Mike Colman comment: Is Val serious or has he lost his mind?

Is Valentine Holmes serious? Why would you possibly want to turn your back on rugby league and turn down millions on the off-chance of getting a start, writes Mike Colman.

Valentine Holmes of the Sharks is seen during the Round 25 NRL match between the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Sunday, September 2, 2018. (AAP Image/Brendan Esposito) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

• SHOCK SWITCH: Holmes eyes NFL

• COMPARE: How Val measures up

MEMO: Valentine Holmes.

Mate are you serious? Have you ever watched a game of NFL?

Why would you possibly want to turn your back on rugby league on the off-chance of getting a start in game in which you’ll play a couple of minutes every week if you’re lucky, and take a massive pay cut to do it?

Seriously, how bad could getting paid a million bucks to play with the Sharks be?

And then there’s the small matter of having Kevin Walters base his Origin plans around you for the next few years, and the honour of wearing the green and gold.

Valentine Holmes of the Sharks is seen during the Round 25 NRL match between the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Sunday, September 2, 2018. (AAP Image/Brendan Esposito) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

MORE HOLMES NEWS:

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You’d pass up all that on a maybe?

Sorry, but you’re a goose.

Now don’t get me wrong. Like all red-blooded Aussie sports fans I’m all for a good “I’m following my dreams” story.

No-one choked back the tears harder than me when Jarryd Hayne squeezed his head into a 49ers helmet.

Admittedly I wasn’t quite as emotional when he set his sights on an Olympic gold medal with the Fiji rugby sevens side, but that’s by the by.

The point is Val, Jarryd has already walked this path and shown that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

So why do it?

It can’t be for the money. Hayne took a 50 per cent pay cut, lasted one season and was never the same again.

Holmes will give up his rugby league representative career to pursue his NFL dream. (AAP Image/David Rowland)

At least he had reached the very top of rugby league before he chanced his arm in the States. You’re still on the way up, with plenty more to achieve and plenty more to prove.

You’ll never know how good you can be as a league player if you go through with your cock-eyed plan, but I’ll go out on a limb and tell you how good you’ll be as an American Football player.

Average at best.

Don’t take my word for it. Look at the scouting reports from the trial you did along with Jason Taumalolo last year.

Taumalolo was something special. Something that, with plenty of work, could be turned into a valuable NFL commodity.

Colman believes Holmes is against the odds to achieve his dream. Picture: Nathan Edwards

You, on the other hand, were something the scouts see a thousand times a year. A talented athlete with a bit of speed and natural ball skills.

The difference between you and the other 999 high school and college players that the scouts assess every year is that you don’t have a clue about how to play the game.

That’s nothing to be ashamed of. The best young baseball player in the US would look like a complete idiot if you handed him a bat and some pads and pushed him out onto a cricket field.

The same if any of those other 999 American Football players was given a trial at the Sharks or Broncos. Without the second nature that comes from playing a game constantly almost from the time they could walk, they would be found out time and again. Just like Hayne was.

Valentine Holmes scores. Queensland vs New South Wales for game 3 of the State of Origin series at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Pic Peter Wallis

But even if you could somehow get a start in an NFL team, what I can’t figure out is why you would want to.

Next time you’ve got three or four spare hours you should watch a game and put a stopwatch on one of the running backs. Work out how much time he spends on the field. Better still, add up how much time the ball is actually in his hands.

Then get hold of a tape of one of your games for the Sharks or Maroons last season.

Look at yourself chiming in from fullback or running onto a pass on the wing. Watch the tackles you make and the involvement you have with the overall running of the game.

Listen to the crowd. See how at home you look, how your instinct allows you to react a split second faster than your opposite number, savour the satisfaction you feel from doing something you love really, really well.

And then get on the phone to Barry Russell and see if it’s not too late to change your mind.

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