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A player you thought was a diamond but ended up a rock

Wizardman

First Grade
Messages
8,504
Don't count guys like Dave Taylor as he did achieve playing for QLD/Australia....despite most people viewing Taylor as an underachiever of our sport.
Im talking about players who you thought would be a star, yet achieved very little in a first grade career.

For me, it is a dead tie between Craig Field/Jacin Sinclair.

While Field played for three clubs and played in a grand final, he really underachieved from the time he left Souths. I'll never know why he never kicked in in a powerful club like Manly which had the best pack in the comp, a great half in Toovey, powerful coach and management and a very good backline to feed the ball to. He had all the scaffolding around him to succeed yet was average to bad in the time he was there. At the Tigers, he was basically a basket case in a team full of misfits.

At Souths though, Field was very good. Great kicking game, very good running game and plenty of ticker. I would have thought his resume would have been more impressive.

Jacin Sinclair....my, oh my. He had every skill in the world yet played more reserve grade than firsts. He was a bit of a troubled person and that basically ended a very promising career. He ended his own life a few years ago....tragic.
 

Johns Magic

Referee
Messages
21,654
Beat me to it. Incredible speed but not a lot else. Kevin Locke to a degree too, though that was more down to mental/attitude stuff than skill.

Had that game against the Sharks and I thought, this is it, he can do it in first-grade.

Injured later that day(or next week?) in a tackle, ankle syndesmosis, out a couple of months...never made it back. Shunted to the wing and couldn't tackle to save himself.

I think if not for that injury he could've kicked on, at least for a while. Would probably get found out eventually and lose a touch of speed but he could've had a good couple of seasons.

Can't remember who it was exactly but in that Sharks game that try off the scrum where he took it at first-receiver and just ran around the guy marking him like he wasn't even there...poetry.
 

DC_fan

Coach
Messages
11,980
Gary Allsopp a winger for Penrith in the mid to late 70's. A sensational lower grade player who showed potential early, but that was it.
 

Chief_Chujo

First Grade
Messages
7,419
Travis Waddell. Was convinced he was going to be the key to finally fixing our #9 problems.

Jermaine Ale. Should have gone on t be one of the best centres in the game but seemingly didn't care enough about footy to carry on with it.
 

some11

Referee
Messages
23,313
Alex McKinnon.

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