NRL young talent - how does ours compare?

his profile on the roosters site says he is in the front row? is he a forward or a back?

That's incorrect. He is definitely a winger.

[Wally]

who is the karate kid that kicked that dragons bloke

he was angry

i like angry players

That's the kid that played on the wing against the Knights wasn't it? He was fantastic, got quick play-the-balls and was a handful with every touch of the ball. He is a mile in front of any winger I've seen from our junior sides this year including Earl and Tuigamala but he's seemingly disappeared as he hasn't been named since. Does anybody know what happened to him?

Even though our Toyota Cup side has not produced last season or this year, many of the players have seemed to graduate to the NRL structure eg, Williamson, Ahern, Jones, Symonds, Cherrington, Friend, Earl for the Roosters, Tamou with the Cowboys now and Winterstein for the Broncos. There's no question the club has all the talent in the world in our 20's side but there not developing them as they should be.

his profile on the roosters site says he is in the front row? is he a forward or a back?

[Cockadoodledoo]

John Sutton would be the last person on earth i would pay to play football..

Biggest imposter in the NRL...

You have obviously not seen Setamaita Sa.

He is injured at the moment, came to us from the Doggies last year and played in the SG ball grand final winning side (although I think missed a large chunk of that season due to injury as well). Sat out the first half of the under 20's season and finally made his debut against the Knights but did the same thing Kennedy did to his ankle late in the game and had to be taken off.

He is very classy, along with Idris he was rated the brightest prospect to come through in the next few years. Says the Roosters look after him better than the Doggies ever did... hopefully he can stay injury free. Very light on his feet... will be a breathe of fresh air.

Was he better than Idris coming through the Bulldogs system? You say the Roosters look after him better than the Dogs ever did? What happened? Did they release him?

I was wondering where this kid came from, he came out of the blue but I rate him very, very highly, and I can see why he was rated alongside Idris as the brightest prospect coming through. Any player to rival Idris as the next big thing must be very, very good because that's a massive call. Idris is a monster and this kid could turn out to be our version. Like Roosters_6 mentioned, is a very classy player and if he can stay injury-free, will be a very big part of our side this year or next.

The way I see us working:

Minichiello will be our fullback, he will chime in as a support player on a regular basis as he always does.

Perrett and SKD on the wings will do what they do best, which is finish off set plays out wide, support offloaders up the middle, and make plenty of yards off kick returns and dummy-half scoots.

Mitchell Aubusson will be one centre, and Ben Jones will be the other. Both might not be amazingly skillful at breaking the line or scoring bucketloads of tries, but both are relatively reliable defensively (bar Jones' lapses he made against Matt Prior last week, he has been pretty solid), and what they lack in strike power, they make up for in providing great ball to SKD and Perrett - both having previous experience as ballplayers.

Pearce and Carney will run the show as the halves, pretty straightforward there.

Myles and Paea will be our starting frontrow hopefully. They are our two most experienced forwards, as well as providing the most go-forward. They will lead from the front hopefully, making all the hard yards early on. Friend at hooker will provide sharp service and hopefully dart around the ruck when he has the chance.

Although Anasta will be named at lock, I feel that Setaimata Sa will play on one fringe, with Setaimata Sa on the other. Both have adequate ball skills and kicking games to cause havoc out wide, and both have a preferred side of the field. By working out wide, our centres and wingers should get plenty of great balls, the same way Glenn Stewart and Steve Menzies worked for Manly. Conn will be our main Fitzgibbon replacement, playing as the sort of hardhead of our pack, tackling anything that moves and taking some hard runs up the guts of the defense.

Off the bench, James Aubusson can provide relief for both Conn and Friend, by shouldering some of the defensive workload while jetting into dummy half and hopefully given permission to attack more. Tom Symonds can come on and play as a roving hole-hitter as he is now, hopefully sparking linebreaks anywhere on the field. Cherrington and Nuuausala can both come on for Myles and Paea, to continue our go-forward but providing a more attacking edge to our frontrow. Paea and Myles are more metre-eater hitup men, while Cherro and FPN can spark second phase play, which will be ideal for Minichiello, Perrett, SKD and Pearce to be sniffing around the ruck.

1. Minichiello, 2. Perrett, 3. M Aubusson, 4. Jones, 5. Kenny-Dowall, 6. Carney, 7. Pearce, 8. Myles, 9. Friend, 10. Paea, 11. Sa, 12. Conn, 13. Anasta, BENCH: 14. J Aubusson, 15. Symonds, 16. Cherrington, 17. Nuuausala

Expect to see Warea-Hargreaves, Masoe, Waqa, Kouparitsas and a few others floating in and out of the team throughout the year too.

You really do know your stuff. It's a very impressive team you've assembled there.

what about Mason??? - if he stays

If he stays, one of Conn, Cherrington or Symonds is sure to drop out. Or, Setaimata Sa will move to the centres and Jones will drop out. Either way, I'd rather Mason go.

