2024 Round 8 v Sharks: Game Day

[T_R]

Schiller looks a bit bewildered in defence and in other circumstances would need to be looked closely at, but for the life of me I just can't see where tries are going to come from except through ad-hoc moments by individual players, and he's probably as good as anyone on that.

Im not a Ricky fan, but I feel a bit for him here...there's no easy way forward on this team at the moment.

[Hando]

The recruitment has been appalling ever since George Williams has left and it is starting to show. You shouldn’t ever be in the position that you have no back up halfback, a 18 year old fullback who is clearly not ready, a shortage of second rowers to such a degree that you can’t drop a seriously out of form player whilst also playing another bloke who is clearly not good enough and having Levi/Starling as your hookers.

The squad needs a complete overhaul and we need a new coach and a different mindset to run it as well.

To be fair Troy Dargan was recruited as a backup halfback.

[Hando]

I will note that this is a very inexperienced backline. And we are really going to struggle without a quality 7 until Fogarty returns.

Which makes me think Cook ahead of Weekes next week.

I'm still very disappointed with our forwards, they've been dominated by the Sharks twice now.

We all knew (in our heads anyway) this was a transition year with so many rookies.

Injuries to Horsburgh, Hosking and Fogarty have really tested our depth.

Heads up lads. Let's try to enjoy the growth of Strange, Chevy etc

I think Cook should've played v Sharks. He's no world beater but he is an organising 7. Weekes isn't and never will be a halfback.

[BadnMean]

Looking at the stats, the game for the most part is pretty even, they ran for 400m more

The glaring stat is 64 missed tackles, that's ridiculous. That suggests they'd been beaten before they got off the bus. Whether it was Fogartys injury or the Brisbane game was draining mentally, they just didn't turn up to play

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I think a young team find it dispiriting to be continually turned away in the red zone- it eats away at confidence and then when a try is scored against it feels a bit "here we go again" after that pattern repeats. Young players lose confidence quicker.

You need a team of hard nosed pro's who all believe to stick at it when that happens. We are a long way off that.

If we find a way to score some points I think the energy and confidence lifts.

[Botman]

Schiller looks a bit bewildered in defence and in other circumstances would need to be looked closely at, but for the life of me I just can't see where tries are going to come from except through ad-hoc moments by individual players, and he's probably as good as anyone on that.

Im not a Ricky fan, but I feel a bit for him here...there's no easy way forward on this team at the moment.

Agreed on the last line. As i said last night there is a handful of stuff we can do around the margins to get a little better. 1-2% here and there, and cumulatively that could all amount to being 10-15% better but there is no real answer for the fact we've got key injuries that have forced us to have to bring in too many young blokes too soon and we just kind of have to take our lumps on the scoreboard and W/L column and trust that these kids will come through the baptism of fire.

Re: Schiller. He's got huge defensive issues and if he was staying at the club i'd be inclined to stick with him and work through those issues as a young player because as you say, the only way we're scoring points right now is through moments from individuals and he offers a lot in that respect
But given he's off to the knights, i wouldn't be upset if he was put back to cup... though the question of who comes in to replace him and the likely answer being Hopoate does nothing to excite me or improve this team imo.

[Rickmando]

I will note that this is a very inexperienced backline. And we are really going to struggle without a quality 7 until Fogarty returns.

Which makes me think Cook ahead of Weekes next week.

I'm still very disappointed with our forwards, they've been dominated by the Sharks twice now.

We all knew (in our heads anyway) this was a transition year with so many rookies.

Injuries to Horsburgh, Hosking and Fogarty have really tested our depth.

Heads up lads. Let's try to enjoy the growth of Strange, Chevy etc

I think Cook should've played v Sharks. He's no world beater but he is an organising 7. Weekes isn't and never will be a halfback.

Exactly. Cook is more “like for like” with Jamal than Weekes is, by a long stretch.

