Hangerman2 wrote:
Sad to say but i don't think Connor would have matured into the player he is now if he had stayed here. He was visibly out of shape here, and just going through the motions. He needed the move to another environment to kick on, as some players do. I am sad that the great talent he has become (and i think he will be an England half for many years) has been lost to us, but i really don't think we would have turned him into the player he is now at Hull. We will however, never know.
I think any utility player or half back to some extent however talented is only as good as the players in the group that he is in.
At Hull he’s had to force his way into the team and compete with Kelly, Snead etc etc and this does tend to focus the mind when you are an ambitious young fella like Jake is/was. He will have been mentored by better players with a higher expectation of what they require from him which again will have improved his game and decision making.
He has ‘natural sass’ a definite requirement if you want to make it at the top level.
If we can take any consolation from this saga it is that we seem to have done a far better job of retaining our current young talent since this and maybe if we do sign Uate, Hastings and a couple of others working within this group with coaching from Woolford, Edwards, Thorman and Robinson means that this type of environment will exist at the Giants and our current talent will thrive like Jake has done at Hull as I don’t think he would have done under Anderson or Stone.
