As we all watch a new footy season take shape, it’s always a bonus to see the rise of previously ‘unknown’ players – unknown to most of us that is.
Jack Bird has wowed everyone watching him kick start his NRL career at Cronulla. His story is a great one of dealing with personal health issues.
Waqa Blake made his debut for Panthers, another to look the part in his Penrith jersey for that club giving plenty of talented kids a crack in the past season or so.
At Melbourne Feliise Kaufusi, a very strong looking forward, has already shown great confidence in his passing and offloading skills. Euan Aiken has played left centre for Dragons in their three wins on the bounce – what a great way to start an NRL career.
Pat Richards, along with Jamie Lyon and Luke Burt, were among the many stars for Parramatta junior representative teams back in my days as head coach at the blue and golds. They were super talents as were Anthony Mundine, Nathan Brown and Gorden Tallis at St George a decade earlier.
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More recently at the Roosters it’s been Jake Friend, Dylan Napa and Roger Tuivasa Sheck. It’s always been going on, development of talent to pro.
Some of these guys slip straight into NRL and make it look easy, but not many. Nearly all of them will tell you how difficult it was at the time and how much harder they had to work at improving their game after they had “made it to the big time”.
That’s the story of Tautau Moga, another to catch my eye playing centre for North Queensland. He is not a newbie this season nor has he had a whirlwind beginning, despite his tremendous talent and incredible physique.
As an SG Ball player for the Roosters a few seasons back, Tau absolutely dominated that whole competition in a way I have not very often seen. Scoring length of the field tries was almost too easy for him.
But it wasn’t the same as he progressed to an NRL opportunity.
Every player has a story. Some we hear about, and don’t we all love the winning one? The one almost made for a movie when everything goes right for the kid made for this elite level.
Tautau’s story has personal triumph aspects to it as well after appearing at first to fail at NRL footy. But that’s for him to tell or not.
The message from his achievement in re-making this opportunity for himself is one not often written as it’s not so romantic or exciting. This one is about the kid with all that talent and size who had to go away and work hard or miss out.
I would suggest facing that prospect of failure was not something this huge young man had to do until he hit the wall that NRL demands every player must climb and conquer at some stage for differing reasons.
Everyone faces it, but it seems so cruel a challenge when it comes when so young. “A waste”, people called it when he didn’t measure up initially.
Playing tough, upping his involvement, accepting how difficult it is in NRL footy to break a tackle let alone make a break and score a try is all part of the confidence battle of the on-field type. Feeling like you have let people down by not living up to everyone’s expectation is the accumulated personal pressure pile to deal with off the paddock.
Often it’s too much, especially if injury is involved, or lack of support. Re-shaping talent into what works in NRL demands thousands of repetitions, a much stronger body and an even tougher mind.
I dislike that too many people in our coaching and recruitment systems don’t recognise how often this occurs. For every one of those who seemingly cruise into top flight footy, there are 10 who don’t. Those 10 all have to learn how to play right centre overnight because if that’s the only place available in your club and you have only ever played left centre at junior rep level.
It’s a whole new position to learn, an opportunity with so little preparation. Only a small group of players in the NRL get to make their debut in their favoured position.
If junior footy is so easy for a top young kid, it’s the job of the coaches among us to find ways to challenge him so that he meets these kinds of hurdles early on and becomes accustomed to finding ways of solving difficult problems. Playing a new position or on a different side of the field are just simple but often overlooked methods of continuing the development process.
Whatever it’s been for Tau, I have really enjoyed his performances of a steady but effective kind in a Cowboys shirt recently. I can’t wait to see how far further up that performance ladder he can climb.
He represents the majority of young guys out there looking for that opportunity, perhaps still working out how to make it happen. There are so many out there with stories like Tautau Moga.
I hope our sport continually improves the ways we assist them in getting where they want to get to. We still miss too many.
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