My take on our top juniors

[footyfan123]

Hi mdrew, new to this forum and have read a few of your take on top juniors. I find your take on some of these kids quite interesting.

But it seems to be the same kids every year. I get around a few of the grounds and the school games and seem to notice things not just the stand out players but some of the up and coming players.

There's one big unit of a kid at Coombabah in the under 14 development team, hes 13 years old, and 6ft 2, that seems to go UN-noticed. This kids name is Matthew Wilton-Waldron, he was named most improved in under 13s at Coombabah last year. He will play front row to start with then back to second row, as this kids got speed for the height hes got, Hes slimmed down, and has great ball skills and can tackle. He was also called up to play in the Titans development squad as an invite for under 13s last year, and spent most of the game on the field.

This year hes back at Coombabah in the under 14's and will be playing Div 1 with the Hornets. I would recommend having a look at this kid too, also another one out of Coombabah is EJ, hes plays front row for the under 14's, and plays club for Runaway Bay. Both these boys maybe ones to have a look at this year.

[mdrew]

Appreciate your feedback I will definitely keep an eye out.

Hi mdrew, new to this forum and have read a few of your take on top juniors. I find your take on some of these kids quite interesting.

But it seems to be the same kids every year. I get around a few of the grounds and the school games and seem to notice things not just the stand out players but some of the up and coming players.

There's one big unit of a kid at Coombabah in the under 14 development team, hes 13 years old, and 6ft 2, that seems to go UN-noticed. This kids name is Matthew Wilton-Waldron, he was named most improved in under 13s at Coombabah last year. He will play front row to start with then back to second row, as this kids got speed for the height hes got, Hes slimmed down, and has great ball skills and can tackle. He was also called up to play in the Titans development squad as an invite for under 13s last year, and spent most of the game on the field.

This year hes back at Coombabah in the under 14's and will be playing Div 1 with the Hornets. I would recommend having a look at this kid too, also another one out of Coombabah is EJ, hes plays front row for the under 14's, and plays club for Runaway Bay. Both these boys maybe ones to have a look at this year.

[mdrew]

Julian Torrens. He is an exceptionally talented young half/fullback from the Group One junior rugby league, specifically from the Clarence Coast club, where he played at the U13 level over the course of the 2015 season. He also played school boy football for McLean Public School where he was a key contributor in a number of schoolboy competitions including the DEX (Daily Examiner) Shield, which is a schoolboy U14 competition for NSW North Coast public schools.

For Clarence Coast in the Group One U13 competition, he was both the leading try scorer and point’s scorer, both for Clarence Coast and for the entire U13 competition. In the 11 games he played in that age group, he scored an incredible 30 tries, kicked 19 goals and a field goal for an amazing points haul on the season of 159 points. He was the leading try scorer by four from fellow development squad member Tyrhys Williams, with centre Kodi Crowther third with 22 tries.

He scored six tries in a game on two occasions, both times against Lismore Marist Brothers and five tries once, being against South Grafton. In addition to the six tries twice against Marist, he also kicked five goals on one of those occasions and four in the other game, meaning he scored 66 points against Marist Brothers alone. He also played one game up at the U14 level, kicking two goals in that solitary game. Incredibly he scored 159 of the 235 points that the Clarence Coast U13 side scored on the season, meaning he scored approximately 68% of his team’s points on the season. He was also his school side’s primary goal kicker from recollection.

Let’s cut to the chase when he runs the ball, he is exceptionally quick and explosive, with exceptional speed, both off the mark and when he gets into open space, teams in his age group in the Group One competition just could not handle him when he had the ball. He also can step off both feet exceptionally well and also has a great swerve whilst maintaining top speed. On many occasions when he made a break, his support could not keep and thus he used his incredible footwork and speed to beat the opposing fullback by himself. There is nothing that he cannot do running the ball and it is only now about developing his ball playing skills to make his footwork and running ability even more lethal. In attack he also played up in the line quite often and was his team’s primary attacking option.

