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  1. #181
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    19. Lai-One Manu (Updated from post earlier this year). He is a tall rangy fullback who played his school football for Redbank Plains State High School as well as Redbank Plains for his club football in the Ipswich Junior Rugby League at the U13 level this year. He was the first player the Titans signed when they reached the partnership agreement with Redbank Plains High School. He was named player of the match in the year nine Broncos Old Boys Plate final when his school side won 26-20 against Marsden High, with Manu scoring a try with around a minute to go to break a 20 all tie. He had scored a try with 8 minutes left to tie the game.

    Interestingly the two tries mentioned above were very different in terms of how he scored them. For the first one he took the ball close to the opposition line and charged through the forwards, carrying a number of the Marsden forwards over the line with him, the other, he cut through Marsden’s backline defence after receiving the ball from his five eight and using his speed and evasive skills to outpace the opposition on the way to the try line.

    For a tall player he is very quick off the mark and when the ball is being brought out of his teams half he is always around the forwards looking for off loads but as evidenced by one of his tries he also can play the way a lot of the current fullbacks play when they receive the football “out the back” from the half or five eight. In those circumstances, currently he runs more than he passes, but he is playing at the U13 level and I have no doubt that his passing skills will improve as he maturing and gets more experience in older age groups and possible representative games.

    In terms of his defence, one thing that stood out to me, all be it from only a few times I have seen him play, and I stress I have not seen a great deal of him play, when the opposition makes a break he moves forward looking to cut down the time of the attacking player, which is quite impressive for such a young player. Due to his height, he is good also at defending the high ball. On occasion he seemed to stand very shallow at fullback, but with his speed he is able to compensate.

    He presents as a silky smooth player, who looks like he glides across the field picking and choosing his time to get involved and wants to have the ball in his hands when the game is on the line, as evidenced by the match against Marsden where he was the match winner on that day. I initially thought he would be a very good centre, and I am sure with his natural ability he would be, but with the skills he has and the way the modern game is played, fullback seems to be his best position into the future. He obviously has a long way away, but I am looking forward to seeing him play over the coming years and seeing how he progresses as he possesses all of the skills and physical attributes to be a very good rugby league player.

    For the 2016 season he will play his football at the U14 level in the Ipswich junior rugby league region and also should get plenty of games under his belt playing his school boy football for Redbank Plains High School, in multiple competitions, where he will be under the care of Titans junior development staff over seeing his progression.

    From a player comparison perspective, again I am going off only a very limited amount of observations, but I would say a reasonable comparison to Josh Duggan of the St George Dragons would be fair as a player who is a very good runner of the football and who has the confidence to back himself in both attack and defence.

  2. #182
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    18. Damon Somerville. He is a local young centre hailing from the Burleigh Bears who played his club football at the U13 level this year as well as representing Gold Coast Vikings, Kookaburra’s and South East Queensland. In addition he also started at five eight for the U13 Development Squad in their recent game against Toowoomba. In 2014 he made the Queensland Primary Schools team, where he was named on the bench. His team mates in the Queensland side included Titans U13 development squad members, Rixon Andrew and Ediq Ambroseyev.

    Like one or two others noted on this thread, the note of caution is that I believe that he is also part of the Broncos U13 development squad, thus he is understandably held in high regard by junior recruitment and development staff in South East Queensland.

    For Burleigh in the U13 Premier competition he average around a try a game in scoring 12 tries and kicking two goals for a total points haul of 52 points, he also played one game for Burleigh’s U14 Premier division side scoring a try in that game. He also scored the U13 development squad’s first try against Toowoomba with a good dummy to split the defence and outpace the cover defence over 40 metres to score under the posts. This try is shown on the video on the Official Titans site in the media article that details our development squad victories. He also converted his own try in that game but is not normally the goal kicker for his club side.

    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 inside or outside. His has used this skill set on multiple occasions on both sides of the field. Even in junior football it is quite rare to see a centre that can play on both sides of the field equally as well and as can be seen from the video he has a very good dummy that he uses regularly.

    When the ball is passed to him early, he straightens the attack up well, meaning he does not run himself or his support out of room. Even though he has speed 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.

    Outside of the U13 development squad game I have not seen much of him at all at five eight, but even taking into account it was only one game, he did look very good in that game. He seemingly has an innate ability to make the right decision when he has the football, in terms of running or passing and when he passed he got the ball out to his outside backs quickly giving them room to move. His passing to the right from five eight looked a little more fluid and natural than when he passed to the left hand side of the field.

    He clearly 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 and can use his speed off the mark to look to create something for either himself or his team mates whether that is at centre or five eight.

    Defensively he does not necessarily stand out, which is a good thing to the extent that he is an effective defender and does not jumper grab but does use his shoulder. Purely from a skill and physical attribute perspective he seems more suited to a sliding defensive methodology rather than an up and in style, but this is more conjecture from me rather than a fact based argument.

    In the 2016 season he will play for Burleigh at the U14 level and like this season, may play a game or two at a higher age group as from my perspective he is one of the better players from his age group running around on the Gold Coast. I know that I have spoken about how well he played at five eight against Toowoomba, but for me his long term position is that of a centre, who may be able to fill in occasionally at five eight.

    From a player comparison perspective, think along the lines of Manly centre Jamie Lyons from a style perspective as a classy centre who is just as good at setting up his team mates to make breaks as he is at making them himself.

  3. #183
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    17. Max Dowd. He is a young five eight who represented Queensland U16’s in their win against NSW in a State of Origin curtain raiser in Sydney earlier this year. Titans contracted backrowers Ben Thomas and Darius Farmer were his team mates that night. He played for Gold Coast White in the CC competition, scoring five tries over the course of the season and alternated between half and five eight.

    In addition to his rugby league season, Dowd who attends TSS, played the entire GPS rugby season at fullback in the TSS first XV, not a bad indicator of the skill he possesses as TSS finished third I believe in that competition and he was the youngest player in the TSS first XV. I did not see him play many rugby games in the GPS competition but from what I observed and understand he had a very good season, playing against players who were in most cases two years older than him.

