Who were you surprised never made it?

[nick87]

Daniel Vidot was another
He had all the tools and I’ll die on the Vidot hill alone when I say if he had even slightly below average football iq, rather than all time low, he’d have a long successful nrl career

He big, fast, agile, strong, an incredible finisher. He was made to be an NRL winger
But he just made way too many dumb mistakes on and off the park. He struggled with focus, was too lazy and I’m not sure he was that passionate about playing RL

Nic Cotric is basically the same player just with incredible football iq. Vidot had all the tools to be a Cotric level footballer

 

[kdalymc]

Tricky Trindall.

And the Mcclindan/McFadden combo. Tore apart teams then one of em ended up sitting on the wing...

 

[JohnStoppafarty]

Tim Smith. Had some silky skills and played some great games for Parra. The halfback curse was finally going to be broken and .....then it was gone! Farkin spewin.

 

[Rhino_NQ]

shannon walker had everything to be where addo-carr is now with ball playing ability chucked on top. never happened

 

[Bazal]

So many from an Eels perspective, but disregarding the poor buggers wrecked by injury like a Danny Sullivan or a Tim Smith (really bad mental health issues might as well be injury IMO), Steve Witt is one that comes to mind. More talented than Michael, who was at worst a solid first grade half, but just did absolutely nothing.

Matt Keating is another, although he was pretty solid and eked out a decent career by virtue of how shit we are. Deadset looked like Cam Smith as a kid, outstanding kicking game, smart out of dummy half, snappy service....then in FG he took thirteen years to pass a footy and ran about 27m in his entire career.

Anthony Mitchell also comes to mind pretty quickly

 

[sensesmaybenumbed]

Dean Collis.

 

[Life's Good]

Richie Williams comes to mind for the Dragons. Came into FG with a bit of hype(maybe just at the Dragons). Killed it in his first game vs. Titans(07) and thought it was easy so started mouthing off about how good he was. Fizzled out pretty quickly after that.

 

[DeeJ]

Denan Kemp

I was thinking about him the other day and another Bronco, Nick Kenny.

Kenny wasn't as good as Kemp, but I was wondering if there was some correlation with guys that started playing footy late (Kenny was 18 and Kemp was 17 i think) and the length of their careers.

Kemp played like Slater sometimes at fullback, but he couldn't keep it up for an entire match.

 

[GC_Gladiator]

At the start of his career I thought Dale Copley was more talented than Darius Boyd. Remembering Boyd back then I never would have thought he would achieve what he has.

 

[carcharias]

Trex
Absolute wasted career

 

[blaza88z]

I was thinking about him the other day and another Bronco, Nick Kenny.

Kenny wasn't as good as Kemp, but I was wondering if there was some correlation with guys that started playing footy late (Kenny was 18 and Kemp was 17 i think) and the length of their careers.

Kemp played like Slater sometimes at fullback, but he couldn't keep it up for an entire match.

I was at the game when he scored something like 4 tries and won it in the last second off a Darren Lockyer deft kick, was thinking how good is he going to be

Went to Rugby, came back, that was it

 

[blaza88z]

At the start of his career I thought Dale Copley was more talented than Darius Boyd. Remembering Boyd back then I never would have thought he would achieve what he has.

He had a few touches early on which made you think that way, I remember he stepped twice infield and left players in his wake to score a try

 

[Uncle Kraka]

Very surprised druid25 didn’t make it big. Once scored 3 tries in the second half of a mixed touch footy game.

 

[Vic Mackey]

Goes back a bit further then most of these but in 1996 Balmain brought down from Nth QLD the Junior QLD/Aus captain Andrew Meads. A very talented ball playing forward. Scored 2 tries and kicked the winning field goal in the 1997 Jersey Flegg Grand Final. He’d be in the top 5 juniors I’ve seen come through the grades at the Tigers.

Came into first grade, scored on debut and looked right at home. When we merged for some reason he didn’t make the Wests Tigers squad so went to Parra. Brian Smith tried to make him a hooker but it never worked. I think he went to England after that but came home after a year or two and retired.

 

[Woosh]

Siuatonga Likiliki

 

[Woosh]

At the start of his career I thought Dale Copley was more talented than Darius Boyd. Remembering Boyd back then I never would have thought he would achieve what he has.

Didn’t Steve Michaels debut same game as Boyd?
Many Donkey fans rated Michaels more than Boyd before he went to the draqueens

 

[Vee]

From the 80s - Mark Ross (Rossdog's dad) on the wing for Souths, Todd Riley at fullback for the Roosters went from tearaway leader in Rookie of the Year halfway through his 1st season to never seen again, literally, I don't think he even finished the season. David Woods, the only Parra junior that could have slotted into that champion backline, cruelled by injury.

 

[AJB1102]

Justin Carney is another. Had a decent run at FG but was never the player it looked like he’d be.

Didn't he snap his leg or something then head to UK?

 

[GC_Gladiator]

Woosh, you are right. While I also thought Copley would do more, it was Michaels at centre and Boyd on the wing that I was thinking of. Michaels looked a step ahead and Boyd just hung in there.

 

[King hit]

Brett Seymour was meant to be the next big thing but turned out to be a train wreck.