Quote upthecats="upthecats"That's fair enough we all have different opinion's on things.
I read topics and try to add my opinion based on my own thoughts and games/things I've watched, if you want to base your opinion on the opinion of someone else then who am I to argue?
Just out of interest though in the opinion of the said people you respect, who was the standout player(s) from last season's Grand Final winning academy team if it wasn't Southernwood?'"
I don't think there was a stand out player as such. Clearly Annnekin and Southernwood were the ones to catch the eye but they won IMO because they were a team. Individually there were better players at other clubs. However we had again IMO even quality throughout. I reinforce this because at the beginning of last season there was a thread bemoaning the lack of talent at junior Academy which I agreed with. So to be fair none of us saw it coming and Southernwood was just considered the best of an average bunch with potential which is all they have at that age.
What I'm saying is that no way was he good enough to carry the team alone which is sometimes the case at that level. The team as a whole layed him a platform for which I'm told he did not always use as agreed.
He's potentially a quality player but he's improved little in the last year IMO although I realise he had an injury at some point.
What is for certain is that he is way to fragile for SL and may remain so for a while. He could counter that by improving other aspects of his game and general athleticism but that would involve listening to advice, not his strong point I'm told.
Mark Colbeck springs to mind.