I admit he was a favourite of mine and, when at his peak, was one of the best in the game.
I think that was largely on raw talent and natural ability but he is too much of a confidence player and his game is lost in his head more than anything. I also don't believe he was as defensively inept as many portrayed him to be...the work (or lack of it) inside of him more often that not left him regularly dealing with 2 and 3 on ones which made him the scapegoat rather than the defensive liability that some believe he is
In fairness, I believe he was showing solid form under Brown before he got banished to the lower grades - I don't blame Brown for making the long term call to make it clear he wasn't in future plans but he wasn't our worst senior performer this year when he did paly in the top grade.
I wish him well and hope he does find a new lease on confidence at Manly - I'd like to see his career not finish the way it has here.
The other thing that shines for me, more than anything else, was his relationship with the fans - at a club where nobody seemed to give a $hit about the fans, he was the first to the fence and the last to leave the field at EVERY home game I attended...on several occasions staff had to come out to get him back to the sheds because the coach wanted to go through the de-brief.
Agree, I think he is a confidence player and it didn't help that he hasn't had any for years... but the other piece of the puzzle was probably Mad Dog. With a selfless centre that's just looking to put him over the line, he shone. Maybe he still could, but Gags priority has rarely, if ever, been to set Aku up... and they're both shit defenders, so that didn't help, either. I don't think Akus defence is as bad as made out here, either... but it ain't good. His work to improve his ability under the high ball went unrewarded, too... but he really fixed that up over the past 2 or 3 years. It was slow progress, but he got there.
When Mad Dog was inside Aku, he almost exclusively looked to put Aku in space. That doesn't account for his lack of ability to burst through the line in the middle of the field and whatnot, but it all added to his confidence that made him what he was early in his career. I miss that Aku, who knows when we'll see a game breaker that good in the red and blue again.
I think it's been a real shame how he's been ejected out the backdoor with zero fanfare. Our highest try scorer and gave us a lot of good memories, yet we couldn't even farewell him at the end of year presentations. Pretty sad, and (without knowing what went on behind closed doors) we should be a bit ashamed of ourselves as a club in how it eventually played out I think. I don't think there's a player still playing that has put as many smiles on my face as Aku Uate. Even though it went very sour, I still think he deserved a bit better.