    Max Dowd’s calling card from an attacking perspective is his passing and game management abilities, these were on show in the Queensland U16 game where along with half back Dray Ngatuere-Wroe he directed the Queensland side around the ground, especially after the first twenty minutes or so when NSW had gotten on top and Queensland needed to wrestle the momentum back. In addition, in that game he set up the final try that put Queensland ahead for good (maybe it was a fraction forward, but I am a Queenslander so I will take it without complaint). He drifted across the field and a waited for the opportunity to develop as one of the NSW defenders on the edge of the ruck over committed and caused a small gap to develop in the defensive line which he took advantage of by putting one of the Queensland backrowers into the gap with a beautifully timed pass allowing them a saloon passage to the try line.

    Over the course of the CC season he also played very well ,obviously to be picked in the Queensland U16 side, but due to the nature of the interstate game, there were a few skills that he did not necessarily get to show in that game, but were on display in CC, those being his ability to run the ball when the opportunity presents and his kicking game. In terms of his running game, he is not going to be known as someone that is going to beat a defender with speed, but he does very good foot work that he uses to good effect in tight spaces. He has a very good step off both feet and can put together combinations of steps over a short distance to break free of situations where he is seemingly surrounded by defenders. Also maybe it’s only me, but he seemed to rarely take a big hit when running through the centre of the ruck.

    Going back to his speed briefly, as noted he is not very quick, but he does have some reasonable speed off the mark, which is complemented by the fact that he runs at the right moment, for example when he is drifting across field he will dummy and run when defenders anticipate the pass rather than focussing on him running the ball. His running skills compliment his ability to put runners into holes rather than the other way around.

    His kicking game is very accurate, and even though he is not a big player he can generate very good distance on his kicks whilst at the same time not losing any accuracy, thus he finds the ground for a lot of his kicks. He can also kick pin point bombs, allowing plenty of time for his chasers to get to the ball as it is coming down close to the try line.

    In terms of his play with the TSS first XV, I am not a great rugby person (can not understand all of the ruck and mall penalties) but from the couple of games I saw his skill set translated well to the fifteen man game. He kicked well from the fullback position, on one occasion against Gregory Terrace, I think that it was from Brisbane it was also like an old fashioned kicking duel that Dowd got the better of against his opposing fullback.

    Defensively he tackles well low and that is seemingly his main tactic against wide running forwards rather than trying to tackle them ball and all. In the interstate game he was battered by huge NSW forwards constantly running at him but he continued to get in front of them by going in “low”. You can not doubt his toughness, as the interstate game and one or two of the CC games, especially when the two Gold Coast sides played each other were tough affairs. Also some of the rucks and malls that he was involved in the GPS rugby were not for the faint hearted with boots, knees, elbows etc going in all directions.

    He has been selected in the Gold Coast MM training squads for 2016, and would expect that once again he will be in the TSS first XV for the 2016 GPS competition. In league I would expect that he may well continue to alternate between five eight and half, but for TSS it will be interesting to see if he is moved to either No9 or No10 to be closer to the action. Based on the fact that I think that his best attribute is his ability to put runners into gaps by targeting individual defenders and drawing them out of their defensive structure, I think that his long term future is at half, although depending on the particular coaches methodology there may be almost no difference between how the half and five eight play.

    From a player comparison perspective, think along the lines of Manly half Daly Cherry Evans as an intelligent skilful player who will be the catalyst for most of the good things that his team does and is faster between the ears than his foot speed.

  4. #184
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    Quote Originally Posted by mdrew View Post
    16. Liam Pakea. He is a nuggety young centre from Ipswich, who normally plays on the left side of the field, and after the completion of the MM season, where he played for Ipswich, progressed to play the second half of the season in QCup Colts for the Ipswich Jets. One of his team mates in both MM and QCup Colts was Blake Lenehan. In the MM competition he scored three tries and was awarded the Parcell Family Award, the Junior Jets program's highest honour, for his "commitment to the program" over a number of years. He played his school boy football for St Peter Clavier College in Ipswich as well as playing a handful of club games for the Goodna Eagles when he was not playing for the Ipswich Jets and in 2014 he made the U16 South East Queensland kookaburra’s side.

    He has already played in a Titans jersey, after starting on wing for the Titans U18 Invitational side against Samoa. He is a player I first saw a couple of years ago when he was 15 playing in the CC competition as an underage player and my opinion of him has not changed one bit. He previously has been part of the Broncos Elite junior development squad, so it is good to grab one from them rather than the other way around.

    He is powerfully built young man who runs with pace and power. It would be unfair to categorise that his game is only built on pace and power though as he has a very good right foot step and right hand fend, he can also draw defenders in to give players outside him room. Due to his strength and fend he regularly gets on the outside of his opposite defender forcing the winger to make a decision as to whether to come in on him or stay with his winger. If he comes in, Liam has the quick hands to get the pass away prior to contact, but also is big and strong enough as well as having very good core strength and balance to absorb the contact and still get the pass to his winger. If the opposing winger still out, he is definitely quick enough to break into open space. When you look at his build he may not look like he has a lot of speed, but he definitely does. He is not necessarily the quickest off the mark but ha very good acceleration once he is moving and can sustain his top pace over an extended period.

    I note that most of the attacking attributes that I have noted above are ‘better” from the left side. His passing to the right, his step and fend are good from the right side but he is currently clearly better playing in the left centre position. For Ipswich Colts he played on both sides of the field. I am not sure whether time and experience playing on his less comfortable side will develop those skills so that they are equivalent to his right side or whether left will always be the dominate side. Regardless he is a handful for defences.

    His defensive game is one built on intimidation he will come out of the line when the opportunity presents itself and hit very hard around the chest and drive through is lower body and continue until the tackle is well and truly finished. In MM opposing centres were looking for him in the defensive line when they were running which did generate a few lost balls, obviously it was different in QCup Colts where he was playing against people three years older. The positive for Liam is that he does not purely rely on strength and power to hit, timing is also a key attribute to ensure that he arrives at the attacker at around the same time that the ball does, this also reduces the likelihood of injury to himself or the defender getting on his outside setting up a two or one. Colts was a huge learning curve for him specifically in terms of defence and I have no doubt that he will take those lessons into next season and be better for the experience regardless of where he starts the 2016 season.

    He is still eligible for the MM competition in 2016, but it is interesting to note that he has not been named in either the Gold Coast or Ipswich MM squads, indicating that he may well spend the off season training with the Titans NYC squad. Whilst he has played a little bit of wing, I think that ultimately his long term future lies in the centres and specifically on the left hand side of the field.

