It's a confidence & strength thing for Virgili. He backs himself to tear arse up the wing in NYL but is afraid to in the HAL. He's naturally suited to out wide - it's got nothing to do with being in the centre of the field.

He's Hoffman v2 - all the athleticism & pace in the world, afraid to use it on the big stage. Remember that burn and cutback for Heskey's goal last season? I bet he does that move every single week in NYL. But in the HAL he's always just touching back inside, always overly telegraphed with when & how he'll "attempt" to beat a defender, and usually refuses to meet the ball and lets it run past him - either to roll out or to turn what was a clear ball to him into a side-by-side 50-50 challenge.

My problem with Virgili is he's seemingly not getting any more confident when he's actually given his HAL shot (which is usually at the start of the season, every season). If anything he seems to regress in confidence. All it takes is a decent game by Warren (lol) or Jamieson on him and he just curls up in a ball till the game (or season) is over. The moment a wised up left back sees Virgili's name on the Jerks teamsheet, all they need to do is put in a couple of early challenges and talk a bit of cheek to him & they know they've won the battle already.

And let's not forget about his "shooting". His shots are weaker than Abbas used to attempt them. He's noticeably too comfortable in just hitting the target with a weak/feeble attempt of a shot than actually having a dig - which is especially needed against HAL keepers particularly when shooting from outside the box (which is what he usually ends up doing). As much as I rip on Michael Bridges' shots when they hit the corner flag, at least he puts some venom into his shots.

As a younger teenager (like back @ Edgy/NSWIS), Virgili was one of the better young players I've personally seen. He just hasn't kicked on from that. Virgili has/had the opportunity to do what Yeboah @ Brisbane did - use his raw pace & talent to just blow the league out of the water and seal an o/s move quicksmart. Instead, he's an in-and-out of the 9th place team in the HAL.