Heamasi Makasini

[Nutz]

Personally, I'd give him a game or 2 in NRL at the end of the year to see how he goes and to give him a taste and some encouragement. He could be the next Fittler, Daley, or Brasher, and star immediately. You don't know unless you have a go.

And on that note (and bearing in mind he'll be on network TV on Thursday) we need to sign him to a 10 year $12 million contract immediately. That way, when a more fancied club steals him off us, we'll get more than $165k in compo.

He's a goodin DOM. It's ironic when you said he could be another Fitler because Makasini is strong through the hips and uses them to swerve left then right and step like Brad did.
I personally can't wait for him to play this year but as you said, it's best to ease him into the NRL at the back end.

 

[TroyJax]

I think he needs to get a run in the NRL to at least see how he does handle it, this year.
Galvin, TDS and a few others were not that much older.
The league's history is littered with young blokes playing at this age.
If you're good enough, you're old enough.

We have a terribly awful history of rushing these blokes into first grade and stuffing them up.
Have we learned nothing from the Galvin debacle? I mean I know it was a fair while ago....

 

[TroyJax]

With all due respect, when Daley and Fittler and co hit the scene,

Why ? He might be a gun. He is an 108 kg centre who looks to have footwork, a fend and speed.

Some players just have it.

Personally I think it's obvious that Doueihi is a weak link in the team and we have to replace him as quickly as possible if we want to win more games.

It doesn’t matter if he is a gun. His body won’t be ready, his head won’t be ready and eventually we will pay for it. Giving him a full pre season is providing him with a far better opportunity to succeed.
One of Galvins complaints was that we didn’t provide adequate development and he sought it elsewhere. Your suggestion is to get a kid even younger and subject him to the same? Second time lucky eh?…except it isn’t is it? It will be about 15th time lucky.

 

[Tiger05]

We have a terribly awful history of rushing these blokes into first grade and stuffing them up.
Have we learned nothing from the Galvin debacle? I mean I know it was a fair while ago....

I don't think this is fair at all. Galvin was rushed into the Dogs side as well. It wasn't playing him too early that was the problem in that he is being picked for first grade. It's the fact that as soon as he played first grade he wanted out.

The Galvin debacle to me is exactly as per the Stef debacle. These guys think they can't make it at our club. It boggles my mind but that appears to be how they feel. We chased them hard to re-sign for us but they didn't want to be here.

My take is that we need to get a better impression of the character of the guys we are developing but that is hard.

 

[Tiger05]

One of Galvins complaints was that we didn’t provide adequate development and he sought it elsewhere. Your suggestion is to get a kid even younger and subject him to the same? Second time lucky eh?…except it isn’t is it? It will be about 15th time lucky.

I just responded to this but this is ridiculous. You are conflating two separate issues.

Issue 1:- developing players and how quickly you bring them into first grade.
Issue 2:- our retention policies.

Stef and Galvin in my opinion are issue 2. I'd argue our development of these guys was top tier. We bought them into first grade and turned them into stars. We did the same thing with Tedesco and Moses and Woods. They also all fall into issue 2.