Appreciate your comments and anyone can have issues with injury etc however he did play almost every game so your comments re the style of the Dogs etc is probably more relevant.
Notwithstanding that if he needs a bit of space as you suggest how do we provide that with the current halves set up we have which is an old chestnut of mine and of course the forum's old chestnut of Rein's passing out of dumb half?
Are we providing an environment to get the best out of somebody who already had a quiet season or is he in fact the best fit to add to what we already have?
The answer to that lies in a) the roles of the halves and b) the role of the fullback. Assuming we dont land Roberts and play Mann at fullback, the additional ball player (with the right attacking structure) should put enough doubt in the defence to allow our centres some space. In addition, I am hoping that (regardless of jersey numbers) Widdop is given more of a halfback role - that is, first receiver, controlling the attck and more importantly, playing straight and direct. This allows Benji to drift a bit and gives more space to the outside backs.
Regarding what we have...one of the thinks that counts against PM is his versatility. He can be a very handy winger, which means that he will stay in the team with a strong left centre. Thinking of combos, a centre/wing combo of Lafai/Mata'utai is stronger than Mata'utia/anyone-else-we-have. Worked very well playing outside of Aitken and rotating in attack.