NEWS Sam Walker signs with Roosters

[Sproj]

You just can't tell with halves this early on. They can show all sorts of promise, but they still need to develop and progress well over their first few years. Cleary and Brooks are good examples right now - they looked like they could be anything in their teens, but have really stagnated just a few years in. Jayden Nikorima is the same, and if you go back even further, Brett Seymour made his debut at like 17 or 18 as well, and didn't go on to be anything except mediocre at best.

Agreed, though I do think Brooks has kicked on pretty well now but other than him, there are a lot of teenagers / early 20s halves who have fallen by the wayside - Smith, Moses (to an extent), Seymour, Moon, Elgey, Taylor, Cleary possibly, Sandow, Jikorima, Clifford looks terrible for the Cows, Martin, Hingano, etc.

That's a lot.

 

[NSW stables]

Agreed, though I do think Brooks has kicked on pretty well now but other than him, there are a lot of teenagers / early 20s halves who have fallen by the wayside - Smith, Moses (to an extent), Seymour, Moon, Elgey, Taylor, Cleary possibly, Sandow, Jikorima, Clifford looks terrible for the Cows, Martin, Hingano, etc.

That's a lot.

A trend seems to be that clubs continue to look for the "next big thing" with one 18 year being hyped, only to be succeeded by the next 18 year old. Halves particularly.

 

[ostin86]

Don't worry lads. Dearden has a bit of class about him. I feel we made the right choice. He will make a good captain aswell I reckon.

Paix will be a good half I reckon. If I was him I would look to sign somewhere else where he can play half or five-eigth. Melbourne would be a good landing spot for him.

 

[Alec]

Agreed, though I do think Brooks has kicked on pretty well now but other than him, there are a lot of teenagers / early 20s halves who have fallen by the wayside - Smith, Moses (to an extent), Seymour, Moon, Elgey, Taylor, Cleary possibly, Sandow, Jikorima, Clifford looks terrible for the Cows, Martin, Hingano, etc.

That's a lot.

I dunno about Brooks, he has his moments, but he doesn't seem to have a lot of footy smarts in general. Either way, he'll never be anywhere as good everyone thought he will be when he first started playing NRL.

 

[McHunt]

View attachment 5493

Whoever drew up this flowchart has no idea how they work.

 

[Dazza 92]

good luck, and I mean luck, down in Sydney Sam. Good to see young QLD based half get a chance at NRL level. Looks like he will have competition though by the sounds of it...

 

[Sproj]

I dunno about Brooks, he has his moments, but he doesn't seem to have a lot of footy smarts in general. Either way, he'll never be anywhere as good everyone thought he will be when he first started playing NRL.

That is why it is really important for young halves to choose their development club wisely, not just take the money. There are very few clubs good for halves development.

 

[Harry Sack]

That is why it is really important for young halves to choose their development club wisely, not just take the money. There are very few clubs good for halves development.

Which is a bit of a concern here I think. When was the last time the Roosters nurtured a half, rather than buy one? How many promising young players have they brought and thrown on the scrap heap? Hastings and JNik spring to mind as the most recent.

 

[Sproj]

Which is a bit of a concern here I think. When was the last time the Roosters nurtured a half, rather than buy one? How many promising young players have they brought and thrown on the scrap heap? Hastings and JNik spring to mind as the most recent.

Pearce and I'd argue (very poorly) Keary to an extent. SOS also has come out of their system.

 

[Big Pete]

Pearce and I'd argue (very poorly) Keary to an extent. SOS also has come out of their system.

SOS was a Penrith product.

 

[McHunt]

SOS was a Penrith product.

Yep, and his old man is a recruitment manager at the Warriors:

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

 

[NSW stables]

Pearce and I'd argue (very poorly) Keary to an extent. SOS also has come out of their system.

Keary was a parra junior and then to souths. Has only really developed at easts in his early to mid 20s (he is now 27 despite still looking 13) via being mentored by cronk.

 

[Big Pete]

Pearce and I'd argue (very poorly) Keary to an extent. SOS also has come out of their system.

Pearce was also a Wests Tigers product.

Before Lachlan Lam, the last half that came through their system was Connor Watson and calling him a half would be generous. Even in his SG Ball days, he was typically a utility who would find himself in any position that needed to be covered, kind of like Kodi after 2012. Similar story with Ben Jones who a lot of good judges rated as one of the best players coming through his age group. This same age group included Kieran Foran, Wade Graham, Lachlan Coote etc.

Craig Wing - Souths
Brett Finch - Canberra via Newcastle
Jamie Soward - Canberra
Josh Lewis - St George Illawarra
Braith Anasta - Canterbury via Souths
Todd Carney - Canberra
James Maloney - Warriors via NSW Cup Wilderness
Jackson Hastings - St George Illawarra
Mitch Cornish - Canberra
Ryan Matterson - Parramatta
Luke Keary - Souths via Manly/Gold Coast Local League

Mind you, I don't think there's that many quality halves running around in the competition.

 

[Big Pete]

Keary was a parra junior and then to souths. Has only really developed at easts in his early to mid 20s (he is now 27 despite still looking 13) via being mentored by cronk.

That's right, although I'd still consider him a Souths product. He floated around the junior leagues, but it was the North Sydney Bears (Souths feeder) who thought highly enough of him to select him for their SG Ball squad. He didn't last long and ended up Manly which went in a similar direction.

I also thought he showed improvement in 2017 and was flourishing under Robinson's structures. With Tedesco and Cronk on board, he's taken his game to another level, but he was on his way.

 

[Sproj]

Just so we are clear though, I'm not talking about who they were juniors for, I'm talking about who bought them through into FG. Pearce should very much be attributed to the Roosters in that regard.

There are a thousand extremely talented junior halves running around (I'm exaggerating), a lot of them don't get developed into FG stars and I am not even saying that the Roosters have a great track record in that department, they don't when you consider the guys mentioned above.

But if I'm a young half, I want to be trained by one of the very best coaches around and really, that leaves only three or four options (for turning young uns into stars) - Robinson and believe it or not, Maguire and especially, surprisingly - Hasler and less surprisingly, Bellamy. Bennett isn't counted because he hasn't got long left and I cant think of many halves in particular that he has actually bought through since Lockyer.

 

[Big Pete]

Pearce was a highly sought after halfback who the Roosters went all in on. It wasn't like they took their time with him and polished his game up, they threw him into Premier League when he was 16 and then called him up to the NRL when the Josh Lewis experiment failed. He's been a good player, but I don't think he lived up to the expectations many had of him, despite being forced on the representative scene.

 

[Alec]

Pearce seems to have gone up a level after moving to Newcastle, but it could be because they pretty much built the team around him. He's probably the only half in the NRL that isn't tied down to one side of the field. He's always everywhere, and has Ponga as his left side 2nd receiver and whoever else is playing as the "5/8th" on the right. The whole split halves thing has been killing genuine halfbacks, but Pearce has been allowed to play as one.
Anyway, you don't see teams built around one player as much now - it's probably only him and Cam Smith that it applies to, but in the past it probably used to be more common. Broncos built everything around Lockyer, Cowboys/Thurston, Knights/Johns etc.

 

[broncos4life]

Pearce and I'd argue (very poorly) Keary to an extent. SOS also has come out of their system.

Keary? Your joking? He was a Souths junior and had already won a premiership when he went there. Should we give them credit for Cronk’s development too?