lol, mate by that metric Adam Cuthbertson is a better prop than Petro Civoniceva. JSaf and Mooney are playing different roles in the team suited to their skillset.
Go watch some of his hits on Turbo against Manly and rethink that one I reckon. Softened him up big time.
JSaf isn't a flashy prop, but if you think Mooney is better than him at this stage you're a bit distracted by the shiny new toy imo. Offloads and second phase play is nice and I love it too - we absolutely needed that added to our pack and it's great to have it - but metres gained, tackles made, willingness to take the tough carries, sizing up opposition stars, one-percent efforts, etc are the foundation of what you build the middle of the field around. JSaf is the heart of our pack. Everything he does is at a consistently high quality and incredibly dependable. There's a reason why he was given the captaincy the other day, and why he leads our team song in the sheds.
Needless to say the reason Druss mentioned offloads is because it's the only stat on the sheet in Mooney's favour. Go compare their metres gained, metres per run, error rate, tackle efficiencies, PTB speed, post contact metres, etc, etc... all the bread and butter of being a prop forward - and you will quickly see a picture emerge that on average, JSaf just does things far more consistently and at a high level. On average he tackles more, runs more - and gets over the ad line more - finds his front more (and thus gets faster PTBs) - and has way less errors in him. And he's been doing this for us for quite a long time. Incredibly dependable.
I'm a fan of Mooney btw, I love what he brings and I'm stoked to have him over Leo... but imo you're drawing a long bow saying he's our best prop. He's definitely got a lot of potential though and may well get there in time. He needs to refine his game and just get more runs on the board before I'm having that conversation seriously. Ultimately though, they are very very different prop forwards - and I think you want both in your pack tbh.
