Jamie Humphreys

[lsz]

A young half at the start of his career having played some fairly easy teams to start (also as an unknown is harder for teams to plan against etc)

Not saying he is without talent / will be a miss for us but how can anyone honestly tell? How many young 6 & 7's have flamed out? There are also players like Cody Walker or Hughes who have taken longer to get going

 

[BOZO]

last game he was assisted off the field in agony! a little thing like agony can certainly quickly become a factor in one's thinking. (speaking of which,what bet the Raiders give him what for if they can lay their hands on him!)

The Big rational question in the Durable DCE's mind would be . When was the last time I was assisted off the field in the last 14 years in the NRL ?
No one can remember because DCE has been one of the most Durable players in the past Decade
So a spasm that has kept him from missing 10 minutes of a game will not keep him thinking irrationally and question his Tremendous Durability .

The Durable and Super Talented DCE would be an asset and a smart Investment at any club
Because he is High Quality that Lasts

 

[manly al]

No question that Souths would have offered J H more money as well , apart from a better i st grade opportunity factor but when he signed
, Sure also however that he was well aware that the English half Dood had already been signed by Souths .
Manly must have had quite a good rating or expectation with Joey Walsh being able to step up in a couple of years as J H had showed that he could perform sufficiently in his i st grade appearance against the Knights for instance last year
D C E still a mainstay at 7 , Simpkin a more specialist type 9 , not that much appeal maybe being an occasional 14 and on the bench
,No doubt again more money on offer elsewhere , understandable he thought time to move on and as much as he was still , a more then useful utility type player for Manly

 

[Ohgeez]

Some of you people don’t seem to understand he was off contract & chose to leave. We didn’t ‘let him go’, there was a better opportunity to play halfback at south’s with Ilias gone & he took it.

 

[BOZO]

Saying he is a $900k player after a couple first grade games against the worst 2 teams in the comp is ridiculous 🤣 These are the kind of dumb comments that put unfair pressure on young players & can ruin careers. Joey was hyping up Schuster in a similar way if I remember correctly…

JH is not a 900k player after two dominant match winning contributions at souths
BUT .....
JH the minimum wage talent is giving his New coach better Value than the aging Tevaga and the 600k radical and inconsistent Brooks .

So far JH has shown he has a great kicking game , he has a great defensive game and is cool and calm under pressure and makes the right winning choices for his team

It has only been two games and two wins and we can only asses his game on that
It is a long season and he will keep being put to the test and the rest is up to JH

 

[frank stokes]

Some of you people don’t seem to understand he was off contract & chose to leave. We didn’t ‘let him go’, there was a better opportunity to play halfback at south’s with Ilias gone & he took it.

In the end, we could not offer the path to an NRL starter that vermin could… which is why I can’t believe Chez is not signed…

not sure money would have overcome that - not the minimum upgrade we would have been able to offer anyways..

 

[BOZO]

Some of you people don’t seem to understand he was off contract & chose to leave. We didn’t ‘let him go’, there was a better opportunity to play halfback at south’s with Ilias gone & he took it.

Some people do not understand that players choose to leave because their coaches dont Believe .
His coach believed that Old Tevaga was a better investment at Hooker and utility Value than JH.
Seibold also believed that JH was a surplus to his halves ,Hooker and utility roster

At souths JH was not Guaranteed a Halfback spot as they singed the English International half
and they also had their prized local junior hooker Mamouzelos set for NRL
But Bennett Believed what he saw in JH and convinced him to stay . Something his coach at Manly could not do and that is the power of what Great coaches can do

 

[jbb/james]

Still very early but it does seem Jamie has one of the elements this team lacks, that disciplined focus to have his team play footy in the right places

You would think he would be an amazing foil for the weapons and so cheap

Served a steady apprenticeship too, not super young , and plays more than 1 spine position

 

[BOZO]

I keep saying
We are all accountable for the choices we make in life
No EXCUSES for underachieving

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

There are also players like Cody Walker or Hughes who have taken longer to get going