But I’ve got no doubt Rick has picked Weekes because he’s “made him a promise”, “he’s next in line” or some other personal reason that frankly should take a back seat to what is the best outcome for the team.

All this “man management” around loyalty to good blokes that Rick perpetrates is not the great strength he probably thinks it is. As HC you have to be able to make tough calls, the right calls, when you’re presented with new information. But when you go head over heels like Rick does with the passion, you make a rod for your own back down the line, and can’t be objective.

[Regs Revolution]

Easy. Shift Weekes to FB and Cook to 7.

[Rickmando]

Easy. Shift Weekes to FB and Cook to 7.

I’m not advocating to drop Chevy, I’d rather he gets experience in the top grade while he can.

My other thought on FB is - Savage is the best one we have in the club right now.

BUT I’ve always thought Weekes’s best position to be FB. If he ends up having a run for us there, I wouldn’t be disappointed.

[Roger Kenworthy]

Hudson Young's lucky we've got the problems we do in the edge position, otherwise he should be facing a stint in reggies

He's been very disappointing from the games ive seen
We need MUCH better from him

All evidence is that he doesn't have much better to give. His "bad streak of form" has run about four times longer than his good streak did.

Never wrong, only early.
His edge play leaves a lot to be desired.

I struggle to see how the left edge will ever get any continuity with his rogue attacking plays. Kris really hasn't seen any quality ball all season.

[greeneyed]

[BJ]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

[-PJ-]

Give it time.

[myanonymoususername]

The recruitment has been appalling ever since George Williams has left and it is starting to show. You shouldn’t ever be in the position that you have no back up halfback, a 18 year old fullback who is clearly not ready, a shortage of second rowers to such a degree that you can’t drop a seriously out of form player whilst also playing another bloke who is clearly not good enough and having Levi/Starling as your hookers.

The squad needs a complete overhaul and we need a new coach and a different mindset to run it as well.

To be fair Troy Dargan was recruited as a backup halfback.

I noticed Dargan is still listed in the NRL squad on the Raiders web site. Pretty poor and amateurish I though. Not to mention all the players without photos, and those with a photo on one page where they are listed but not on the other where they're also listed. The web site looks like its been put together in 5 minutes on a $2 budget.

Much like the professionalism of the football department, I'd say if I wanted to be cruel.

[-TW-]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

They'd also be basing it on a very small sample size

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[Hong Kong Raider]

It really takes two seasons of FG football to know.

Sam Walker, who looked the goods from day one, was dropped to reserve grade for a significant period. Siua Wong has been up and down this year. Conversely, Hoppa and Schuster were great juniors but haven't translated that into FG.

Young players have different growth spurts as well. I'm sure someone like Sanders has never faced someone like Olakau'atu running at them all day.

It's difficult to blame it on a young FB and to gauge his ability when the team is getting dominated up front. I'd like to see Chevy play when we are on the front foot. It's fine to blood young players but that assumes they will get support from the senior players but the senior players really let us down yesterday.

[Azza]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

They'd also be basing it on a very small sample size

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

They are also Broncos supporters.

[greeneyed]

The recruitment has been appalling ever since George Williams has left and it is starting to show. You shouldn’t ever be in the position that you have no back up halfback, a 18 year old fullback who is clearly not ready, a shortage of second rowers to such a degree that you can’t drop a seriously out of form player whilst also playing another bloke who is clearly not good enough and having Levi/Starling as your hookers.

The squad needs a complete overhaul and we need a new coach and a different mindset to run it as well.

To be fair Troy Dargan was recruited as a backup halfback.

I noticed Dargan is still listed in the NRL squad on the Raiders web site. Pretty poor and amateurish I though. Not to mention all the players without photos, and those with a photo on one page where they are listed but not on the other where they're also listed. The web site looks like its been put together in 5 minutes on a $2 budget.

Much like the professionalism of the football department, I'd say if I wanted to be cruel.

I think it would be a mark of respect to Troy to leave him there as part of the team for this year.

