Juniors - Pathways General Discussion

CornerPost said:
I'm familiar with most of the guys on here but not Will Craig or Mickey Nsaar ? What are their normal positions and genuine potential for first grade..
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William Craig is a hard-running centre; goes ok, would be surprised if he’s a future first grader.
18-years-old in 2023.

Michael Nassar is from the Balmain side, which I don’t get to as many games of.
He’s a fullback, looks pretty flashy and makes plenty of line-breaks.
Don’t see enough Balmain Pathways games to gauge an opinion on future first-grade potential.
17-years-old in 2023.
 
KingRobbie said:
William Craig is a hard-running centre; goes ok, would be surprised if he’s a future first grader.
18-years-old in 2023.

Michael Nassar is from the Balmain side, which I don’t get to as many games of.
He’s a fullback, looks pretty flashy and makes plenty of line-breaks.
Don’t see enough Balmain Pathways games to gauge an opinion on future first-grade potential.
17-years-old in 2023.
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Craig seems to be the Collis of this generation. club rates him very highly. will be interesting to see how he progresses, because like you I’m not too sure on his prospects just yet.
 
KingRobbie said:
William Craig is a hard-running centre; goes ok, would be surprised if he’s a future first grader.
18-years-old in 2023.

Michael Nassar is from the Balmain side, which I don’t get to as many games of.
He’s a fullback, looks pretty flashy and makes plenty of line-breaks.
Don’t see enough Balmain Pathways games to gauge an opinion on future first-grade potential.
17-years-old in 2023.
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Thanks mate.. hard running centre sounds alright 🤔
 
BAGNF05 said:
To add a little perspective, taking the Australian schoolboys team from four years ago (2019), there are two players who are genuine first graders (Walsh and the Hammer) and a bunch more who are still trying to find their feet.

Even the very best juniors face an up hill battle mate.
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The 2019 Aus Schoolboys are still only 21/22 now.

Just had a look at that team and would be surprised if 7/8 of those players aren’t veteran NRL players by the end of their careers.

Obviously we’ll see what happens with our juniors in the next few years and if they kick on.
 
BAGNF05 said:
My point being that many perceived junior stars just don’t get there for one reason or another. Your priority has to be building your first grade team to a competitive state and then you bring the juniors through in a slow and steady stream. The Panthers had a once in a lifetime injection and I doubt we’ll see anything like it in decades.
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I agree with most of what you’re saying, 100%.

I just think our juniors (the 16 to 18-year-olds now) are good enough to be our way forward in future BUT not if we don’t have enough quality, established players in the roster to be even moderately successful in the interim.
 
BAGNF05 said:
To add a little perspective, taking the Australian schoolboys team from four years ago (2019), there are two players who are genuine first graders (Walsh and the Hammer) and a bunch more who are still trying to find their feet.

Even the very best juniors face an up hill battle mate.
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Poor example. Many of these kids also lost 2-3 years of development due to covid. Such massive and unforeseeable disruption would have had many lose contracts, explore other avenues etc.

Of course not all junior reps will kick on regardless...
 
Not sure if Chris Warren reads this forum but I think he should do an interview with Sheens or Lambkin on how the WT use NSW Cup & Jersey Flegg to progress the development of our junior reps coming through.

- What indicators/benchmarks do they use to manage loads in 18/19yos? (i.e. weight, gym strength, GPS data)
- How much is developing combinations in JF & Cup a priority?
- How many of our SG Ball players have they earmarked to rotate through JF before the end of the season?
- Why doesn't the club give any respect to team lists on a Tuesday???

I ask because it seems like a dog's breakfast this season who plays in Flegg & Cup which is reflective in their rollercoaster results. Then I read a rumour in another thread that Tony Sukkar wants to explore his options.

As fans, we would love to hear some strategy and reasoning behind the development of our pathways into grade because the perception is not great.
 
Storm want Sukkar which would be a same.