He is injured at the moment, came to us from the Doggies last year and played in the SG ball grand final winning side (although I think missed a large chunk of that season due to injury as well). Sat out the first half of the under 20's season and finally made his debut against the Knights but did the same thing Kennedy did to his ankle late in the game and had to be taken off.

He is very classy, along with Idris he was rated the brightest prospect to come through in the next few years. Says the Roosters look after him better than the Doggies ever did... hopefully he can stay injury free. Very light on his feet... will be a breathe of fresh air.

Can't wait to see this kid in action for the first grade team if he is as good as he sounds. Might be the sort of winger we have needed for a long time!

[Rooster_6]

That's the kid that played on the wing against the Knights wasn't it? He was fantastic, got quick play-the-balls and was a handful with every touch of the ball. He is a mile in front of any winger I've seen from our junior sides this year including Earl and Tuigamala but he's seemingly disappeared as he hasn't been named since. Does anybody know what happened to him?

Even though our Toyota Cup side has not produced last season or this year, many of the players have seemed to graduate to the NRL structure eg, Williamson, Ahern, Jones, Symonds, Cherrington, Friend, Earl for the Roosters, Tamou with the Cowboys now and Winterstein for the Broncos. There's no question the club has all the talent in the world in our 20's side but there not developing them as they should be.

He is injured at the moment, came to us from the Doggies last year and played in the SG ball grand final winning side (although I think missed a large chunk of that season due to injury as well). Sat out the first half of the under 20's season and finally made his debut against the Knights but did the same thing Kennedy did to his ankle late in the game and had to be taken off.

He is very classy, along with Idris he was rated the brightest prospect to come through in the next few years. Says the Roosters look after him better than the Doggies ever did... hopefully he can stay injury free. Very light on his feet... will be a breathe of fresh air.

The way I see us working:

Minichiello will be our fullback, he will chime in as a support player on a regular basis as he always does.

Perrett and SKD on the wings will do what they do best, which is finish off set plays out wide, support offloaders up the middle, and make plenty of yards off kick returns and dummy-half scoots.

Mitchell Aubusson will be one centre, and Ben Jones will be the other. Both might not be amazingly skillful at breaking the line or scoring bucketloads of tries, but both are relatively reliable defensively (bar Jones' lapses he made against Matt Prior last week, he has been pretty solid), and what they lack in strike power, they make up for in providing great ball to SKD and Perrett - both having previous experience as ballplayers.

Pearce and Carney will run the show as the halves, pretty straightforward there.

Myles and Paea will be our starting frontrow hopefully. They are our two most experienced forwards, as well as providing the most go-forward. They will lead from the front hopefully, making all the hard yards early on. Friend at hooker will provide sharp service and hopefully dart around the ruck when he has the chance.

Although Anasta will be named at lock, I feel that Setaimata Sa will play on one fringe, with Setaimata Sa on the other. Both have adequate ball skills and kicking games to cause havoc out wide, and both have a preferred side of the field. By working out wide, our centres and wingers should get plenty of great balls, the same way Glenn Stewart and Steve Menzies worked for Manly. Conn will be our main Fitzgibbon replacement, playing as the sort of hardhead of our pack, tackling anything that moves and taking some hard runs up the guts of the defense.

Off the bench, James Aubusson can provide relief for both Conn and Friend, by shouldering some of the defensive workload while jetting into dummy half and hopefully given permission to attack more. Tom Symonds can come on and play as a roving hole-hitter as he is now, hopefully sparking linebreaks anywhere on the field. Cherrington and Nuuausala can both come on for Myles and Paea, to continue our go-forward but providing a more attacking edge to our frontrow. Paea and Myles are more metre-eater hitup men, while Cherro and FPN can spark second phase play, which will be ideal for Minichiello, Perrett, SKD and Pearce to be sniffing around the ruck.

1. Minichiello, 2. Perrett, 3. M Aubusson, 4. Jones, 5. Kenny-Dowall, 6. Carney, 7. Pearce, 8. Myles, 9. Friend, 10. Paea, 11. Sa, 12. Conn, 13. Anasta, BENCH: 14. J Aubusson, 15. Symonds, 16. Cherrington, 17. Nuuausala

Expect to see Warea-Hargreaves, Masoe, Waqa, Kouparitsas and a few others floating in and out of the team throughout the year too.

what about Mason??? - if he stays

The way I see us working:

Minichiello will be our fullback, he will chime in as a support player on a regular basis as he always does.

Perrett and SKD on the wings will do what they do best, which is finish off set plays out wide, support offloaders up the middle, and make plenty of yards off kick returns and dummy-half scoots.

