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Brad Arthur dropped a bomb on Team List Tuesday after naming rookie Blaize Talagi to debut against the Manly Sea Eagles. The Tip Sheet runs into double over time as they pour over the implications of the stunning decision with Sixties, Forty20 and Clint all fired up for Sunday as a result.
The boys take one last look at Parramatta’s tough loss to the Panthers in Round 2 before wrapping up the rest of the weekend’s action across senior and junior grades.
South Sydney dominate the NRL discussion with both their coach and star fullback attracting media headlines this week. Latrell Mitchell escaped sanction for his expletive laden interview, was it the right call? Is Jason Demetriou under pressure? Was his decision to drop Lachlan Illias justified?
Speaking of halfbacks getting dropped – what is happening at Newcastle? Jackson Hastings is the fall guy after their 0-2 start as Adam O’Brien turns to Jack Cogger instead. The show closes up with a Melbourne twist as the boys give their verdict on the Jahrome Hughes suspension and Xavier Coates’ all-time match winner.
The selection of Blaize is inspired and exciting, however the selection of Harper on the wing makes no sense at all. Harper lacks speed and is incompetent under the high ball.
Also, Wenty won 44-0 in RMC, surely Martin deserves a shot in the cup after that. The continued support of two players Cini and Lemelume with no NRL future is beyond frustrating. Rather Jake Tago has been elevated – is he not another Lumelume type player? Blaize has obvious talent but from what I’ve seen so does Martin and we have a genuine lack of quality wingers… so… doesn’t make sense to continually pass him
I’m not sure why Ethyn is being selected in Ron Massey. I believe he is contracted for next year as well o he’s seen as having a future.
I picked Talagi to be picked for round 1. BA has got learn to trust young players more.
Brett, how can you possibly suggest that selecting an 18 year old in round 3 is not trusting a young player?
Because I thought he should’ve been picked in round 1. It’s obvious that Harper & Simonsen are placeholders at best. We aren’t a legit contender this year, bite the bullet and pick the kid. Let’s find out what he’s got. Let’s be honest, BA wouldn’t have picked him if he had other legit choices. Clearly he has lost all faith in Haze Dunster.
We are massive fans of Blaize on TCT. We’ve watched him since his first year of Matts. Declared him as a future NRL star. I downplayed his preseason efforts in my reports because I didn’t want to overhype him. But Blaize hadn’t played a single competitive match against open age players until round one. I was all for him getting used to the difference. If you talk to any young player about their first game in open age football, they’ll talk about the different pace of the game, but they’ll equally talk about the physical difference and dealing with the contact. So, after two games of NSW Cup, and an interrupted SG Ball (he missed the first 6 rounds of a nine round season) and Flegg (he also missed a huge chunk of games), BA selects Blaize for debut. No matter the circumstances, it’s massive belief in the talent of this young bloke. And hardly reason for you to find criticism Brett, regardless of whether you would have selected him two games earlier.
While it’s an exciting selection and I have high hopes for Blaize, there is still work to be done on our outside back squad depth. Agree with the comments on Ethyn Martin, I can’t understand how he isn’t getting a game in NSW Cup to continue his development.
Back on Blaize I will say that BA has generally got it right when debuting pathways players – Mahoney*, D Brown, Penisini, Russell to name a few all made grade at a young age under BA and have kicked on since (*not so much since he started wearing a bulldogs jumper!)
Ethyn Martin had 17 carries for 250 metres for Wenty on Saturday night. He scored a 50m try, had 3 try assists, multiple line breaks and line break assists, kicked 2 from 2, played fullback in the first half, and spent time at 6 and then 7 in the second half. This kids an actual talent with speed to burn who is being cock blocked for some unknown reason.
A lot of criticism last week regarding the defensive efforts of our left edge. From what I saw last year’s GF’s went no better. Maybe worse