Do want the club to move on current coach Scott Kenna and promote Robbie Mears into the role
 
balmain boy said:
We can swap them Sukkar for Faalao'go
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A problem I am seeing is most of the smarter clubs focus on young players they believe have the right body shape and athleticism to potentially mould to become good standard NRL players.
Quite a few of the up and coming forwards we are currently banking on are more like pocket battle ships with short stumpy builds.
If they do everything with high energy and intercity that can be ok, but I have big concerns a couple of them are not real fit looking, which will certainly limit their chances of becoming NRL players if not fixed real fast.
 
Vicious said:
A problem I am seeing is most of the smarter clubs focus on young players they believe have the right body shape and athleticism to potentially mould to become good standard NRL players.
Quite a few of the up and coming forwards we are currently banking on are more like pocket battle ships with short stumpy builds.
If they do everything with high energy and intercity that can be ok, but I have big concerns a couple of them are not real fit looking, which will certainly limit their chances of becoming NRL players if not fixed real fast.
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Along with your thinking @Vicious , I've noticed throughout our club we don't have any super-fast athletic wingers with a bit of height who can take speccy high balls (almost a necessity in clubs these days).

I think we've tried to remedy with Jordan Hill & Jay Kirk but most of our junior rep outside backs are more the shorter, powerful types.
 
BlackWhiteGold said:
Along with your thinking @Vicious , I've noticed throughout our club we don't have any super-fast athletic wingers with a bit of height who can take speccy high balls (almost a necessity in clubs these days).

I think we've tried to remedy with Jordan Hill & Jay Kirk but most of our junior rep outside backs are more the shorter, powerful types.
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Ngutlic is tall and fast but coming back from an acl I think.
 
BlackWhiteGold said:
Not sure if Chris Warren reads this forum but I think he should do an interview with Sheens or Lambkin on how the WT use NSW Cup & Jersey Flegg to progress the development of our junior reps coming through.

- What indicators/benchmarks do they use to manage loads in 18/19yos? (i.e. weight, gym strength, GPS data)
- How much is developing combinations in JF & Cup a priority?
- How many of our SG Ball players have they earmarked to rotate through JF before the end of the season?
- Why doesn't the club give any respect to team lists on a Tuesday???

I ask because it seems like a dog's breakfast this season who plays in Flegg & Cup which is reflective in their rollercoaster results. Then I read a rumour in another thread that Tony Sukkar wants to explore his options.

As fans, we would love to hear some strategy and reasoning behind the development of our pathways into grade because the perception is not great.
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Great post champion @BlackWhiteGold - we fans need to know.
 
Vicious said:
A problem I am seeing is most of the smarter clubs focus on young players they believe have the right body shape and athleticism to potentially mould to become good standard NRL players.
Quite a few of the up and coming forwards we are currently banking on are more like pocket battle ships with short stumpy builds.
If they do everything with high energy and intercity that can be ok, but I have big concerns a couple of them are not real fit looking, which will certainly limit their chances of becoming NRL players if not fixed real fast.
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Sukkar has no athleticism. He's a Twal, limited and one dimensional, but effective enough at what he does. The boys we're prioritising are the ones who can step, fend, pass, offload as well as run hard.
Jordan Miller is no pocket battleship!
 
balmain boy said:
balmain boy said:
Sukkar has no athleticism. He's a Twal, limited and one dimensional, but effective enough at what he does. The boys we're prioritising are the ones who can step, fend, pass, offload as well as run hard.
Jordan Miller is no pocket battleship!
Click to expand...

Sukkar has no athleticism. He's a Twal, limited and one dimensional, but effective enough at what he does. The boys we're prioritising are the ones who can step, fend, pass, offload as well as run hard.
Jordan Miller is no pocket battleship!
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Not specifically saying we should or should not keep Sukkar, but the point is we are not going to have many short stumpy forwards in our NRL side no matter how hard they run.
And as others are pointing out, where are our tall, fast, athletic and aggressive outside backs ?
 
Vicious said:
Not specifically saying we should or should not keep Sukkar, but the point is we are not going to have many short stumpy forwards in our NRL side no matter how hard they run.
And as others are pointing out, where are our tall, fast, athletic and aggressive outside backs ?
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Absolutely. And hungry no nonsense centres.
 
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