Laumalili has put together a similar season to Crosby did in Jersey Flegg. 3 tries in 13 games. Crosby 5 tries in 21 games. I see them as similar players. Impact players. Laumalili is 3 years younger than Crosby so has more upside.
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And this is why we won't be able to keep them all, especially when a couple become genuine stars and command top dollar.
Neal I think will end up at prop. Only 17, will fill out further. He's taller than AFB and around 10kgs lighter. Just can't see him being on an edge by the time he hits 19-20 which he has the potential to debut at if his head is on right. Yes he's the same size as Kikau now roughly, but I don't think he's quite as dynamic on the edge, and when you watch his highlights there's lot of him ripping through teams up the middle.
Then there's Sikuvea and Fatialofa who will probably debut before Neal as well.
Injuries, form, departures happen, but if everything went perfectly in 3 seasons from now we won't be able to fit all our prospects in a largely home grown team and some of them are too talented to just sit in reserves for too long before another club comes with a contract and top 30 spot.
Hypothetically our top 30 forwards at the start of 2028 could include
8. JFH
10. Vaimauga/Clark
11. Laban/EIT
12. Leka
13. Sikuvea
14. Fatialofa
15. Neal
16. Clark/Vaimauga
17. Some random utility that takes up a bench space
EIT/Laban, TSS, Salilo, Laumalili, Tuipulotu Vea etc
And I'm sure I'm missing a few more too.
Point is - if you had to pick 4 of those guys to move on you'd be picking 4 pretty good players to move on from.
Good luck to Crosby, but he's just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the names above won't realise their potential or just want to shift out, others will emerge or fade out due to inuries. We don't get to see which is which either, we have to make a choice and then hope hindsight doesn't bite us.
Exciting times, but there's going to be some anxious moments about whether or not we're making the right decisions.
Neal I think will end up at prop. Only 17, will fill out further. He's taller than AFB and around 10kgs lighter. Just can't see him being on an edge by the time he hits 19-20 which he has the potential to debut at if his head is on right. Yes he's the same size as Kikau now roughly, but I don't think he's quite as dynamic on the edge, and when you watch his highlights there's lot of him ripping through teams up the middle.
Then there's Sikuvea and Fatialofa who will probably debut before Neal as well.
Injuries, form, departures happen, but if everything went perfectly in 3 seasons from now we won't be able to fit all our prospects in a largely home grown team and some of them are too talented to just sit in reserves for too long before another club comes with a contract and top 30 spot.
Hypothetically our top 30 forwards at the start of 2028 could include
8. JFH
10. Vaimauga/Clark
11. Laban/EIT
12. Leka
13. Sikuvea
14. Fatialofa
15. Neal
16. Clark/Vaimauga
17. Some random utility that takes up a bench space
EIT/Laban, TSS, Salilo, Laumalili, Tuipulotu Vea etc
And I'm sure I'm missing a few more too.
Point is - if you had to pick 4 of those guys to move on you'd be picking 4 pretty good players to move on from.
Good luck to Crosby, but he's just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the names above won't realise their potential or just want to shift out, others will emerge or fade out due to inuries. We don't get to see which is which either, we have to make a choice and then hope hindsight doesn't bite us.
Exciting times, but there's going to be some anxious moments about whether or not we're making the right decisions.
Bang on. The above team for 2028 assumes we don't have any young guns in the next three years coming through. I suppose 2029 could open a few spots with Clark and JFH finishing up, but it's massive logjam alright. The next 15 year old phenom is going to do the maths and not see a path potentially.
Agree - hope Crosby kicks on. It's actually good for us if he does, shows we are a good destination for early development. Hopefully means we can capture the best talent first, work through it and hopefully make the right calls when the crunch comes.
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Yeah I think Neal moves to the middle eventually. He is 194cm, 113kg at 17 years old.
Hes the same size as katoa is atm, but he’s taller & heavier than keaon, stefano & tapine..
If he can keep his head down he’ll be an absolute weapon through the middle.
