giddyupoldfella wrote:
That's what we do, we write them off early. Like Jez Litten and Dean Hadley, who'll both be playing in the showpiece game this Saturday.
Apparently we need some Australian who can't get a game down under, instead.
Was reading about the Melbourne side in the run up to the NRL grand final last week, would make his head spin. They have a deliberate policy of looking for and giving players a chance who’ve been dumped/rejected elsewhere and even worse do the unthinkable of trying those players in different positions to what they are supposed to be specialist in.
No better example than halfback Jahrome Hughes. NRL player of the year halfback was dumped by the Cowboys and Gold Coast playing only two NRL games until he was 23, Played all his junior career at fullback and didn’t play as a halfback until he was 25.
It’s absolutely mental that looking for a long term Billy Slater replacement Melbourne decided to target players who could play a bit of halfback as well as fullback and had been rejected by other clubs. They signed Jahrome Hughes, Cam Munster, Papenhuyzen, Nicho Hynes and Scott Drinkwater.
I’ve never been a ‘play the youngsters at all cost’ type of fan, but there’s absolutely no argument that the most successful sides on both sides of the world have the most faith and patience with young players.