Too early to be talking about him, but Brock Gardner should be being fast tracked for a second row position.
He was named as one of the Raiders 5 rookies to watch in the Tele a few weeks ago and apparently Souths were very unhappy to lose him to the raiders, but for some reason he didn't get a trial game for the Raiders and played a trial for Lakes 2 weeks ago and went very well.
Yesterday he was dropped into our reserve grade side and has had his profile added to our reserve grade list in the middle of last week.
He has had a growth spurt since he played for NSW in 16s and 18s and captained our Mathews and Ball sides. He's now about Fitz sized and a very mobile and high energy second rower with a high workrate. He was often compared to a young Boyd Cordner as a junior.
He was his usual self in reserves yesterday, but only played for about 20 minutes. He put his hand up for plenty of strong carries in that 20 minutes. At his best he does that for full minutes every game.
He's had about 3 pre seasons with Souths and 1 with the Raiders since he was 18 or so, and as far as I know he is rated highly by just about everyone, so I don't know what is going on with him, but I think that second row vacancy we have has his name all over it.