by Dip Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:47 pm
Honeysett wrote:
He's a great winger if his head is right, his mistakes are always brought up but show me a winger that doesn't make a mistake here and there. It's because he's an enigma.
He does need to leave Newcastle though, his time has past him by with us.
I have this opinion that if wingers were better, they wouldn't be playing wing. It's why these days, most rep wingers are either the next best centres/fullbacks in their position that didn't get picked (think Boyd/Gagai/Tate/Ferguson etc) or young up and comers who will hopefully progress to centres/fullbacks/five-eighths (Kahu/RTS). It is rare that you will get a career winger who is an out and out superstar like Grothe Snr/Sailor/Tuqiri/Radradra. The point of this is that it's not Uate's fault he has been held out to be a superstar or saviour, because realistically, very few players have been from the wing. At club level, even when he was being destroyed in origin, he was still a very good club winger because he wasn't coming up against the better players (because they were playing centre or fullback) and instead some youngster on a low contract, or a career winger who is serviceable, but never close to the best player in their team (Birt/Perrett types).
Unfortunately for him that means he will never be a $500K player (and should never have been), and probably will only ever be a $250K player at most. That money needs to go to other positions. OSM talks about Bennett getting his head right, which might be right, but imagine what Bellamy could do with him in the Storm team with Uate's skill set and Bellamy's history of making okay players look like superstars. See what has happened to outside backs like Koribete, Morgan, Blair, Mann, Waqa etc compared to when they were at other clubs. Uate might still be a chance of getting the big bucks by signing with the Storm for a couple of years then going for a Union contract.