I'm not sure how on earth you couldn't have been impressed with him in the 20s. Personally I was impressed with most of the forwards we put out last year. Packer, Matulino, Fai and Ah Mau IMO were the standouts, Taylor, O'Regan and Poching also extremely capable.
I wasn't expecting anything of note in his first few games in first grade, much the same as I didn't from Russell Packer, Sam Rapira and co. Making the transition to first grade in the front row takes a bit of time. Having said that, I wouldn't say he was a failure in his first two outings either. Your comment "one off the stocks" is probably fair, but it should be held in context that that forward pack last year in the 20s was terrific, perhaps one of the best comparatively against their opposition we've fielded in any grade. That's one of the reasons I was disappointed in the Lillyman signature at the start because I thought for forwards we had it made, it was halves and outside backs where we had some issues. If you did a depth chart analysis I reckon halfback and centre would be the positions circled with a big red pen for must improve, instead we got a backrower, a winger, and a couple of halves who were part timers at best.