In addition he also has the ball playing skills to set up his support runners and get them lines to run into when defenders came out of the line to negate his time with the ball in hand. He obviously was a key target for defences but he understands that he cannot do it all himself and thus became adept at drawing defenders out of the line and putting his support runners into the subsequent hole. As his play making skills continue to evolve, the attacking possibilities are endless.

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 with his evasion skills.

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 necessarily a team’s primary general play kicker, although that is not set in stone, but has the skill set to be at the minimum and very good secondary option when the primary kicker is under pressure and only needs to work on getting his kicks away quickly to take full advantage of his kicking ability. 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.

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.

Moving onto the 2016 season, he will play at the U14 level, presumably again with Clarence Coast and similarly his school boy football with McLean. He will likely be one of the first chosen in the Group One U14 representative side and is just looks an exceptional talent. Obviously boy’s this young have a long way to go in terms of dedication, motivation, maturity etc. but he really does look like a class act, a natural, on a football field. He has played some half and fullback, but I would envisage a future, at least initially at fullback as someone who can pick and choose their time to get involved from an attacking stand point and wants the ball in his hands when the game is on the line.

From a player comparison perspective, the one player that does spring to mind is Brisbane Broncos five eight Anthony Milford, as an exceptional talent who can do almost anything on a football field from an attacking perspective and is exciting to watch, when he gets the ball the level of anticipation rises as you cannot wait to see what he is going to put on. He may well end up at a different position, being fullback but the elusive and explosive running ability on top of sublime ball skills translate to a similar playing style to Milford.

[mdrew]

no point any more

[TITAN PETE]

no point any more

Mate did u get to the MM games this weekend ?

[Mexican titan]

no point any more

I like reading these summaries of players. Why do you say no point - obviously I am missing something?

[Titanic]

no point any more

What's this?

[Bayside Titan]

no point any more

Same as the others. I appreciate the work you put in and it's helped me get an appreciation of juniors that are around as I have no idea at all!!!!

[palmbeachpariah]

standards for both cc and mm very very low

[mdrew]

Apologies all had a crap time of late with an illness and also it is just frustrating that I have tried on multiple occasions to get assistance from the Titans about getting more information out about the juniors but to no avail I must be talking to the wrong people. The last straw was getting flak and I mean a lot of it from Broncos supporters at the NYC trial, about the fact that they “own” the coast from a junior development perspective and also that they can just take who they want after we have started to develop them.

Once I stop acting like a sook I will be back, apologies again

What's this?

[RenegadeGC]

Apologies all had a crap time of late with an illness and also it is just frustrating that I have tried on multiple occasions to get assistance from the Titans about getting more information out about the juniors but to no avail I must be talking to the wrong people. The last straw was getting flak and I mean a lot of it from Broncos supporters at the NYC trial, about the fact that they “own” the coast from a junior development perspective and also that they can just take who they want after we have started to develop them.

Once I stop acting like a sook I will be back, apologies again

Love your work MDrew, the time and effort that goes into your research and posts is second to none. Im sure everyone appreciates what you do as much as I do. Keep your head up champ and keep up the great work.

[palmbeachpariah]

the biggest problem with junior development here is that the coaches i see, dont follow the simple reason why they should be there. To DEVELOP! cc coaches should be improving kids for mm,,mm for 20s and 20s for nrl.. The kids i watched on the weekend are totally clueless..

2 worst things i saw at cc level were playing ronin kapi as right centre when he scoots better from left to right and have a runaway bay kid at left center who holds the ball in the right hand.

then we have deejarn asi a left footer on the right side of the field kicking back to the left all the time..and the coaches seem completely oblivious to it ..any decent coach can see it :0

[Titanic]

That's the spirit, matey ... spit the dummy, have a rant then climb off the floor and give it back to them ... you can see by the support that you have on here that your efforts are very much appreciated. Fark the Brisso's.

And PBP, you just have to wonder what they teach in coaches camps any more and who is providing quality assurance. Stacking teams with talent and then giving the coach the plaudits is just plain wrong.

