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"Blue Eel, I think Moses has to accept some blame....his long kicking was a little off, two tries came off his defensive errors and he should be goal kicking ...Russell is poor. Im not expecting miracles but he had a fair to good game."
"I believe that each year he has slowly added on more size which has slowly reduces his speed year by year."
"I think we need to talk about Moretti. He runs the hardest out of everyone in the team. He bends the line and is having a break out season. He has found offloads to his game and generates ruck speed for us. Yet his minutes this season have been 16,…"
"Few years time? Kinda depressing."
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"Top players like Sanders" lol. He's a kid, and has literally done nothing at NRL level. Sure, he might turn out to be a great, but he might not too...
Raiders are trying to sign Kaeo Weekes to play 5/8 so chances are he would be a backup at Canberra.
He's gone
The one thing I struggle with in this discussion is we are not looking for the next Sterling.
Wile seem's to think this kid is going to come in and run the game and Moses and Brown will line up behind him and say what do I do next Ethan?
Our greatest strength is the halves, our second greatest strength is our full back.....after that we have Hopgood (good enough to play origin). We have a promising young player in Penisini and after that we have a pack built around RCG, we probably don't need any more forwards numerically...... its from this base we build a side! If Ethan Sanders stays he does so as a 14 i.e. that's a first grade promise. He will be first call if one of the halves gets injured, there is enough flexibility in the team structure for the 14 to fill in or come on given the right circumstances, What we shouldn't forget is with the current HIA rules, having a back half of his quality (we think and hope) is really an essential. Moses has had HIA's and injuries and if Gutherson goes down for any reason then we also need that better than a reserve grade replacement.
Its from this base you strategically build your team, this fantasy football you rabbits are talking about is returning to the Chess mentality I have been constantly critical of because the rabbit's are more interested in pawns, knights and rooks. You cannot buy "set moves" when playing NRL.
What I am saying is that we lack a good leader in the halves/dummy half area. Like Sterling, Cameron Smith, Cronk. If you think DB or MM provides that you are delusional. I see that in Sanders at a junior level. Sanders may end up being more valuable to us than our current halves or not.
no one is suggesting swapping them now. But why not give Sanders the opportunity JA had and see how he goes at NRL level.
And you want an unproven 18 year old to be that leader ?
Even if I buy the premise that we don't have that kind of leader in our halves, which I don't, an 18 year old rookie isn't leading anyone, anywhere.
Do you have any idea how tough it is to play halfback in the NRL ?
Shaun Johnson at age 33 has said that the game is only now just starting to slow down for him. He's fucking 33. He's got maybe 2-3 years left in him and it's only now that he feels geniunely comfortable as an NRL halfback. NRL halfbacks as a general rule do not hit their best years until their late 20's. Nathan Cleary is an outlier, meaning he's the exception that proves the rule, and even he had his ups and downs AND he had an oustanding mentor in James Maloney AND he's the coaches son AND he's the media darling, AND he's part of an historically great team and he still has his issues.
Honestly, we are far too impatient with young playmakers. Ethan Sanders should not see an NRL game for another three years, certainly not as a starter.
Spot on. A good test case is young Katoa from dolphins. Left panthers to start and is struggling in the top grade. Best to be patient and learn your craft in nsw cup then make the jump.
Not really.
Bennett believed that giving Katoa exposure in the top grade at his early age benefited both the player and the club.
He could have left him in the lower grades but chose to give him that exposure.
There is NO blanket rule.
More kids are playing NRL than ever before.
Sanders may be up to it or he may not be, who knows but to just have a blanket rule that if you are 18 you would have to spend years in the lower grades because it's too hard is short sighted and has absolutely no relevance to Ethan Sanders.
A lot of teams have the vision to have an experienced half playing with a rookie, that's what Canberra are looking at by signing Weekes /Sanders to partner Fogerty in the halves.
Its the same line of thinking that Bennett had partnering Katoa with the experience of Milford.
So back to Brett Allen's hard doctrine, Katoa would have spent the next couple of years in the lower grades before making a debut with the Dolphins?
Id back that Bennett knows a little more about footy than Brett does, even if Brett would find that hard to believe!
And Bennett has already said that it was too soon to bring him into the NRL. Bennett said he didn't want to play him anywhere near this much, but injuries and poor form from the likes of Milford forced his hand.
We are not in the same boat when it comes to our halves. Do you think Bennett woukdve promoted Katoa if he had Moses and Brown ?
Do I think he would have ? no I don't think he would have promoted him to the halves if he had Brown and Moses.
Do I think he would have found a way to keep the best half prospect at the Eels in the last 30 years at the club ? - yes he would have.
How ?
Im not Bennett but Im sure that would have included a plan to move him into the NRL system even if that meant trying Brown at fullback or in the centres. BA has already played Brown in the centre to accommodate Jake so its not a big stretch.
If - and it's a big if, we try sanders and Moses in the halves next year and they absolutely brain it, why wouldn't you look at moving Brown wider ?
Brown could easily play centre or as someone suggested at Fullback and move Gutho to centre.
Sanders may not be the player we think he is but we will never know by keeping him in the lower grades and not trying things.
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