And Hynes - didn't play half in NRL until almost 25. went on to win the Dally M (yet some experts still unconvinced. )
Fogarty now at Raiders, only in the last couple of years has got it together (after 121 games in Q Cup/NSWRL)
It's a tough trade to master

 

[frank stokes]

And Hynes - didn't play half in NRL until almost 25. went on to win the Dally M (yet some experts still unconvinced. )
Fogarty now at Raiders, only in the last couple of years has got it together (after 121 games in Q Cup/NSWRL)
It's a tough trade to master

Fogarty has really developed into an outstanding half… he was half the half (a quarter??) at Titans…

This is my concern with our halves transition if Chez is not retained… very rare that a 19/20yo kid can come in and kill it in the halves (which is why everyone is raving about Galvin)

Whoops, did it again… future posts in this thread will definitely refer to Jamie Humphries 🤣

 

[JakeyB789]

Some of you people don’t seem to understand he was off contract & chose to leave. We didn’t ‘let him go’, there was a better opportunity to play halfback at south’s with Ilias gone & he took it.

I think people do understand that - it’s more about why the club didn’t put in more of an effort to keep him/convince him to stay, offer him a pathway into regular first grade etc. And maybe we did, but if Souths are really only paying him 150k then I’m doubting we even tried at all.

We spent a good couple of years trying to turn him into a hooker, and never gave him a crack there (or even just at 14) while our dummy half play has been some of the worst in the NRL. If Jazz Tevaga and Jake Simpkin are our options there at the moment then there’s no reason he couldn’t have played one of those roles, filled in the halves during Origin time (as he did well in his one game for us) and then taken the reigns once DCE moved on. And that might’ve just ended up being only one year later, because DCE couldn’t possibly take a pay cut to try and help the team win a comp in his final years...

 

[Phobia]

and when you think he went over to the bunnies for 150k (if that’s true) how stupid are we.

This number isn't true. It was plucked out of thin air by Buzz Rothfield. Yet again, Mestrov confirmed that Souths offered him coin that we could not match. Beyond the point of us losing him we only signed Tevaga and Taukeiaho, both on min-wage contract spots. We literally could not offer him beyond a min-wage Top 30 spot within our salary cap.

 

[Ohgeez]

I think people do understand that - it’s more about why the club didn’t put in more of an effort to keep him/convince him to stay, offer him a pathway into regular first grade etc. And maybe we did, but if Souths are really only paying him 150k then I’m doubting we even tried at all.

We spent a good couple of years trying to turn him into a hooker, and never gave him a crack there (or even just at 14) while our dummy half play has been some of the worst in the NRL. If Jazz Tevaga and Jake Simpkin are our options there at the moment then there’s no reason he couldn’t have played one of those roles, filled in the halves during Origin time (as he did well in his one game for us) and then taken the reigns once DCE moved on. And that might’ve just ended up being only one year later, because DCE couldn’t possibly take a pay cut to try and help the team win a comp in his final years...

We haven’t even seen him play a game at hooker & all of a sudden he’s better than Simpkin & Tevaga? If he was being developed as a hooker for years & didn’t get a chance then that tells me he wasn’t very good at it… Regardless of that, he has said publicly that he wants to be a halfback, he was offered a deal & turned it down for more money + easier path to halfback. By the time DCE retires he will be 25/26 years old, as if he was realistically going to wait that long for a chance.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

We spent a good couple of years trying to turn him into a hooker,

Exaggeration, surely. He only ever played 4 reserve grade games at hooker. He was tried there because he had no path to NRL as a half. I didn't see much of him in reserves but get the impression he also didn't brain it as a hooker, possibly because his strength is his kicking game, rather than his passing guile or running.

 

[Dion Johnson]

Weekend Read: How Rabbitohs landed cut-price halfback hero Jamie Humphreys

Jamie Humphreys’ impressive early season form for an undefeated South Sydney was no accident. The Rabbitohs had been clamouring for the unassuming playmaker for over two years.

