HAMILTON coach Scott Coleman reckons Fiso Vasegote "could be anything" if the centre ever decided to commit fully to rugby.
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For the most part this season, Vasegote has been in second grade.
A broken toe to Caileb Gerrard opened the door for a return to the top grade three weeks. The spot is now Vasegote's to lose.
The wiry centre scored a hat-trick of tries to help steer Hamilton to a resounding 47-29 win over Maitland at Marcellin Park.
The hat-trick was two shy of the five tries he scored against Singleton a fortnight ago.
"He is leading our club in tries scored by a mile," Coleman said.
"He has scored a heap in second grade but the guys in first grade weren't playing bad and we were winning. He has had to bide his time.
"He is wiry, tough bastard and doesn't hold anything back. If he trained and did gym work, he could be anything.
"He just takes everything in his stride and is laid back."
Vasegote ran a great inside line to split the defence for his first try, picked the ball up from the side of a ruck and raced 50 metres for this second and finished off a sweeping backline move for the third.
"I told him when he came up 'this is your chance, make the most of it'," Coleman said. "Against Singleton he scored five tries and this week three. He is getting his hands on the ball heaps and will always back himself. He is very confident on the field, he is just laid back off it. It has probably been his most consistent season, it's just that we have had guys performing well above him. He didn't get distracted. He kept training and pushed pretty hard."
Apart from Vasegote, skipper Steve Lamont and lock Joe Akkersdyk led the way for the Hawks.
Maitland led 22-21 after a quality opening 40 minutes.
Lamont crashed over from close-range five minutes after the break. Five minutes later Vasegote raced away. When hooker Chris Ale burrowed over in the 58th minute, the match was the Hawks.
"We had eight unforced errors in the first half and kept inviting Maitland back into it," Coleman said. "The message at half-time was to cut out our mistakes and play field position early."
Maitland coach Matt Thomas, though disappointed with the second half, took plenty of positives from the match.
"What came out of the game is a belief that we can beat them," Thomas said. "That is what I have been trying to instill in the side over the last 12 months - we are a good side, start believing. But you can't play for 40 minutes against an 80-minute side. I walked into the change room and there was dead silence. They were gutted at losing the game. They now have the belief that they can do it."
Elsewhere Saturday, Dane Le Rougetel and Michael Al-Jiboori each scored doubles as University disposed of Singleton 46-19, Nelson Bay came from 19-12 down to over run Southern Beaches 41-19 and Merewether crossed late to beat Lake Macquarie 19-15.
