When will people be mature about maturity? : Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:15 am
It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who can draw definitive conclusions about eighteen/nineteen (and even twenty) year-olds (on the strength of a handful of games) and claim - with absolute authority - that they will never make the grade at St. Helens.When will people learn that kids (generally speaking) only mature around the age of 21/22? Moreover, this final growth phase (which may last for no longer than six months) can have an ENORMOUS impact on a kid's physique, power, speed and, consequently, ability.
For example, Paul Sculthorpe aged 21 (and 6 months) was a talented, tough-tackling but lanky second-row who made modest yards going forward. Paul Sculthorpe aged 22 was a man-mountain who skittled opposition tacklers for fun. Paul Wellens and James Roby aged 19 were enthusiastic young players who appeared to offer little to the first team and seemed destined for Leigh or Widnes. Roll the calendar forward a year or two (where both have added an extra stone in weight and considerable power) and both are indispensable to the first team. Jamie Jones Buchanan is another good example of a player who needed to mature physically before his worth could be truly assessed.
Yes, there are one or two players who break the mould - but they are few and very far between. For instance, I saw Keiron Cunningham's first game for Saints away at Warrington and even aged 17(?) he was able to compete physically and often outmatch his opponents.
But judging players against Cunningham's template is madness. I'm sick to the back teeth of hearing daft statements such as "Lomax/Gaskell/Ashurst/Dixon/Magennis/Foster etc. aren't good enough for Saints". With the possible exception of Lomax (who seems to have fleshed out) ALL of these kids are trying to compete against fully mature (physically and mentally) SL players with the enormous disadvantage of their own physical immaturity. How can some of you people arrive at such conclusions without knowing what changes maturity will exert on this kids?
Take Ashurst for example. So far he has shown that he runs good lines, has an eye for a gap, good speed etc. Add twelve months and an extra stone in weight to these attributes and we could well have a very useful player on our hands. In the matches I've seen of Gaskell he looks like a kid who has all the attributes to take on the line but lacks the physical maturity to capitalise on them.
I wouldn't mind so much but we have already had our fingers burned letting two supposed "dead beats" go to other SL clubs only to see them mature and become twice the players they were at Saints.
I keep harping on about this because it's a message that needs to be consistently read by a hardcore of posters in here who seem to stick their fingers in their ears and say "la la la la la la la ..." every time I or someone else responds to their nonsensical absolutist assessments of players. It's pure self-deception. Nothing more. Nothing less.
