Kurtley Beale at school

[topo]

S120

I was at that game at Grammar and the parents who hadn't seen him before were gobsmacked. Actually it was in 2005 and he still had another year to go at school.

KB (Kurtley Beale) had a few similar virtuoso performances in his 3 years in the Joeys Ones, but the one at Weigall in 2005 was the best of them all. I haven't seen a schoolboy play a game as good as that, not even Goldie Wilson.

People are ooohing and aaahing about what he is doing currently for the Wallabies but we Joeys tragics had seen it all before. There's a bit more to see too.

While we are on the Kurtley love....
I was fortunate enough to have a son in the same year as him and they played in a lot of teams together. Kurtley was elevated to the
1st XV as a 15yo in year 10 in 2004 which is almost unheard of at Joeys. A lot of people were worried about how he would handle it physically as he was pretty spindly then. His first comp game was against Scots at Bellevue Hill. With his 1st touch he got the ball about 40m out, jinked, chipped and regathered ran another 10m and gave it to a big forward to score.
I'm with LG, he's still the best schoolboy footballer I have ever seen.

 

[Groucho]

While we are on the Kurtley love....
I was fortunate enough to have a son in the same year as him and they played in a lot of teams together. Kurtley was elevated to the
1st XV as a 15yo in year 10 in 2004 which is almost unheard of at Joeys. A lot of people were worried about how he would handle it physically as he was pretty spindly then. His first comp game was against Scots at Bellevue Hill. With his 1st touch he got the ball about 40m out, jinked, chipped and regathered ran another 10m and gave it to a big forward to score.
I'm with LG, he's still the best schoolboy footballer I have ever seen.

The cool thing about that description, topo, is that he gave it to another man who was in the right position to score.

That's the thing about Beale (which he shares with Quade Cooper) - he has vision and is an unselfish player, who gets as much joy from a great pass as a great run.

 

[Ruggo]

That's a huge topic, we've currently got prohibition in many areas, the army in the NT and many shonky government schemes to "close the gap". Hard to tell how effective it is from Sydney, but Kev did say "sorry" a few years ago.

It has its successes and failures. Sadly, you will only ever hear of the failures in Sydney. The issues are all issues that will take generations to fix. Longer if do gooders and self interest groups keep interfeiring.

 

[DPK]

That's a huge topic, we've currently got prohibition in many areas, the army in the NT and many shonky government schemes to "close the gap". Hard to tell how effective it is from Sydney, but Kev did say "sorry" a few years ago.

I hated the apology. It was Rudd's way of doing nothing but getting credit as if he did something big. At the time, I thought it was like Labor were giving themselves a license to do nothing about the Ind. Aus issues.

 

[Groucho]

I hated the apology. It was Rudd's way of doing nothing but getting credit as if he did something big. At the time, I thought it was like Labor were giving themselves a license to do nothing about the Ind. Aus issues.

Things will never get better if people use race as fuel for partisan politics.

All the aboriginals I know and know of wanted the apology. The indigenous movement had fought for it for decades. It wasn't a Labor thing.

 

[RugbyReg]

before this get's away from us, let's stick to the rugby. You can take this discussion to the Everything Else forum

 

[Reddy!]

My question is: would Kurtley Beale be as good if he was white?

 

[Reddy!]

before this get's away from us, let's stick to the rugby. You can take this discussion to the Everything Else forum

Good call. When did people - you might know this LG - start to recognise Beale as a special player? Obviously pretty bloody young if he went from under 14 to 1st 15 rugby.

 

[Doc]

The Beale thing has always been interesting as a Qlder. We kept hearing and being told by those in high places within Aus rugby that while Beale was good, he wasn't as good as the Ella PR machine would have you believe. Kept being told he ranked 3rd for young fly halves at the time. His early professional career suggested this was correct, but now he's finding his way, you can actually see what people were talking about.

Its always interesting the massive improvements that players in both rugby codes make once they give up the Turps. Never understood why they train hard, eat ok but then piss away their efforts on a Saturday night. For 200+k per year you think they could all go 4 months without a drink.