[BadnMean]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

Yes we will be over rating some. Not all careers will plan out. Some will develop at different rates. No one rated Nicho Hynes at 21. But he's pretty good by 25. Fog even later (not quite the same heights but very influential).

Strange looks very good for 19. I could honestly see him having a Greg Bird type career with his build and skill set (besides hopefully not being a dirtbag). Probably a bit quicker but nuggety tough guy competitor with some ball playing touches as well.

Chevy is debuting a year or two too early. But most fans of other teams only think immortals are any good (look what we do to any player rumoured to sign here, 90% of them aren't good enough!). So if you're comparing to Walsh at 18, you'd think Chevy was pretty meh so far. I don't think we've seen his main strengths (passing and support play) much yet and I suspect he's got more to his running game once he gets stronger.

If we are counting Sanders I think the excitement comes from thinking we could potentially have two top 5 halves on the books at the same time. Been eons since we could say that. And it may be 5-7 years until/if they ever get that good.

Mooney I'd think was meh if all i'd seen is his FG games. Fair enough. He hasn't done much yet. Needs to adjust from being the biggest and scariest man on the field to a field in reggies to mixing it up with others at his physical level.

Mariota has taken a finals game by the scruff. That's why we are excited. But again, every club has a couple of young tyro forwards.

So I don't think we undoubtedly have a bunch of worldbeaters. It's the potential halves I'm highest on ability and that's so hard to recruit that if you get them and they pan out, all the other recruiting is far far easier to fit in around them.

[The Nickman]

It all starts at dummy half though, BnM. Every single damned play

Let’s hope the coach sorts that out this week

[myanonymoususername]

The recruitment has been appalling ever since George Williams has left and it is starting to show. You shouldn’t ever be in the position that you have no back up halfback, a 18 year old fullback who is clearly not ready, a shortage of second rowers to such a degree that you can’t drop a seriously out of form player whilst also playing another bloke who is clearly not good enough and having Levi/Starling as your hookers.

The squad needs a complete overhaul and we need a new coach and a different mindset to run it as well.

To be fair Troy Dargan was recruited as a backup halfback.

I noticed Dargan is still listed in the NRL squad on the Raiders web site. Pretty poor and amateurish I though. Not to mention all the players without photos, and those with a photo on one page where they are listed but not on the other where they're also listed. The web site looks like its been put together in 5 minutes on a $2 budget.

Much like the professionalism of the football department, I'd say if I wanted to be cruel.

I think it would be a mark of respect to Troy to leave him there as part of the team for this year.

Perhaps, you could look at it this way. It did cross my mind.

[President Clinton]

The recruitment has been appalling ever since George Williams has left and it is starting to show. You shouldn’t ever be in the position that you have no back up halfback, a 18 year old fullback who is clearly not ready, a shortage of second rowers to such a degree that you can’t drop a seriously out of form player whilst also playing another bloke who is clearly not good enough and having Levi/Starling as your hookers.

The squad needs a complete overhaul and we need a new coach and a different mindset to run it as well.

To be fair Troy Dargan was recruited as a backup halfback.

I noticed Dargan is still listed in the NRL squad on the Raiders web site. Pretty poor and amateurish I though. Not to mention all the players without photos, and those with a photo on one page where they are listed but not on the other where they're also listed. The web site looks like its been put together in 5 minutes on a $2 budget.

Much like the professionalism of the football department, I'd say if I wanted to be cruel.

I think it would be a mark of respect to Troy to leave him there as part of the team for this year.

Perhaps, you could look at it this way. It did cross my mind.

Troy’s bio on the Raiders website says:

Biography:
As a mark of respect for the Dargan family, the Canberra Raiders would like to acknowledge Troy as a squad member for the 2024 season.

———

Offttt.

[BadnMean]

It all starts at dummy half though, BnM. Every single damned play

Let’s hope the coach sorts that out this week

Completely agree.

Woolf at least takes the right option more often than not, which at least would actually help the others development to get the ball a fraction quicker and at the right moments when a play is actually on.