    If he does not start off in NYC in 2016 it will be an interesting decision for the Titans development staff as to whether he plays MM or starts the Season in QCup Colts awaiting his NYC opportunity. My money would be on him playing QCup Colts as he proved in the second half of this season that he can handle QCup Colts even though he had a bit of a rough start in his first couple of games, but he definitely improved as he played more games especially in terms of his defence.

    From a player comparison perspective think of a young version of Manly centre Steve Matai, as a powerfully built centre who is an aggressive player who looks to physically dominate his opposite number in defence.
    I've had the privilege of playing outside of Liam, he's a very good player.
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    14. Bostyn Hakaraia. He is a young half/five eight from New Zealand who recently captained the New Zealand Secondary Schools team and also represented New Zealand U18’s in their two match series in Brisbane last month against the Australian Schoolboys side where he played against Titans duo Tyronne Roberts-Davis and David Fauid. Unfortunately for Bostyn Australia won both matches convincingly. In addition to the representative sides mentioned above he made numerous other representative sides including making the NZ U18 high performance squad camp this year. Previously he has represented NZ at the U16 level NZ Maori at the U16 and U18 level and was also part of the Akarana high Performance squad preparing for this year’s NZ age championships. He currently attends Mt Albert Grammer School (MAGS) in Auckland who from my understanding are one of the most powerful NZ schools from a rugby league perspective and he was a key player in their run to the NZ National All Schools semi-finals.

    Earlier this year he was over on the Gold Coast training as part of the Titans elite player development unit training camp. He will be moving over to the Gold Coast at the end of this year permanently, and has been named in the MM training squad for 2016, but may well spend some time training with the NYC squad over the summer. The Titans are starting to make decent inroads to NZ and not just in the Manawatu region, so well done to the Titans scouting network for getting the signature of a player with a good junior pedigree.

    I will before I make any further comment note that I have not seen him play live. I have seen multiple full game videos of him playing from NZ as well as edited highlights and live streams of his two games against Australian School boys. If you watched the games against Australian School boys you probably do not get a real good feel for his talent, in those games, the first of which he started on the bench and the second he started at half. Unfortunately for the NZ boys, the Australian forward pack dominated and thus the NZ boys found it hard to get into the game, especially the halves.

    He is a solidly built half/five eight who from the game footage that I have seen he is more of an organising type of player rather than a running half/five eight. He can be seen directing his forwards when and where to run and seemingly makes it clear that he is in charge of directing the team around the field and adhering to the game plan. Considering he was one of the younger players on the field and he was directing around a number of young players who had already played NYC it is a good sign of his maturity and leadership skills in the NZ U18 games. His passing from both sides of his body is crisp and accurate and when passing to the left side generates good spin and distance whilst maintaining accuracy.

    In the School boys test he did not take the line on that often, but based on the footage the from representative games in New Zealand he can and will take on forwards when he sees that they are isolated in the edges of the ruck, although his passing percentage would be much higher than his running percentage, at an estimate I would say 85-90% passing, 10-15% running. He seems to be quite quick off the mark and seems to have a good right foot step, when he gets into space he really does work progressively though his options as he does not seem to have the top end speed to finish off breaks himself.

    He has a prodigious kick on him and seemingly also has good accuracy, in the footage seen to date, he kicked a couple of 40/20’s and they appeared effortless. His kicking game suggest he will be a real 40/20 threat when he comes over to Australia. Also his prodigious boot generates significant height on his bombs, and I mean they are huge bombs and are seemingly quite accurate. He is also a very good goal kicker with both good range and accuracy. From the footage and his player statistics, he was the primary kicker for MAGS and all other representative sides, but the NZ U18 side. I would suggest that he is likely to be his side’s primary goal kicker regardless of the level progressing into he future.

    Defensively I can not comment a great deal as in the majority of his games from NZ he was on the side dominating the game and against Australian Schoolboys it was the opposite, but looking at the Australian Schoolboys game, he certainly looked to get in front of the constant wave of Australian forwards coming at him. The second game get quite willing towards the end of the game and he did not back down at all.

    As noted he is coming over to the Gold Coast at the end of this year, to take up a three year deal with the Titans and has been named in the extended MM training squad with fellow New Zealand signee and Auckland player front rower Xavier Johansson who is from Wesley College. It would not surprise if he trained at least some sessions, if not full time with the Titans NYC squad, however due to Josh Fauid being part of the NYC squad, he may well start in MM as Fauid would seem to be a clear favourite to start 2016 at half in NYC. Initially, based on the NZ footage I thought that his long term position would be five eight, but based on the School boys tests I have revised that to a long term future at half back for me, even though at the MM level his skill and experience would suggest no problem playing either half or five eight, but when he progresses to U20 football a transition exclusively to half seems to be an appropriate hypothesis.

    From a player comparison perspective, someone like the Brisbane Broncos Ben Hunt seems appropriate as a half with good game management skills and a very good kicking game.

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    13. Ben Thomas. He is a local boy from the Beaudesert Kingfishers who plays in the second row and had a stellar year in CC this year, finishing with a team leading eight tries across the games and winning the Queensland Cyril Connell Cup player of the year award. As a result of his good form in the CC competition, he was selected on the bench for the Queensland U16 side who went on to defeat NSW in Sydney in a State of Origin curtain raiser. Titan’s team mates that night were five eight Max Dowd and second rower Darius Farmer. He also started at lock for the U16 Titans development squad in their recent win against Samoa, where with Darius Farmer and Luke Mastroianni were the Titans best for me in conditions best suited for forwards. He was also named best forward when our U15 development squad played the Wests Tigers late in 2014. For the Kingfishers he scored six tries over the course of the 2015 Gold Coast Junior Rugby League season in the U16 Premier Division.

    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. Where he really excels though is his footwork, he has very good late and quick foot work which enables him to change direction quickly allowing him to readjust where he is running to take advantage of either a late developing hole in the defensive line or where the defensive line is repositioning late.

    Even when he is taking a hit up in the centre of the ruck, his feet are always moving and he is constantly making slight corrections to his running direction and he is also able to maintain his speed regardless of the multiple directional changes. He seems just to run at a faster pace than other forwards on the field. These attributes lead to a lot of line breaks and he has the speed to convert them into tries himself. As a result of his foot work he does seem to get hit high reasonably often as defenders are not able to react quickly enough to the change in the directional aspects of his running. Obviously drawing penalties (legitimate ones) is a good thing but the physical toll clearly not.