 

[Richo]

What I liked most about that vid was hearing Kurtley as a young bloke. Even then he was clearly a humble and genuine kid. Pretty amazing considering the hype he was living with.

 

[Groucho]

The Beale thing has always been interesting as a Qlder. We kept hearing and being told by those in high places within Aus rugby that while Beale was good, he wasn't as good as the Ella PR machine would have you believe. Kept being told he ranked 3rd for young fly halves at the time. His early professional career suggested this was correct, but now he's finding his way, you can actually see what people were talking about.

Golly, I never heard that from anyone in Aus rugby, and I followed the schools scene fairly closely throughout that period.

 

[topo]

Good call. When did people - you might know this LG - start to recognise Beale as a special player? Obviously pretty bloody young if he went from under 14 to 1st 15 rugby.

I gather he was a pretty good league player out Mt Druitt way as a youngster. When he started at Joeys in year 7 he was in a team with Steve Williams' (ex Wallaby 2nd rower) kid, Tom. Horse saw him play under 12s and recognised he was special. I gather it was Horse Williams who put Glen Ella onto him. He always played a year older than his actual age group even from year 7, although he was playing with kids from his own year as he was young for the class (birthday in Jan).
I first saw him as a 14yo and he was freakish then.

 

[S120]

S120

I was at that game at Grammar and the parents who hadn't seen him before were gobsmacked. Actually it was in 2005 and he still had another year to go at school.

KB (Kurtley Beale) had a few similar virtuoso performances in his 3 years in the Joeys Ones, but the one at Weigall in 2005 was the best of them all. I haven't seen a schoolboy play a game as good as that, not even Goldie Wilson.

People are ooohing and aaahing about what he is doing currently for the Wallabies but we Joeys tragics had seen it all before. There's a bit more to see too.

Yeh it was 2005. That week I played in the 15B's and we beat Joeys C's and our A's beat the Joey's A's (that is unheard of at Grammar) and I can distinctly remember walking back to Weigall from across the road so amped and excited after our games and we all sat down in the stands and Beale's ridiculous play just completely wrenched us back from the high we were on. I've never seen a more dominant individual performance in a game at any level. That was not a bad Grammar 1st XV either, they beat Kings, tied with Scots and went down to New and Shore by a try that year (that is a good year for an SGS team). But that day Kurtley was insane.

 

[dougdew99]

"My question is: would Kurtley Beale be as good if he was white?"

I find this deeply offensive and insensitive. This is the attitude that guys like Kurtley have to put up with every day of their lives. Try walking in his shoes. You should be ashamed of yourself.

 

[dobduff11]

Kurtley sounds like he was a schoolboy god, bit of his magic from the schoolboy internationals in 2005
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVbY7d1WTjw

What was his kicking like at the time?

 

[Nusadan]

Good find, Dobbie...

Beale must have had a headgear sponsor back then...I counted at least four different ones in the vid...and also in that year he had a cerise and blue one whilst playing for Joeys if I recall rightly...

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I remember hearing about KB (Kurtley Beale) coming out of the schoolboys a few years back and the Sydney hype machine saying he was the second coming of Mark Ella. He struggled for a bit, though he played very well in the ARC. It wasn't until he went to fullback (something I was actually against at the time) that we've seen his prodigious gifts. I'm frankly in awe a bit at how much he and QC (Quade Cooper) have developed in the last season or two. We've got a special pair out there fellas.

 

[DPK]

Sievert took the kicks for both Joeys and Oz Schools.

He's still playing in the Shute Shield somewhere, isn't he?

 

[Lee Grant]

Dobber,

Thanks for posting that it brought back memories. That no. 11 scoring a lot of tries was Brett Stapleton the sprinter and I'm sure everybody recognised Turner with 15 on his back.

What was Beale's kicking like? From hand he was decent but at Joeys they didn't kick the ball much. He wasn't the goal kicker for the school in 2005; Sievert took the kicks for both Joeys and Oz Schools.

He took the goal kicks in 2006 in his last year for the school and he kicked and missed his fair share. Scrummie Luke Evans took the kicks for Oz Schools that year.

 

[qwerty51]

He's still playing in the Shute Shield somewhere, isn't he?

Souths this year