Recruitment for '25 onwards hopefully we are looking at 9.

[Neeeegz]

Schiller looks a bit bewildered in defence and in other circumstances would need to be looked closely at, but for the life of me I just can't see where tries are going to come from except through ad-hoc moments by individual players, and he's probably as good as anyone on that.

Im not a Ricky fan, but I feel a bit for him here...there's no easy way forward on this team at the moment.

Yes there is.
Drop Levi and start woolford. That will fix our forwards.
Weekes isn't a half, he should take starlings spot at 14. Fast and can come on late in a half to support an offload type player
But we don't offload so it's s moot point lol
And can they get a dispensation from the nrl to play cook since our back up half passed away ?
I do not mean that to sound disrespectful in any way

[The Nickman]

Schiller looks a bit bewildered in defence and in other circumstances would need to be looked closely at, but for the life of me I just can't see where tries are going to come from except through ad-hoc moments by individual players, and he's probably as good as anyone on that.

Im not a Ricky fan, but I feel a bit for him here...there's no easy way forward on this team at the moment.

Yes there is.
Drop Levi and start woolford. That will fix our forwards.
Weekes isn't a half, he should take starlings spot at 14. Fast and can come on late in a half to support an offload type player
But we don't offload so it's s moot point lol

I disagree. I’d be more than happy with Woolford at 9 and Levi at 14 until someone proves to be a better option at dummy half

[The Nickman]

Schiller looks a bit bewildered in defence and in other circumstances would need to be looked closely at, but for the life of me I just can't see where tries are going to come from except through ad-hoc moments by individual players, and he's probably as good as anyone on that.

Im not a Ricky fan, but I feel a bit for him here...there's no easy way forward on this team at the moment.

Yes there is.
Drop Levi and start woolford. That will fix our forwards.
Weekes isn't a half, he should take starlings spot at 14. Fast and can come on late in a half to support an offload type player
But we don't offload so it's s moot point lol

I disagree. I’d be more than happy with Woolford at 9 and Levi at 14 until someone proves to be a better option at dummy half

[Neeeegz]

Schiller looks a bit bewildered in defence and in other circumstances would need to be looked closely at, but for the life of me I just can't see where tries are going to come from except through ad-hoc moments by individual players, and he's probably as good as anyone on that.

Im not a Ricky fan, but I feel a bit for him here...there's no easy way forward on this team at the moment.

Yes there is.
Drop Levi and start woolford. That will fix our forwards.
Weekes isn't a half, he should take starlings spot at 14. Fast and can come on late in a half to support an offload type player
But we don't offload so it's s moot point lol

I disagree. I’d be more than happy with Woolford at 9 and Levi at 14 until someone proves to be a better option at dummy half

I could handle Levi at 14 with starlings 15 minutes a game, but that's it, woolford to start for me

[The Nickman]

Schiller looks a bit bewildered in defence and in other circumstances would need to be looked closely at, but for the life of me I just can't see where tries are going to come from except through ad-hoc moments by individual players, and he's probably as good as anyone on that.

Im not a Ricky fan, but I feel a bit for him here...there's no easy way forward on this team at the moment.

Yes there is.
Drop Levi and start woolford. That will fix our forwards.
Weekes isn't a half, he should take starlings spot at 14. Fast and can come on late in a half to support an offload type player
But we don't offload so it's s moot point lol

I disagree. I’d be more than happy with Woolford at 9 and Levi at 14 until someone proves to be a better option at dummy half

I could handle Levi at 14 with starlings 15 minutes a game, but that's it, woolford to start for me

Yep, agreed

Even 20min of Levi is better than 10min of Starling

[gerg]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

You have Broncos supporting mates? That's truly disgraceful and you should be ashamed. Get in the corner and have a good, long think about your life choices BJ.

