Farrell was probably cheapish, a bit of a punt / depth-signing like most of our purchases.. I didnt like him at souths, and personally I wish they'd spent a bit more and gone someone higher-class instead, because I have mentioned before I see classy centres as what prevents us from scoring points (yes yes I know we started well with points).
But you also need to consider that between Runciman, Beale (international), MataUtai, Farrell and potentially Kyle Stanley, we have a lot of 'maybe centres' in the squad, and Price is assumably hoping 2 of them stand out from the pack.. the same approach they went with in the Forwards.. and perhaps some relatively early success with Cooper being a surprise.
Basically this has been Doust/Price's approach for a few years now, I believe that they dont like taking gambles on big dollar players, the risk if they dont perform or get injured is high... hence they scatter their bets and hope.. and combined with the organic growth principles that "sort of" works, until they clicked last year that they simply had to spend more for quality.. and hence Dugan/Widdop/Thompson.. and thank god we did.. I just wish they had made purchases like this proactively, instead of letting the club descend so hard for 2 straight seasons.