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Rookies to watch in 2018


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Think you're stretching it a bit far with Ryan Shaw as a rookie.

To add to the list, I'm hoping with a decent off season, and hopefully an improved attitude, we might start seeing Cameron Smith fulfilling his potential at Leeds. I keep hearing good things about Matty Lees at Saints too, although he seems to be very unfortunate with injury

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49 minutes ago, Colly said:

Danny Walker at Widnes.

Very young and may not get massive amount of game time but he is the real deal.

Due to the numerous injuries there are quite a few young players here who are well blooded now. Let's see if any of them have it.

Hasn't he played too many first team games to qualify as a rookie. 

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From leeds,Jack walkers the obvious one, but mikolaj oledzki is just as good a talent,fantastic young prop. 

Cam smith was seen as the best of all of them coming through the scholarship and one of the best,if not the best of  his age group in the country. He hasnt progressed as hoped and was pretty poor on loan at bradford last year, if he can sort himself out,he could have a big year.

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2 hours ago, rhinos78 said:

From leeds,Jack walkers the obvious one, but mikolaj oledzki is just as good a talent,fantastic young prop. 

Cam smith was seen as the best of all of them coming through the scholarship and one of the best,if not the best of  his age group in the country. He hasnt progressed as hoped and was pretty poor on loan at bradford last year, if he can sort himself out,he could have a big year.

We had oledzki at fev for a couple of games. Hes a monster for his age. A full time london pack struggled to deal with him.

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James Bentley had a fantastic start to last season in the Championship, then ran out of steam after weeks of clattering blokes bigger and older than him.

He's at Saints this season. Don't be surprised if he has an impact.

Under Scrutiny by the Right-On Thought Police

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9 hours ago, fev4evatiggerneva said:

We had oledzki at fev for a couple of games. Hes a monster for his age. A full time london pack struggled to deal with him.

I think you'l have him for quite a few games this year. We'v got a lot of props and mcdermott usually likes to bring young ones on slowly, so can see him having maybe 10/15 games for us and maybe 15/20 for fev. He's the best young prop iv seen for a long time, he's huge,athletic and up for the battle, all things you cant coach.

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Not sure what counts as a rookie.

If it's no first team games then Luke Hooley is a given for Wakefield. However he will struggle to break through this season at Wakefield with Grix and perhaps Jowitt ahead of him.

For me though it's James Batchelor who will injuries permitting take SL by storm. It's not his breakthrough season that was 2016 but he's not yet had the sustained game time to truly make an impact (mainly injury).

If he does get a long run out he will imho soon establish himself as International quality.

For those who don't know him I'll attempt to describe him though I can't think of an English player to compare him to - he plays more like an Aussie. He's not huge but he's big enough and very athletic. Chris Chester says he's the most balanced runner he's ever seen. Good ball handler but an absolutely brilliant support player who runs great lines out wide. He's also a workaholic - so he's my choice.

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In the NRL, I expect Angus Crichton to go well, now he's lost a little weight. ;) 

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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1 hour ago, Kirmonds pouch said:

Not sure what counts as a rookie.

If it's no first team games then Luke Hooley is a given for Wakefield. However he will struggle to break through this season at Wakefield with Grix and perhaps Jowitt ahead of him.

For me though it's James Batchelor who will injuries permitting take SL by storm. It's not his breakthrough season that was 2016 but he's not yet had the sustained game time to truly make an impact (mainly injury).

If he does get a long run out he will imho soon establish himself as International quality.

For those who don't know him I'll attempt to describe him though I can't think of an English player to compare him to - he plays more like an Aussie. He's not huge but he's big enough and very athletic. Chris Chester says he's the most balanced runner he's ever seen. Good ball handler but an absolutely brilliant support player who runs great lines out wide. He's also a workaholic - so he's my choice.

Heard nothing but good things about both hooley and batchler from wakey fans. Is Judah mazive still at trinity??

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37 minutes ago, walter sobchak said:

Heard nothing but good things about both hooley and batchler from wakey fans. Is Judah mazive still at trinity??

No he's gone. Judah wasn't quite good enough imho but worse for him with Johnstone, BJB , MCB and even Tupou ahead of him it wasn't going to happen. Also young Kershaw whose just moved up from the Academy is potentially a better player. Funny but just three years ago Judah may well have got the gig.

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3 minutes ago, Kirmonds pouch said:

No he's gone. Judah wasn't quite good enough imho but worse for him with Johnstone, BJB , MCB and even Tupou ahead of him it wasn't going to happen. Also young Kershaw whose just moved up from the Academy is potentially a better player. Funny but just three years ago Judah may well have got the gig.

