We signed Stewart to a long term deal in 2023. Around the same time rava got his extension. Was premature IMO should have been one year dev and one year top 30 like the others, it’s probably going to come back and bite us now because although I rate Stewart, Latu will end up the much better player
he probably will ......very hard for us to say though just yet and I do want to keep Latu if we can and if he is the right fit for the club
the real questions
how much better vs all our young future contracted middles and at what cost?
what is the opportunity cost of paying overs vs other players we want to keep and or attract?
we have gone in diligently with all the other talent amongst our emerging forwards and their contract extensions have in part been a reward for effort!
For me there is only so many players we can keep as young forwards and a couple more highly regrarded right behind by a season or two
we have 6 of them already thru to 2027
If we also see 18yr old Halangahu who is reportedly already 109kg as a middle...... then we truly cant keep them all. For me Halangahu doesnt really fit the role of an edge forward in the NRL.......but he could be an outlier
TCouchman middle
RCouchman middle
Stewart middle
LPT middle
Egan has been described as a "Lock" by Flano in an interview despite mainly playing edge
Halangahu always an edge but you could argue maybe more suited as he gets older to the middle?