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  1. #151

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    Gc developement 13&14
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  2. #152
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    Make up of sides wont happen till Thursday. Which also is when the Titans 15s take on West Tigers 15s at Cudgen

  3. #153
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    Quote Originally Posted by Deville View Post
    Gc developement 13&14
    Lol im not to sure Titans would he too happy about team lists private emails being posted on a public forum.

  4. #154
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    Yes the training camp starts Thursday for the U13/14's, a few will not play due to injuries and being rested due to the amount of matches they have played this year, should be some good games over the coming week for our junior teams

    Quote Originally Posted by RenegadeGC View Post
    Make up of sides wont happen till Thursday. Which also is when the Titans 15s take on West Tigers 15s at Cudgen

  5. #155

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    Quote Originally Posted by RenegadeGC View Post
    Make up of sides wont happen till Thursday. Which also is when the Titans 15s take on West Tigers 15s at Cudgen

    What time is the game at cudgen?

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    43. Caleb Esera. He is a young front rower from the Souths club in Brisbane and was one of his team’s key performers throughout the year, that cumulated in a grand final loss to Logan Brothers in the U13 GBJRL competition. He was also part of the Titans U13 development squad who defeated a Toowoomba U14 side at Burleigh on the weekend. He is a tall front rower, who along with team mate and fellow Titans U13 development squad member Rixon Andrew, were key reasons why his side came back from 30 to 6 down early in the second half to 30-26, before ultimately just falling short. He along with two other Souths team mates will form the front row for the U13 development squad against Toowoomba this weekend. For me he was the Titans best forward in their U13 development squad, including scoring a very good try when he ran a good line outside the five eight.
    He runs hard and straight and does not take a backward step, for example in the grand final, he constantly ran into the heart of the Logan Brothers forward pack who were huge and were hitting very hard in the tackle. One thing that did impress me was that he did not just put his head down and run into the first defender he saw. On a number of occasions he cut back behind the play the ball to take advantage of defenders who were slow to get back into the defensive line, similarly he also ran wider on occasion to target the smaller Logan Brothers defenders, when Logan Brothers started to compress their defensive line when Souths had the momentum on their side. Whilst he did not offload the ball too many times, he did get his arms free but only passed when his support was in a better position. He continually put his hand up all day to take the ball up and has a very quick play the ball so that his team can maintain momentum. In the development squad game he offloaded on a number of occasions which maintains the Titans momentum.

    In defence he regularly is the first player up to target the ball carriers, even though he is one of the bigger forwards in his team and will make solid initial contact as well as having the ability of defending one on one. He is not adverse to looking for the big hit but does have a good front on defensive technique and decent agility and lateral movement when looking to tackle smaller opponents.

    It is clear from how his team mates respond to him that he is a leader on the field and clearly is a hard trainer due to the fact that he was still going at the same pace at the start of the grand final as he was at the end even though he played the entire game on a very hot day against a quality opposition.

    Next year, he should be a mainstay of Souths U14 side and hopefully a long term member of our Elite Junior Development Squads. From a style perspective, think along the lines of the James Tamau of the Cowboys as a tall front rower with good footwork both in attack and defence and he is also a leader on the field who can set the direction and tempo for his team by leading from the front in the most demanding position on a football field.

  7. #157
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    42. Matamatagi Ripley. He is a young centre from the Logan Brothers club in Brisbane and was part of their U13 2015, grand final winning team, scoring two tries in the match, as well as having a very good game for the Titans in their U13 development squad against Toowoomba recently. In the Titans game he continued on with his good form scoring a very good long range try as well as kicking goal. He also represented U13 Stingers in the Queensland age championships earlier this year.
    He is a super quick centre with an effortless running style with a classic centres build with the ability to stand up his direct opposite and then beat him with pace on the outside, something that is rare in the modern game. His has used this skill set on multiple occasions on the right side of the field. Right centre is the only position that I have seen him play. He has a very strong left hand fend which prevents opposing centres getting in on him and forcing him towards the sideline. Even though he has size, strength and power in the centre position, he does look for his outside support when confronted with the fullback, even though he is more than capable of beating fullbacks one on one if need be.

    His kick at goal was very good, it was from around 20 metres in from the side line on a 45 degree angle. I have not seen him kick for goal before but he hit that one sweetly and it went straight between the posts. I am not sure whether this is a skill he practices or whether the coaches were giving different boys a chance, he does not usually for his Logan Brothers club side that I am aware of.

