T
talanoa
NRL Player
- Jan 16, 2014
- 1,175
- 740
It’s a hard one isn’t it. The bigger, faster, more athletic kid will always get the contract at that younger age, which is a shame.
But for every one of those athletic kids we pick up (and there are a hell of a lot of them!), there is a not-so-athletic kid, who is smaller, not as robust and not as developed, who is developing other skills like resilience, toughness, game awareness etc. This type of kid is the one that we haven’t done enough recruiting. The footballer. Not the athlete. This is where the Storm are miles ahead - they identify a footballer first, not the athlete.
We go to junior carnivals and sign all the biggest and fastest kids. The ones running over the little kids, and scoring all the tries. Which is great to some extent (think Haas, Fifita, Corey Allen etc), as there is some real talent there.
But it doesn’t get you a “footballer”. A Lockyer, Thurston, Smith, Slater type player. We need to start developing the kids that aren’t the biggest and fastest, but can read a game, can play tough, can be a footballer - not an athlete. That’s what we lack.
That’s what the game as a whole really lacks at the moment.
quality post mate, well put