    These critical attributes mean that he is difficult to target and runs at a very fast pace into the defensive line but the fluidity of his directional changes means he is a difficult target to get hold of for defenders. In the Samoa game you could see how his running angles changed as the game progressed from a duration perspective as well as momentum perspective. As the Samoan forwards tired his directional changes went from cutting to the fringes of the ruck to cutting back behind the play the ball as gaps were appearing there with the Samoan forwards becoming increasingly slower to get back into the defensive line due to fatigue as the smaller, faster Titans forwards extracted their toll on the aerobic fitness of their much larger opponents.

    Defensively he hits very hard and usually aims for just under the ribs and is adept at making sure the opposition do not get quick play the balls. He is equally adept at defending in the centre of the ruck as he is defending on the fringes and his initial contact is more than sufficient to make an impact on the ball carrier. His lateral speed is understandably very good due to his quick twitch feet and thus he is effective at defending against nippy runners out of dummy half as well as half backs and five eights running of the fringes.

    For the 2016 season, he has been named in the MM train on squad and should become a key contributor in one of the Gold Coast sides where he should continue to be a try scoring backrower. I can not see any positional change on the horizon and see no reason why he will not stay in the back row where he has played all of his junior football. Once the MM season is completed, he will play for the Kingfishers at the Premier Division U17 level in the Gold Coast Junior Rugby League competition.

    From a player comparison perspective, one player with a similar playing style that I can think of is Sydney Roosters backrower Mitch Aubusson as a try scoring, hole running backrower with good footwork and speed who plays the game at a pace that forces defenders to rush their decision about how to defend against him.

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    12. Ethan Roberts. He is a young utility player from Northern New South Wales, specifically the Grafton/Lismore area, who currently attends PBC and after an injury interrupted start to the year had a solid second season in MM, before playing the rest of the season in the Gold Coast Senior competition at both the U19 and First grade level for Tugun. At the U19 level he scored nine tries and a goal from 12 games and also scored a first grade try from his two or three first grade games. In MM he scored four tries and kicked two goals in his abridged MM season.

    Previously he has represented NSW at the U16 level in 2013 where he started the game at five eight in the NSW win and was named player of the match in that interstate game and was roundly praised by Brad Fittler on social media. In MM he played at five eight and for Tugun he played five eight, back row and hooker and for the Titans U18 Invitational side he started at hooker and then played some back row when Jayden Parker came on to take over at hooker. He can be seen as the number nine in the video of the U18 Titans game on the Titans official site. He was originally contracted to the Brisbane Broncos who were the team that brought him up to PBC before coming over to the Titans. His young brother Blake played five eight for the Titans U15 squad against Balmain Tigers.


    In attack, regardless of the position he 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 MM he scored one or two tries from his own half where he stood up his opposing five eight and beat the cover defence over 60m. Similarly when breaks were made by the outside backs, he had the speed to keep up with them, I won’t say comfortably but he kept up speed wise. Where he excels is drawing defenders in to him and using his ball skills to put his runners into gaps, either through a short pass off his hip, like the Bulldogs forwards, or holding the ball until the last second when the defender commits and then gets the ball away, he is prepared to take the hit to open the gap in the defensive line.

    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 which is not surprising because prior to this year I am not aware of him playing hooker at all, obviously he is used to playing at five eight and has not quite transitioned yet to passing off the ground in one fluid movement. As he plays more at hooker, I would expect him to improve from the perspective of knowing when to run from dummy half.

    On the field he so calm and collected and rarely makes the wrong decision with the football in his hands. You constantly see him talking to his team mates, letting them know what is going on and encouraging them, he just reads the play very well.

    Defensively he is more than strong enough to defend in the middle of the ruck and quick enough to defend on the fridges when playing at five eight. In the centre of the ruck he sets a strong base to create the necessary leverage to defend against larger forwards and explodes upward through his core at very good initial contact regardless of the size of the attacker. When defending on the fringes of the ruck, he has the size and strength to handle wide running backrowers one on one and his lateral movement and anticipation are good enough to combat smaller quicker players without impacting on the integrity of his defensive technique.

    He can also kick in general play, more so tactical kicks to gain ground rather than attacking kicks such as grubber kicks or bombs. I do not think that he will be a team’s primary general play kicker but has the skill set to be a secondary option when the primary kicker is under pressure and if he continues to play at hooker, he will need to work on getting his kicks away quickly to take full advantage of kicking from dummy half. Like his tactical kicking I do not think that he ends up as a primary goal kicker but is effective enough to be a secondary option, where he is accurate from close range but his accuracy suffers the wider out the kicks are from.

    For the 2016 season it is hard not to see him not playing NYC next year for the Titans, the question is more around what position will he likely play. Based on this year he may well break into the NYC as a utility player off the bench, who can play five eight, hooker or as a ball playing backrower. For me his long term future is as a ball playing backrower who has the size and skill to operate effectively on the fringes of the ruck. If he does not start the season in NYC he should comfortably start the 2016 season in QCup Colts for the Tweed Seagulls while he waits for an opportunity to present itself. Playing against men for a couple of games for Tugun in the Gold Coast First Grade competition will hold him in good stead for next year.

    From a player comparison perspective, a player with a similar style that I can think of is a physically smaller version of Canterbury Bulldog Greg Eastwood but a similar skill set as a back rower who has good ball skills in the fringes of the ruck and is faster than he is given credit for. He just looks like a natural footballer who was born to play rugby league, I really think that this young player has a massive future.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mdrew View Post
    12. Ethan Roberts. He is a young utility player from Northern New South Wales, specifically the Grafton/Lismore area, who currently attends PBC and after an injury interrupted start to the year had a solid second season in MM, before playing the rest of the season in the Gold Coast Senior competition at both the U19 and First grade level for Tugun. At the U19 level he scored nine tries and a goal from 12 games and also scored a first grade try from his two or three first grade games. In MM he scored four tries and kicked two goals in his abridged MM season.