    He is a smart player and will take what the defence gives him, when the defence is sliding he will cut inside and when the defence is playing an up and up style he has the speed and footwork to get on the outside of his direct opponent. He also has very good hands, for example in the U13 GBJRL grand final he picked up a number of passes from either low down or above his head and then can use his speed off the mark to look to create something for either himself or his team mates.

    Defensively his game is built on intimidation, he will come in when the opportunity presents itself and hit very hard around the chest. In the Titans development squad game, you could see the opposing centre looking where he was positioned as the ball was moved out to the back line. He is also chase kicks very hard but not to the extent that he outruns the remainder of the defensive line or over runs the opposition player returning the kick.

    The Titans Logan development squad has identified a number of very talented players, Matamatagi Ripley is certainly one of those. Moving forward he will play at the U14 level in 2016, with the powerful Logan Brothers club. The Logan Brothers club should be credited as they let their palyers across all age groups use the individual skills that they have in attack but also preach working hard in defence and dedication and discipline to the game plan. He should also be in line to represent Stingers at the U14 level and hopefully has a long association with the Titans in their Junior development squads.

    Forme he a strong powerful centre with good speed and footwork and has the skills to stay at centre in the long term. From a style perspective, think of someone along the lines of Michael Jennings of the Roosters as a legitimate strike centre with the ability to make breaks from anywhere but also can handle the defensive side of the game. He is just one of those players that looks like he was born to play rugby league.

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    41. Joshua Vuta. He is a young hooker/utility player who played in the Cyril Connell cup competition earlier this year for one of the gold coast sides. In the CC competition he played mainly in the hooking role, but in terms of junior club football he has played some back row as well. For his club side, being Runaway Bay he scored three tries in the eight games that he played in. He also plays rugby union for Somerset College, where he played at half I believe. He was the reserve half for Queensland One in schoolboys rugby union this year, thus he is a versatile and talented player across both codes.

    He started at hooker for the Titans U16 side in their game against Samoa, in that game he also played some back row/centre and made a good fist of those positions as well, including keeping his spacing so that his inside support could put him into space allowing him to set up his winger, in that case being left winger Jeremy Miller for the try that put the Titans side ahead, where they stayed for the remainder of the game. On that occasion he tried to beat the fullback in the inside before passing to his winger rather than drawing and passing. He was nominated as the best player for the Titans U16’ development squad by the Samoan coach for his efforts.

    In attack, regardless of the position hs is playing, he is quick and strong and has good footwork to beat opposition defenders and then has very good speed, not necessarily speed off the mark, but definitely has good top end speed once he gets moving. In relation to his play at hooker his passing is reasonably crisp, especially to the right side, but on occasion he passes in two movements, the first being a straightening motion with a distinct second motion being the delivery of the pass, on other occasions he does pass directly from the ground in one fluid motion, like he would be doing as a rugby half. He does like to run from dummy half and his strength and speed does compensate if there are no gaps in the defensive line. Once tackled he immediately starts fighting to get a quick play the ball in an effort to maintain momentum.

    He can also kick out of dummy half and will chase very hard to prevent the opposition from making ground in relation to kick returns. His right foot kick is not huge but seems to be very accurate and normally finds the ground rather than defenders on the full.

    In terms of wider positions, such as in the back row or at centre, he can and will talk on defenders and look to run over them, when he stays wide, like he did for the development squad good things happen for his team.

    Defensively he is more than strong enough to defend in the middle of the ruck and quick enough to defend on the fridges. In the centre of the ruck he sets a strong base to create the necessary leverage to defend against larger forwards. When defending out wide, he is better in an up and in type defensive scheme rather than a sliding defensive structure. He is also extremely fit thus getting back into the defensive line is no issue for him over the course of the entire game.

    Moving forward I would suggest that he will be in the mix for a role in the Mal Meninga Cup squads for 2016. The big question for he is where his long term future lies. I can legitimately see a case for him to stay at hooker, similarly there are skills in his game which suggest a future in a wider playing position such as in the back row or at centre. He has a diverse range of skills to take advantage of and with a reduction of the inter change down to eight and potentially a further reduction in coming years, a player of his type will become very valuable. I am a little conflicted but if I have to make a call it would be that his future lies as a wide running back rower. From a style perspective, one player with similar versatility that I can think of is Lewis Brown, shortly of Manly, who can play hooker, centre or back row depending on what the team needs and play them all quite effectively.