Hes the same size as katoa is atm, but he’s taller & heavier than keaon, stefano & tapine..
If he can keep his head down he’ll be an absolute weapon through the middle.
Size wise he’s going to be close to Kikau’s dimensions you’d imagine once he’s done his growing? Seems to be a player that backs himself rather than setting others up but definitely got some skills and can beat a man as his chip and chase highlight highlighted
When you look at the GF, effectively you have the most stacked roster (broncos) vs the most stacked spine (storm). The broncos spine is very stacked too with Walsh coming into his own. You can go on about coaching etc, but realistically anything short of the GF is an under performance for either of these teams, especially the broncos.
It's actually remarkable what Penrith achieved and they should most certainly go down as the GOAT team of the modern era, and Cleary in the same immortal tier as Bellyache and Wayne. If I was a penrith fan I might even feel aggrieved that the storm haven't had to lose a spine player and the broncos team can look so absurdly over the cap bringing in Hunt.
Anyways, my point is it's going to take filling out most of the roster with gun young talent cheap and then by some miracle being able to actually buy some elite spine players. I can see why they're buying up all the young aussie halves as maybe one kicks on and we can get them to stay.
How do we possibly build a spine like Munster/Huges/Grant/Paps or Walsh/Hunt/Reynolds? The storms spine is absolutely gross in how stacked it is. Roos 6, roos 9, kiwi first choice half and Paps when healthy is nothing to sneeze at.
It's actually remarkable what Penrith achieved and they should most certainly go down as the GOAT team of the modern era, and Cleary in the same immortal tier as Bellyache and Wayne. If I was a penrith fan I might even feel aggrieved that the storm haven't had to lose a spine player and the broncos team can look so absurdly over the cap bringing in Hunt.
Anyways, my point is it's going to take filling out most of the roster with gun young talent cheap and then by some miracle being able to actually buy some elite spine players. I can see why they're buying up all the young aussie halves as maybe one kicks on and we can get them to stay.
How do we possibly build a spine like Munster/Huges/Grant/Paps or Walsh/Hunt/Reynolds? The storms spine is absolutely gross in how stacked it is. Roos 6, roos 9, kiwi first choice half and Paps when healthy is nothing to sneeze at.
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Halves and hooker seem reasonably good now and coming through depending on who they see as halfback and five eighths? Metcalf seems like we’re wanting to him as our halfback for the next phase going forward? Seems fullback is where we’re thin currently, or somebody is right under our nose and hasn’t played there yet?
Nothing would make me happier than an 18 year old Jeremiah Lemana carving up and debuting for the club, however appreciate this is highly unlikely. Sounds like Pasikala has regressed since that out-the-gate NSW cup season last year at Fullback. Not sure how Ratcliffe went in JF this year either.
Would love to get Mason Barber off the Cowboys, dude is going to be absolutely elite. Sounds like the Cows have got him locked up though.
Out of interest, the below is the debut age of the last 10 years of GF winning spine players
| Player | Position | Debut Age | Debut Year | Club at Debut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nathan Cleary | Halfback | 18 | 2016 | Penrith Panthers |
| Luke Keary | Five-eighth | 21 | 2013 | South Sydney Rabbitohs |
| James Tedesco | Fullback | 19 | 2012 | Wests Tigers |
| Jahrome Hughes | Halfback | 18 | 2013 | Gold Coast Titans |
| Dylan Edwards | Fullback | 20 | 2016 | Penrith Panthers |
| Jarome Luai | Five-eighth | 21 | 2018 | Penrith Panthers |
| Ryan Papenhuyzen | Fullback | 20 | 2019 | Melbourne Storm |
| Michael Morgan | Five-eighth | 18 | 2010 | North QLD Cowboys |
| Lachlan Coote | Fullback | 18 | 2008 | Penrith Panthers |
| Billy Slater | Fullback | 20 | 2003 | Melbourne Storm |
| Cameron Munster | Five-eighth | 20 | 2014 | Melbourne Storm |
| Cooper Cronk | Halfback | 20 | 2004 | Melbourne Storm |
| Cameron Smith | Hooker | 20 | 2002 | Melbourne Storm |
| Jake Granville | Hooker | 22 | 2013 | Brisbane Broncos |
| Apisai Koroisau | Hooker | 21 | 2014 | South Sydney Rabbitohs |
| Mitch Kenny | Hooker | 21 | 2019 | Penrith Panthers |
| Jake Friend | Hooker | 18 | 2008 | Sydney Roosters |
| Sam Verrills | Hooker | 20 | 2019 | Sydney Roosters |
| Michael Ennis | Hooker | 19 | 2003 | Newcastle Knights |
| Johnathan Thurston | Halfback | 18 | 2002 | Canterbury Bulldogs |
Would need to find that Storm/Bellamy ability to ID hidden gems in free agency and also their ability to develop players
No one had Hughes & Papz as big deals when they picked them up.
