I will bet he is nowhere in 5 yrs .. definitely not in first grade at any NRL club
In my opinion he will be playing first grade in 5 years time. I reckon he`ll play 100 first grade games whether it be all for us or moving to another club.
Obviously this season is a big one for him as he certainly has to improve leaps and bounds on what he showed last season and have little doubt that he will. I reckon Sheens still has him firmly in mind to replace Hodgo as our number 1 fullback next season.
Fullback is obviously his best spot, shortish wingers aren`t ideal these days and I must admit that i`m undecided on whether or not he would be a good regular fullback option at the Wests Tigers for the fact that I believe we really need a fullback with his fair share of ball skills that i`ve never really seen from Shannon. My ideal scenario would be moving Benji to fullback where I reckon he`d be a sensation and have Morris at 5/8 with Head at halfback. This would mean Shannon missing out on my top 17, still doesn`t change the fact that I know the kid can really play the game.
With all this said, I watched Hodgo very closely early on in his career. Tom Raudonikas played him a lot at halfback and he dead set wouldn`t have been able to organise a chook raffle, he had no organisation or playmaking skills whatsoever, but got buy purely on his blistering speed. At that particular time I know that Hodgo had ball skills in him because I played in the same touach comp as him and i`d seen it first hand, but he never produced it on the weekends.
Experience can see young players come out of their shell and develop the talent they have as time goes by. I don`t know if Shannon has ball skills or playmaking ability, but what i`m saying is that it`s all he needs to turn himself into a similar footballer to what Hodgo is !
