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Can't understand this obsession with a small player being 'not much good in NRL'? The league is full of small players running all over the big guys, who are too big to catch the small players. Think Steve Ella, probably less than 70kg when first started, and Ben Barba to now Papahauzen, Fa'alongo and Reece Walsh amongst others being small and dominating. To me it depends how they play, not their size!
The problem is there’s only one spot to hide little guys in defence and that’s at fullback, which is incidentally Papalii’s preferred position. Obviously smaller players can be great in attack, but most of them are defensive liabilities.
this is one of the reasons I advocate for having 3 forward defenders who can line up anywhere so long as they are behind the advantage line (or the ruck - whatever). Amongst other things that would likely protect other smaller players whose asset is sick attack skills.