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    40. Tom Landers. He is a young outside back who played on the wing in MM, earlier this year, but also played a lot of his club football in the centres. He played at centre for the Titans U18 Invitational side against Samoa recently. For MM White this year, he scored seven tries, and also scored five tries in the Gold Coast U19 competition before progressing to first grade where he scored two more tries in the three first grade games that he played for the Southport Tigers. He grew up in the Warwick/Toowoomba region, before moving down to the Gold Coast last year, and is a tall centre/wing who can find the try line.
    He is very quick down the sidelines with a good in and away to beat defenders on the outside and will not get caught from behind if he gets into open space. I would not say that he has blazing speed but he does have decent top end speed and is unlikely to get caught from behind by anyone but the absolute quickest of opponents. His best attribute from an outside back perspective is his ability to keep his width and be available for his team mates, when the opposing defender cheats inside. When the ball is moved out the back line, he stays on the touchline, and a lot of the tries that he scored for MM White were when he was able to beat his opposite defender when they had come in just a fraction.

    He probably could have scored a few more tries but made sure that his team would score when in open space as he would draw the fullback and pass to his support when he could have easily gone himself, a sign of a team player. One thing that I noticed more when he played for Southport was that he came into dummy half and took his turn at running the ball out of dummy. It is not something that he had to do in MM, but in U19’ and first grade he did not shirk his responsibilities on that front, again a sign of a team player.


    When playing in the centres he looked to draw in the winger to try to create space down the touch line for the attackers outside him, but he does have enough pace, when he is able to get outside his opposing defender and make line breaks when the defensive winger stays out. Thus from what I have seen he has very good situational awareness in attack from either the centre or wing position.

    In terms of chasing attacking kicks he has a very good leap and uses his forward momentum well to get above defenders, where the majority of the time he looks to catch the ball rather than hit it back to his team’s advantage. He also has very good hands low to the ground on grubber kicks or when defenders drop bombs and uses his length to get to the ball quickly before defenders. He also holds his line well when chasing kicks so that the opposing kick returner meets a straight line of defenders and not a staggered one.

    In defence, he is not the strongest player, but will certainly look to hold his line defensively. When he plays on the wing, I did not often see him come in when he did not need to, preferring to stay on his opposing winger and trusting his teams inside defenders. From my perspective at least, his skill set in defence is more suited to a sliding defence structure rather than an up and in one.

    Due to his solid skills in the air and his length he is solid at defusing bombs, and positions himself well by making sure that he is in position to come forward to meet the ball, rather than standing directly under it and trying to jump flat footed. This negates some of the advantage of the attacking team’s jumpers who can use their momentum to jump higher than defenders if the defender is caught under the ball, another sign of a player with good situational awareness.

    Whilst he can clearly play either centre or wing, and I believe he actually played a bit of fullback in his younger days, I think that his skill set, build and situational awareness suggests that his long term future is definitely on the wing at the NYC level or above. It would not surprise however that he would get a fair amount of time in the centres if he plays at the QCup level if he does not break into the NYC side immediately next year. Moving forward to next year, an opportunity to train with the NYC side would not surprise and presents as a very smart player who will find the try line regularly whatever competition he plays in. From a style perspective, think of someone along the lines of the Titans own Anthony Don, as an under the radar player who is efficient and effective with his skills and with good awareness of the game and his role in it.

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    39. Isaac Lee. He is a tall rangy centre from Lismore Marist Brothers in the Group One area, who has been with the Titans for a few years, and in addition to starting at centre in the recent U16 development squad game against Samoa, he also played in the U15 development squad game against the Balmain Tigers late in 2014, where he was named best back by Titans coaching and development staff in their loss. He had had a very productive season in the Group One junior rugby league competition from a try scoring perspective at least, he only played five games in the U16.5 competition but ended up with 11 tries, including two hat tricks.

    He also represented NSW Combined Catholic Colleges Northern U18’s this year and played for St Johns College Woodlawn in numerous Schoolboy competitions throughout New South Wales. In the game against Samoa he formed a solid centre combination with fellow centre Kees Nicholson, where both showed flashes of the skills that they even though the conditions were difficult for outside backs. From a trivia perspective he is the son of former Cronulla Sharks front rower Danny Lee, all be it he is a completely different body shape to his front row father.

