{"id":45237,"date":"2021-03-15T10:34:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T11:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=45237"},"modified":"2021-03-15T16:05:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T16:05:01","slug":"gus-big-fear-for-suaaliis-longevity-in-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=45237","title":{"rendered":"Gus' big fear for Suaalii's longevity in NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould has voiced fears for Joseph Suaalii's longevity in the game after the NRL granted the Sydney Roosters an exemption to play the teen star before his 18th<\/sup> birthday.<\/a><\/p>\n

The ARL Commission signed off on the application by the Roosters this morning after careful consideration with a range of stakeholders.<\/p>\n

In granting the exemption the NRL said they considered factors including; Suaalii's results from independent medical and psychological assessments, the individual circumstances of the player's development to this point, and a welfare and education management plan provided by the Roosters.<\/p>\n

Gould has previously spoken out against allowing the 17-year-old to play top-flight footy<\/a> in favour of properly nurturing his development for a long and healthy career in the game.<\/p>\n

\"Phil<\/p>\n

And the NRL guru expressed fears over what today's ruling may hold for Suaalii's career down the line, particularly as he reaches the latter stages of his career.<\/p>\n

"I'm in no hurry to be playing teenagers in the top grade," Gould told Nine's 100% Footy<\/em>. I would hold them all back until they're 20, and make sure their schooling, education, physicality, mentality is 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

"I'm not saying he won't handle the NRL, but come back and see me when he's 28 or 29. The development of the long-term athlete, I've seen a lot of teenage stars who didn't have great back-ends to their career, and I think it's too early.<\/p>\n

"He may well handle it and end up a superstar because god knows our game needs them, but I think it's a bad precedent to set \u2013 I wouldn't have done it.<\/p>\n

"What I would have done is say 'you know what, he's 17 he can only play three (games)'. But I hate the fact that clubs will be asking to qualify 17 and 18-year-olds when they're not ready their club is not ready, their team is not ready and the kid is going to get burned.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

"When Brad Fittler come onto the scene at 17 the first thing I did as Panthers coach was drop him. I put him back to reserve grade for six weeks because he just mentally wasn't ready for it. Then he ended up a superstar of the game, he was one of the lucky ones."<\/p>\n

While calls over Suaalii's eligibility status have been split across the game, one figure who has agreed with Gould is Melbourne Storm great Billy Slater.<\/p>\n

Monday's ruling left Slater absolutely baffled as to how the NRL will handle similar cases moving forward considering the precedent that was now set.<\/p>\n

"I just don't know how you can come to a conclusion that he's ready and the next 17-year-old isn't? How do you decide that?" Slater told Wide World of Sports Radio on 2GB.<\/p>\n

"I just don't know the criteria and I just don't know how they're going to turn someone away when another application comes in.<\/p>\n

\"Joseph<\/p>\n

"Like, we're going to throw a 17-year-old kid in the toughest most physical sport in the world, it's crazy.<\/p>\n

"They've made a rule for a reason, the rule is there for a reason. I don't know why were making exemptions."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould has voiced fears for Joseph Suaalii's longevity in the game after the NRL granted the Sydney Roosters an exemption to play the teen […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45239,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45237\/revisions\/45239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}