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[Finchy]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

In a word, probably. I feel like many fans over-rate our juniors, and have done for many years when most amount to nothing special. Examples include Jermaine Ale, Michael Dobson, Marc Herbert, Luke PAGE, Lachlan Croker, Brad Schneider, Adrian Trevilyan. Croker at least has carved out a decent hooker career at Manly thanks to that stabby bloke getting jailed.

Now it's very early days and I don't want to be overly critical of anyone. If I dare mention the fact that even 1 of our juniors may not end up being a superstar, I risk getting abused for the mere thought.

Yes these guys are very young and have only played a handful of games. They might end up as superstars, or they may end up like the ones mentioned above.

I do have some concerns. I feel like you can generally tell which players are superstars in the making. I'm sure there are exceptions, but when the likes of Benji, Slater, Cleary, Ponga, Turbo, Walsh, Luai, The Hammer, etc debuted they dominated (or at least looked very very comfortable) and had plenty of flashy plays.

That Fa'alogo kid from Melbourne on debut last year, and this year Trai Fuller (Dolphins), Jye Gray (Souths), David Armstrong (Knights) (all fullbacks) look very talented. Usually these players have exceptional speed, footwork, passing skills, or a combination of these.

Now I'm not saying Chevy doesn't have these qualities, but in his 3 games thus far he hasn't shown much in that respect in my opinion. He gets points for: running hard (doesn't avoid contact), attacking the high ball (shocker against Brisbane but it was wet), and charging down the field goal attempt vs Titans. Haven't seen much in the way of exceptional speed, footwork, or ball-playing yet.

Unfortunately, there's a lot more to elite fullback play than just running hard and trying to catch bombs, otherwise we may as well persist with Seb Kris there. Now again, I'm not bagging the kid. Yes he's 18. Yes he's only had 3 games. Perfectly valid points. Happy to give him a lot more time.

But I have seen a lot more potential in the names listed above, who have also only played 1 or a couple of games this year, which is why I have some reservations that Stewart may not end up being the next Tedesco or Slater. But hopefully I'm wrong.

Mooney hasn't shown much in his first grade stints. Dominates at cup level, but so did PAGE. I hope he can kick on.

Strange reminds me of Ponga. At this stage he probably is just "average" but I see elite talent there. Hopefully he also kicks on.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

[myanonymoususername]

To be fair Troy Dargan was recruited as a backup halfback.

I noticed Dargan is still listed in the NRL squad on the Raiders web site. Pretty poor and amateurish I though. Not to mention all the players without photos, and those with a photo on one page where they are listed but not on the other where they're also listed. The web site looks like its been put together in 5 minutes on a $2 budget.

Much like the professionalism of the football department, I'd say if I wanted to be cruel.

I think it would be a mark of respect to Troy to leave him there as part of the team for this year.

Perhaps, you could look at it this way. It did cross my mind.

Troy’s bio on the Raiders website says:

Biography:
As a mark of respect for the Dargan family, the Canberra Raiders would like to acknowledge Troy as a squad member for the 2024 season.

———

Offttt.

Oops, then I'll just pull my head in (on that point, anyway).

[-TW-]

I noticed Dargan is still listed in the NRL squad on the Raiders web site. Pretty poor and amateurish I though. Not to mention all the players without photos, and those with a photo on one page where they are listed but not on the other where they're also listed. The web site looks like its been put together in 5 minutes on a $2 budget.

Much like the professionalism of the football department, I'd say if I wanted to be cruel.

I think it would be a mark of respect to Troy to leave him there as part of the team for this year.

Perhaps, you could look at it this way. It did cross my mind.

Troy’s bio on the Raiders website says:

Biography:
As a mark of respect for the Dargan family, the Canberra Raiders would like to acknowledge Troy as a squad member for the 2024 season.

———

Offttt.

Oops, then I'll just pull my head in (on that point, anyway).