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Billy Walters is very good also and I assume a home grown? Walsh was from their system too, wonder how many of those spines were imported marquees or developed themselves
Someone said Norris has the potential to be a FB. Luke is our 7 so we have a logjam of halves with Linnane, Jett, Thompson coming through and CHT cheap enough to keep as a veteran utility. If a couple of the halves kick on we could play 1 of them at FB? Say a spine of Metcalf/Jett/Linnane
I think stacking them up is also good to see which ones prove to be survival of fittest, since talent wise probably will be similar
Ya we've definitely gone for the 2nd hand injured kids and if our physios are good and under Webby's coaching we'll still have some gems for the next decade, I think the aussie kids we signed are just the victims of their competitive environments that leave you behind if you're out for a couple of years
I've heard big wraps on him on here so I was pretty suprised how easily the Canterbury 18s contained him in the NZRL final for the most part.
Given he was starting a lot of sets 25-30 metres off his line with plenty of clear air in front of him and playing behind a big Auckland pack, thought he would have stood out a lot more with that kind of platform.
Looks a good athlete though.
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He carved up HM, first as a centre last year, then as fullback this year. I would say he's our best hope of a homegrown fullback atm.
One of , If not my favourite out of the kids(Backs). Confidence galore, Ton of skill, Good speed & a poweful runner. I hope he continues to shine and not falter and fade away into the abyss could of beens.
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In short, this Grand final is between two Salary cap cheats.
Or another way to say it, the NRL way, is that they are within their very fluid and bendy interpretation of the rules.
After David Gallop busted the Storm, the real powers behind the NRL had him ousted and iirc News Limited owned the Storm.
After that we saw the Roosters openly flouting the cap, and the invention of the term Sombrero.
Today, the Warriors play in a capped reality which is why they are not there on GF day.
Long live the Australian way.
Huge call on Sikuvea! Cant wait to see him play more next season.
Hard out. How do either of these sides afford their rosters.
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Looking even further out
8. Demetric Vaimauga
9. Sam Healey
10. Jacob Laban
11. Leka Halasima
12. Bishop Neal
13. Paea Sikuvea
14. Braelan Marsh
15. Emosi Ravosai
16. Jason Salalilo
17. Kayliss Fatialofa
19. Eddie Ieremia-Toeava
20. Tepatasi Laumalili
21. Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea
(forwards coming up and on the fringes; Lennox Tuiloma, Dezman Laban, Gordon Afoa, Elijah Solomona, Satali Fretton, Krushil Koteka)
Definitely a bit of a squeeze coming through and I doubt we will be able to keep all of them (or does someone like Erin Clark get forced out?)
Vaimauga replaces JFH as our forwards leader (and maybe eventual captain?)
I think Bishop might struggle with work rate at prop. Easily big enough but still a highlights player at this point. A more skilled Kikau is great comparison for play style.
Can't wait! Totally agree with that lineup. Except I like Tafua. Marsh will need to surpass Mikaya.
