AFL GREAT Dermott Brereton held his first training session with Greater Western Sydney on Wednesday and afterwards declared his unwavering faith in Israel Folau's ability to make it in the sport.
Brereton joined the Giants as a part-time assistant coach earlier this month and intends to conduct training sessions in Sydney at a minimum of once a fortnight.
While he has watched every match GWS has played in its short time in the AFL, he had his first close-up look at the players on Wednesday, conducting a training session focused primarily on leading and marking.
Folau has been under immense scrutiny since his big-money move from rugby league, and has had a quiet start to his AFL career, but Brereton was pleading for patience with the 23-year-old.
"There's a kid at Geelong at the moment, Tom Hawkins, who is the talk of the town," Brereton told reporters in Blacktown.
"He's been in the system for five years. He played five good games last year, two of them were in the finals, and he's played three good games this year.
"Previous to that he took four years to learn the game.
"We marked him hard. Everyone is marking Israel so hard. He's been in it for five minutes.
"It's a unique game to try to learn. Should we get some knowledge into him, he's going to be quite a good player.
"He's going to be something pretty special."
While Brereton compared Folau to Hawkins in terms of development, he also used one of the game's all-time greats, Jim Stynes, as an example.
And with talk of Folau being rested from this week's game against Adelaide or sent down to the NEAFL, the former Hawthorn champion said he hoped that wouldn't happen.
"I hope that Israel Folau turns into something quite extraordinary," he said.
"We just had one of the game's greats, Jimmy Stynes, pass away and he took two years to learn it before he got a game.
"And he came from a code which was far more similar to Australian rules than rugby league and he ended up as one of the greats.
"I think (Folau) needs to play and stay in a competition standard where he's going to learn to become that standard."
Brereton was also quizzed about when GWS might find its first win in the AFL after three heavy defeats so far.
Brereton didn't know when that first victory would arise, but said wins would be commonplace in the not-too-distant future.
"It depends. If they get their full team in and the boys are up and running on the one day, it could be next weekend," he said.
"What I do laugh about is, if you think this team won't be seriously challenging in four or five years, you've got another thing coming.
"The reason I took this (role) on is because I have real belief in what's happening here.
Brereton already has some history in Sydney, spending one season playing with the Swans in 1994, when suspensions limited him to just seven appearances in an unsuccessful stint.
He likes the progress GWS is making in the city.
"When I lived here for a year, ill-fated I might say, I got absorbed into watching rugby league. It's a great game," he said.
"But this team here (GWS) has a chance to be a landmark ... in the history of our game as we push into the future.
"The way I've seen teams built, this team is doing everything absolutely right.
"I would love to see them tap into some 14, 15-year-olds who may have gone to another sport.
"They see Israel Folau go from copping a few barbs along the way to going 'you know what, in the scheme of AFL, he can actually play'.
"I believe he has all the skill sets to get there."
By James Dampney AFL.com