A) would've taken 3 seconds to find that if you clicked his profile
B) the club doesn't own the site design, it's the NRL/Telstra
C) similar to b, the photos are only loaded for NRL and nrlw players, this is consistent across other clubs as not all have a feeder club

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Shiv]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

In a word, probably. I feel like many fans over-rate our juniors, and have done for many years when most amount to nothing special. Examples include Jermaine Ale, Michael Dobson, Marc Herbert, Luke PAGE, Lachlan Croker, Brad Schneider, Adrian Trevilyan. Croker at least has carved out a decent hooker career at Manly thanks to that stabby bloke getting jailed.

Now it's very early days and I don't want to be overly critical of anyone. If I dare mention the fact that even 1 of our juniors may not end up being a superstar, I risk getting abused for the mere thought.

Yes these guys are very young and have only played a handful of games. They might end up as superstars, or they may end up like the ones mentioned above.

I do have some concerns. I feel like you can generally tell which players are superstars in the making. I'm sure there are exceptions, but when the likes of Benji, Slater, Cleary, Ponga, Turbo, Walsh, Luai, The Hammer, etc debuted they dominated (or at least looked very very comfortable) and had plenty of flashy plays.

That Fa'alogo kid from Melbourne on debut last year, and this year Trai Fuller (Dolphins), Jye Gray (Souths), David Armstrong (Knights) (all fullbacks) look very talented. Usually these players have exceptional speed, footwork, passing skills, or a combination of these.

Now I'm not saying Chevy doesn't have these qualities, but in his 3 games thus far he hasn't shown much in that respect in my opinion. He gets points for: running hard (doesn't avoid contact), attacking the high ball (shocker against Brisbane but it was wet), and charging down the field goal attempt vs Titans. Haven't seen much in the way of exceptional speed, footwork, or ball-playing yet.

Unfortunately, there's a lot more to elite fullback play than just running hard and trying to catch bombs, otherwise we may as well persist with Seb Kris there. Now again, I'm not bagging the kid. Yes he's 18. Yes he's only had 3 games. Perfectly valid points. Happy to give him a lot more time.

But I have seen a lot more potential in the names listed above, who have also only played 1 or a couple of games this year, which is why I have some reservations that Stewart may not end up being the next Tedesco or Slater. But hopefully I'm wrong.

Mooney hasn't shown much in his first grade stints. Dominates at cup level, but so did PAGE. I hope he can kick on.

Strange reminds me of Ponga. At this stage he probably is just "average" but I see elite talent there. Hopefully he also kicks on.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

I get what you are saying - and realistically the chance of lightning striking for all of Stewart/Strange/Sanders/Savage (ha just realised their all S's - obvious now I think about that) , anyway, the chance is low.

But, I think Xavier has shown he's a bit more, and certainly has improved and I reckon his locked in his spot. Notably though he's now a touch older with more games Cup/NRL than the others - and mostly it shows.
I actually think Ethan is going incredibly well for his 5th game - and a couple of times in a soundly beaten team.
Chevy, hard to tell. Hasn't "popped" like you say, but has been the FB in some absolutely dismal weather and again, behind a beaten pack. Not a lot he can do there as a 3 gamer.. I suspect Ricky's intention here was to play him in NRL *much* later in the season - his hand got forced there, and I fully expect him to go back to cup when Raps is back.
Sanders also hard to tell.

Of them all Xavier seems the closest to an elite Talent, but he's also got time the others don't so hard to tell.

Oh and Cronk according to Gould took like 3 or 4 seasons before he was considered elite - so not everyone impresses on first outing.

[BJ]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

You have Broncos supporting mates? That's truly disgraceful and you should be ashamed. Get in the corner and have a good, long think about your life choices BJ.

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Good point Gerg. It was a shameful admission.

[Botman]

I would just say watch the players and trust your own eyes.
I think anyone making sweeping statements and judgements on guys who have less than 10 first grade games and who are not close to their physical peak are telling on themselves.

And i dont think anyone has definitively declared any of these guys future stars. But we've seen flashes of what they are capable of and fans are quite rightly excited for that potential.

