Latu Fainu #282

Todd Packer said:
I was a bit disappointed at how he was used.
They're down 20-0 and he's thrown in at dummy half to shovel the ball. What was the point of flying him to England to do that?
Tui was playing like a busted so put the kid on at 6, tell him to play footy and hope for a miracle.
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Sure would’ve preferred him play out wide but he showed up in defense & was doing it 1-1 as well which gave a very good sign physically he could handle himself at the top grade.

He will come back and rip into training soon enough. The real preseason combination training doesn’t kick in until Jan anyway.
 
earl said:
I'm hopeful from game 1 he is fit and playing first grade in the 6 jersey.
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I don’t think he’ll be in the team Round 1 unless he’s named at 14. If Sullivan and Sezer are both fit come Round 1 that should be our halves pairing to at least start the season. Both have experience Latu currently has none.
 
Glenji95 said:
I don’t think he’ll be in the team Round 1 unless he’s named at 14. If Sullivan and Sezer are both fit come Round 1 that should be our halves pairing to at least start the season. Both have experience Latu currently has none.
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At worse I hope he gets given the 14 jersey. He might not have any experience at NRL level but he has been a gun junior and he has played state cup and now he has had a run at international level.

I think he is more likely to come good than Sullivan and Sezer.
 
finnzo said:
Mate settle down he’s just spent a month with some of the best footballers on earth he’s gonna learn a thing or 2 of them
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The only thing he learned from the Tongan team was how to play dumb footy. We're already experts at that.
Tui might have taught him how to eat 10 buckets of KFC in one sitting, but once again , our blokes are already very good at that.
 
earl said:
At worse I hope he gets given the 14 jersey. He might not have any experience at NRL level but he has been a gun junior and he has played state cup and now he has had a run at international level.

I think he is more likely to come good than Sullivan and Sezer.
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Sezer was brought in as an experienced half. Sullivan technically isn’t as experienced and Latu none. Latu could be better than both of them, but learning from someone who’s got plenty of games to their name wouldn’t hurt them especially if they are the full time halves from 25 onwards.
 
Glenji95 said:
Sezer was brought in as an experienced half. Sullivan technically isn’t as experienced and Latu none. Latu could be better than both of them, but learning from someone who’s got plenty of games to their name wouldn’t hurt them especially if they are the full time halves from 25 onwards.
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I get your point but I don't agree with it. It might delay his development. It might give him less opportunities to learn. It might hurt the team.

If you are good enough you are old enough.

It's all theoretical atm so we just have to see what happens but we need massive changes to improve and I don't think being conservative is the right approach.
 
earl said:
I get your point but I don't agree with it. It might delay his development. It might give him less opportunities to learn. It might hurt the team.

If you are good enough you are old enough.

It's all theoretical atm so we just have to see what happens but we need massive changes to improve and I don't think being conservative is the right approach.
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If he is in the halves and doesn’t fire from Round 1 we’re already in trouble. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a kid who’s never played NRL. At least if he is 14 the pressure won’t build as much from the start. Some players don’t excel straight away I don’t know if he’ll be one that does, but trying to force it on him from the start will screw us and Latu if he fails to do so.
 
Todd Packer said:
I was a bit disappointed at how he was used.
They're down 20-0 and he's thrown in at dummy half to shovel the ball. What was the point of flying him to England to do that?
Tui was playing like a busted so put the kid on at 6, tell him to play footy and hope for a miracle.
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Agreed - would have been nice for morale to see a bit of flair rather than a solid defender and ball shuffler. At least we saw how good Bateman is in a decent side.
 
We have to tread carefully with our expectations. It’s got me thinking of Jake Simpkin. When we signed him as an 18 year old from Qld, expectations on him were enormous. We were looking at him as being a career player here. Fast forward 3 or 4 years, and he’s become expendable. No one would really care if he was moved on. Fainu is just as likely to fall by the way side, and we move on to the next great white hope. It’s unrealistic to talk about how good a player is going to be before he even debuts. History is always against you. You cannot, judge a player till they have 60-70 games under their belt. As crazy as Sheens was, he at least had that right.
 
It's great for us to finally be talking about who will be pushing hard for a starting spot in the halves... not the usual 23 talk of "should we give the 7 to Api or Simpkin this week?" Crap....
 
GNR4LIFE said:
We have to tread carefully with our expectations. It’s got me thinking of Jake Simpkin. When we signed him as an 18 year old from Qld, expectations on him were enormous. We were looking at him as being a career player here. Fast forward 3 or 4 years, and he’s become expendable. No one would really care if he was moved on. Fainu is just as likely to fall by the way side, and we move on to the next great white hope. It’s unrealistic to talk about how good a player is going to be before he even debuts. History is always against you. You cannot, judge a player till they have 60-70 games under their belt. As crazy as Sheens was, he at least had that right.
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Simpkin started as a bum and remained at that level.
 
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