Thomas Talau

[TonyTiger]

Not the best performance from Tommy Talau tonight, but I will not give up on him yet. Even Reimis Smith for Melbourne looked clueless earlier in the season. Their fans were calling for his head back then.

I agree with some posters that he's not a quick thinker. If his first option is good, he usually executes well. When the opposition make him uncomfortable and he has to quickly think of something else, that's when the poor plays occur.

Honestly he needs to be spending most of his time in reserves. He can make it as a NRL player, but FG isn't the place for him to learn the things he needs to. If BJ and Roberts weren't so poor and Kepaoa didn't get injured when he did, this is what would be happening right now.

Move into the forwards the only longevity for Tommy, too slow and doesn’t have a fend at all!
We passed up the Fox to tie ourselves to a boat anchor.

 

[bigsiro]

A lot of people very hard on Talau in my view.
He’s played a total of 25 first grade games and was a junior 5/8. Shuffled between wing and centre. I can’t drop him yet he has to go through his development in first grade. You have to persist with talented athletes.

My issue is he looks underdone physically. Explosion and flexibility look like he hasn’t recovered fully from hamstring injuries.

Where is the talent?

His dad....
That's about it.

Swap him out for Kennedy Maumalo

Yep he’s done. Glad that experiment is over

 

[TigerBlood93]

Jesus I don’t think he warranted tonight’s frustrations, 140m and no miss tackles is great for a centre who didn’t play the full 80.

Yes he’s not perfect, but he’s 21 playing his 25th game and probably his 6th game at centre, kid needs time. He’s clearly our best rookie out of the backs that are waiting for a crack at first grade.

He needs to keep playing first grade footy!

Madge, hartigan, bellyache and Freddy who picked him for the emerging blues this year can all see it. Not to mention the media.


He plays in a top 4 team he would be on another level. He’ll come good in the next year or so. Just needs consistency in one position, side and edge partner. He’s also coming of hamstring issues, he’s gotta figure out his playing body and how to get the best out of it, that will take time as he’s young, hopefully our management have great mentors in that field.

He didn’t cost us today and I don’t believe he had a bad game.