Karmichael Hunt, if he came back, would be 28 going on 29 next year. He'd have about three, maybe four seasons left in him and would take the better part of a season to adapt back to NRL from AFL.
And would cost a small fortune.
So we'd get an ageing, expensive player who will leave in a few years, putting us back to square one.
Pretty much any choice short of cloning Martin Kennedy and paying the clone double what the original got would be a better choice than signing Hunt. If he'd come back two or three years ago he would be on the borderline of risk vs reward; he's now well and truly in the risk category and unlikely to add much.
Our problem isn't so much outside backs (well, it wouldn't be if Griffin actually selected any) but in the front row. Hala must be retained, and some succession planning needs to be done for Hodges, who is unfortunately one knee injury away from bowing out for good, in all likelihood. We can retain some promising youngsters there, too.
We're probably going to lose Hoffman at the end of the year, which is less of a loss than it should be since it will end all of Griffin's experimentation with him any way.
So really there's 3 or 4 slots we need to fill going forward.
One is taken by swapping Milford in for Hoffman.
Something needs to be done about Kennedy. He doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to start at prop and lacks impact off the bench. May be worth looking to ESL for a forward rather than getting caught in another idiotic bidding war for a plodder like Kennedy.
Right wing needs to be sorted. Maranta has shown enough promise and pace to be given a shot, with players like Kahu applying the blowtorch if he falters.
Ideally we'd have more impact off the bench. Hala could be part of the solution there. Te'o didn't want to leave and might be worth investigating.
Maybe add another prop to the rotation if anyone can be had on the cheap.