[mdrew]

Drekwon Brown. He is a young backrower who starred for the Titans U14 development squad in their 28-10 victory over Samoa late in 2015 at Pizzey Park, Burleigh. The former Ipswich youngster has played the last couple of seasons in the GBJRL competition with the South Magpies junior rugby league club based in the western suburbs of Brisbane at Acacia Ridge where he was on the bench in the U15 grand final against a Logan Brothers side that had in their starting line-up Titans linked players, front rower Geordie Brand and hooker Jackson Keil. Unfortunately South’s were beaten in the grand final with Geordie Brand captaining and leading the way from the front row for Logan Brothers.

In the U14 development squad game he can off the bench (he was in jersey 22 for the people that saw the game) and really made a huge deference playing in the back row being a major contributor in the Titans win. Outside of fullback Brent Barnes in my opinion he was the Titans best player and certainly the best forward on the field and certainly made a huge impression on me. At one stage I believe that he was part of the Brisbane Broncos development program, so well done to Titans development staff for identifying his talent and getting him involved with the Titans junior development program.

He has developed into 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 exceptionally 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 long breaks himself. 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 for defenders to negate. I would argue that his overall foot speed as just above average for a backrower but it plays faster than that due to his footwork and how hard he runs at the defensive line as well as the fact that he looks to run at gaps in the defensive line rather than just trying to run over opposition defenders.

What he also has is very good ball skills, obviously developed from his time playing at five eight. He can distribute the ball effectively either prior to impacting the defensive line or once he has broken through. He does not necessarily have the size to offload when he is engaged with the defensive line but certainly prior to and after his ball playing skills are in the plus category especially down the blind side of the ruck. He just has the natural ability to pop a short ball to his support runners when the defensive line is least expecting it. As he matures and develops he shapes as an ideal link man between the forwards and his team’s halfback and five eight, fact he could likely fill in at five eight if necessary.

Defensively he hits very hard and usually aims for the waist to just under the rib cage 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 smaller dynamic runners out of dummy half as well as half backs and five eights running of the fringes looking to isolate forwards. He is also very good at keeping his hands low when defending against smaller, quicker players and thus he is able to limit the amounts of penalties given away for high tackles even when they change direction on him quickly or unexpectedly.

Moving towards the 2016 season, he will play for the South Acacia Ridge U15 side in the western suburbs of Brisbane and his side will likely battle South’s Logan for supremacy for the GBJRL U15 premiership. From a position perspective, even though he has played some centre and five eight earlier in his junior rugby league career, I think that he has found his niche in the back row and a very good one at that.

From a player comparison perspective, one player with a similar playing style but certainly not from a physical build perspective is Bulldogs backrower Greg Eastwood as a multi-faceted ball playing forward with decent speed and the ability to break through the line with subtle footwork.

Of all the young players that played in the development squad games against Samoa he was the one that caught my one more so that the rest . Over the course of the development squad games that afternoon, there were plenty of young players with bigger resumes or reputations, but that day he put himself squarely on the map as an exceptionally gifted young rugby league player in my eyes at least.

[mdrew]

Daine Laurie. He is a young fullback/five eight from the Grafton area of Northern NSW who whilst small in stature is big on courage and is a fearless and dynamic runner of the ball. He was busy from a playing perspective in 2015, playing for the Grafton Ghosts at the U16.5 level in the Group One junior rugby league competition as well as playing for the Lower Clarence Magpies in the U18 NRRRL competition, on many occasions on the same weekend, playing U16.5 on a Saturday and backing up to play U18’s on a Sunday, with a heck of a lot of travelling in between.

