Ok I'm going to go against the grain here, but I don't see Long and Briers as mutually exclusive. I don't think Breirs was asking for silly money at the time. As for Hooper and Pryce, if you gave me the option of briers over those 2, then yes I'd bite your hand off. Briers for Martyn is a more tricky swap though and it's true that Briers , Long and MArtyn don't all fit in the team together. Although it would be interesting to know how many games Long and Martyn played together as both has injury periods.
Scully had to cover for long periods at halfback. It's more likely that Wellens would be the one to be excluded at the price of having Martyn, Long, Briers in the team together. But then none of those 3 where renound for tackling.
In the end the way it went is the way it went and we benefited and Briers to my mind lost out. Although he is reaping the rewards of his patience now.