Exactly, effort is the word that so many are overlooking.
I don't see why people have so many problems with it, shouldn't people be happy that here's a coach who clearly has standards in place and wants to drive Hurrell, who as we all know has the potential to be among the very best centres in the competition, to reach that potential?
There's no point bringing up all these other players. This is about Hurrell meeting the expectations that are put on him. That's entirely on him, nobody else, Hurrell isn't in the team because he didn't meet the goals that the coach set for him, how is this a bad thing? aside from the fact that he didn't meet them.
Somehow, I doubt there's much thought going into somebody like Nielsen's long term progression. He is what he is, he's not often short on "effort" and nobody is concerned with developing him to be the clubs long term star centre, he'll be out the door soon. Hurrell on the other hand can and should be a core member of the Warriors for many, many years to come. If this sort of thing leads to a more well rounded Hurrell in the long term then it's a great thing.