    Over the course of the year you can see the difference, additional size has made, not in relation to the style of play but to his effectiveness as a hard running centre. He has always been a straight running centre, who is not afraid to run over rather than around his opponent, but with increased size and strength his effectiveness has increased his effectiveness exponentially. He regularly gets half way through the line and with his length is very effective in getting his hands free to off load, including offloading with one hand and has a decent fend to complement his off loading abilities.

    Against Samoa due to the conditions, being wet and slippery, he modified his game and took a number of hit ups into the waiting forward pack, where again he was effective in using foot work prior to the line to make ground and take pressure off his own forward pack. Normally though due to his length and speed he regularly attracts multiple defenders leaving opportunities for him to set up his outside support.

    Due to his length, he is effective both in attacking high attacking kicks as well as defusing them. He is better with high kicks rather than kicks along the ground.

    Defensively his increased strength has meant that he is even more effective in the defensive aspects of the game, and can handle one on one situation’s against wide running opposition backrowers as well as smaller faster opposition backline players with his combination of strength and speed. He seems to rarely over commit in defence allowing the play to develop in front of him before committing to any particular defensive strategy. That would suggest that he is more suited to a sliding defensive methodology, but he is also able to defend using an up and in style of defensive strategy just as effectively. This ability to alternative between the two key defensive methodologies, depending on the opposition , the state of the game and where the game is situated on the field is invaluable.

    Moving forward he will likely stay in Lismore for the next couple of years and continue to progress through the U18 ranks of the Group One competition as well as hopefully playing some senior football, and for St Johns College Woodlawn in the GIO Cup and other regional cup competitions and battle for a place in the East Coast Dolphins representative side at the U18 level as well as NSW Country U18 selection hopefully.

    I think that ultimately he will end up as a player who can alternate between centre and wing and one that will be very good under the high ball and some one who will cause all sorts of headaches for opposing defenders at either position, but it is certainly not set in stone that he can not stay in the centres permanently as his development both physically and as a player this year has been great to see and bodes well for his future development as he has maintained his speed as he has developed his strength. From a style perspective think of someone like the Roosters Shaun Kenny Dowell as a player who can give a team a real attacking edge through multiple avenues and also be versatile enough to move between the two wide back line positions.

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    38. Andrew (Andre) Semu. He is a tall rangy backrower who played very well for the Titans U14 development squad in their recent win against Samoa where he took it upon himself to match the giant, and I mean giant Samoan forward pack. The U14 side were 10-0 down and had no ball after a number of back to back penalties, but it was Andrew Semu and fellow forwards Stanley Jackson, Sam Wilmot, Drekwon Brown (22) etc who turned the tide on the back of hard straight running, quick play the balls and getting multiple players into the tackle to slow down the Samoan forward packs momentum. Once the tide had turned the Samoan side could not wrestle back the momentum and did not score again for the remainder of the match, as the Titans U14’s led by Andrew Semu , captain Brent Barnes at fullback and others did not let them back into the game as they played an up tempo style of football to take advantage of their greater mobility.

    In relation to his club football, this year he played U14’s for the Beaudesert this year, scoring tries in the twelve games that he played. He also played a few games up in age group for the Beaudesert Kingfishers U15 Div 4 side, scoring two tries in those couple of appearances.

    In attack, he is a wide running backrower with a very good turn of speed once he breaks through the line. He takes his share of runs in the middle of the ruck but he is impressive at running good lines on the fringes of the ruck and constantly picks the right holes to run into. He then has the speed to outpace any cover defence. From the games that I have seem he normally runs to the left side of the field, and will run wider out and look to come back on the inside shoulder of the opposition defence on the edge of the ruck, looking for situations where the opposition inside defenders are slow to come across.

    He is an aggressive runner and looks to continue to continue to pump his legs once he has contacted the defensive line, this making more metres for his team and with his determination he will also on occasion break clear of the defenders totally. At the very least, due to him continuing to pump his legs, he forces more defenders to commit to the tackle, meaning the defensive line is not set once he plays the ball.

    The one thing that stands out is regardless of how many times that you watch him play is the intensity and effort that he puts in to every moment that he is on the field, both in attack and defence. This attribute can be seen in his defence, which whilst aggressive, is not overly so, in the context of him losing his discipline. Another thing that I picked up from the development squad game was that he was always there to support his team mates, in the second half the game got very willing and he was the first player there to support his side, not to the extent of anything negative, but to show that they would not in intimidated.