For the Grafton Ghosts at the U16.5 level (it is a combined U16/U17 competition), he played mainly five eight, including in the grand final which they unfortunately lost 36-22 to Casino RSM. Over the season however, he scored 11 tries from the 12 matches that he played and was named the competition’s best and fairest player. He finished equal second on the try scoring list with Titans linked centre Isaac Lee (Incredibly Lee scored his 11 tries from only five games). They finished three tries behind talented Casino RSM centre Edward O’Connor. For Lower Clarence, he was named Rookie of the Year on his way to scoring ten tries in the 12 games he played. At the U18 level he played exclusively at fullback for the Magpies. A team mate for Lower Clarence was front rower Kyron Herron. The NRRRL U18 competition is quite a good standard with a few players from that competition progressing to NYC squads for the 2016 season.

In addition, he played school boy rugby league for McLean High School, who had a decent season, losing the Daily Examiner Shield (DEX) Open school boy competition final 25-20 to South Grafton High School. That was the second year in a row that McLean High had lost the DEX open final to South Grafton High School and the third year in a row that South Grafton has won it. He has moved up to the Gold Coast and will be playing his school boy rugby league for PBC, and will be in serious contention to be involved in their open National GIO Cup and State Super Six campaigns, with a number of Titans linked players from the three Gold Coast schools that are involved in those competitions, being PBC, Keebra Park and Coombabah.

From an attacking perspective, he has outstanding footwork to go along with above average to plus evasive skills and plus plus speed, both in terms of off the mark and top end speed where he has an extra gear to go to when he breaks into open space, which during the 2015 season was a regular occurrence. 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 and has no right to make any further ground.

In addition he also has the ball playing skills to set up his support runners and get them lines to run into when defenders came out of the line to negate his time with the ball in hand. In the U18 NRRRL competition, late in the season he started to become more of a ball player at the fullback position when receiving the ball behind the ruck. With more experience I think that this aspect of his game will continue to evolve and thus he will become even more of the threat as defences cannot just assume he is going to run the ball himself.

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 back into the oncoming defenders or look to create an opportunity by running across field and using his step if the defensive line is staggered or does not extend too far across the field.

From a defensive perspective, as noted he by no means a big player but his toughness and courage cannot be denied. He will really try to hit hard in defence regardless of the size of the attacker running at him. At fullback he will rush forward to cut down the time the attacking player has to make a decision of what to do with the ball when they make a break and even if they draw him and pass to a support player he was still look to hit them as hard as they can to make them earn it. Playing at five eight in the U16.5 competition, due to his determination he really did rock opposing forwards on occasion with big hits, but obviously with the increased size of the players at the U18 NRRRL level the end result was different, but his desire to hit hard was not and it is unlikely that his mind set will change any time soon.

He is obviously not the tallest fullback and thus finds fielding bombs difficult on occasion if the chasers get to the ball at the same time he is looking to catch but and again he will not shirk his responsibility and always goes up and contest the ball at the very least. Assisting this is that he does have quite a good standing leap which belies his overall height, but he will obviously be disadvantaged against taller opponents who are jumping with momentum to their advantage. His hands are also very good in terms of fielding the ball when short attacking kicks are put through and he will not wait for the ball to come to him, but will look to come forward and attack the ball and is able to get out of the in goal more often than you would expect he should due to his plus footwork and explosive speed off the mark.

Moving to the 2016, as noted he will be playing for PBC at the Open school boy level, but at this stage I am not sure what Gold Coast based club side he will link up with, but he is eligible for the U17 age group and any U17 Division One side would be happy to have the fleet footed young player in their side. From a position perspective, he has spent a lot of his junior football alternating between five eight and fullback, but I think that going forward, he will ultimately settle in the fullback position, based on his size, speed and safe hands although he could fill in at either of the halves positions if needed for short spurts without too much of a change to the way he plays.

From a player comparison perspective, think of former Titans icon and first ever signing Preston Campbell as a player with a similar playing style. Like Preston Campbell, Daine Laurie has outstanding footwork and a fearless approach to the game, coupled with a selfless attitude. I would suggest however that Daine Laurie has better straight line speed than Preston Campbell, he is destined to be a crowd favourite due to his fearless attitude, regardless of what level he ultimately gets to.

In short he is not very big or tall, but plays the game with any thoughts of self-preservation thrown out of the window and is exciting to watch.