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Dawn Raid

Play some footy

Juniors
Messages
238
He'd be lucky to make 3rd grade for Burleigh. Honestly - a kid with no prior experiecne can not make it in a good comp on athletic ability alone.
 

BatiFan

Juniors
Messages
618
I couldnt agree with PSF and WTF. For the uneducated, the QLD Cup is arguably the 3rd best rugby league competition in the world behind NRL and Super League. There are 3 NRL teams in the Broncos, Cowboys and Storm who play their 2nd grade side in this comp (Aspley Broncos, North QLD Young Guns and Norths Devils) and a 4th NRL team - the Gold Coast Titans - actually "farm" out players to 3 QLD Cup clubs (Ipswich Jets, Burleigh Bears and Tweed Heads Seagulls). Other teams like Redcliffe and Wynnum have strong links to the Broncos, Easts Tigers are alligned with South Sydney Rabbitohs, Central Comets with Cowboys and Souths Logan with Canberra Raiders. This year alone in the QLD Cup we have seen former NZ internationals Jake Webster (Ipswich), Andrew Lomu and Tame Tupou (Aspley) and Joe Gulavao (Easts), while also witnessing a host of current, former and upcoming NRL stars.

So with all that in mind, let us think about some of the things facing poor Akarika in his travels. The first and biggest is the fact that he has only played 4-5 games of rugby league in his life. Sure he may be a great athlete, but I have said this on another forum, you could go down to any suburban football field around Australia and find athletes with Akarika's physical stats - I would suggest, some even bigger, stronger, faster, fitter and more skillful, that have played the game their whole lives, yet are only good enough to play in possibly QLD Cup, FOGS Cup, Jim Beam Cup or local A Grade comps here in OZ. So, with that taken into consideration, what sets Dawn aside from one of the hundreds of other players with his stats? Is it his experience? 4-5 games in his life! So you can rule that out. What about specialised fitness for rugby league? Continuous running, back fowrard, side to side, contact and wrestle in the tackle, then up off the ground time and time again. Somehow (and I have never played American Football so I might be talking out of school) but I dont think rugby league and American Football fitness could ever be compared. Next is the knowledge of the game and when I say knowledge I refer to not only the laws of the game, but the other facets of the game such as how to run good lines, knowing your indiviual job and how best to execute your role within the team, changing game scenarios, the tempo of different games, the ability to dominate tackles in defence, communication when you feel like you have no more air to give, and the list goes on and on. These are all things that players here in Australia have been taught, skilled and repeated since an extremely young age. You would find guys that are playing at QLD Cup level would have had these same principles drilled into them for a number of years, all the time learning through training and more importantly experience through going through these issue in game scenarios.

Now I dont want to sound like I am having a go at Akarika Dawn, as anyone who has read my posts in the past knows that I am for the development of the code in the USA above just about all others, and by having players like Akarika travel to Australia is the first step in hopefully a well thought out process by the AMNRL. The point I am trying to convey is that for all those out there that want to believe that Akarika is going to be an overnight sensation here in Australia, please dont be disappointed if it doesnt eventuate. The news articles are great and it is opening up peoples eyes to the fact the game is played in the USA. But if we take into account all the above issues that are facing Akarika, let us be content if he comes here and just plays the game for Burleigh's local A Grade side. Let us not think that he will gain an NRL contract from his time here, more so that he has a good time, enjoys the game and then hopefully continues playing the game when he returns to the USA.

With all this said and done, I wish Akarika the very best in his travels and I hope that he has a wonderful time and that he will embrace the game of rugby league as so many of us here in Australia have done all our lives.
 

slow frontrower

Juniors
Messages
171
This sounds great and I tend to agree that it will be hard, but you will find very few NRL players or poeple in the world with Fringe NFL athletic ability. So bati for you to describe his size/speed/strength combo as some one you can find in OZ on a playground I strongly disagree.

Just to prove my point James Jett played for the LA Raiders for 3 or 4 years, he won a gold medal in the 4x100 at the 92 or 96 Olympic games (It is a phrase used often but rarley proven) "world class speed." He was fast, but the not the fastest in the NFL and was and average reciever.

How many NRL players are Gold Medal Olympians?

With the right coaching and attention he has the POTENTIAL to be great. You can't just walk in and be good; it will take time, but if you're bigger faster and strong than 99% of the people you play against I have to say its worth an investment for a club and the player.
 

donkey|rope

Juniors
Messages
494
BatiFan, you are kidding yourself if you think there is anyone in the QLD Cup with the physical attributes and the raw athletic ability that Akarika has - that - isn't already being groomed for the NRL.

In the modern game, rightly or wrongly, being an athlete is more important than being a footballer. I'm not saying that he hasn't got a hard road ahead and I'm not saying that he will definitely play in the NRL. What I am saying is: he has a great platform, better than a lot of kids who dream of playing in NRL, and if he can develop his 'football' skills he could achieve something in our game.
 

