To be clear - I said he wouldn't make a difference [because our defence was still so bad, it wouldn't move the needle enough to make a difference to our premiership prospects]. I probably didn't explain it well enough though - and as such, am happy to take the **** forever
. So long as I can throw your AJ not being a fullback thing back, even though it's look like he actually might not be anymore
Yep, I hear you MT. I'll stand by my opinions and am always diligent in explaining my perspective instead of just offering it arrogantly as the be-all end-all without some genuine rationale behind it. Sometimes I can go about this better. We all probably can (except for you Mr Bods please come back I miss you). I'm sorry to hear that what I said made you leave for a bit, and I do think this is something we can discuss as adults without any passive aggressive barbs so if you want to chat further on it my DM's are open.
Yeah, I agree with not over-pumping juniors. It's happened forever and is easy to interpret that way when commentary on a players ability is almost always in the context of their own age group/level of footy (it's only going to get worse now with the CM/DT increasing their coverage of junior comps). The best way to interpret it I think is not to assume that because they're being spoken about in such high regard at junior level, that it means they'll translate that to even Qcup let alone NRL. Each level presents another test. I've written quite a bit about realistic expectations with junior progressions/pathways to NRL and try to keep it as down to earth as possible in the JTS thread if you ever want to stop by and get a gauge on how our young guys are going (just from my opinion of course).
Tommy is behind size-wise to where he needs to be, but is ahead in other areas. Getting bigger and stronger is going to be a non-negotiable for him to be an NRL player. Same goes for a few of the other Northern Rivers juniors we've got in our system at a similar age.