Its been an agenda for a while now and for some stupid reason it persists despite the fact that on field results prove it would be a disaster!
Now Jamie Lyon mentor and close person friend Noel Cleal Has told the Sydney Morning Herald thats Lyon is up to the job of playing five-eight for New South Wales.
So let me set the record straight!
In England, Lyon played in the centers for St Helen’s. The club used Leon Pryce and Paul Sculthorpe at five-eight ahead of Lyon. So the idea that Lyon got experience in England playing the position is false.
Then there is his time at Manly.
There is no doubt Manly bought Lyon as a five-eight. They already has Steven Bell and Steve Matai in the centers.
However the experiment of playing Lyon in the halves ended VERY quickly when he proved to be unable to play the position at club level.
Lyon was soon moved back to center and youngster Travis Burns stepped back into the starting side and has played out of his skin for the Sea Eagles and has been a big reason for their success.
Lyon meanwhile looks out of sorts since coming back from England and has not come close to showing any sort of form.
The quote from Cleal that “Jamie is a really good talker and pressure doesn’t affect him. He started playing for NSW and Australia when he was still quite young and he settled straight in at that level. Nothing fazes him” would have Parramatta fans up in arms.
This is the same Jamie Lyon that walked out on Parramatta after a couple of weeks because he couldn’t cope with….well….ANYTHING! He went back to Wee Waa and soon after headed to the simple life in the UK where he was marked by bums.
Lyons fascicle selection for Australia was bad enough and he showed he didn’t deserve to be there with a poor display.
As it stands Lyon looks like he will be the third best center on the Sea Eagles roster, let alone being anywhere close to Travis Burns in the running for the five-eight position.
