Larry Siala. The Ipswich based giant of a young man signed a three year contract with the Titans in early 2020 and has a heck of a lot more potential to unlock from his powerful frame. Larry Siala is already 195cm and 100kg but he is also an outstanding athlete with elite level speed, strength and mobility amongst other physical attributes.
To be fair though, Larry Siala is not just an athlete he is also an outstanding rugby league player with enormous potential as well.
Such is Larry Siala’s potential, various meida outlets have compared Larry Siala’s physical attributes and playing style to that of Australian International front rower Payne Haas.
Even Payne Haas himself has said publically that Larry Siala amazed him with his size, speed, power and skill when he attended a training session that Larry Siala was also attending.
Larry Siala played the 2020 season when it started in late July in the U15 Ipswich Rugby League Competition starting Round One in the front row as his Norths Blue side defeated Norths Gold 66 – 6 before moving to start in the second row in Round Two as Norths Blue defeated the Redback Plains Bears 28 – 0.
Larry Siala moved back to start in the front row in Round Four as Norths Blue defeated the Redbank Plains Bears 38 – 4 as well as in Round Five when Norths Blue went down 30 – 26 to the Goodna Eagles to record their first loss of the season.
Larry Siala moved back to start in the front row in Round Six as Norths Blue defeated the Redback Plains Bears 22 – 20 and also in Round Seven in a big 56 – 30 win for Norths Blue against Norths Gold. Larry Siala also started in the front row in Round Eight as his Norths Blue side defeated Norths Gold 78 – 4.
Round Nine saw Larry Siala once again line up in the front row for Norths Blue as they went down 32 – 0 to the Goodna Eagles.
In November 2020 Larry Siala was named in the 2021 Ipswich Jets Cyril Connell Cup squad.
The big strong young front rower was one of a number of standouts for the Titans U14 side that defeated the Western Mustangs 32 – 8 in February 2019 at Mudgeeraba and also started in the front row for the Titans U14 side that defeated a Titans NRRRL U14/15 Invitational side 32 – 10 in early October 2019. The match was Larry Siala’s first and definitely not last in a Titans jersey.
On that extremely hot Saturday in February 2019 at Mudgeeraba Larry Siala had a simply outstanding match constantly making ground with the ball through the centre of the ruck and as a result of his late footwork prior to the line made major metres post contact and also got away a few more than impressive off-loads usually one handed right ones at that.
I can also recall a couple of huge hits that he put on a couple of Western Mustangs forwards with a couple of the hits forcing the ball loose as a result of the initial contact by Larry Siala. Larry Siala really did stand out as a young player on the rise in that match.
Larry Siala’s second match for the Titans was when he started in the front row for the Titans U14 side that played a Titans U14/15 Invitational side in late 2019 at Tweed Heads and was outstanding as his Titans U14 side defeated the Titans Invitational side 44 – 10 with Larry Siala regularly making post contact metres through the centre of the ruck.
Larry Siala was selected in the 2019 Ipswich Diggers U14 representative side for the Hill Stumer Championships playing both in the second row and front row in the Diggers three matches that were held at North Ipswich Reserve.
After the completion of the competition, Larry Siala was selected in the 2019 South East Queensland Green U14 squad for the Queensland Age Championships. At the Championships, Larry Siala was named on the interchange bench. Over the course of his four games at the Championships, Larry Siala highlighted his aggressiveness especially in defence spending time in both the front row and second row.
The St Edmunds College (Ipswich) student played in the Ipswich Junior Rugby League competition, in 2019 playing for Norths Ipswich in the U14 age group.
In the 2019 U14 Ipswich pre-season competition Larry Siala played in three matches scoring five tries (167% strike rate), including a hat trick against Goodna Black in Round Three and a Round Two hat trick against Brothers Ipswich White. Larry Siala’s five tries were enough to finish the pre-season as the competitions equal second leading try scorer.
Larry Siala started Round One of the 2019 Ipswich Rugby League U14 competition in the front row, scoring for Ipswich Norths in their 14 – 10 loss to Goodna Black. Larry Siala backed that up by also scoring in Round Two against the Springfield Panthers as Norths won 44 – 0.
Larry Siala made it three tries from as many matches when he scored again in Round Three as Norths defeated Brothers Ipswich 24 – 8. Larry Siala also scored in Round Six against Goodna and Round Eight against Ipswich Brothers.
In total in the 2019 Ipswich Rugby League U14 regular season competition, Larry Siala played in twelve matches scoring eight tries for a 67% strike rate starting all twelve of his matches for Norths in the front row.
In Week One of the Ipswich Rugby League 2019 U14 Finals Series Larry Siala started in the front row for Norths against Goodna with Norths going down 20 -10. Larry Siala also started in the front row in Week Two of the Finals against Brothers Ipswich being their Preliminary Final victory.
In the 2019 U14 Ipswich Rugby League Grand Final Larry Siala started in the front row against Goodna Black with Ipswich Norths going down 14 - 12.
