble has a good game ,will have no bearing on Keatings position in the team!
Tom Humble is a replacement brought up from our feeder club Wenty to fill in for an injured player. Noone is doubting his abilities and i hope he carves up , that would be special, but i think Keating has the wood on him for this year.
Bye Bye Keating, seriously i want what your smoking because it sounds like good shit!
I have been accused on many an occasion of being a Humble basher, but truth is I really hope he does well tomorrow night. What I have said in the past, and I stand by my comments, is that you have to be very careful when blooding juniors into a team, especially when it is unnecessary. In this case, it has become necessary for Humble to make his debut because of injury.
However 3 weeks ago when people were calling for him to be brought up, we would have had to have dropped one our other players in favour of an inexperienced half.
The leap from Wenty to first grade is a big one and I think a decision which needs to be made carefully and I think you will find that anyone else who has questioned Humble has similar concerns.
He plays for my team and of course I hope he does well. I just also hope that Parramatta fans give him a chance to show what he can do.
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