Me too. What craps me big time is he put in five years of junior reps for the Saints. Deserved better, whether injury prone or not. Seems to me this board are not fussed about jettisoning St George juniors. Not be surprised if they have done same with Nick Quinn, another who did a long apprenticeship in Saints juniors. I will always fly a flag for Saints juniors as our legendary teams of the 50/60s evolved from there. The club also evolved from the district.
DITTO!!! THe Couchies are the future the other two are blow ins and should have not been extended.
??
Disagree. Have watched Ackers progression since he was 15. You only have to acknowledge the quality of his try in Ball Cup final to see the raw talent the kid has. Has ball skills too. Injury has and will continue to cruel his career, not lack of natural talent or passion.
I think everyone rates Ackers but who are you going to let go in order to keep him?
Cyrus Stanley-Traill. Huge wraps in him.
Not sold on this guy yet. A poor fourth to our three Aussie Schoolboys currently. Did zilch to lift our Ball Cup side on the weekend. Was more impressed by Risiate Smythe.
He's a bit younger than those 3, isn't he? At that age, I guess it's a case of best guess who is going to be a gun and who is going to be a NSW Cup journeyman. Though if I had to bet my life on one of them at least having a long career in the NRL, it'd be Latu even ahead of LPT and Halangahu.
100%. Another way to look at it is that everyone who makes it as far as a supplementary contract is very good but it's a question of are they better than the alternatives. It seems Flanno and most fans don't think Ackers is as good as the alternatives.
Reason the board gave for his non retention is that he'd have not been back playing before week 5 as late as week 10. He must have a rather serious injury perhaps an ACL. I dont recall him playing before the Ball Final either and he also missed games in '23 . The poor kid is injury prone. A shame really.
Huge shame.
How big is he now? Has all the skills. Mobile for someone his size, footwork, offload.
Bigger loss than Robson. Even though letting him go was a monumental f*k up.
Risiate Smyth is
Stanley Trail is quite talented + it’s hard to have a big impact from back row if your halves/middles aren’t doing much, not Halangahu levels of talent but he’s a better back row prospect than Egan and he’s still only 19 this year. Might even get a call up to NSW u19’s.