For mine it's Daniel Alvaro. Enough of this initial prop development prodigy. Alvaro should be at his absolute peak at the age of 25/26, and it's time to shape up or cut him.
Alvaro whilst being a very good working prop, really needs to ramp up his aggressive running. He rarely dominates the opposition on set starts and for mine, he isn't the aggressive dominator we need as a starting prop, meaning at the moment he is a bench player at best. I wouldn't be offering Alvaro any more than 220k, and unless he improves to the next level, Parramatta shouldn't be competing for his signature.
There's also enough coming through with Utoikamanu, Faainga and Kahfusi to cover our future bench positions.
Alvaro has a similar body shape to James Graham, but needs to mentally step up to the plate or start looking elsewhere. He wouldn't look out of place in a Krispy Cream apron for mine.
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I think he's developing nicely, he was amongst our best this year, and whilst that might not mean a whole lot, I think he's going along quite well.
He does his job and he does it well. Not every player is meant to be a future immortal, and not every middle forward has to be a dominator.
To pick on him in isolation, or any middle forward for that matter is short sighted in the extreme.
I doubt you could afford to pay him even that much.
Yep!
He needs to improve greatly in order to gain that respect
No one middle forward can do that for a team, and every team of any quality has it's foot soldiers. I'm not suggesting he should be getting Taumalolo money, clearly he is not or ever will be in that class, but he is a rock solid NRL calibre middle forward. Every team in the league has several Alvaro types on their roster, including the Roosters & Storm.
Who at the roosters ?
Alvaro is a poor mans Tim Glasby.
Dylan Napa performed worse in all stats, run metres, post contact metres, offloads and tackle busts. Napa's defence is also poor so there is 1 rooster Alvaro outperforms in every field yet not given the wraps. Napa makes 1 good run a game and a few big tackles that people remember so they think he has impact.
Alvaro had more tackle breaks then jared warea hargreaves, more offloads as well this season. Stats aren't everything however remembering big hits or runs is misleading as well. A balanced view of both is needed and the fact roosters had stars who step up when others don't perform makes people overlook their poor performances where Alvaro's good performances are overlooked as parra lose.
A player can make 2 explosive runs which are remembered however I would prefer Alvaro who is consistent throughout the game every game. Although stats would suggest he is more explosive then others but it is overlooked His defence is up there or above rep fowards for tackle efficiency as well so he holds his own in the line.
Alvaro 19 games, 24 tackle breaks, 753 post contact metres, 15 offloads and 93.1% tackle efficiency.
Those middle forward stats reveal a SOO standard workhorse both in defence and attack.
check and mate
Of all the players you could have picked on, Alvaro is not the one.
He had decent year in an underperforming team & will really grow having Jr Paulo with him next year. There has to be balance - a pack of Jr Paulos would be great for all of 10 minutes.
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