As a Fev fan who's watched both his games for us plus two games for Barrow, I'd agree with this. He's still very raw, needs to build up his stamina, and needs work on his defensive technique - all of which are exactly what you'd expect of someone of his age in that position.

He clearly has huge promise though and it will be very interesting to see how he gets on if he's selected against Leigh next Monday. The general feeling seems to be that Leigh's pack might be the best ever seen in the Championship (they looked stonrger for most of the game when they played Hull KR in the cup, too). I wouldn't necessarily have expected him to be selected but Fev are riddled with injuries in the pack so he might well play, even if it's only for a short spell off the bench.. He'll be targeted in defence for sure if he does, so it will be interesting to see how he holds up.

Exactly.

You only have to look at him to see how young he really is. Despite his obvious size he’s still got some puppy fat. He also as you say lacks stamina and that general athleticism that he will have in a few years time.

Although he’d do his best for me the Leigh game might be too much but he could prove me wrong.

vasty it's simply too much for an 18 year old forward to be carrying it up every game, your right in what your saying, put him in take him out. To be honest I'm surprised how well hall and Murphy are doing because with young kids you throw them in and usually after about 4 games their levels drop and they need taking out again, it simply drains them physically but most of all mentally. Its important not to expect too much too soon they are still young kids

To be fair Hall is 19 and been in full time environments for a few years. I believe that Murphy is actually 20 years old so don’t think he’s so much a young kid.

Backs are the easiest to bring in young and I suppose they will have a dip at some point.

That said Hall may just be one of those rare players who just improve game on game. Ellis was like that, his form never really dipped.

Murphy looks more likely to need a rest and luckily Kershaw is now near full fitness so there is tge option. Ditto Hall who could be subbed for Croft.

Meant to come back to this thread but forgot at the time.

For anyone who didn't see the Leigh/Fev game, Eseh was asked a pretty big question and generally stood up quite well. Leaving aside his red card on the hooter for a bit of a reckless challenge - for which he's arguably pretty lucky not to have received a ban - he did much bigger minutes than I'd expected owing to Kopczak being injured in the early stages, and actually topped the yardage/metre totals amongst the Fev forwards with 73m on 11 carries in a game where Fev struggled to get any go-forward all night. He managed a couple of offloads too.

He made 26 tackles and generally held up better in defence than I had expected. He conceded one set restart on the 5th tackle right on Fev's line which was unfortunate.

He did need a lot of guidance from Junior Moors on where to position himself in attacking sets and he did look gassed at times but that's hardly surprising, the game was played at a frantic pace by Championship standards and he was facing a pack that featured a number of guys who were regular starters in NRL or SL last year.

Just needs time, really, and playing alongside the likes of seasoned pros like Moors, Koppy and Wildie will do him a lot of good.

Overall I was impressed again with him considering he’s still 18. I agree he stood up very well to the strongest pack in the comp below. I agree Fev is a great place for him to develop and get some minutes in (potentially some finals experience too!).

He will come back to trinity in pre season 2023 a much improved player who will be more ready to make the step up. He seems to have a genuine offloading game too which is a bonus.

That was what stood out a mile for me in that game, he really does offload well. He backed himself every time and they were all worth the punt. Though none from memory led to a try I can't recall any that cost either.

We are very short of an offloading prop, not just at Trinity but SL in general.

As he develops both physically and as a player he will offload less but I reckon the ones he does will be beauties.

There is real potential in this kid, in his case it's down to him, it's just a matter of how good he really wants to be, the sky is the limit.

When you think that Aydin is a handy prop who just gets better and that Isaac Shaw also has great potential, the long term pack situation looks pretty good.

Those three and a couple of seasoned pros would give us a really handy front row in a year or two.

I’m probably less convinced by Aydin. I find myself split on whether he will make it. Not really seen enough of Shaw either though if given the choice I’d probably extend Shaw a bit longer and look to develop him with more game time in the championship. He has a more direct style and needs his body to catch up physically to met this direct style imo.

Shaw is a big lad and much more of a through the ranks player than Eseh if you know what I mean, he's a conventional prop. I suspect he will be as big as Eseh but maybe a bit leaner.

I have no issues with Aydin at all, he's exactly where I'd expect hims to be at his age, he's only 21.

with regarding sam i think john minards got it right in the podcast last week and how its harder for forwards to be ready for the step up to sl than it is backs they needto be well sized but super fit too and it takes time.think sam will get there in time but for me playing championship rugby with a ream that dominant most of the time will do him more good, we need to remember until the start of this season he really only played academy has there was no reserve last season and i know from my lad the difference in speed of the game from acad to reserve grade is big so can only imagine to sl is massive.i also think shaw will become a great player he already has an engine and a good fiery attitude

I don't know Shaw but I work with a guy whose a friend of the family and he says the lad takes no nonsense.

I think Aydin will be a good super league prop. He's done well so far at 20/21 and I think Willie is handling him exactly right by limiting his exposure.
I'd keep him long term.

Not playing devils advocate but I really like Aydin, he’s a tough young lad who puts himself about and doesn’t take a backwards step. He’s put some size on the last couple of years.

He seems to have an aggressive streak about him which I do like. For some reason I thought he was 22/23. Considering he’s 21 he’s still got some time to develop. Needs to be playing regularly whether that be in the championship or SL though. Isn’t he at Sheffield now on dual reg?

He played last weekend against Warrington. So he’s getting chances.

Aydin, Shaw and Eseh are all outstanding prospects… but I also think O’Donovan falls into the same category… these lads are 19-21 and we also have Whitbread and Butler who are just a couple of years older if you add a couple of Fifitas into the mix … that’s a fine set of middles


Any mix would be improved with a couple of seasoned Fifitas

I watched Aydin for Sheffield a few week back against Widnes and he was very dominant. I think if he carries on the upward curve of his progression he’ll make a very solid SL player.

I notice A Fifita is out with another knee injury, hope it’s nothing too serious I can’t help but think he’d spend more time on the side lines than on the field if we signed him next year, if thinks it’s too much of a risk for a club of our stature to take.

Although it would be a major coup for the club, I too, and have all along thought the same.

We've been crying out for younger and fitter props. Whitbread is a perfect example, and is just coming into his own. Hopefully, if Butler can go the same way, that would be ideal. Added to that, if we could bring in Mulhern, our front row unit would look pretty decent.

I’m just happy that I was proved right in the end. It might have been a Laurie Daley affair but we did indeed have him signed for a while.

My credibility restored.

Maybe but I’d have still taken the risk on this one.

Think we were talking props only.

O’Donovan is a great prospect but he’s more a SR or LF or at least for now. You could add a fair few to the list if you’re talking all positions.

I’ve never seen so many juniors at the club with a real chance of making it. They won’t all make it but the odds are very much in the clubs favour.

For me under age is about the player not the team. Our team does ok but when you watch them you also see plenty of standouts and that what I want rather than wins.

I watched him a few times growing up and was aggressive then then i watched him at warrington in reserves a few weeks back and i thought he had a great no nonsense attitude took no crap as the saying goes but a good lad in changing room with the younger lads

Oddly Aydin and Shaw not included in the Sheffield team this week. I saw Shaw in his first game for Sheffield and he looked solid. Wonder why they aren’t selected.