    In the Titans development squad game, he defended both in the edge of the ruck and well as in the middle of the ruck. He was effective in both situations. His initial contact is solid and is more than enough to stop the momentum of the ball carrier. He is also effective at wrapping the ball up and preventing offloads.

    Moving forward I would assume that he will continue playing for the Beaudesert Kingfishers at the U15 level in Gold Coast Junior Rugby League competition and continue to be a part of the Titans junior development system. From a style perspective, the one that stands out for me is Gavin Cooper, formally of the Titans and now a key member of the Cowboys forward pack, as a tall, rangy, mobile, wide running backrower with some toughness to his game. For me he was one of the stand outs across all four of the Titans development squads in their games against Toowoomba and Queensland Samoa.

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    37. Deon Samuela. His a young half/five eight from the Runaway Bay junior rugby league club where he played at the U14 level this. He was also part of the U14 Titans development squad that defeated Samoa recently. Whilst he played the majority of his club football at five eight, he played at half for the Titans development squad. He has also represented the Gold Coast in Vikings and Kookaburra’ squads over the last couple of years. For Runaway Bay he scored two tries and kicked eight goals at the U14 level for a twenty four point haul in that competition. He also played a number of games up an age group in the U15 Div 2 competition, where he excelled in the couple of games in played, scoring six tries and kicking fourteen goals for a points haul for the season of fifty two.

    His game for the Titans development squad against Samoa was understated compared to his play with Runaway Bay. For Runaway Bay he takes the line on more, however rather than a negative, I see this as a sign of maturity, as the Tians U14’s backline in the second half were making huge inroads every time the ball went wide, thus Deon Samuela’s took it on himself to get quick clean football out to the backline, A task in which he succeeded in.

    In attack, as already noted he is a half/five eight who is a dynamic runner of the football who excels in taking on the defensive line with deft footwork around the ruck, looking to seek out bigger slower forwards when they are caught on the edge of the ruck. He does not however have blinkers on, and when his backline is set deep, he can see an overlap or a another play developing he will get the ball out quickly and effectively, using his solid passing skills from both sides of his body, where he will put the football out in front of his runners.

    Assisting his play is the fact that he makes the decision what to do with the ball quickly thus enabling the ball to get out wide quickly. One aspect that was notable in the development squad game, was how he directed the team around the field, he was in charge of when and where the forwards ran and also when he wanted the ball to spread it out wide to his backline.

    He has a solid all round kicking game but like most young general play kickers he just needs to ensure that he does not try to kick the ball too hard and lose accuracy as a result. He will also chase his own kicks very hard.

    Defensively he has decent size for a five eight, and probably would be considered a bigger half for his age group, a facet which assists in him being a very effective defender for his position, in fact he is an asset to his team’s defensive pattern to the extent that he has the strength and technique to more than hold his own one on one against wide running forwards.

    Moving forward he will play the 2016 year at the U15 level and based on this year, may also play some U16 football for Runaway Bay. Even though he played half for the development squad, I think that he has the attributes necessary to stay at five eight in the long term. From a player comparison perspective thing maybe someone like the Parramatta Eels Cory Norman as a player who whilst an effective runner of the football, can also direct his side around the field.

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    36. Jaxson Paulo. He played a number of positions this season, including centre, five eight and also some second row at the U16 level. In the Cyril Connell Cup competition this year, he scored six tries over the course of the short season, where he played a combination of centre and second row. He also came off the bench for the U16 development squad game against Samoa. In that game he played a lot of the game in the back row as one of the forwards went down injured early in the first half.

    For his club side Nerang he scored seven tries and kicked forty-two goals to finish with a points total of 112 points, to finish one of the leading points scorers in the U16 Premier division on the Gold Coast. He also played one or two games in the U17 Premier division side and has been named in the extended MM raining squad for 2016. If you watched the video embedded in the development squad news article, Jaxson is the young bloke in jersey 18 who split the line before offloading one handed to number 6 Jaman Rio who offloaded to the eventual try scorer Isaac Lee. This very short video of him actually does present a synopsis of the skill set that Jaxson Paulo has, he is quick, strong and has a decent off load. The part of the video showing the Jaxson Paulo line break is about half way through the game footage.

