east hull FC fan wrote:
Anyways, he's not actually that good.
I'll take the opinion of our own NRL expert over yours.
Cory is a great guy.
The Knights picked him up as a 16 year old fullback when he played for Western Australia in the emerging states tournament.
He played in the Newcastle Wests junior side that included players like Greg Inglis, Jarrod Mullen, Luke Walsh and 4 or 5 other future firstgraders.
He went on to play under 18s for NSW and in the Knights under 20s side of 2006 that dominated the comp and produced 13 firstgraders including Scott Dureau, Kade Snowden, James McManus and Aku Uate.
An odd fact is that an American football talent scout took Cory to America a few years ago and he spent a few months training as a kicker. He trialled with a few clubs but wasn't picked up.
Cory has a massive boot on him and smashes goal kicks from the sidelines, as well as having a kickoff that brings snow. He can kick an American football 70 metres on h fly and a league football 60 metres.
In the juniors he played a bit of centre and a few games at prop, but he is pretty much a wide running second row with a good passing game, a bit of speed, and the size to bust the line. He is also very good in the air and his best mate, Scotty Dureau, loved to kick for Cory to leap above the other forwards and score.
On the down side - he doesn't have a high workrate and can go missing in games. He has also had bouts of clinical depression, and one of the jobs Sanders had in his last year at the Knights was to get Cory back to firstgrade after a bout of depression. Cory says he is a muslim, but I believe that is just so he has a reason to not drink with his team mates, because drinking makes his depression worse.
Last year he was in the Aboriginal side in the Aboriginal/All Stars game, and he was one of the better players on the field in a game that showcased the best players in the NRL. After that he was talked about as a possible SOO player. Since then he has had more downs than ups and maybe the only coach who can bring him back to his best is Sanders. He was the first player cut by Wayne Bennett, I think because he was put in the 'too hard' basket by the incoming coach who had enough problems.
As i said I'll take our experts opinion over yours.
