Naitanui debut lives up to the hype

Welcome to World Footy News Wednesday, April 02 2025 @ 08:46 am ACDT

Naitanui debut lives up to the hype | 8 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

This site requires you to be logged in to post a comment. If you have an account already (or need to create one), please login here.

Naitanui debut lives up to the hype

Authored by: Sean Finlayson
on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 03:35 pm ACST

Brett, I'm not getting fired up, just calling it as I see it.

Perhaps you should clarify the claim that Nick is "relatively new to Australian football". He's been playing the game as long as any other kid and been kicking the footy since he was a little tacker ..... in fact he first attracted the eye of talent scouts in the Under 13s !

Naitanui debut lives up to the hype

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 05:05 pm ACST

I agree he has a reasonable background in footy - not as brief as many of the more recent basketball converts. But his family moved from Sydney to Perth and he has previously been reported in WA media as originally having a soccer and basketball background and his love of Aussie Rules growing the more he was exposed to it. To the best of my knowledge he was into the game by about 12 years of age, which I still think is a distinct disadvantage (but one which can be overcome) compared with kids that are running around with a footy from 5 to 8 when the brain is still developing rapidly and learning new skills and an innate understanding of a game is generally much easier. Maybe he was playing earlier than 12 but I haven't found anything saying so. So if that's the case then I certainly wouldn't agree that "He's been playing the game as long as any other kid and been kicking the footy since he was a little tacker". At 19, if he started at 12 then that's 7 years, compared with 14 for a kid that grows up in a footy household - imagine the headstart the younger Selwoods have had. No wonder Joel walked into the Geelong side like a seasoned pro who always knows what is going on in heavy traffic.

---
Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Naitanui debut lives up to the hype

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 05:20 pm ACST

I have dug something up to suggest Naitanui played a bit younger with the guys on his street who had their eyes fixed on the AFL (and ultimately succeeded), although Naitanui is reported as not aiming for the AFL thinking he wouldn't be good enough - perhaps that relates to him being focussed on soccer and basketball when the other kids were into footy. Perhaps "relatively new" is too vague and he was exposed to footy young, it just isn't clear when he took it up formally as his first choice. So I'm confident on your initial complaint, and concede more detail needed on your new query, anything other lines you wish to dissect?

---
Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

---
Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

RSS news	RSS events
Twitter	Facebook

World Footy News

Search

Translate

User Functions

Events

Featured Sites

Older Stories

Saturday 14-Dec

Friday 13-Dec

Wednesday 04-Dec

Friday 29-Nov

Thursday 21-Nov

Tuesday 19-Nov

Monday 18-Nov

Friday 15-Nov

Socials

Who's Online

Random Image

What's New

Articles last 2 weeks

Comments last 2 weeks

Links last 2 weeks

Advertisements