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https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...m/news-story/ad3e9c050399d5218225b019487064c5
Hayne’s ‘phenomenal’ cousin towing trees as he chases Raiders NRL dream
RAIDERS
Jarryd Hayne's cousin Josh Thompson has signed with the Canberra Raiders.Source: FOX SPORTS
Josh Thompson — the 18-year-old first cousin of Jarryd Hayne — has signed with the Canberra Raiders.
And this isn’t a case of blindly inking a deal with the Fijian teen on the off-chance he can develop that same game-breaking quality as the two-time Dally M winner.
When visas are in the ballpark of $40,000 a player, plus all the other expenses, you have to be able to justify the spend.
And for Raiders recruitment guru Peter Mulholland it was an easy sell.
This isn’t a kid of privilege, he explained. Aside from a scholarship deal with the Knights two years ago — which saw him work briefly with the club before visa complications ended the relationship — he has done everything off his own bat.
“He did a medial ligament injury, diagnosed it himself, did that on Google, and did all his rehab from Google as well,” Mulholland laughed.
“You’ve got to understand it’s a third-world country, so he’s not going to get medical supervision or anything else.”
It’s the same with his training.
He gained some direction from Knights development videos and the Nadi academy where Mulholland met him, but his 114-kilogram frame with less than 100 millilitres of body fat is largely the result of his own hard work.
You can see that with the extra sessions he’s been putting in since arriving in the nation’s capital.
“If you look at his Facebook profile picture, you can see him actually towing a tree up a footy field over the Christmas break in Canberra,” Mulholland told foxsports.com.au.
“It was 41 degrees and he found a tree and a piece of rope and decided to do some leg work with that. He’s absolutely phenomenal.”
And that’s despite having a deficiency in his gluteus maximus because he had been overcompensating for his knee and working too hard on one side of his body while doing his own rehabilitation back home.
But there’s more to the six-foot-five powerhouse than his physicality, with Mulholland revealing the potential front-row sensation wanted to finish school before chasing the NRL dream.
“He’s a shy kid but he’s very anxious to learn, and he’s very intelligent. He takes a pen and paper to training,” he continues.
“He went down today apparently and took a USB plug down with him, and did some cuts to look at other players in his position and what he needs to do... I couldn’t be more pleased with his attitude.”
It’s a scary proposition for the Jersey Flegg (under 20s) players he’ll be lining up against this year, and the Raiders can see him cracking first-grade after a steep learning curve over the next two years.
“Now he needs to get his game awareness and skill set up to speed, but we’ve got two years for that,” he added.
While he’s thrilled the Raiders have locked down Thompson, Mulholland explained he’s had to watch other Pacific prospects slip from his grasp as a result of the signing.
He laments losing exciting back Solomoni Naiduki to the Eels, but said giving Fijian kids a pathway is more important than any individual coup for the Green Machine.
“I’ve been over [to Fiji] twice and I told [Thompson’s] parents, ‘This is not about promises, this is about opportunities’. And I said, ‘If I can’t give the kid an opportunity and somebody else can I’ve got no issues whatsoever. All I ask is that we get the first chance at it’,” he explained.
“And that’s what happened with Solomoni Naiduki. I rang (Parramatta talent scout) Matty Desira and said, ‘If you sign the kid he’s going to be a good’n’, and now he’s with the Eels.
“I’d bring 20 of them over but it’s the cost factor.”
Much of the credit needs to go to Alex McKinnon and Troy Pezet (Elite Pathway Recruitment Manager at the Knights) for initially identifying Thompson’s talent as a 15-year-old.
When the Knights offered him the scholarship in 2017, Pezet told The Daily Telegraph they could seeing him being a similar player to Viliame Kikau or Daniel Saifiti.
Mulholland’s gamble certainly looks to be a good one.
Hayne’s ‘phenomenal’ cousin towing trees as he chases Raiders NRL dream
RAIDERS
- January 9, 2019 11:30am
- JOE MCDONOUGH
- Source: FOX SPORTS
Jarryd Hayne's cousin Josh Thompson has signed with the Canberra Raiders.Source: FOX SPORTS
Josh Thompson — the 18-year-old first cousin of Jarryd Hayne — has signed with the Canberra Raiders.
And this isn’t a case of blindly inking a deal with the Fijian teen on the off-chance he can develop that same game-breaking quality as the two-time Dally M winner.
When visas are in the ballpark of $40,000 a player, plus all the other expenses, you have to be able to justify the spend.
And for Raiders recruitment guru Peter Mulholland it was an easy sell.
This isn’t a kid of privilege, he explained. Aside from a scholarship deal with the Knights two years ago — which saw him work briefly with the club before visa complications ended the relationship — he has done everything off his own bat.
“He did a medial ligament injury, diagnosed it himself, did that on Google, and did all his rehab from Google as well,” Mulholland laughed.
“You’ve got to understand it’s a third-world country, so he’s not going to get medical supervision or anything else.”
It’s the same with his training.
He gained some direction from Knights development videos and the Nadi academy where Mulholland met him, but his 114-kilogram frame with less than 100 millilitres of body fat is largely the result of his own hard work.
You can see that with the extra sessions he’s been putting in since arriving in the nation’s capital.
“If you look at his Facebook profile picture, you can see him actually towing a tree up a footy field over the Christmas break in Canberra,” Mulholland told foxsports.com.au.
“It was 41 degrees and he found a tree and a piece of rope and decided to do some leg work with that. He’s absolutely phenomenal.”
And that’s despite having a deficiency in his gluteus maximus because he had been overcompensating for his knee and working too hard on one side of his body while doing his own rehabilitation back home.
But there’s more to the six-foot-five powerhouse than his physicality, with Mulholland revealing the potential front-row sensation wanted to finish school before chasing the NRL dream.
“He’s a shy kid but he’s very anxious to learn, and he’s very intelligent. He takes a pen and paper to training,” he continues.
“He went down today apparently and took a USB plug down with him, and did some cuts to look at other players in his position and what he needs to do... I couldn’t be more pleased with his attitude.”
It’s a scary proposition for the Jersey Flegg (under 20s) players he’ll be lining up against this year, and the Raiders can see him cracking first-grade after a steep learning curve over the next two years.
“Now he needs to get his game awareness and skill set up to speed, but we’ve got two years for that,” he added.
While he’s thrilled the Raiders have locked down Thompson, Mulholland explained he’s had to watch other Pacific prospects slip from his grasp as a result of the signing.
He laments losing exciting back Solomoni Naiduki to the Eels, but said giving Fijian kids a pathway is more important than any individual coup for the Green Machine.
“I’ve been over [to Fiji] twice and I told [Thompson’s] parents, ‘This is not about promises, this is about opportunities’. And I said, ‘If I can’t give the kid an opportunity and somebody else can I’ve got no issues whatsoever. All I ask is that we get the first chance at it’,” he explained.
“And that’s what happened with Solomoni Naiduki. I rang (Parramatta talent scout) Matty Desira and said, ‘If you sign the kid he’s going to be a good’n’, and now he’s with the Eels.
“I’d bring 20 of them over but it’s the cost factor.”
Much of the credit needs to go to Alex McKinnon and Troy Pezet (Elite Pathway Recruitment Manager at the Knights) for initially identifying Thompson’s talent as a 15-year-old.
When the Knights offered him the scholarship in 2017, Pezet told The Daily Telegraph they could seeing him being a similar player to Viliame Kikau or Daniel Saifiti.
Mulholland’s gamble certainly looks to be a good one.