    Previously he has represented NSW at the U16 level in 2013 where he started the game at five eight in the NSW win and was named player of the match in that interstate game and was roundly praised by Brad Fittler on social media. In MM he played at five eight and for Tugun he played five eight, back row and hooker and for the Titans U18 Invitational side he started at hooker and then played some back row when Jayden Parker came on to take over at hooker. He can be seen as the number nine in the video of the U18 Titans game on the Titans official site. He was originally contracted to the Brisbane Broncos who were the team that brought him up to PBC before coming over to the Titans. His young brother Blake played five eight for the Titans U15 squad against Balmain Tigers.


    In attack, regardless of the position he 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 MM he scored one or two tries from his own half where he stood up his opposing five eight and beat the cover defence over 60m. Similarly when breaks were made by the outside backs, he had the speed to keep up with them, I won’t say comfortably but he kept up speed wise. Where he excels is drawing defenders in to him and using his ball skills to put his runners into gaps, either through a short pass off his hip, like the Bulldogs forwards, or holding the ball until the last second when the defender commits and then gets the ball away, he is prepared to take the hit to open the gap in the defensive line.

    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 which is not surprising because prior to this year I am not aware of him playing hooker at all, obviously he is used to playing at five eight and has not quite transitioned yet to passing off the ground in one fluid movement. As he plays more at hooker, I would expect him to improve from the perspective of knowing when to run from dummy half.

    On the field he so calm and collected and rarely makes the wrong decision with the football in his hands. You constantly see him talking to his team mates, letting them know what is going on and encouraging them, he just reads the play very well.

    Defensively he is more than strong enough to defend in the middle of the ruck and quick enough to defend on the fridges when playing at five eight. In the centre of the ruck he sets a strong base to create the necessary leverage to defend against larger forwards and explodes upward through his core at very good initial contact regardless of the size of the attacker. When defending on the fringes of the ruck, he has the size and strength to handle wide running backrowers one on one and his lateral movement and anticipation are good enough to combat smaller quicker players without impacting on the integrity of his defensive technique.

    He can also kick in general play, more so tactical kicks to gain ground rather than attacking kicks such as grubber kicks or bombs. I do not think that he will be a team’s primary general play kicker but has the skill set to be a secondary option when the primary kicker is under pressure and if he continues to play at hooker, he will need to work on getting his kicks away quickly to take full advantage of kicking from dummy half. Like his tactical kicking I do not think that he ends up as a primary goal kicker but is effective enough to be a secondary option, where he is accurate from close range but his accuracy suffers the wider out the kicks are from.

    For the 2016 season it is hard not to see him not playing NYC next year for the Titans, the question is more around what position will he likely play. Based on this year he may well break into the NYC as a utility player off the bench, who can play five eight, hooker or as a ball playing backrower. For me his long term future is as a ball playing backrower who has the size and skill to operate effectively on the fringes of the ruck. If he does not start the season in NYC he should comfortably start the 2016 season in QCup Colts for the Tweed Seagulls while he waits for an opportunity to present itself. Playing against men for a couple of games for Tugun in the Gold Coast First Grade competition will hold him in good stead for next year.

    From a player comparison perspective, a player with a similar style that I can think of is a physically smaller version of Canterbury Bulldog Greg Eastwood but a similar skill set as a back rower who has good ball skills in the fringes of the ruck and is faster than he is given credit for. He just looks like a natural footballer who was born to play rugby league, I really think that this young player has a massive future.

    personally i think ethan has been losing ground since he repped group 1 at 14..

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    10. Kobe Tararo. He is a young backrower from the Logan area who represented Queensland at the U16 level in 2014 and attends Keebra Park for whom he played his school boy football. He recently started in the second row for the Titans U18 Development side and was noted in the article on the Official Titans site that he had a very game and was one of the stand outs and a further Titans NYC player. He has been named in the Gold Coast MM train on squad for the 2016 season. He did not play any MM games this year after playing the 2014 CC season with Souths Logan.

    From an attacking perspective, he has a wide running mindset for a backrower with a very good turn of speed once he breaks through the line. Like all good running backrowers though, 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 although he is not averse to running straight over people either. From the games that I have seem play he normally runs to the right 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. His determination is one aspect that enables him to be in the right place at the right time.

    Another key aspect of his running game is that he runs fast into the defensive line. I know all forwards run hard (well most) but in addition to that, Kobe Tararo runs fast and does not slow down when he impacts the defensive line. From my perspective this is a critical trait and one that is all too rarely seen, even in a lot of first grade games it looks like forwards are running up to the defensive line in slow motion, Tararo is not one of those forwards. An example of what I mean is that if you look at say the Roosters forward pack they run at speed and it makes a huge difference to the ground that can be made through the centre of the ruck.

    He is a hard runner and does not give up on the run until the opposition puts him on the ground, as a consequence, he makes a lot more metres for his team than he has a right to and with his determination he will also on occasion break clear of the defenders totally. I would consider that he runs ‘tough’.

    In the Titans development squad game, he defended both in the edge of the ruck and well as through the middle. He was quietly effective in both situations. His initial contact is solid and is more than enough to stop the momentum of the ball carrier and effect tackles one on one. He is also effective at wrapping the ball up and preventing offloads. When he hits he hits hard, but I would not call it aggressive per say, but he is just tough in his approach to his defence. I do not necessarily think that his defensive work will stand out because he is not going to come up with a huge hit which will get the crowd on its feet, but he will do a lot of work and will likely always finish near the top of the tackle count regardless of the level and standard of football he is playing.

    He has been named in the MM extended training squad for the 2016 season where he should be a main stay of one of the MM sides. On completion of the MM season, I would expect that he would immediately progress to QCup Colts where I do not think that there will be any issue with him being not able to handle the speed and physical demands of the game at that level. A call up to the NYC squad is also certainly not out of the question next year. I can not see any reason for a change of position for him. He is a strong tough backrower with some real ability to harness as he progresses and matures.

    From a player comparison perspective, someone along the lines of Boyd Cordner of the Roosters (even though he is probably not as tall as Cordner) would be appropriate from a style perspective as a well rounded back rower who plays the game hard with toughness and like a lot of the Roosters forwards they do not just run hard, they also run fast and do not slow down when engaging the defensive line.

