Yes Jaylan De Groot has done well on the wing for the Cudgen Hornets NRRRL First Grade over the last season or two and I agree that he is likely to break into the Queensland Cup/NRL on the wing before moving to fullback which is his best position.
For me he is a Clint Gutherson type who is dangerous through the centre of the ruck.
Bulletin saying that De Groot :
"This week the Titans signed the 18-year-old to a three-year contract to join their NRL squad on a train-and-trial basis in 2022 and 2023 before going full-time in the 2024 development squad. "
So he may be a fair way off at this stage but has time on his side.
Thanks for posting this WD. It's an interesting approach from the club but a smart one that is going to see them keep more JTS products around the NRL squad without committing them immediately to development deals, or losing them to another club. I assume Jaylan will do a few days a week with the NRL squad throughout the season as well.
I think Isaac Mataleva-Booth is similar - i.e. T&T with NRL next year, train with them on a part time basis throughout the season, and then going full-time development in 2023. Meanwhile the club can have him develop through the ISC system but be close enough to the NRL side to get the extra development and learn their systems.
I am surprised to hear that tesi niu isn't signed for next year. I would love the club to make a play at him, but don't see where he would fit in. Unless he can play hooker.
Do we think that either Jojo Fafita of Lofi will make their NRL debut next year? Seems a bit odd that we have two players in our full time 30 that haven’t played QCup yet
Scratch that. Just checked brusbane website. Definitely signed. Fox was wrong, who would've thought it.
Sloppy reporting from fox. Not sure if people realise or care but fox and none have essentially banned nrl.com from doing their shows and breakdowns next year. Absolutely disgraceful that the nrl have allowed that to happen as it’s great reporting and makes the nrl heaps of money independent of two media monopolies that control our game
Thanks HZ and mdrew. Sounds like you’ve got confidence that they will be able to handle the step up.
Watching the Tweed game yesterday, Brent Woolf looks like he has some potential as a hooker. His positional play and service from dummy half was really good I thought. When he got shifted to the halves he also held his own. It’s a shame that we have Clark on our books for next year because Woolf would make a good third string hooker and one we could get value out of IMO.