To be fair to souths, I thought the young lauries bloke who was playing 9 in 1st grade was a better player than Kalani at that stage, I actually take my hat off to souths for sticking with him and not folding with the pressure to play Kalani. To be honest I think there's 4/5 QPR 9s who are better than Kalani - Christian, Chapman, Dillon, Cooper-Jones, Hearn, O'Regan
I'll never forget what's his name
2 years later where he is now? I honestly don't know. But at the time at Souths you had Todd Dammers taking over and Scott Maloula was passing through , but , beyond the Billy Rutherford factor - I wonder whether there was a bigger factor around say Hugo Smith . Remember the Smiths likely came to Souths because of Dammers and the prior Nudgee familiarity.
On pure talent and game vision, Kalani , for me , smokes all the guys you mentioned. He's always been a polarising type of player even as a junior within his own Club. Developmentally ....plenty had big opinion on him and not always at the highest. Quite frankly, I thought he looked bored at times , and when he was , he'd clown around with WTF plays that had all the blowhards harrumphing. I reckon he was just bored and played down to , or as a developing young guy and player , didn't respect the game or his opponent enough. I reckon he had to learn that at any level and in any game that once you step over the sideline its got to be all business and all discipline. That is , if you are going to make a career out of it - which was always going to be the way with him. I think he has made a huge adjustment in that sense over the last 3 or 4 years - but he's a lot like someone like Quade Cooper where it's hard to shake legacy opinion. Also a lot like Quade he sees things no one else does. Superb field vision - and not everyone is up to speed.
None of the guys you mention above , in what I can tell , are like that , but , they all have their individual skills and abilities.
I actually really like Brothers Louis Werchon , and in particular, his ability to chew off huge yards in his kicking game from the base sort of like how Nic White was used. And that's not limiting him to this individual skill ....he's a genuine difference maker who can make plays that make a difference for your team.