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    9. Brent Barnes. He is a young fullback who has represented both the U14 Vikings and Kookaburras this year, in relation to his club football he played at both theU14 and U15 level for the Helensvale Hornets. He had a stellar 2015 scoring 24 tries and kicking ten goals for a total points haul of 114 points. From the statistics you can see that he had a very impressive strike rate even more so considering he played a fair portion of the year playing up an age group in U15 Division One. He also captained the Titans U14 development squad in their game against Samoa recently, where he also started at fullback and also made the U15 possibles v probables game in the 2015 Queensland Murri carnival.

    He is a silky smooth runner of the football, who looks like he glides across the field picking and choosing his time to get involved from the fullback position and clearly wants to have the ball in his hands when the game is on the line or his team needs someone to stand up and be counted. In the U14 development squad game, after a tough first 10 minutes, when his team was down 10-0, he took it upon himself to take the game on. He took runs up the centre of the ruck and led by example with the likes of second rower Andre Semu to wrestle the momentum away from Samoa. In the second half when the things were getting a bit aggressive, again it was Brent Barnes who took control of his side to ensure that they maintained their discipline as well as making sure no liberties were taken.

    He is exceptionally quick off the mark and when the ball is being brought out of his teams half he is always around the forwards looking for off loads, or taking the ball up himself, as evidenced in the U14 development squad game against Samoa, where on a couple of occasions he took advantage of tiring forwards to make ground in the centre of the ruck.

    It is not just his speed off the mark that is so impressive, it is the extended distance that he can maintain his top speed. Once he is through the initial defensive line, he has an extra gear as well to out pace any cover defense. Making his speed even more difficult to deal with for defences is his footwork, he is able to change direction very quickly which enables him to take advantage of a staggered defensive line when returning kicks.

    He also can play the way a lot of the current fullbacks play when they receive the football, “out the back” from the half/five eight. In those circumstances, he seems to currently runs more than he passes, but he is usually one of the better players in all of the teams that he has played on to date, thus I have no doubt that his passing and decision making skills will improve in these situations as he matures as a player. In the instances when he runs, he will dummy, step and accelerate quickly. I can see no discernible difference in relation to the quality of his step regardless of what foot he steps off.

    He also has very good positional sense for the fullback position in terms of taking a high percentage of opposing teams general play kicks on the full, thus regularly giving his team good initial field position to start their set of six. Similarly his positional sense when close to his own goal line means he defuses a lot of attacking grubber kicks. He will also take the responsibility to run the ball back himself rather than hand it off to his winger where he runs with pace and strength. When the kick goes to a winger, he is good at running out of dummy half prior to the defensive line getting se for the next play the ball. Another aspect in relation to returning kicks is that he attacks grubber and chip kicks rather than waiting back to see how the play unfolds. In short he does not wait for the game to come to him, he makes thing happen on the field by taking the game on.

    Defensively he is an aggressive defender who will look to come forward when a break has been made to cut down the decision making time of the attacking team he will hit hard in the tackle. He also will not take a dummy either. He uses the sideline very well from a defensive stand point. He will always stay inside the attacker presenting him with the sideline and then once the attacker has committed to the side line, he will use his speed and momentum to force the attacker into touch. He is his team’s defensive quarter back in terms of the positioning of the defensive line, you can hear him talking and encouraging constantly and was understandably made captain of the U14 side due to him leading by example, both in attack and defence.

    The 2016 season should see him play at the U15 level, but just like this year, he may well play some U16 football for Helensvale. I note that he has not been named in the CC train on Squad for next year. From a long term position perspective, he could undoubtly play a number of positions, including fullback, wing and centre at a high level, but based on the evidence of what I have seen, a long term future at fullback would be the way to go, where he can be a real difference maker for his side.

    From a player comparison perspective, a player along the lines of Penrith Panther Matt Moylan is an appropriate comparison as a silky smooth player who has all of the skills and temperament to be able to turn a game on its head with scintillating football and make difficult tasks look easy.
    Last edited by mdrew; 26-10-15 at 12:19 PM. Reason: mistake

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    7. David Butler. He is a local young front rower who represented South Coast in the QSSRL U15 competition this year, where in my opinion was the best forward on show. He understandably made the Queensland U15 Maroons side for the national U15 school boy’s titles in June and with fellow Titans junior Geordie Brand was part of the Championships winning Queensland side. He was actually named the Queensland Maroon’s player of the match in their first game against NSW CCC I believe it was. He was also selected for Queensland at the U12 level a couple of years ago. He played his club football on the Gold Coast for Helensvale in U15 Division One where he scored five tries and kicked a goal for a season tally of 22 points and started in the front row for the U15 Development Squad in their recent victory against the Balmain Tigers.

    He runs exceptionally hard and there is little subtlety to his running, it is straight and hard and another positive is that he will not just run upright, he will drop his should into the defender making it difficult if not impossible for him to be stopped easily. His running style means that he throws self-preservation out of the window, and fires up his team mates with his charges at full speed into a set forward defensive line. He will on occasion take advantage of slow defenders by angling back behind the play the ball, but outside of that he just flat out runs full throttle every time he touches the ball and runs fast and will fight for a quick play the ball every time. If anything he is more effective in the second half of games where his running style begins to wear down the opposition.

    I have not seen a great deal of off loads from him, so whilst they will not necessarily be a significant part of his game moving forward developing this ability and the use of some foot work prior to the line will only make him even more effective. He has good lateral movement for a front rower so he does have the skills to develop some footwork but just needs more experience.

    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 is best suited in the long run defending there and adds a degree of intimidation to any forward pack he plays for. If anything he tries so hard in attack that he gets worn out for his defensive responsibilities, but to his credit he will continue to endeavour to be in the right position as often as possible.

    He has been a bit of a favourite of mine, since I saw him play for our U13 development squad in a game at Redlands a few years ago. He had come off for a rest, but a couple of injuries meant that the coach turned around and said to the players on the bench, “I need someone to play lock”, David Butler’s hand went straight up, when the coach told him to quickly warm up to go on, he turned to the player next to him and get a quick rundown of where he needed to defend on the field as he had never played lock before. A little thing like this goes to show the dedication and willingness of him to do what is necessary to help his team win.

    He has been selected in the Gold Coast CC train on squad for next year where he should be a mainstay of one of the two Gold Coast teams in the front row as well as playing U16 Division One in the Gold Coast Junior Rugby League for Helensvale. From a long term perspective, I would consider it almost certain that he will stay in the front row where he can be a strong physical and leadership presence for any team that he plays, although the way that locks play these days, they are a third front rower so whilst he may have the No. 13 on his back, the way he plays the game will not change.

