Rumour: Knights interested in John Bateman

Ethan said:
IMO King will surprise most in the next year or two , he looks to me to have defensive enforcer written all over him ...He reminds me of my boy a bit not the best runner of the ball by any means but loves tackling and that hard hitting contact ...
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He can hit as hard as he likes. For starters it never seems to do too much given his lack of size. And If when he hits it up, he stops immediately on impact at the line. He'll amount to nothing more than a Joel Edwards with no offload, poor ball handling and a tendency to miss tackles on the line
 
I'm still not over Brown picking Wardel in the centre's every week when we had Elliot in reserves. I imagine Brown would do the same with Bateman even if he under performs.
 
Couldn't understand the Elliott situation, we were weak in centres all season, when he played he looked OK, most on here would have thought we might keep him especially with both Pete and Gags gone. Must be something we haven't been told or haven't seen. On top of that was one of the few players to leave and be signed up almost immediately. ????
 
LEVR said:
He can hit as hard as he likes. For starters it never seems to do too much given his lack of size. And If when he hits it up, he stops immediately on impact at the line. He'll amount to nothing more than a Joel Edwards with no offload, poor ball handling and a tendency to miss tackles on the line
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Or cough cough Sione Mata'utia cough cough
 
LEVR said:
He can hit as hard as he likes. For starters it never seems to do too much given his lack of size. And If when he hits it up, he stops immediately on impact at the line. He'll amount to nothing more than a Joel Edwards with no offload, poor ball handling and a tendency to miss tackles on the line
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Joel Edwards had little but a good shot in defence. Not saying King will be a star, but I'm prepared to say at this point he has more upside than Joel.
 
Battler said:
Joel Edwards had little but a good shot in defence. Not saying King will be a star, but I'm prepared to say at this point he has more upside than Joel.
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I don't necessarily disagree. But i will remind you that Edwards played city country and was spoken of as being in line for a bench spot with the blues. I know he is garbage now, but there was a time when he wasn't. Or at least it seemed as though he wasn't, which is my point

Coincidentally that would have happened around the age that king would be today, or very close to it

If most players improved year on year into perpetuity, then it would be impossible to rule out any player as having superstar potential until they were like 30

That's obviously not how it works. There are laws which govern the universe, and they generally allow us to determine which players are bad, decent, good and great by about the age of 22. And King has shown nothing other than a bit of agro to suggest he is gonna be better than decent, at best
 
Yeah mate, I remember cheering quite enthusiastically when Edwards was belting blokes when he first came into grade.

He hit his ceiling pretty quick. I see your point.

I'll still say Josh will have a better career than Joel, as mediocre as they both may be.
 
I said it plenty last yr, i think king could be a very good lock.
He loves to tackle, hits hard, has a big motor, will take the hitups thats others wont.

Though his no presence to strike fear in others.

I personally dont rate Barnett at lock, so id happily put King at 13 and Barnett at 15
 
LEVR said:
I don't necessarily disagree. But i will remind you that Edwards played city country and was spoken of as being in line for a bench spot with the blues. I know he is garbage now, but there was a time when he wasn't. Or at least it seemed as though he wasn't, which is my point

Coincidentally that would have happened around the age that king would be today, or very close to it

If most players improved year on year into perpetuity, then it would be impossible to rule out any player as having superstar potential until they were like 30

That's obviously not how it works. There are laws which govern the universe, and they generally allow us to determine which players are bad, decent, good and great by about the age of 22. And King has shown nothing other than a bit of agro to suggest he is gonna be better than decent, at best
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The only person talking him up as a soo player was his Manager no one else...
 
Ahh miss watching joely level people often. Defenders these days could take a lot out of watching that. Made defensive decisions late and went towards impact instead of letting it come to him and got in very close with the body and head.
 
slotmachine said:
Hes not really a pom, he moved to aus when he was a teenager
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My bad. For some reason I thought he made the move here from the ESL. The statement still rings true for Tomkins, he went from being an acclaimed ESL star to shown as bog standard after joining the Warriors.
 
EASBay17 said:
That is exactly how wardle was talked up though, havnt seen enough of him to give a judgement. I dont think we need anymore backrowers
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Bateman is 10 times the player of Wardle though.

Having lived in the UK I saw a lot of ESL. Wardle had never been more then a stock standard top grade player before making the move to the NRL. He was never going to be a success.

Batemen has always had that talent. Just don't think he has the dimensions of the modern day NRL backrower. In my opinion he could be turned into a lock if he came out. I wouldn't be throwing him to the wolves out at centre in the NRL though.
 
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