[dubby]

My Broncos supporting mates and then my Sharks supporting work colleague were saying they can’t believe I have been talking up our young players.

They think that Mooney is worse than their reserve props, Chevy is particularly useless with no potential and that Strange is only OK.

Are we over egging the performances of our young players, giving them player of the year points that we wouldn’t give an established player for the same performance or do opposition fans just not see what we see?

I thought Esra Mann and Cobbo weren’t much chop first time I saw them. Well Cobbo I could see some potential, but I thought he was very raw. So maybe Tez is just giving me payback.

Are we over rating our youngsters at this stage of their careers?????

In a word, probably. I feel like many fans over-rate our juniors, and have done for many years when most amount to nothing special. Examples include Jermaine Ale, Michael Dobson, Marc Herbert, Luke PAGE, Lachlan Croker, Brad Schneider, Adrian Trevilyan. Croker at least has carved out a decent hooker career at Manly thanks to that stabby bloke getting jailed.

Now it's very early days and I don't want to be overly critical of anyone. If I dare mention the fact that even 1 of our juniors may not end up being a superstar, I risk getting abused for the mere thought.

Yes these guys are very young and have only played a handful of games. They might end up as superstars, or they may end up like the ones mentioned above.

I do have some concerns. I feel like you can generally tell which players are superstars in the making. I'm sure there are exceptions, but when the likes of Benji, Slater, Cleary, Ponga, Turbo, Walsh, Luai, The Hammer, etc debuted they dominated (or at least looked very very comfortable) and had plenty of flashy plays.

That Fa'alogo kid from Melbourne on debut last year, and this year Trai Fuller (Dolphins), Jye Gray (Souths), David Armstrong (Knights) (all fullbacks) look very talented. Usually these players have exceptional speed, footwork, passing skills, or a combination of these.

Now I'm not saying Chevy doesn't have these qualities, but in his 3 games thus far he hasn't shown much in that respect in my opinion. He gets points for: running hard (doesn't avoid contact), attacking the high ball (shocker against Brisbane but it was wet), and charging down the field goal attempt vs Titans. Haven't seen much in the way of exceptional speed, footwork, or ball-playing yet.

Unfortunately, there's a lot more to elite fullback play than just running hard and trying to catch bombs, otherwise we may as well persist with Seb Kris there. Now again, I'm not bagging the kid. Yes he's 18. Yes he's only had 3 games. Perfectly valid points. Happy to give him a lot more time.

But I have seen a lot more potential in the names listed above, who have also only played 1 or a couple of games this year, which is why I have some reservations that Stewart may not end up being the next Tedesco or Slater. But hopefully I'm wrong.

Mooney hasn't shown much in his first grade stints. Dominates at cup level, but so did PAGE. I hope he can kick on.

Strange reminds me of Ponga. At this stage he probably is just "average" but I see elite talent there. Hopefully he also kicks on.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

I get what you are saying - and realistically the chance of lightning striking for all of Stewart/Strange/Sanders/Savage (ha just realised their all S's - obvious now I think about that) , anyway, the chance is low.

But, I think Xavier has shown he's a bit more, and certainly has improved and I reckon his locked in his spot. Notably though he's now a touch older with more games Cup/NRL than the others - and mostly it shows.
I actually think Ethan is going incredibly well for his 5th game - and a couple of times in a soundly beaten team.
Chevy, hard to tell. Hasn't "popped" like you say, but has been the FB in some absolutely dismal weather and again, behind a beaten pack. Not a lot he can do there as a 3 gamer.. I suspect Ricky's intention here was to play him in NRL *much* later in the season - his hand got forced there, and I fully expect him to go back to cup when Raps is back.
Sanders also hard to tell.

Of them all Xavier seems the closest to an elite Talent, but he's also got time the others don't so hard to tell.

Oh and Cronk according to Gould took like 3 or 4 seasons before he was considered elite - so not everyone impresses on first outing.

Bit hard on Trevilyn, inkee. He has endured some serious injuries which have thwarted his progress.