    From a player comparison perspective, I know that it is a big call but I can see aspects of a playing style that is similar in style to Cowboys, Queensland and Australian front rower Matt Scott as a front rower who will make a lot of ground in attack to set up momentum and field position for his team. Like Matt Scott, David Butler gets on top of the opposition by out working them.

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    6. Darius Farmer. He is a young second rower from Ipswich who represented Queensland at the U16 level this year with Titans team mates Ben Thomas and Max Dowd. He played in the CC competition with Ipswich this year and also started in the second row for the Titans U16 Development Squad in their game against Samoa, where in the first tackle of the game he absolutely smashed the Samoan forward returning the ball from the kick off. For Ipswich he received the 2015 CC Ipswich Player’s player award. He played for Springfield Black in the U17A competition in the Ipswich Junior Rugby League where he scored three tries over the course of the season.

    He is a tall, rangy exceptional athlete and this can be seen when be he is running with the football. In his carries he rarely takes a hit up without movement, he uses foot work prior to the line to look to break through as well as cutting either cutting back in behind the play the ball or cutting out towards the smaller defenders on the fringes of the ruck. He, certainly from the games that I have seen, including the interstate game, a number of CC games and the U16 development squad game, he plays on the right side of the field. I will not say that he plays on that side of the ruck exclusively but he is stationed there quite often.

    Like one or two others mentioned recently he runs ‘fast’ into the defensive and his foot work prior to the line enables him to get partly through the line quite often, certainly more so than you would expect for a backrower taking the ball through the centre of the ruck. One reason for this is that he is a smart footballer, he does not try to run over defenders, but he runs at the gaps between defenders and uses his running speed to break through if defenders only use their arms on the tackle. He does not necessarily have a great top end speed, but he is certainly fast enough to get through to the full back prior to the arrival of the cover defence. He would be one of the faster back rowers running around for his age group in South East Queensland.

    Playing on the right hand side of the field seemingly more often, means that his right foot step and his fending using his left hand are the effective attributes, but based on his physical attributes, his skill set and his understanding of how to play the game means that I have no doubt that these attributes are transferrable to playing on the left hand side of the field.

    He seems like a quiet player on the field, I have not heard him running around yelling and screaming and losing discipline for example, but that means he is measured in how he plays the game and the response from his team mates suggests that he is highly regarded and is a leader through his actions rather than his words.

    In defence he regularly is the first player up to target the ball carriers, even though he is not 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. As could be seen in the U16 development squad game, when the opportunity presents he has the ability to hit very hard, by setting a good base and driving through his lower body and core into his opponent. Ultimately though he is a strong defender with a good front on technique and good lateral movement to track and defend against smaller opponents either on the fringes or centre of the ruck.

    Moving towards the 2016 season, he has been named in the Gold Coast MM training squad and you would anticipate that he will be a key member of one of those sides. Once the MM season is completed expect him to transition back to playing for Springfield U17’s (assuming he does not play in the Gold Coast Junior Rugby League competition) for the second year in a row, although playing some games at the U19 level in the Ipswich Junior Rugby League competition is not out of the question. I would expect that due to his size, speed and skill attributes that he will continue to play in the back row for the foreseeable future and even though he seems to play more on the right side of the field at present, there is nothing to suggest he will not transition into a player who can play on both sides of the ruck.

    From a style perspective think of a young Ben Creagh of the St George Dragons, as a well-rounded backrower with the ability to break the line by himself or as a result of running a good line and then has enough speed to break into space prior to looking for his support players as well as being an extremely efficient defender who will hit hard when the opportunity presents itself.

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    5. Rixon Andrew. He is a young fullback from Souths in the GBJRL competition. He made just about every representative team possible for his U13 age group this year, including U13 Brisbane Stingers and U13 South East Queensland. For the Queensland State Age Championships, he not only top scored with eight tries from his three games but he was also named the most outstanding player in the U13 age group. In addition he started at fullback for the Titans U13 development squad in their recent game against Toowoomba.

    For Souths he was part of the side that unfortunately lost the grand final 36-30 to Logan Brothers in the GBJRL but that was only after he inspired a second half comeback which brought Souths back from a 30 to 6 deficit. Rixon Andrew scored two tries early in the second half to help inspire his side. Other Titans involved in that grand final included Caleb Esera, Aaron Lafai, Brock Ashton (Souths) and Matamatagi Ripley (Logan Brothers). Unfortunately he is also part of the Broncos U13 Elite Development Unit, and anyone who has seen him play will understand why both clubs hold him in high regard.

    In attack, he does not play like a typical full back he does not sweep around the back of the play and he does not necessarily work in the centre of the field looking for off loads from the forwards. He plays up in the line in attack, playing like a second five eight. For Souths he played a lot of the time playing outside the five eight, for the Stingers and the Titans U13 development side he played a lot more on the opposite side to the five eight and one off the ruck. He is not a speedster as he is a solidly built player, but he does have decent speed off the mark and can also sustain his top speed. He has a myriad of attacking moves to break a game open. In the Titans development squad game he really did look to set up his supports by running to the line himself, on a number of occasions in that game he used a step off both fend and a powerful fend again from either side to get outside his opposite defender and then once the next defender was forced in to cover him, he has a very good pass, both from a direction and timing perspective to put his outside support into gaps.

    In the development squad game on one run he beat at least three or four defenders with a combination of the moves noted above as well as sheer strength and power before offloading to his outside support with an exquisite one handed pass who had a clear run into space. On the next play the ball second rower Jadye Williams scored as a result.

    In terms of running the ball back from kicks, his timing and anticipation means that he gets to a lot of balls on the full and makes a quick decision whether to run the ball flat out back into the oncoming defenders or look to create an opportunity by running across field. Regardless he is an absolute handful to tackle.

    Against Logan Brothers in the grand final, early in the second half with his side down 30 to 6, he look the line on himself and made numerous breaks both out wide as well as up the middle, where on one occasion he carried at least three Logan Brothers forwards over line. For around twenty minutes of the second half in that grand final, he was almost unstoppable, the defence knew that he was going to get the ball but he still was able to set up the attack and bring his side back to a 30-26 score line, scoring two tries himself in that period.

