Quote: SaintsFan "You're contradicting yourself. You rightly comment that Jones and Percival are different players. Exactly. Players are all different. But then you assume that because he is a teenager he is physically incapable of playing back to back even though he had Ablett in his pocket most of the night last week. Either players are all unique or they are not. Percival could be perfectly capable of fronting up at 18. Some blokes at 18 are big, some aren't especially big but they are strong. Others are not. Look at Jamie Foster. I don't think it will matter how old he gets, he will be a skinny git. Yet he has played lots of games, even when he was a teenager (granted, with Gidley on his inside to start with).
Percival was superb last week. He should have been given the chance to back it up. If he went to pieces then fair enough give him a spell at Rochdale or whatever but to not even be given the chance is pathetic.'"
Can you please point out the contradiction? I'm struggling to find it.
Percival isn't fully developed, that's plainly obvious looking at his build, Jones was. Just because he played well last week doesn't mean his body can take the strains and pressures of such a high intensity game week in, week out. I don't mean this condescending but as you've not played the game it's hard to fully comprehend the wears and tears on the body, especially at that level. There isn't anybody who understands properly without playing, no matter how much knowledge they have of the game, physios and medical staff excluded of course. There will be a lot of discussion between both the coaching staff and the medical staff in reference to whether Percival is ready at this point to back up against two of the best teams in SL. The staff have decided that at the moment it's a no and they know far more about the game than either you or I.
You mention if he went to pieces fair enough, play him at Rochdale for a bit. That would completely destroy his confidence at this point, it's much smarter to keep him on the high from Leeds then drop him in against Salford or Wakefield to continue that form.
