We only have one development spot left and there are 3 players I would want on development for next year who I feel are the highest risk of being poached by another club if we don't.
1. Logan Deininger. Has probably been our pathways standout success story so far this year having been scouted out of Far North QLD in the off season and playing SG Ball for Balmain before taking over as the full time Flegg fullback. Yesterday he single handledly won us the game with a huge defensive play followed up by scoring a try nobody in our roster could have scored. He is an elite talent at a premium position and should get upgraded if we don't want to lose him.
2. Josese Lanyon. Josese played most of the Flegg season at 9 but has moved to 13 since Haywood got promoted to Flegg and has probably been consistently our best player since. That Havili type of utility player is something we desperately lack. At a club who needs a quality option at 13 with utility value he is one I expect to go on to play NRL so we should be developing him with priority. Josese is also an external recruit that is in his first year with us. His younger brother James had a fantastic Harold Matthews season and appears to be a premium outside back.
3. Tino Tavana. Tino has been in our pathways now for years and has been a standout on many occasions. He is a freakish match winner who can play fullback, wing and centre well plus kick goals. Everyone knows about him.
Other Flegg grade players I would hope we can keep on second tier contracts are Iverson Matai, Max Liles, Marc Tannous, Mitchell and Max Taotua and Elijah Mataale. I would like to keep Feledy around if we could do so without him being on top 30 but it seems unlikely. All of these players have potential to become quality NRL players in time.
In terms of NSW cup level players the unsigned ones who have NRL depth upside are Solomona Faataape, Brent Naden, Jaxson Rahme, Alex Lobb, Isaac Tuitupou, Luke Jack, Elie El-Zackhem and Kurt Falls. I would hope we could retain as many of them as possible on NSW cup contracts as they would offer useful depth post round 11.
I would say despite the results going our way as often as we would like you can tell that the pathways program has taken a leap this year. Both SG Ball sides just missed the 8, Flegg and NSW cup started poorly but once they found their best rosters are competing with the best sides. And now we are beginning to see the "good problem" of genuinely good young players not being able to progress due to not being better than others. When we lose good players from our pathways not because they want to go to greener pastures but because we simply don't have the room, that's when it's working. I am afraid we will see quite a lot more of this!