Good to see so many youngsters coming through the trinity academy setup. Just hope you can keep hold of a few if not all of them.

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Am I alone in being stunned by the pathetic response to this thread?

19 posts! 3 of them from me.

Yet we have ludicrous threads about fantasy teams in Denver or the loss of Nigel Wood or some no name Aussies with missing fingers - whats wrong with our game!

There is nothing more important than the quality of young players we are producing - we can't depend on past it Aussies and South Sea islanders to prop up our game forever whilst at International level we depend on the handfull of British players to make it in the NRL.

There should be 20+ pages now as fans wax lyrical about young players they think will make it.

What's wrong, don't we care, don't we know or worse are there none?

Where are the Cas fans, always boasting about local talent - well?

Leeds and Wigan who between them hoover up the best youngsters - well why the silence?

There are 20+ teams that run Academies so there is a lot to chose from.

I know the Wakey team and I could probably nominate another 4 players but I'm interested in what the other teams are producing. These players are the lifeblood of the game, without them there will be nothing yet no one seems bothered ,all they care about is pie in the sky nonsense regarding NY, Denver or even Mars - very sad.

 

 

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55 minutes ago, Kirmonds pouch said:

Am I alone in being stunned by the pathetic response to this thread?

19 posts! 3 of them from me.

Yet we have ludicrous threads about fantasy teams in Denver or the loss of Nigel Wood or some no name Aussies with missing fingers - whats wrong with our game!

There is nothing more important than the quality of young players we are producing - we can't depend on past it Aussies and South Sea islanders to prop up our game forever whilst at International level we depend on the handfull of British players to make it in the NRL.

There should be 20+ pages now as fans wax lyrical about young players they think will make it.

What's wrong, don't we care, don't we know or worse are there none?

Where are the Cas fans, always boasting about local talent - well?

Leeds and Wigan who between them hoover up the best youngsters - well why the silence?

There are 20+ teams that run Academies so there is a lot to chose from.

I know the Wakey team and I could probably nominate another 4 players but I'm interested in what the other teams are producing. These players are the lifeblood of the game, without them there will be nothing yet no one seems bothered ,all they care about is pie in the sky nonsense regarding NY, Denver or even Mars - very sad.

 

 

Yeah i was looking forward to hearing about the top talents from other teams to keep an eye on. I know leeds and have named the 3 most likely who could have a breakout year,theres another couple in alex suttcliffe and harry newman who are really good,newman especially, but they are unlikely to get enough gametime to put together a breakout 2018.

A player im pretty familiar with from his time in the leeds scholarship is morgan smith at warrington,he's a great talent,played interchange 9 in firstgrade last season but he's a half all day long imo. Could be a breakout year for him if he gets the chances.

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30 minutes ago, rhinos78 said:

Yeah i was looking forward to hearing about the top talents from other teams to keep an eye on. I know leeds and have named the 3 most likely who could have a breakout year,theres another couple in alex suttcliffe and harry newman who are really good,newman especially, but they are unlikely to get enough gametime to put together a breakout 2018.

A player im pretty familiar with from his time in the leeds scholarship is morgan smith at warrington,he's a great talent,played interchange 9 in firstgrade last season but he's a half all day long imo. Could be a breakout year for him if he gets the chances.

Yeah I was disappointed when Smith was shunted to hooker, we don't have enough quality halves and he looked a good scrum half

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We have a few at Fax, not really classed as producing them though as we have picked up a lot of young lads cast aside by SL teams. 6 of our regular first team last season were picked up and played for our reserves before getting opportunities in the 1st team. Another 4 of the young reserves got the odd game in the 1st team and this last week 3 more young lads from the reserves were promoted to the 1st team squad. The pick of them are probably Brandon Moore and Elliot Morris both of whom I would not be surprised if they eventually get a shot in SL.

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42 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

Yeah I was disappointed when Smith was shunted to hooker, we don't have enough quality halves and he looked a good scrum half

Yeah me too,he's got all the skills imo, he wasnt one of these that were just faster and more elusive than the rest coming through age grade rugby, he's a good athlete but he's got the skill to go with it. Hopefully warrington still see him as a half in the long term.

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7 minutes ago, rhinos78 said:

Yeah me too,he's got all the skills imo, he wasnt one of these that were just faster and more elusive than the rest coming through age grade rugby, he's a good athlete but he's got the skill to go with it. Hopefully warrington still see him as a half in the long term.

Exactly, he's got a good rugby brain, can lead a team around the park and has a good short kicking game. And then Warrington put him in the middle to get run at all game. It's one of the faults of Tony Smith tbh, where he just utilises players wherever. Hopefully Price will recognise his talent

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