    One other aspect that was noted, certainly more so when he was playing for Souths is that he likes to chip kick over the defensive line, normally for himself to chase. He actually chips the ball quite high looking to retrieve the ball on the full rather than waiting for the bounce as he is big and strong enough to beat most players his age in the air. The other thing that this does is enable him to hit the fullback very hard if the opposing fullback gets to the ball before him. He tried the chip in the last play of the grand final but was unable to get a result.

    Defensively in the fullback position he understandably he does not a huge amounts of tackles but the ones he makes are the ones that need to be made. If an attacker runs directly at him, he will come forward to cut down the time the attacker has to make a decision and he will hit very hard. An impressive attribute that he does have he is ability to force attackers in the clear to try to beat him down the side line. He will stay inside the attacker and force him in the needed direction and then use his timing and anticipation to make the tackle, usually forcing the attacker into touch.

    In the GBJRL grand final against Logan Brothers, in the first half he was confronted with attackers on multiple attackers as Logan Brothers got away to a good lead, but on each occasion he forced the attackers to beat him with a decision to pass to a support player rather than trying to anticipate a pass and thus being suseptible to being beaten by a dummy. He does stand quite deep in defence but as noted he moves forward quickly to reduce the time and space immediately.

    Moving forward to the 2016 season, it is all most impossible not be see him being heavily involved in the U14 representative sides such the Stingers etc and obviously playing for Souths Juniors based in Acacia Ridge in the GBJRL competition. From a position stand point, it must be very difficult for his coaches not to play him at five eight so that the ball can be in is hands as much as possible, but from the full back position he can pick and choose where and when he gets the ball. I would think that staying at fullback in the short term is likely but as he progresses to the higher age groups of junior rugby league and towards the senior grades, it would not surprise at all that he is moved to five eight.

    Another poster on this forum noted a former NRL player who Rixon Andrew plays like and I can not disagree with him. He has a similar playing style to former Bronco and current Queensland Reds player Karmichael Hunt, as a strongly built fullback with all of the running and ball playing skills to play the game at a high level who is fearless both in terms of charging into the defensive line as well as using his skills to the absolute limit.

    For me he is one of the most impressive young players that I have ever seen and seemingly is always one play ahead of the game and an innate understanding of the game and his role in it, he does not let the game come to him, he takes the game but the scruff of the neck and just throttles it.

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    4. Geordie Brand. He is a young front rower who has had an amazing year, making multiple representative sides including making the Australian U15 Merit side and was named player of the tournament, which was a great result after being a key member of the Queensland U15 Schoolboys side. In the U15 National School boys championship grand final against NSW he scored two tries from close range in the 30-10 win, which also included fellow Titans contracted player David Butler. He also started in the front row for the Titans U15 development squad in their recent victory over the Balmain Tigers.

    He is also a member of the Titans Elite Junior Performance Academy, which is run by Jamie McCormack. There was a story on the Titans official site about him and the tournament a couple of months ago. He currently attends Keebra Park but plays his club rugby league at Logan Brothers. The Logan Brothers U15 side this year (like most years) has been the dominant team in the GBJRL competition at that age group, with Geordie Brand being a big reason for their success, they are well coached and are brimming with talented players who play well as a team. He was the captain of the side and was one of the best in their grand final victory against Souths in the U15 GBJRL Grand Final.

    In that Grand Final, he was in my opinion Logan Brothers best and was probably only shaded by brilliant backrower and fellow Keebra Park student David Fifita from Souths as the best player on the field. He led his side from the front continually taking the ball into the heart of the huge Souths pack and by the end of the day had worn them down. One run in particular he fielded the ball from a drop out and charged to within a metre of the line. Centre Sebastian Winters-Chang, another Keebra student benefited from the quick play the ball, scoring an easy try.

    In attack he just flat out runs hard and straight, this trait helped him score two tries in the U15 Australian final against one of the NSW sides. The tries were as a result of him charging straight and hard from close range, and literally just wanting to score regardless of who was in front of him. On both occasions the defensive line was set and compacted in the middle but he was able to still find his way over, carrying defenders with him on one of those occasions, for his first try he just burst through the two defenders in the line and scored next to the posts. One area in attack that I have not necessarily seen too much of his is off loading. I am not suggesting this is not within his capabilities but it is something that to date has not shown up, but based on his dedication to his craft it is hard to see that particular skill not developing to at least a solid level.

    Like I described an earlier player in this thread, being Blake Lenehan who actually he plays fairly similar to, there is no real need to carry on too much about how he plays, he runs and tackles hard both in the middle of the ruck and certainly this year on the edges of the ruck as well. He is just a no nonsense footballer who plays the game hard and fair and just continually works on the field. He is just absolutely solid in every aspect of the game. I can not necessary absolutely point to one specific reason why, because he is not a ‘flashy’ player but he really does stand out when you watch him play and it is not just because he wears head gear!

    I have seen him play in previous years, but this year he has made a huge leap forward and it is impossible not to be impressed by his ability, commitment and determination. He also seems to be a leader and well liked and respected by his team mates. You do not get to be selected to captain a Logan Brothers side unless you work hard both on the field and at training, so he clearly has a number of leadership attributes, including leading by example on and off the field.

    He should be a mainstay of one of the Souths Logan CC side next year and hopefully a long term member of our Elite Junior Development Squad as well as being involved in Keebra Park’s Super Six and GIO Cup school boys campaigns. In his career so far, he has played almost exclusively in the front row, but as a result of training with the older members of the Titans Elite Performance Academy he seems to have trimmed down a little and seems a lot quicker with increased lateral mobility. I can see him transitioning to the second row as he progresses and even though he is probably around 188cm and 95kg or a fraction more, he looks to be someone who will be a close to 80 minute player.

    From a style perspective prior to this year, I originally thought of someone like the Wests Tigers Aaron Woods (with less facial hair and a better hair cut all round) but after his outstanding year and a change to his body shape and possible position change in the future, a better comparison may be to Brisbane Broncos backrower Matt Gillett as a skilled 80 minute backrower who stands out due to his determination and intensity with leadership skills thrown in as well.

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    Darius is doing preseason with NYC squad as well. For me he is similar to a young SBW. Size, speed, and a great offload. Can put a hit on as well


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