This time last year, Peni Terepo was involved in that airline scandal where he was intoxicated and offensive to an air hostess. He subsequently had to sit out the first few rounds of the comp.
I recall thinking that was a huge loss to our impact from the bench, and that it rendered our chances against Penrith Rnd 1 weak. He was the type of forward who brought a heap of energy, explosive go forward and some big hits in defence. He seemed to be able to really bend the line in ways our starting props couldn't (excepting Paulo, who had not played for us yet since leaving and was injured). That was off the back of 2018, where he fixed up a lot of his handling errors.
However, fast forward a year, and he is not a forward that I tend to value nearly as much. That might be because he fell out a little with BA over the scandal and didn't get as much gave time. It could be because, when he did play, he didn't have the same impact - maybe a bit of both.
Either way, hopefully he can regather some of that explosive energy that characterised his game and play a vital role for us again this year as an impact player.
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I'm actually really surprised still at the club. He could crush it in the super league and make a good career over there.
I don't think the airplane incident had any impact on his playing time, except for the fact that it gave others a chance to take his spot, and I don't think BA is the type of coach to cut off his own nose to spite his face over an off field incident, particularly one as relatively minor as Peni's.
I too had him as a fixture in my 17 last year, but he just seems to have plateaued and others have passed him by. The additiion of RCG I think makes him redundant due to their similar playing styles, and then we have two young guns in Kaufusi & Utoikamanu who both appear to have higher ceilings.
Peni is still good enough to have a job in the NRL if he wants it, but unless he can develop a new skill mid career, like some ball playing ability, he is going to be relegated to being a backup on good teams or a top 17 on bad teams.
There were rumours last year he was being looked at, Knights maybe, actually thought he was off contract end of last year.If he was consistently running hard he'd be good but he doesn't seem to break the line or bend it much mostly. Maybe he's concentrating too much about holding onto the ball.
He is a junior so of course you want him to kick on but no room for sentiment, if his contract is due maybe he'll put in this year .
I've always considered him to be average, a middle of the road type of forward.
Well it's up to Terepo to put in the performances to warrant a top 17 position. At the moment he is a long way off the bench and there are probably a few young players BA would choose over him. This should be an incentive to give some great performances in reserve grade, time will tell whether he has it in him.
Great blog. Peni certainly is a bit of a forgotton man. I too had high hopes for peni last year. I wouldnt imagine he would make the 17. But who knows, maybe he had some niggling injuries or personal stuff on his mind last year. Maybe he'll surprise us.
He had the suspension and injury last year but didn't do much when called apon and in reggies he didn't kill it. Its make or break time for him this year