HI, it’s Eorl here.
I hope everyone is well and looking forward to heading to Manchester for the Magic Weekend.
All being well, playing at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium tomorrow will bring the very best out of us and help us get back on track with victory over Salford.
And who’d bet against Greg Eden not playing a starring role for us. After all, he is the next Billy Slater!
To be honest, Greg’s life at the Giants has been pretty hellish since Browny compared him to the great Australia Test full-back after our win at Leeds Rhinos the other month.
Being compared to someone like that is right up there as far as compliments go, but it left him wide open when it came to being the butt of training ground jokes.
Since our head coach came out with that classic quote, not a day goes by when our own full-back’s not being called Greg Slater, Billy Eden, Slatts, Australia’s No1 etc, etc, etc!
As a result, it was only a matter of time before he earned the Helmet of the Week award on the back of it.
And this week it’s happened, although the circumstances surrounding it were not exactly how we expected.
Greg’s probably the club’s biggest fan of Australian Rugby League, and it seems he’s No1 aim is always to copy what some of the top Aussie players do in that competition.
So when he produced a great piece of athleticism and skilful flick to keep the ball in play during last week’s game against Wigan he made it clear where the inspiration had come from.
“That was a great bit of play,” Bobby Fairbank told him at half-time during that game.
“Yeah, that’s what you’d see on the NRL Full Time programme on Sky TV. I’m delighted about that!”
The unfortunate thing about that, is that Billy (sorry Greg!) seriously meant it.
It was a sign of just how obsessed Greg’s become about the Aussie game, and that’s not healthy, particularly when considering what a fantastic player he is in his own right.
Ok, he may be a bit frustrating to play alongside, because you just don’t know what he’s going to do next. Sometimes, it’s pure genius and inspirational, while at others it’s just complete and utter madness.
But that’s why I think we all love our own ‘Billy Slater’ so much.
He’s a player with that X-Factor – something we all need in our game – and someone who we also know we keep improving all the time.
It’s incredible to think this is Greg’s first real season in Super League, but he’s already carving it up and proving to be one of our sport’s genuine rising stars.
That’s why we’re willing to forgive him for the mistakes he makes, because we know he’ll learn from them and become an even better player as a result – which was just the case for Billy Slater.
In fact, we can’t wait for the day to come when a head coach says of his own rising star, he could become the next Greg Eden. It could happen.
