Grimmy wrote:
Smith is our organising half back, don't see the point in having two of them, what we need IMO is someone with a bit of a spark who can take the line on. Powell, Williams and Hampshire have all earned the right to compete for the stand off spot. No point at all in producing talented lads from our academy, giving them plenty SL gametime then just bringing in a signing anyway when a spot becomes available. Particularly as the opportunity to sign proven quality players is pretty slim anyway these days with the NRL cap being so much higher than ours
We're still in an era were we can afford to give young lads a shot due to the overall quality of superleague being at a low point. By teams doing that hopefully the quality of the league (and the national side) will go up given time but at the minute these young lads can cope.
10-15 years back I'd have been very nervous throwing kids in to try and take on guys like Long, Martyn, Briers, Harris, Paul, Lam and so on but that quality isn't there at the moment. Saints have Walsh who is top class and Catalans have Carney but besides those two there isn't a single halfback in the league that really puts me on edge that these guys couldn't take them on. There's some good ones like Brough, Burns and Smith also but these lads are talented and will play behind a top pack including Sean O'Loughlin who helps take the pressure off.