Mitchell Aubusson will be one centre, and Ben Jones will be the other. Both might not be amazingly skillful at breaking the line or scoring bucketloads of tries, but both are relatively reliable defensively (bar Jones' lapses he made against Matt Prior last week, he has been pretty solid), and what they lack in strike power, they make up for in providing great ball to SKD and Perrett - both having previous experience as ballplayers.

Pearce and Carney will run the show as the halves, pretty straightforward there.

Myles and Paea will be our starting frontrow hopefully. They are our two most experienced forwards, as well as providing the most go-forward. They will lead from the front hopefully, making all the hard yards early on. Friend at hooker will provide sharp service and hopefully dart around the ruck when he has the chance.

Although Anasta will be named at lock, I feel that Setaimata Sa will play on one fringe, with Setaimata Sa on the other. Both have adequate ball skills and kicking games to cause havoc out wide, and both have a preferred side of the field. By working out wide, our centres and wingers should get plenty of great balls, the same way Glenn Stewart and Steve Menzies worked for Manly. Conn will be our main Fitzgibbon replacement, playing as the sort of hardhead of our pack, tackling anything that moves and taking some hard runs up the guts of the defense.

Off the bench, James Aubusson can provide relief for both Conn and Friend, by shouldering some of the defensive workload while jetting into dummy half and hopefully given permission to attack more. Tom Symonds can come on and play as a roving hole-hitter as he is now, hopefully sparking linebreaks anywhere on the field. Cherrington and Nuuausala can both come on for Myles and Paea, to continue our go-forward but providing a more attacking edge to our frontrow. Paea and Myles are more metre-eater hitup men, while Cherro and FPN can spark second phase play, which will be ideal for Minichiello, Perrett, SKD and Pearce to be sniffing around the ruck.

1. Minichiello, 2. Perrett, 3. M Aubusson, 4. Jones, 5. Kenny-Dowall, 6. Carney, 7. Pearce, 8. Myles, 9. Friend, 10. Paea, 11. Sa, 12. Conn, 13. Anasta, BENCH: 14. J Aubusson, 15. Symonds, 16. Cherrington, 17. Nuuausala

Expect to see Warea-Hargreaves, Masoe, Waqa, Kouparitsas and a few others floating in and out of the team throughout the year too.

Dare i say, that besides looking at some speed out wide we shouldn't really be active this season in the FA market ?

I think with the right coach, and the young talent we have coming through we should bite down and aim for 6th or 7th position. By then we'll have a good idea as to what we actually need and can buy accordingly.
I know some won't accept the fact that we won't be a top 4 side next season however this is how rebuilding works.
The last thing we want to do is stack our player ranks and dour the young players hoping to crack 1st grade.

Exactly. We can not be a top 4 side each and every year. There is always a rebuilding stage that every team goes through every few years and it's our turn now. Next year we'll have a really young side, probably the youngest in the league but it'll be good for the young players to get experience in the top grade and learn from the more experienced players in the team. The young players will get there turn next year. Also a think moving Anasta to lock if we buy Carney will be a massive bonus. We'll be able to play a more expansive game with Anasta at lock. It didn't work this year because we didn't have a good enough five-eighth but with Carney, we can afford to again try out Ansta at lock plan.

Dare i say, that besides looking at some speed out wide we shouldn't really be active this season in the FA market ?

I think with the right coach, and the young talent we have coming through we should bite down and aim for 6th or 7th position. By then we'll have a good idea as to what we actually need and can buy accordingly.
I know some won't accept the fact that we won't be a top 4 side next season however this is how rebuilding works.
The last thing we want to do is stack our player ranks and dour the young players hoping to crack 1st grade.

I know it's a bit early but can anybody put together who is been retained next year and who isn't? I'm not really sure at all about what the team might look like next year. I know we've seen a young South African, but that's about all I know. Have we signed any big name players for next year and have we retained any of our Toyota Cup players or signed any good ones from other clubs?

Hodgson and Stagg were viewed by many as solid but not spectacular first-graders. Josh Morris is an outstanding talented player but had a poor season with Dragons mainly due to handling errors. Kimmorley was always a solid player but recently had been a bit down on form and no-one expected him to do as well as he has been this year. Eastwood is a talented player notorious for being lazy.

Stagg and Hodgson were known good toilers, that's all they are at the dogs as well.

Morris had a blinder of a season last year from about round 7 or 8 onwards.

Kimmorely was the sharks best player for a number of years, he got much undeserved criticism and Eastwood always still had the talent.

It was still very strong recruitment, regardless of what spin you put on it now, and we all knew it at the time. Perhaps the rise was not expected to be as large, but they were always going to contest the 8 from winning the spoon.

Hodgson and Stagg were viewed by many as solid but not spectacular first-graders. Josh Morris is an outstanding talented player but had a poor season with Dragons mainly due to handling errors. Kimmorley was always a solid player but recently had been a bit down on form and no-one expected him to do as well as he has been this year. Eastwood is a talented player notorious for being lazy.