Naitanui debut lives up to the hype

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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.

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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?

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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