    As noted above, he has played the majority of his football prior to this year in eth centres and in that position, a big strong runner of the football. Whilst in does not have a great deal of speed off the mark, he does have decent top end speed and can break tackles by running over his direct opposite defender as well as using a very good fend, when he gets to the outside, this prevents defenders from getting he under his ribs and thus he can maintain his running line under defensive pressure.

    As shown in the video due to his size he is very good at offloading the football when he is engaged with the defensive line, I would much rather see two hand off loads from junior players, Jaxson is one that is very effective at offloading with one hand, especially his right hand. When he breaks through the main defensive line he is also very effective at setting up his outside support, by drawing the fullback. This is a skill that is more difficult that it may seem, as the attacker needs to ensure that he draws the fullback before passing.

    When he plays second row, he has got very good feet, in terms of not just charging straight at the set defensive line. He uses foot work before and after the defensive line to assist in breaking tackles and as the video shows he is adept at offloading in traffic. In terms of his attacking skills, he has the skills at this point in time to play either centre or second row.

    As his statistics show he is an accurate goal kicker who also gets a deal of distance with his kicks, but like all younger kickers, if he tries to kick the ball too hard, accuracy suffers, but he can and will get them from the sideline. As he continues to get naturally stronger, there is no reason to suggest that he will have any problem at all from getting the distance from the sidelines whilst maintaining his accuracy.

    In terms of his defence, he obviously during the course of this year, has defended both in the edge of the ruck and well as in the middle of the ruck. He was effective in both situations. One area that game him some slight issues was defending against smaller quicker centres, when defending out in the backline, but in saying that he is still quite effective as a defender in the backline. His initial contact is solid, especially when he is defending in the centres, and is more than enough to stop the momentum of the ball carrier. He is also effective at wrapping the ball up and preventing offloads. Due to his current attributes he is more effective when his team is using an up and in style of defensive strategy.

    Moving forward,I would anticipate that he will make one of the MM sides as well as playing U17 Premier division as well as possibly playing some U19 football in the local gold coast competition. I think that ultimately he ends up in the back row, but not necessarily immediately, I certainly think that for the next couple of years, he will still be able to handle playing in the centres, but I think that by the time he gets to U20 level, either in NYC (if it still exists) or QCup Colts, he will likely transition to the back row full time where he will be a tall, rangy, mobile, wide running backrower who will also be a solid goal kicker.

    From a style perspective, one player who comes to mind is retied Sydney Roosters back rower Craig Fitzgibbon, another would be Jed Cartwright of our NYC side. I think that Jaxson Paulo ends up around the same size with a similar skill set and long term project as Jed Cartwright, that being as a running back rower, who can fill a centre position if necessary. I know that Cartwright played exclusively in the centres in NYC this year, but next year, in my eyes he will probably at least start the progression to the second row.
    Last edited by mdrew; 09-10-15 at 05:54 PM.

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    35. Kelepi Faukafa. He is a young backrower who signed earlier this year from Ipswich, although I note that he did start in the front row for the Titans U18 Invitational side against Samoa recently. He played well this year for the Ipswich MM side and is obviously looking to progress to the NYC ranks next year. He played his school football for Ipswich State High, a school from which a number of other young players will use time with the Titans to hopefully secure an NYC contract, players in that category include Raiden Fonoti and Kristian Petty. They, like Kelepi Faukafa are predominately backrowers. He also played for Met West in the QSSRL U18 State Championships.

    Since the conclusion of the MM season he has graduated to playing 1st grade in the local Ipswich competition where he played the last seven games of the season. The Ipswich first grade competition is actually a pretty fair standard and is not for the faint hearted with a lot of big men hitting very hard, thus he is getting a good grounding in playing against men. I only saw one game of his games in the 1st grade competition but he certainly did not look out of place in that contest which was a bruising affair. In the first grade game that I saw he got absolutely smashed in a couple of tackles but each time he got up and kept coming for the entire game and in defence he was hitting just as hard as he was getting hit and seeming enjoying every minute of it.

    Whilst he played in the front row for the U18 development side, he played the majority of this year in the back row where he is a hard running backrower who is impressive at running good lines on the fringes of the ruck and constantly picks the right holes to run into thus making the play makers on his team look good. Even though he is good on the edge of the ruck, he takes his share of runs in the middle where he can use foot work prior to the line so as not to absorb huge hits against, usually larger forward packs. He does however go through stretches where he just runs hard and straight throwing self preservation out of the window, in a long run that probably not great for him but it does fire up his team mates when they see him charging at full speed into a set forward defensive line. I have not seen many offloads from him but obviously the type of game he plays requires few mistakes and he does that well.

