Opinion Call for Calm re: Wakeham (Caution: unpopular opinion)

[Horse]

Alright boys,

Time to address something that has been bubbling along here for a while and needs to be settled.

I speak of the Wakeham-hype.

I’ve seen it time and time again on here where a player of Polynesian/Islander descent displays a bit of fancy footwork in the lower grades or against mediocre international opposition, and a signature Kennel circle jerk emerges. For example - Aaron Groom, Faamanu Brown (who according to some vocal Kennellers was the best hooker/half at the club 6 months ago) etc.

Unfortunately I can already foresee ridiculous rage on here when Pay (rightly) selects Cogger, Lewis and maybe even Averillo ahead of him. Those aforementioned 3 are all far better rounded halves than Wakeham who from what I’ve seen lacks a solid kicking game, and is a real target in defence.

Last year he had a good game for Fiji against PNG (QCup standard), and danced around Darius Boyd for a try at Suncorp (My grandmother could do this).
Cool.

Cogger is a far superior halfback and will correctly be named as our halfback Post-Foran/in his absence.

If I’m to make a prediction - Wakeham will play less than 50 NRL games in his career. Bookmark this thread.

 

[Howard Moon]

sorry to hear that

 

[Moedogg]

I don't think people on here even rate wakeham as much.... Its not like he's the next Barba or JT.....Cogger over Wakeham at this stage.

 

[hayes]

Really he has been rated by Westfield's Sport high as their best yes better Jarrard Hanye by the same coaches. Yes hes small but he is only turns 21 in Jan best thing to do is to ease him into first grade over the next 18 months.

Also note I been told he sign two year extension.

 

[Spoonman84]

Wakeham is the most natural ball player we have besides Foran and he’s still developing. The biggest problem he has had is staying on the field and he has picked up a few injuries now which is the biggest concern moving forward.

I love the kids attitude and he has the talent. If he’s developed properly and not thrown into hooker I can see him having a NRL career for sure.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

Wakeham is the most natural ball player we have besides Foran and he’s still developing. The biggest problem he has had is staying on the field and he has picked up a few injuries now which is the biggest concern moving forward.

I love the kids attitude and he has the talent. If he’s developed properly and not thrown into hooker I can see him having a NRL career for sure.

Exactly. Horse is just a bit of a racist ****, just look at his post history lol.

 

[belmore_utd]

The To'omaga hype train thread is too fresh in my mind to read past 1st sentence tbh

 

[Horse]

Wakeham is the most natural ball player we have besides Foran and he’s still developing. The biggest problem he has had is staying on the field and he has picked up a few injuries now which is the biggest concern moving forward.

I love the kids attitude and he has the talent. If he’s developed properly and not thrown into hooker I can see him having a NRL career for sure.

Thrown amongst the hookers list pretty much shows where he is rated in the halves queue when everyone’s fit.

To be fair I think he could do a job as our #17 coming on in short stints to try and spark something. But from what I’ve seen his game isn’t anywhere near being up to a full time first grade half.

 

[Horse]

The To'omaga hype train thread is too fresh in my mind to read past 1st sentence tbh

Lol he’s 25 and has chalked up all of 10 games. Bit early to write off that gem of a thread

 

[Spoonman84]

Thrown amongst the hookers list pretty much shows where he is rated in the halves queue when everyone’s fit.

To be fair I think he could do a job as our #17 coming on in short stints to try and spark something. But from what I’ve seen his game isn’t anywhere near being up to a full time first grade half.

Given our halves stocks I think everyone is chance and only Foran when fit has a guaranteed start. I thought he was quite impressive in his couple of NRL games last season and certainly looked up to it. He had just came back from injury himself and got thrown in the deep end against Cronulla and a player of his age and experience could have easily been overawed.

I think you’re writing him off very prematurely. Let’s hope this thread has the same effect as your Renouf hype train derailment and he kills it next year!

 

[belmore_utd]

Lol he’s 25 and has chalked up all of 10 games. Bit early to write off that gem of a thread

Except that historically forwards, especially props, peak when they are older than 25.

Tuamalolos Payne Haas SBW are anomalies

Not one was hyping him up THAT much, most of the Kennel talk was that he has a higher ceiling than the other forwards we were using.

 

[bradyk]

Facts are he's behind Lewis and Cogger.

Wakeham needs to show more and light up CC before he's going to get ahead of them. I'll be honest I don't watch much CC but if someone is THAT good I'd of seen something. Wakeham's few NRL games had some promising moments but imo he didn't show enough. When he gets the opportunity again he needs to do more.

He definitely* hasn't done enough to be our saviour.

 

[B-Train]

If Wakeham plays half as well as Renouf did after you wrote him off before he was given a chance then we'll be cheering.

No one is hyping Wakeham and is it possible he's a good young player who most are just excited to see how he develops?

What does race have to do with it? Do you continually hype Cogger and Elliott because they're white and write off To'omaga, Ogden, RFM and Wakeham etc because they're not?

 

[Hansta]

Arana tomatooooooo

 

[Spoonman84]

Facts are he's behind Lewis and Cogger.

Wakeham needs to show more and light up CC before he's going to get ahead of them. I'll be honest I don't watch much CC but if someone is THAT good I'd of seen something. Wakeham's few NRL games had some promising moments but imo he didn't show enough. When he gets the opportunity again he needs to do more.

He diffidently hasn't done enough to be our saviour.

How would you have seen something if you don’t watch CCup?

 

[KLil]

Absolute wank fest mate..

 

[bradyk]

How would you have seen something if you don’t watch CCup?

Social media (Twitter), NRL.com, Bulldogs website. Anywhere where clips would be uploaded. Articles written about him. All that stuff. I don't really see any hype.

 

[Spoonman84]

Social media (Twitter), NRL.com, Bulldogs website. Anywhere where clips would be uploaded. Articles written about him. All that stuff. I don't really see any hype.

Why does there need to be hype? Plenty of players have been hyped up and there’s no substance behind it. He missed a lot of football last season with injuries so he never got settled but when he did play it’s easy to see his talent. If you really need some hype here’s Freddie’s thoughts

https://www.nswrl.com.au/news/2019/03/08/wakeham-on-fittlers-must-watch-list/

 

[086]

Guessing Op is Horse (who I've blocked) as I can't read it.
Don't know why people are writing off Wakeham.
The guy, along with DWZ ignited our seasons winning run home!

 

[off-tap-robbie]

What ever happened to that bloke Jizza Nguyen that was hyped up on the Kennel?