Larry Siala made his Ipswich Rugby League U15 debut in Round Nine of 2019 against Swifts Bluebirds celebrating the occasion by scoring in Norths big 58 – 8 win.
Larry Siala also played school boy rugby and rugby league in 2019 for St Edmunds College in the AIC competitions playing lock in rugby league and was simply a class above the other players in the U14 school boy rugby league competition AIC competition that was played in Term Three of the 2019 school year. In particular Larry Siala was outstanding in Round Four producing a Player of the Match performance in a win against Marist College Ashgrove. Larry Siala was also outstanding against Iona College.
The 2019 AIC school boy rugby league was the first that was played for quite a significant period of time. The primary winter sport at AIC schools was rugby until 2019 when rugby league was re-introduced to AIC schools.
Larry Siala’s St Edmunds College Year Nine side finished the 2019 AIC rugby league competition with five wins from their six matches (one bye) to finish second on the table. St Edmunds College defeated Villanova 38 – 0 in Round One, defeated St Laurences College 44 – 4 in Round Two, won 38 – 0 in Round Three against St Patricks College Chorncliffe and Marist College Ashgrove 20 – 14 in Round Four.
Larry Siala and his St Edmunds College side suffered their only loss of the season in Round Six when they were defeated by eventual champions Iona College 22 -8 before finshing their season with a 38 – 4 win in Round Seven against Padua College.
Larry Siala started in the front row in the 2018 U13 Ipswich Grand Final and scored a try as Norths prevailed 26 – 22 in a close contest against Goodna Black.
In total in the 2018 U13 season, Larry Siala played in fourteen matches scoring twenty one tries for a strike rate of an impressive 150%.
In 2017 Larry Siala represented Met West in the QSSRL U12 Championships being his first taste of representative rugby league.
Larry Siala is a tallish front rower with plus speed for his position, in fact his speed would be above average for a forward regardless of position. Larry Siala uses this speed to impact the defensive at top speed. Larry Siala does not necessarily get back deep, but his plus speed off the mark as well as plus top speed enables him to still fit the line hard.
Larry Siala runs very front on at present but will lower his body into the defenders as the commit to the tackle, and through a combination of size, speed and determination regularly bumps the first defender off when they try to tackle Larry Siala around the chest area.
Once he impacts the defensive line Larry Siala also is adept at redirecting his momentum to address the next defender who is coming in the defend him.
In defence Larry Siala is regularly is the first player up to target the ball carriers, even though he is one of the bigger forwards in his team and will make solid initial contact as well as having the ability of defending one on one and win the wrestling battle to slow down the play the ball.
Larry Siala is not averse to looking for the big hit but does have a good front on defensive technique and decent agility and lateral movement when looking to tackle smaller opponents, his technique is also quite decent for a taller player and he gets low in defence to look to mitigate the possibility of his tackles slipping up around the hard and neck area of shorter opponents.
Larry Siala played the 2020 season for Ipswich Norths Blue in the Ipswich U15 competition. In relation to school sport, Larry Siala played school boy rugby league for St Edmunds College in the AIC U15A competition and also play rugby league for St Edmunds College in Term Three of 2020 in the AIC school boy rug.
In 2021 larry Siala will move up to the Ipswich Rugby League U17 competition as well as continuing to play rugby and rugby league for St Edmunds College. Larry Siala will also be involved in the 2021 Ipswich Jets U16 Cyril Connell Cup squad.
Larry Siala is a big strong powerful young man who at 15 years old is already 190cm and 100kg with outstanding attributes such as size, strength, speed, mobility and power and as such seems destined to stay in the front row for the duration of what should be a long and prosperous rugby league career.
Joe Ofahenguae of the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland State of Origin side is a solid NRL player comparison for Larry Siala in my opinion, at this stage of his career, both are hard running forwards and both are more athletic and skilful than they are given credit for by casual watchers of rugby league.
For me however Larry Siala has more potential to unlock than the a fore mentioned Bronco’s NRL player used for comparison purposes and it may be a touch unfair but Larry Siala shows flashes of play that are not dissimilar to those displayed by Brisbane Bronco, New South Wales State of Origin and Australian International front rower Payne Haas who as previously noted he has already been compared to in the National media.
Larry Siala understandably has a long way to go to get to the NRL (as does every player in the U15 age group for that matter) but wow he really made me sit up and take notice with his performances for the Titans U14 sides in 2019, Larry Siala was simply dominant in both matches and even in the hot conditions in those matches played a significant portion of the matches without being interchanged.
Larry Siala really is an outstanding talent and the more games that he gets under his belt the more comfortable and confident he will become with that added experience. 2019’s representative exposure with the Ipswich Diggers and South East Queensland Green U14 sides in their respective Championships as well as his matches for the Titans will hold him in good stead for his future endeavours on a rugby league field, starting as early as 2021.