Quote: Exeter Rhino "It was obvious from McGuire's first handful of games off the bench in the first team that he was going to be big. Incredible pace, acceleration, evasion and eye for a gap - and the support play came soon after.
Lilley by contrast has few of these attributes but is a different kind of player, more along the lines of a 2010-2015 McGuire. I wouldn't write Lilley off, especially since he's coming into a much more unstable team, but I'd still say he's behind where McGuire was at an equivalent age.
Burrow might be a better comparison, but still a very different kind of player.
It's strange how these things change over time. McGuire seemed to burn brightly in the first few years of his career, and whilst he's had some good seasons in more recent years it is probably fair to say that persistent injuries have turned him into a shadow of the player he once was. By contrast Burrow never seemed to realise his potential until around 2011 when he was able to be a devastating broken-field runner on a fairly consistent basis, including in some big games. It's not surprising that the club want to keep them both for a final hurrah in 2017.
Back on topic, what's been most baffling over the past 5 years or so are the numbers of promising young players that have simply been let go with limited game time in the first team. Players like Hood, Mulhern etc would surely have benefited from a bit more nurturing, or have we suffered by having too many established players blocking key positions?
What was the point of signing Amor? Someone like BJB would have been pretty handy at times last year, as would McShane, who often looked the part e.g. WCC against Manly. I guess hindsight's a wonderful thing. No green shoots of recovery in the current academy set-up then?'"
The tragedy of McGuires career is in 2010 he was probably our best player, he still had his pace and had improved the other parts of his game, but that injury stopped the 2 sides of his game ever having a perfect crossover period.
I think you are forgetting how good Burrow was in 2007, he should have really been Man of Steel.
I agree about the academy, players seem to be blocked by average signings, although I would argue the bigger problem is the lack of a reserve team to prove themselves against men.
There also seems to be a disconnect between the first team and the youth system (or a lack of planning for the future), players like Walker, McGuire, Burrow, were all on the radar of the first team coach and started getting game time on merit, and not just because of injuries.
