I agree that Papali’i is trying hard and going ok, but it looks like he’s lost a bit of the explosive speed he once had and may now be better suited as a middle forward because of it.
Sounds like a broken down record, but nearly all NRL teams have now identified that good edge forwards are explosive athletes that regularly challenge the defence, bust tackles, make line breaks, line breaks assists and score tries.
For one reason or another this is barely happening for us, so it’s obvious there is a problem of some sort.
Fullbacks and edge forwards nearly always involved in good attack for rival clubs, very rarely for us yet many believe we have great players in these positions ?
Plenty of experts on here, can one of them explain why this is the case ?
No expert, but we are in the infancy stages of bringing through our own junior talent.
That might sound like a cop out answer- but consider this:
The last few seasons the club has rabidly gone out trying to sign players that either slipped through other teams cracks, didn't fit other teams styles or were on the downside of their careers.
All the 'good' teams have developed their own players (mostly) through systems developed from an early stage in their development.
The Tigers have been a melting pot of players brought through different styles.
The clubs future success will be based on guys like Galvin, Miller, Fa'agutu, Lualili'i, Mason, Bula etc, etc who are brought through a complete system. This way, the better athletes in the club stand out, grow into more & the guys that don't quite fit the style...end up at clubs that USED to be what were.
There will always be players signed & added from elsewhere. But clubs like the Storm, Panthers, Broncos, Roosters- look at the BULK of their squad. It is mostly made up of guys that developed through their systems.
The current Tigers team has how many of OUR junior players on the field? Guys that developed through our junior systems?
Galvin, Bula...Seyfarth. Is that it? Pole to a degree. Tupou to a lesser degree.
