good afternoon y'all.

Meant to do this last weekend, but never got around to it. Something that flew under the radar/hasn't been commented on much, is the performance of young thomas, i didn't get to see him in the huddersfield and salford away games at the back of last year. And whilst he's a bit undersized i was very VERY impressed with how he fronted up alongside philbin, he took some big knocks off the leigh forwards and just kept getting up.

Anyone else have thoughts? how he's compared with whitehead and holroyd so far?

I agree he does look a bit undersized.
I saw him getting battered quite a lot if I'm honest, but he took it and went again, and managed to poke his nose through the line a few times.
He's one of the group DP is developing and I think he'll get the odd game or two throughout the year with the other youngsters - depending on injuries.

I tend to think DP is looking a year or two down the line for these guys.

He's only 19/20 isn't he? Gonna be a cracker. Didn't John Kear liken him to a young James Graham? That'll do for me!

Fair play to DP he seems like he's going to use the youngsters every now and again and rotate them. Early days but we do seem to have a good crop of youngsters - bodes well for the future.

its nice that we've got 3 of them, we can pick and choose and rotate

I noticed last Friday that Vaughan took a knock in his second stint and there was only about 10 mins left. Thomas was ready to come back on and Richard Marshall was chasing Vaughan around the pitch to get him off and give Thomas the last 10 mins but Vaughan looked like he refused to come off

I know it is still early days but we look like we might be developing the sort of consistency that will allow players like Thomas to get some chances throughout the season. In the past our performances were that patchy that Price probably felt like he had to play the regular established players unless there was an injury crisis.
I am sure Thewlis debut was because Ratchford was injured and Mamo was suspended.
I think over the years Saints ability to maintain high performance standards has allowed them to give a chance to the likes of Weslby, Dodd, Grace, Aaron Smith and plenty of others. This has no doubt helped the development of those players.
So hopefully if we can continue to improve we might see some others throughout the year.

Welsby only got his chance when Dufty backed out of his deal to Saints.

All of the best teams have had competition for places and some youngsters who are capable and hungry for a chance waiting in the wings. It's great that a fair fee of ours have been given a chance in the last few years and they really are making the squad depth look good

I mentioned on another thread than when Vaughan come off the first time he pulled his shorts down on one side and undid a lot of strapping from around his groin. That was on the a
sidelines. I just hope it's not an issue......

Duffy was a ‘star NRL player’ until that, at which point he became ‘the worst fullback in the NRL’ (I think I’m quoting Saddened there). Quite pleased that he’s turned out to be quite good and very steady. I was a bit worried when we signed him.

Re: Thomas (and the other Padawans) it finally feels like things are being done properly with respect to feeding the youngsters in. The future looks rosy at the moment.

You get thrown off a plane for much less than pulling your shorts down these days. Fair play!

Certainly didn’t let anyone down, ran hard but was regularly knocked backwards in the tackle, which isn’t surprising or particularly concerning at this stage. He’ll get bigger and be better for the experience. As others have said, it will be easier playing these younger props when we they have such strong support from the established players.