Many of us have agreed that Brooks should be moved to 5/8. If you look at the Ivan years where he won Halfback of the year, Benji did a lot of the organizing and Brooks became more of an attacking halfback (hence the Dally M points), especially close to the line.
The problem I have is that we think Hastings is going to be able to walk into the halfback role. There are a lot of qualities to Hastings that would allow him to be a great halfback for us, but there are so many unknown variables that it would be classic WT to hitch our wagon to him. E.g. what if he doesn't get along with the team? What if he can't implement Madge's game plan? What if he doesn't gel with Brooks/AD?
Then the real conundrum is AD...he deserves to be 6 more than any other player. He is the only player currently putting in 110% every game and that should be rewarded with the starting jumper.
With the news of Mbye leaving, the Cleary mess will finally be cleared by the end of this year. We need to back it up with some key signings in 2022, otherwise what is the point? We move Brooks on and we just keep that cash sitting around doing nothing with it?
I 100% agree we need someone like the Cheese at our club but I just don't see it happening