Its not about writing players off. Lets be honest & realistic.
Do you want Salmon playing 5/8 at Nrl level.? Some people on here rave about him.!
I think he is good but not up to it. Not a 6 at all, Not sure if the club has any other plans for him..
As for other young players - GL cant tackle, makes poor decisions. Footy isnt just about running the ball. If he doesnt have the smarts now he never will.
Look at Xerri 17yo today. That kid is something special. Great decisions in attack and defence,
Kaufusi i do believe has something to offer his the youngest of them all & playing decent footy.
Can you please show me where anyone has raved about him as a half? I can't remember any. In the post you quoted I said "he's obviously not a half but he's trying his best" that may clue you in to where I believe Salmon's future playing position lies, or doesn't lie. I reckon the club does have other plans for him (we signed him for 3 years), that was shown when we played him in the centres against the warriors but he didn't touch the ball enough because of the woeful halves in that squad.
You want to be honest and realistic? Righto. He's a 19 year old given the task of guiding a Wenty team that clearly has no leadership and outside of him no one providing any creativity in the halves and ability to set others up for a try. He's obviously more comfortable running the ball and hitting gaps than he is trying to put others into them. The best thing for him would be to play centre in the 20's, gain some confidence smashing them again and look to have another strong pre-season. But then if he plays centre in the 20's that's a bit unfair for Aukafolau and Afualo who have been playing well so far this season.
I understand the hype around GL but don't believe it. He looks good because he was putting on 250m+ a game in the 20s last year. But he's lazy. I think I may have said in the pre-season that Dunster and/or Parry will overtake him by the end of the season, I still believe that to be true.
Kaufusi plays the same game whether it be in the 20's or ISP, good player. I also don't believe it's right for him to be playing ISP, I truly believe that he (and Fainga'a for that) should be playing Flegg and it would be better for them in the long run.