Tekken Lord

Juniors
Messages
919
Originally Posted by slow frontrower
This sounds great and I tend to agree that it will be hard, but you will find very few NRL players or poeple in the world with Fringe NFL athletic ability. So bati for you to describe his size/speed/strength combo as some one you can find in OZ on a playground I strongly disagree.

I agree his physical attributes are impressive however there was a kid at my old school he had it in for me for some reason and he is pretty much a ball of muscle. Not as big as Akarika but he will be pretty close when he reaches that age, he has size/speed/strength and has played footy all his life but he has little to no chance of making it to the NRL.

Originally Posted by slow frontrower
With the right coaching and attention he has the POTENTIAL to be great. You can't just walk in and be good; it will take time, but if you're bigger faster and strong than 99% of the people you play against I have to say its worth an investment for a club and the player.

Some things you can't coach, if you have a look at some of the sensational talents in Oz. Greg Inglis, Jarryd Hayne i don't even think they're twenty, you can't coach that kind of talent it just comes naturally. He can be as athletic as he likes but if he doesn't have the natural talent to cut it then he wont.

Putting all that aside i hope Akarika does well and makes it in the NRL. The potential benefit to the game is enormous if he does well and other Amarican athletes are introduced to the game...who knows.
 

BatiFan

Juniors
Messages
618
Granted his athletic ability is impressive, I am not disputing he has the physical nature to play the game, and perhaps the comment about finding similar athletes on any rugby league field was a bit far fetched. I am more trying to elude to the fact that he has played 4-5 games of rugby league and it is only with years of experience that anyone from the USA will ever get to the NRL level on a consistent basis. The 2 sports are light years away from each other and it is just like us getting on an NFL forum and sprouting about how a league player just because he is big, fast and powerful is going to be an overnight sensation in American Football. The message I am trying to convey is that to be an elite rugby league player you need to be skilled in the game for years and have the instinct of the game. I personally feel that Akarika would have been better off coming to Australia and staying with a coach for 3 months and being tutored in the game indepth before pitting him into action. He could have learnt one on one through August, September, October before joining a team for their entire pre season. That way then at least he could get an idea as to the insides of the game and train and adapt accordingly without the scutiny from media and fans wishing him to be the next big hope for the game in the USA with the very limited experience he currently has.

I am not too sure whether the other player in Selevasio Foulau is still coming wth him, but at least Foulau has played rugby union and being of Tongan heritage you would think he at least has heard of rugby league, so he is realisticly the one we should be getting excited about if anything.
 

Mr_Ugly

Juniors
Messages
825
slow frontrower said:
How many NRL players are Gold Medal Olympians?


Not aware of any, but I can think of a couple of Olympians with league backgrounds that tried their hand at 1st grade league and failed: Darren Clark (sprinter) - highest level was reserves for Balmain Tigers I believe and Jeff Fenech (Boxer) - highest was reserves for Parramatte Eels.

... useless trivia lesson #6945
 

BatiFan

Juniors
Messages
618
He is playing for Burleigh's Smartland Cup side. The Smartland Cup is the local Gold Coast competition I believe. So he has 2 weeks to try and push his way into either FOGS Cup firstly and then QLD Cup.

The best we can hope for is that he has shown the Bears heirachy that he is worth giving an off season to develop further and see how he comes up with 4-5 months of solid training under his belt.
 

BatiFan

Juniors
Messages
618
Ok, now I dont want this to come across like I told you so, but Akarika Dawn has returned to the USA after making minimal impact with Burleigh. He played in a 2 or 3 games for their Smartland Cup side (2 grades below QLD Cup) and by all reports left to go back to the USA after finding it hard to adapt to the game and the constant sitting around during the day. There are reports that he may have been invited back to attend pre season training to see how he would prgress with some more intense training and knowledge of the game and if this is true it is the right step from Burleigh as this is what should have happened right from the start and not send the poor kid out by himself in a foreign environment to participate in an alien sport to him.
 
Messages
14,139
I don't know what people expect of these guys. Very few players who have only just taken up the game are going to be able to play at a high level immediately with any kind of success. As simple as some people claim league is, it's still a very technical sport, especially the higher up the chain you go. Even a bloke as talented as Brian Carney took a few years to find his feet. If these blokes realy do have the potential they need to be given a couple of years training, coaching and playing before they can be expected to be comfortable in what they are doing. I honestly think Greg Smith could have been a decent player if he was given a chance. Whether he played in the NFL or not (what that matters I don't know), he could have developed if given a chance. He was very quick and scored a few tries in Premier League. Throwing him straight into the NRL was a terrible mistake. If he'd started at a lower level and given time to work his way up he may have ended up in the NRL with all the skills and confidence to compete at that level. Dawn is probably the same. I don't know if any clubs, NRL or otherwise, are going to be willing to put that much time and energy into one of these blokes but I think if they did they could be rewarded.
 

Paullyboy

Coach
Messages
10,473
So is this bloke still playing in the AMNRL? Given some more time playing the game he could have another crack in a year or 2 if he stuck with it.
 

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