One player that I feel would be a handy pick up is Morgan Harper. Seems on the nose. Talented player and enough to work with.
With backs you have to have a good base. Speed, footwork, power and acceleration to be any good along with game awareness and safety which is an area you can work on. For me he ticks all those boxes bar game awareness.
When I have seen Komolafe and Naiduki I don't feel they tick many. And to make it if you dont tick most then you need to be exceptional in a few of those areas, kind of like Sivo who has ridiculous power.
Compare it to Russel,Simmons,Haze who all lack power but have the other 3 areas covered. Its a better base and none of them are exactly weak like say Bevan French so its just one area that they can work on and try and get that extra 5-10% to make them good NRL players.
Blake and Penisini are another level currently cause they pretty much tick every single box so the ceiling is very high.
Gutherson lacks speed, acceleration and power. As a fullback he makes up for it in other areas but he would never cut it playing centre or wing. I genuinely feel by 2024 he will slide out of the top 10 fullbacks in the game. There are just too many young , talented and explosive fullbacks coming thru.
Right now Papenhauzen,Teddy,Turbo, Ponga are superior. As over rated as Ponga may seem is in a shit side. Opposition have no other spine players to worry about.
Edwards and Latrell are debatable better players. Its close.
Then you have young guns bursting thru and all in the way up.
Daine Lauire,Walsh,Cobbo and Nui from Brisbane,
Tyrell Sloan. And let's not forget Manu at the Roosters who will eventually land there.
If the Knights had Jackson Hastings they would be a top 8 team at the very least. That is the missing ingredient that that club and in fact a few others too are missing. A quality organising and running half that they can all get behind and play their best football. If I were the Knights he would be at the top of my list. Without a player of his quality, they will be a yo yo team and play like busted at times like against us.
In fact if I had the option of Hastings or Munster, I would go for Hastings every time. It is much easier to find a decent running 5/8th then a high quality organising/running/kicking experienced half back. Someone like Drinkwater would be a great 5/8th next to Hastings for example.
If I were the Dolphins I would go Hastings, Drinkwater and Walsh and save a couple of hundred thousand doing so. The advantage to this is obvious on two fronts besides not having to pay Munster $1.2-$1.4m.
1. Hastings is an organiser and Munster isn't so will struggle without a real quality one next to him. So will Munster be putting in or be able to do what he normally can each and every week knowing that he is in a team that is just average and will be up and down for a few seasons at least? Or will he start having Ponga style games, sometimes hot, sometimes not? Remember he hasn't always been the most focused player ever, even under Bellamy.
2. Hastings has proven both here and overseas he can play with an average roster around him(because he is an exceptional organiser) and lifts them to play their best football and they love knowing that he will deliver at least a competitive outcome in each game. He is the sort of half that will make you a playoff team even with a roster that has a few short comings. He is a breath of fresh air actually. I love watching him. Smart and can execute.
Also a special mention to Adam Reynolds, he has started to take on the line now at the Broncos, something he almost never chose to do at the Bunny's and is a much better player for it. He needs to keep it up and he will push the Broncos into the top 8 this year if he does.
Quality halves, as rare as Pou not defending a plodder.