Mark Ellison had his eye on Jamie Humphreys for two years. Maybe longer.
Ellison, South Sydney’s head of recruitment, saw something in Humphreys long before the playmaker arrived at Heffron Park and snaffled the No.7 jersey.

Funnily enough, his failed pursuit of Humphreys two years ago only made Ellison more determined to land his signature.

At the time, Humphreys felt he owed Manly some loyalty. He wanted to take his shot at the Sea Eagles, where his father Steve was the former chief executive.

So as hard as Ellison tried a couple of years ago, he couldn’t convince Humphreys to leave.

“We were close,” Ellison said.

“He considered it. At the time I understood why he wanted to stay. He wanted to have a crack. It said to me that he is a loyal kid.

“There’s no BS about him.”

Humphreys stayed on Sydney’s northern beaches, sat behind Daly Cherry-Evans, spent some time training at hooker and got one shot at the big time – against Newcastle in round 19 last year.


He produced an eye-catching performance but by then, a determined Ellison had already worked his magic. About a fortnight or so before Humphreys showed he could handle the big stage, Ellison shook hands on a deal with Humphreys over a meal at The Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay with Humphreys’ manager George Mimis.

They ordered a steak, chewed the fat, and talked about Humphreys’ time in England, where he spent time with the London Broncos academy, moved to halfback and played against Rabbitohs half Lewis Dodd in the lower grades.

They also spoke about how Humphreys’ window was closing at Manly – Cherry-Evans had been re-signed and the club invested in young halves Joey Walsh and Onitoni Large.

Steak polished off, Ellison finally had his man. That decision, which came after the club had already signed Dodd to a long-term deal, has turned out to be a masterstroke.

Two games into the NRL season and Humphreys has been a lifesaver for South Sydney. He has stepped into the breach and saved their bacon.

Not that you would know it. Last week, as his game-deciding field goal sailed through the sticks against St George Illawarra, Humphreys almost self-consciously raised a hand in the air and then just as quickly turned around and started walking back towards the halfway line.

Contrast that with the reaction of Dragons winger Christian Tuipulotu, who celebrated his try earlier in the game by performing a show-me-the-money celebration.

If anyone had a right to suggest he deserved a bigger pay cheque, it was Humphreys. He is on a modest deal at Souths, far less than his coterie of star-studded teammates.

It isn’t necessarily about money for Humphreys.

The move to Souths was about opportunity and the chance to work with coach Wayne Bennett. If he fell short, it wouldn’t be through lack of trying.

Humphreys’ journey has been one of grim determination and good genes. As a kid growing up in Sydney’s shire, he would run the famed Wanda sand hills from the age of 10.

He was born with a work ethic and the DNA to be a rugby league player – father Steve and grandfather Kevin both played in the premiership.

When the family moved to England for Steve’s job, he found himself in the London Broncos system. His parents worried it may stymie his development.

Jamie was determined not to let that happen. It’s the same determination that has caught Bennett’s eye so early in his return to Souths.

Bennett knew little about Humphreys before he arrived at the club but a couple of weeks before Christmas, he knew had a footballer on his hands.

“I think I said to him, ‘You’ll be in the 17’,” Bennett said.

“He’s a wonderful trainer, a very, very well-mannered young man. He has a lot of lovely attributes besides playing football.

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“But, you know, you have a background that’s full of a football life, so he kind of gets it around the club and the players.

“He’s a great trainer. He’s up in the top 10 per cent of trainers in the club. Look, he does everything right.”

The field goal showed as much.

“In all fairness to the game, he was the only one thinking about it,” Bennett said.

“They had just gone to the other end and they didn’t even attempt a field goal. Then we came back down and we weren’t attempting one either.

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“ (Siliva Havili) just picked the ball up and threw it to him.

“No one was thinking field goal except him.”

Asked what that moment told him about Humphreys, Bennett said: “I think he’s got a brain that operates under pressure. That’s what I think.

“I think he’s got the footy smarts and his mind’s in the right place most of the time.”

