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Who were you surprised never made it?

nick87

Coach
Messages
12,251
Daniel Vidot was another
He had all the tools and I’ll die on the Vidot hill alone when I say if he had even slightly below average football iq, rather than all time low, he’d have a long successful nrl career

He big, fast, agile, strong, an incredible finisher. He was made to be an NRL winger
But he just made way too many dumb mistakes on and off the park. He struggled with focus, was too lazy and I’m not sure he was that passionate about playing RL

Nic Cotric is basically the same player just with incredible football iq. Vidot had all the tools to be a Cotric level footballer
 

Rhino_NQ

Immortal
Messages
33,045
shannon walker had everything to be where addo-carr is now with ball playing ability chucked on top. never happened
 

Bazal

Post Whore
Messages
99,455
So many from an Eels perspective, but disregarding the poor buggers wrecked by injury like a Danny Sullivan or a Tim Smith (really bad mental health issues might as well be injury IMO), Steve Witt is one that comes to mind. More talented than Michael, who was at worst a solid first grade half, but just did absolutely nothing.

Matt Keating is another, although he was pretty solid and eked out a decent career by virtue of how shit we are. Deadset looked like Cam Smith as a kid, outstanding kicking game, smart out of dummy half, snappy service....then in FG he took thirteen years to pass a footy and ran about 27m in his entire career.

Anthony Mitchell also comes to mind pretty quickly
 

DeeJ

Bench
Messages
3,119
Denan Kemp

I was thinking about him the other day and another Bronco, Nick Kenny.

Kenny wasn't as good as Kemp, but I was wondering if there was some correlation with guys that started playing footy late (Kenny was 18 and Kemp was 17 i think) and the length of their careers.

Kemp played like Slater sometimes at fullback, but he couldn't keep it up for an entire match.
 

GC_Gladiator

Juniors
Messages
1,508
At the start of his career I thought Dale Copley was more talented than Darius Boyd. Remembering Boyd back then I never would have thought he would achieve what he has.
 

blaza88z

Coach
Messages
15,066
I was thinking about him the other day and another Bronco, Nick Kenny.

Kenny wasn't as good as Kemp, but I was wondering if there was some correlation with guys that started playing footy late (Kenny was 18 and Kemp was 17 i think) and the length of their careers.

Kemp played like Slater sometimes at fullback, but he couldn't keep it up for an entire match.

I was at the game when he scored something like 4 tries and won it in the last second off a Darren Lockyer deft kick, was thinking how good is he going to be

Went to Rugby, came back, that was it
 

blaza88z

Coach
Messages
15,066
At the start of his career I thought Dale Copley was more talented than Darius Boyd. Remembering Boyd back then I never would have thought he would achieve what he has.

He had a few touches early on which made you think that way, I remember he stepped twice infield and left players in his wake to score a try
 

Vic Mackey

Referee
Messages
24,498
Goes back a bit further then most of these but in 1996 Balmain brought down from Nth QLD the Junior QLD/Aus captain Andrew Meads. A very talented ball playing forward. Scored 2 tries and kicked the winning field goal in the 1997 Jersey Flegg Grand Final. He’d be in the top 5 juniors I’ve seen come through the grades at the Tigers.

Came into first grade, scored on debut and looked right at home. When we merged for some reason he didn’t make the Wests Tigers squad so went to Parra. Brian Smith tried to make him a hooker but it never worked. I think he went to England after that but came home after a year or two and retired.
 

Woosh

Head Moderator
Messages
1,032
At the start of his career I thought Dale Copley was more talented than Darius Boyd. Remembering Boyd back then I never would have thought he would achieve what he has.

Didn’t Steve Michaels debut same game as Boyd?
Many Donkey fans rated Michaels more than Boyd before he went to the draqueens
 

Vee

First Grade
Messages
5,085
From the 80s - Mark Ross (Rossdog's dad) on the wing for Souths, Todd Riley at fullback for the Roosters went from tearaway leader in Rookie of the Year halfway through his 1st season to never seen again, literally, I don't think he even finished the season. David Woods, the only Parra junior that could have slotted into that champion backline, cruelled by injury.
 

GC_Gladiator

Juniors
Messages
1,508
Woosh, you are right. While I also thought Copley would do more, it was Michaels at centre and Boyd on the wing that I was thinking of. Michaels looked a step ahead and Boyd just hung in there.
 

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