    Defensively he hits very hard and usually aims for just under the ribs and is certainly someone opposing forwards look for when running the ball up and is adept at making sure the opposition do not get quick play the balls, read that he is very good at winning the wrestling battle in the ruck. He defends in the centre of the ruck and seems best suited in the long run defending there and adds a degree of intimidation to any forward pack he plays for.

    In 2016, he will join the NYC squad and from there it is up to Woolf what his role will be. Based on his experience playing against men in Ipswich I do not think that the step up in standard will worry him at all, and his aggression will hold him in good stead when opposing some of the massive forward packs running around in the NYC. On the field he seems very quiet from a verbal communication perspective, but is someone who will lead by example and will lift his side with a good run or a hard crunching tackle.

    From a player comparison perspective, think of someone along the line of Mau Mau from the Parramatta Eels, as a tough hard running and tackling forward who will not back down and will add some aggression and an intimidation factor to the Titans NYC squad.
    Last edited by mdrew; 12-10-15 at 11:47 AM. Reason: spelling plus updated

  15. #165
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    34. AJ Brimson. He is a young five eight/half, who played well in the MM competition this year, with speed, specifically speed off the mark, being his calling card. Surprisingly he only scored one try in the MM competition, though, however he scored two tries in the game against Samoa, one of which was shown in the junior development squad video posted on the official website. One that occasion he was backing up on the inside and split the defence with his speed once he received the pass. He also played his schoolboy football for Keebra and made the South Coast QSSRL U18 squad. He also made his QCup Colts debut Tweed Seagulls late in the year, and scored a try on debut I believe. Understandably he is also a very good touch rugby player.

    In attack, as noted above, his speed off the mark is the first attribute that you will notice when you see him play. Any video’s, including the video on the official site does not do his speed off the mark justice, watching him play live, it is great to see when he takes off. He does not seem to have an extra gear once he is through the defensive line, but has the ability to maintain his speed over a long distance, thus the apparent lack of an extra gear in speed has no discernible impact that I have identified. Coupled with a very good right foot step, his speed enables him to make numerous line breaks. He can and will beat defenders in the inside with a step and if the defensive line is staggered a dummy and go, presents multiple headaches for the opposition’s defensive strategies. He also backs up any line breaks and loves to score tries.

    At present, one area for him to continue to develop is his play making skills, including putting his runners, whether they are backrowers or centres into holes. With experience however there is nothing to suggest that these type of play making skills will not develop over time. I am not suggesting that play making skills will eclipse speed as his key attribute, but enhanced play making skills will make his speed more effective as defensive lines start to focus in his runners and thus leave more space for him. As games progress he is very good at identifying tired forwards in the defensive line, and he will ruthlessly exploit that when he sees that. Against Samoa, he left a few forwards clutching at air as they began to tire.

    He has a good short kicking game but he does not have the strongest leg in terms of kicking deep but is accurate enough and regularly finds the ground to enable the chasers to get down field. He will chase hard and usually is one of the first down field to defend. In terms of his short kicking game, he will back himself and put in little kicks over the top or grubber through the defensive line for himself, which causes all sorts of issues for defences due to his speed and desire to get to the ball first.

    In defence, due to his size he is obviously not going to come up with the big hit but reads the play well enough and can hold his own when defending much bigger players. He will also track across field well looking when the ball is turned back inside. When confronted with forwards running directly at him on the edge of the ruck, he will get in front of them and use his shoulder in an effort to contain them into defensive help arrives.

    Moving forward, I think that he will have an opportunity to be involved in the NYC squad in 2016 and will be one of a number of young players vying for an opportunity in the halves. Prior to this year I was of the opinion that AJ Brimson was strictly a half, but he has made enough progress in terms of play making and game management that playing at either five eight or half is reasonable from a career trajectory stand point.

    From a player comparison perspective, think of the Bulldogs version of Ben Barba as a player who whilst known for his amazing speed off the mark, does have some other attributes to his game which can sometimes get be overlooked when people focus purely on his speed.
    Last edited by mdrew; 12-10-15 at 11:46 AM. Reason: spelling mistakes


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