There’s no point in getting into semantics over who the best forward was. Even if RCG was better (which I would dispute and nothing against him because he was freaking awesome) the point is that Papali’i was in the Dally M team of the season and dominated the stats board most weeks.
I don’t know if we will uncover another Papali’i but to assume that it’s likely is wishful thinking and we’re going to look very silly if we let him go and it was for no purpose. I think it was very short sighted of the club to sit back and watch him dominate week after week and not upgrade him during the season before his value got up so high. It’s incredibly rare for a club that is meant to be on the way up to unearth a star like this and let them walk away yet we somehow managed to do it.
If we can’t get close to a grand final with our current roster then how will we do it with an inferior one unless all of our competitors also become significantly weaker?
But we didn't "let him go" - we refused to match the crazy money that the Tigers offered, which is sensible cap management.
On that deal, he is being paid more than current NSW prop Payne Haas - that is crazy to me.
I'm not a huge fan of Brad Arthur, but one thing he has shown time, and time again, is he has an ability to extract the best out of his forwards.
Nathan Brown played for NSW under BA's watch, as did Paulo.
RCG became one of the from props of the NRL under BA.
Why wouldn't I believe that he can unearth another diamond in the rough? He certainly has the runs on the board.
And given how money-driven Papali'i had proven to be, this idea that we didn't extend him early in the season makes little sense to me - it seems logical, given Papali'i's desire to chase the cash, that he would have knocked back any offers, to test his worth on the market to get top dollar.
My only complaint is that Papali'i's exit - at this stage - perhaps robbed us of a chance to keep Niukore.