Humphreys has managed to keep Dodd at bay through the early rounds of the season.

Dodd was suspended in round one but was back in the NSW Cup in round two and showed some encouraging signs.

No doubt, the Englishman won’t give up without a fight. Nor will Humphreys.

Brent Read

 

[Dion Johnson]

Some of you people don’t seem to understand he was off contract & chose to leave. We didn’t ‘let him go’, there was a better opportunity to play halfback at south’s with Ilias gone & he took it.

He definitely choose to leave though reading through Brent Reads article on him he knocked back an offer to join Souths earlier to remain loyal to Manly.

The tipping point in him leaving was how Humphreys’ window was closing at Manly – Cherry-Evans had been re-signed and the club invested in young halves Joey Walsh and Onitoni Large.

 

[nightster]

I think people do understand that - it’s more about why the club didn’t put in more of an effort to keep him/convince him to stay, offer him a pathway into regular first grade etc. And maybe we did, but if Souths are really only paying him 150k then I’m doubting we even tried at all.

We spent a good couple of years trying to turn him into a hooker, and never gave him a crack there (or even just at 14) while our dummy half play has been some of the worst in the NRL. If Jazz Tevaga and Jake Simpkin are our options there at the moment then there’s no reason he couldn’t have played one of those roles, filled in the halves during Origin time (as he did well in his one game for us) and then taken the reigns once DCE moved on. And that might’ve just ended up being only one year later, because DCE couldn’t possibly take a pay cut to try and help the team win a comp in his final years...

This

 

[eaglebuzz]

I can’t believe what I read on here, JH is 3 games into his 1st grade career, his 3 from 3 and played his part in all 3 victories, that’s impressive enough at this stage, his a workaholic who looks to have durability and extreme fitness in his corner, can play 7,9,14 and would probably be a great 13 in time to come.

His gone now, but don’t worry we have Daly, Wakeham, Arthur’s - Jazz, Cum Tong, Frog, simpkins not to mention the quality we have at 14, what were we thinking.

Comparing him to Chez is ridiculous, losing him or allowing to sign elsewhere was also ridiculous, if JH wanted to play grade, then surely we should of made the necessary shifts to accommodate him, play him at 14 for a season or 2, he had so many positives and when you think he went over to the bunnies for 150k (if that’s true) how stupid are we.

Now we have potential contract issues with Daly, I don’t think resigning Daly is going to win us a premiership, nor be that important to our long term future, his time is nearing, as things stand he now gets to squeeze us again or worse sign elsewhere, if that occurs, transitioning through JH would of been the perfect way to navigate the upcoming situation which ever way it might turn out and what’s more we may have found ourselves a quality first grader, well no doubt we would have, one with youth and a motor, because it’s not like we need either of those right?

Too many people saying his not that much of a loss, a players a player, they come and they go, well his gone and good luck to him, just a bit tragic, Wayne’s gain will be our pain, I feel like we’ve been through this before. The kid had plenty to offer and was turn key ready, a genuine first grader, a footballer, a 7, 9,14 with the potential to fill other roles, it’s not like they come along everyday, anyways not to worry, its not like our cap is out of balance and we’re stacked with ready to go 7,9,14’s, it was worse than dumb to let him go and will alway remain dumb, yes I was a fan.

Humphreys has played three first grade games, all of which have been against pretty crap opposition. I'm not breaking out the Kleenex just yet.

He's solid but I have a strong feelings that by the time Walsh and Large are running around in First Grade we'll be saying "Jamie who?"

 

[Ohgeez]

He definitely choose to leave though reading through Brent Reads article on him he knocked back an offer to join Souths earlier to remain loyal to Manly.

The tipping point in him leaving was how Humphreys’ window was closing at Manly – Cherry-Evans had been re-signed and the club invested in young halves Joey Walsh and Onitoni Large.

Yea it’s a shame that he never got his chance here but while DCE is playing at this level there was never really a choice of who the priority would be to keep around the club