Denan Kemp, a former NRL winger, has criticised the team selections made by the Parramatta Eels and Brad Arthur for this week.
In particular, Kemp couldn't believe that the club dropped youngster Blaize Talagi back down to the NSW Cup in favour of Daejarn Asi.
Including the omission of Talagi, the Eels have made several changes including dropping Wiremu Greig and Maika Sivo, whilst bringing in Bryce Cartwright and Morgan Harper.
Having suffered significant defeats after the injury to Mitchell Moses, Kemp also questions why they Eels don't have a back-up halfback on their Top 30 roster, slamming their roster decisions.
โI cannot for the life of me understand why, in your top 30, you don't have a journeyman seven there in case Mitch goes down. It boggles the mind,โ Kemp said onย Morning Glory with Matty Johns.
โDylan's 23. We're talking about a guy who's still super young and what frustrates me is that if you play six or sevenโฆ then surely you can play sevenโฆ they're different positions!
โIt's the only position on the field where we go โOh, well surely you can play the other one'. We don't go to props and say โOh, well you can play 13', or we don't go to backrowers and say you can definitely play prop.
โWhen you look at it, (Talagi) was playing fullback in NSW cup, comes in and plays centreโฆ then he gets moved into six withโฆ Dylan Brown, who's not a seven yet, so it's like you're setting this kid up for failure.โ
Matthew Johns would then chime into the conversation stating that he was dumbfounded when he heard Talagi would be dropped in favour of Daejarn Asi.
Talagi has not only been dropped from the halves but has been overlooked from moving back to the centres with Morgan Harper taking the vacant position left by Maika Sivo.
โReally tough call on Blaize,โ Johns said.
โI thought he was fantastic when they played him in the outside backs against Manly, then they put him at six which I thought was really tough given he was playing with Dylan who's not really a player manager and then he gets dropped.
โI find that strange and I find it unfair on the kidโฆ Dylan's not a man manager and suddenly you're asking too much of a kid.โ
