Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nTaj Alvarez’s solo try lights up finals | 00:22<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to praise him actually, for how awesome he\u2019s been to start the season. Eighteen years old, coming in and playing centre, which is probably the hardest position to defend on the field, he did a great job. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut part of my job as a coach is also to know when to take the pressure off him. I just felt like he\u2019s been up for so long with his intent and his enthusiasm, and players have been actually going after him, that it was a timely rest. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he does have a little niggly injury on his foot as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just like Makasini and May, Benji Marshall knows what it\u2019s like to deal with critics at a young age having burst through the scenes as a talented five-eighth from Keebra Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the bonuses of being in that position is I can explain to the players what that\u2019s like and how to navigate through that,\u201d Marshall continued.<\/p>\n
Ricky fumes at draw amid injury blow | 00:58<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in Heamasi\u2019s situation, he is a unique talent and someone we see as a long-term future for us. He\u2019s having a bit of confidence issues at the moment, but he\u2019ll bounce back. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just a good reminder for a lot of people out there that sometimes we go off early on young blokes and we compare them unfairly to some of the greatest athletes that ever played, and it puts a lot of pressure on some of these kids. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure is already big enough playing in this environment in the NRL. Like I said, part of my job is to make sure I do the right thing by our players, and Heamasi is no different. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love what he brings to our team, I love his enthusiasm, I love the way he plays, but he\u2019ll earn his way back into the team at some stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylan May has come to the defence of young teammate Heamasi Makasini after the teenage sensation found himself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32730,203087,5636,9504,203532,9498,93376,203527,144752,203097,148954,121182,111,139,69,203524,9486,203529,23489,40077,203101,213,203531,203093,203525,203530,203526,203533,150727,48518,33815,99242,203528],"class_list":{"0":"post-394034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-adam-reynolds","9":"tag-awkward-halves-headaches","10":"tag-benji-marshall","11":"tag-brisbane-broncos","12":"tag-broncos-performance","13":"tag-canberra-raiders","14":"tag-cody-walker","15":"tag-confidence-issues","16":"tag-ethan-lee-chalk","17":"tag-goal-line","18":"tag-lee-chalk","19":"tag-moon-boot","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-opponents-win","24":"tag-penrith-panthers","25":"tag-raiders-match","26":"tag-ricky-stuart","27":"tag-solo-try","28":"tag-solo-try-lights","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-star-fires","31":"tag-stunning-solo-try","32":"tag-talented-five-eighth","33":"tag-taylay-may","34":"tag-teen-teammate","35":"tag-teenage-gun","36":"tag-teenage-sensation","37":"tag-tigers-v","38":"tag-wests-tigers","39":"tag-young-age","40":"tag-young-teammate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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