Tug of war between Sharks and Raiders over Tom Hazelton
Cronulla and Canberra are fighting a two-way battle for giant young prop Tom Hazelton. A 22-year-old from Goulburn, Hazelton has played the last couple of seasons for the Sharks' feeder club Newtown.
At 198 cm and 114 kilos, Hazelton is the ideal size for the modern day front-rower and was a standout in the NSW Cup before COVID brought the competition to a halt.The prop played a couple of first grade trials for the Sharks at the start of the year and just missed getting graded.
You need depth, and a few min wage contracts. If we are losing Sia, James, Lui and we have lost Havili, a dirt cheap middle is probably ok.
However, I agree with the sentiment RE no major signings yet - 10 more days til Nov 1.
I feel like we aren’t even prioritising a halfback right now, feels like it’s been put on the back burner and we will continue sitting on our hands. Middle forward depth is always nice, but not what we want to read about right now.
With Havili, James, Soliola and Lui all being possibly on the outer these younger singings are good and necessary.
I imagine the club are working on a 7 behind the scenes. Wouldn't be surprised if after November 1 there is more movement/talk on the 7 front. Perhaps us pushing for an early release for a CHT, Pearce or Brown.
Matt wrote: ↑September 21, 2021, 8:39 am
You need depth, and a few min wage contracts. If we are losing Sia, James, Lui and we have lost Havili, a dirt cheap middle is probably ok.
However, I agree with the sentiment RE no major signings yet - 10 more days til Nov 1.
Matt wrote: ↑September 21, 2021, 8:39 am
You need depth, and a few min wage contracts. If we are losing Sia, James, Lui and we have lost Havili, a dirt cheap middle is probably ok.
However, I agree with the sentiment RE no major signings yet - 10 more days til Nov 1.
You seem to have skipped the month of October.
Nooooooooooooooooooo....... not 40 days.
Lockdown life, I cant remember what day of the week it is.
Green_Hammock wrote: ↑September 21, 2021, 9:54 am
We need some depth, so I don't mind this at all.
I agree with others though, it'd be nice to sign some actual NRL players.
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He's only 22 and a prop. He actually looks like an NRL player to me- be surpirsed if he didn't make it. Decent mobility and makes yards. If he replaces James, or Sia or Lui I think we'd be winning that trade. (James is ok, but we might save a bit of cap) Hors and Guler need some motivation...
I also think our squad is stale and a club honestly needs to bring in 5 new faces into the 30 most years. Every time we haven't done that, we've stagnated the next season. Just some new faces are needed and he looks ok.
Don’t know him - is he athletic enough for the new game? He is a very large human, and Shannon Boyd and others have shown the pace of the game requires more than size. Has he got the tank, pace and agility for the modern game?
Our recruitment has been poor the last couple of years, for 2021 especially. We were caught out by the new rules and took in an ageing/slow squad only adding Aekins, James and Rushton who all did not set the world on fire. We need fresh blood and NRL talent, while I don’t think this would be a bad signing, it’s not one to give us hope that 2022 will be any different to 2021.
I hope we sign him from what I have seen - albeit only one full game and the above highlights. I can see him playing FG next year in the spot Guler/Horsburgh should have cemented by now.
Billy Walker wrote: ↑September 21, 2021, 11:48 am
Don’t know him - is he athletic enough for the new game? He is a very large human, and Shannon Boyd and others have shown the pace of the game requires more than size. Has he got the tank, pace and agility for the modern game?
Looks like a decent mover in the highlights. Had a look at his stats, if you can rack up 43 tackles (1 miss) + 188 metres in the same game, that'd suggest he gets around the park ok and can handle a workload enough that he's seeking tackles to get involved in.
Ok, Ive just looked at the highlights, and MEH! Big body guy, sure. Doesnt really have an offload, and isnt exactly dynamic with or without the ball. Depth is all I can see there.
Matt wrote: ↑September 21, 2021, 1:17 pm
Ok, Ive just looked at the highlights, and MEH! Big body guy, sure. Doesnt really have an offload, and isnt exactly dynamic with or without the ball. Depth is all I can see there.
I thought his metres were good. He'd be a 4th/5th prop- exactly where I want the option of a no frills, hard yards prop. The lack of yards from Sia and Lui was galling at times. The makes a lot more post contact metres than Guler for example. I'd happily have him on board.
Matt wrote: ↑September 21, 2021, 1:17 pm
Ok, Ive just looked at the highlights, and MEH! Big body guy, sure. Doesnt really have an offload, and isnt exactly dynamic with or without the ball. Depth is all I can see there.
I thought his metres were good. He'd be a 4th/5th prop- exactly where I want the option of a no frills, hard yards prop. The lack of yards from Sia and Lui was galling at times. The makes a lot more post contact metres than Guler for example. I'd happily have him on board.
I'm all for bringing in fresh faces, but I didn't see a lot other than a run of the mill middle in the highlights reel. He's young and big and ran with aggression against reggies defenders. Sure the club needs depth in every position, but the silence on the 7 position is a head shaker. I wonder if Toots jnr has pushed for the Goulburn lad to join the Raiders. Anyways, sign him up if he's on close to minimum pay and move on.
Matt wrote: ↑September 21, 2021, 1:17 pm
Ok, Ive just looked at the highlights, and MEH! Big body guy, sure. Doesnt really have an offload, and isnt exactly dynamic with or without the ball. Depth is all I can see there.
I thought his metres were good. He'd be a 4th/5th prop- exactly where I want the option of a no frills, hard yards prop. The lack of yards from Sia and Lui was galling at times. The makes a lot more post contact metres than Guler for example. I'd happily have him on board.
Thats how Guler looks in NSW Cup though.
Absolutely not. His post contact metres are about triple Gulers- small sample but significant. He's making about double the # of tackles per game, his overall metres 50%+ more. Not accurate at all.
zim wrote: ↑September 22, 2021, 12:14 pm
I think forwards that are straight runners are pretty well covered. We need something a little different.
Exactly. We have people like Sutton who runs hard and straight but with no or minimal ball skills, who Ricky insists on playing at lock when other locks in the comp like Cameron Murray, Victor Radley, Yeo, Jake Turbo give you that added dimension. Even Trent Robinson wants to play Connor Watson as a 14 at lock. Even Nathan Brown has better ball skills than Sutton.
Sutton has been one of our better performers in the last two years but he is a prop and not a lock. He hasn't developed any ball skills in that time.
zim wrote: ↑September 22, 2021, 12:14 pm
I think forwards that are straight runners are pretty well covered. We need something a little different.
Exactly. We have people like Sutton who runs hard and straight but with no or minimal ball skills, who Ricky insists on playing at lock when other locks in the comp like Cameron Murray, Victor Radley, Yeo, Jake Turbo give you that added dimension. Even Trent Robinson wants to play Connor Watson as a 14 at lock. Even Nathan Brown has better ball skills than Sutton.
Sutton has been one of our better performers in the last two years but he is a prop and not a lock. He hasn't developed any ball skills in that time.
Lets face it, he wore the 13, but we were playing 3 props. None were ball players (Papa has it in him though - has thrown some money cutouts in his career), even if our 2 best are offload merchants.
Going into next year we need a new plan! Id be using Sutton to split Papa and Tapine up, and playing a more mobile player at lock, even if that player is Hodgo, Whitey, potentially Peachey or 'insert other option here'.
