JakeyB789
Reserve Grader
I had this view at the time, and still do to an extent, but I'll give Foz some credit in that he was a pretty important player for us in that '21 season and played just about every game over the 2 years he was back here. Schu also had his best (and only full and productive) season for us that year playing on the edge, but I really think we would've had similar level of success anyway if he was the 6 instead, given the way Tom was playing.
It was the year after it all went downhill - started the year injured, which lead to him struggling to drop the weight he gained from moving to the forwards, then kept on the bench behind Andrew Davey and was often blamed for the late fadeouts we were having. Throw in the rainbow jersey saga, his management pushing for more money/a move to 5/8 which forced out a 32 year old Foz (a fan favourite) and then DCE publicly calling him out, everyone turned on him pretty quickly. On top of all that, Tom barely played over the 2022/23 seasons and the very few games they did play together it actually looked pretty good. I'll even add that when he did play 6, he had stars like Parker, Tuilagi and Tuipulotu outside him rather guys like Burbo and Koula who he came through the juniors and had already developed combinations with.
I'll admit he does seem to have some serious attitude/fitness issues but I was (and still am) happy to defend him as most seemed to blame him solely whilst ignoring how poorly the club/coach handled him. It looks like things may be too far gone for him now but I hope he can find some happiness with whatever he does, if that can be with Souffs then even better! Pretty great player to watch when he had it together.
