Tim Smith would hardly be the worst buy you could buy, and he'd barely cost you anything. Souths need to look at their list, and it is not just Sandow? What backs are actually elite? Merritt is decent, but he is not elite. Best is not, Sutton is a lock, Wesser is past it. I like Souths so it pains me to say this but you have put all your eggs in one basket (forwards) and lost. No team has EVER won a premiership without a dominant halfback or 5/8. Souths need to make some tough decisions, and should cut Asotasi AND at least ONE of Wesser/Sandow after this season. Throw $700,000+ at Jonathan Thurston and see if he bites.
Just my two cents.
No side has a perfect set of backs... ours aren't great, but they ARE solid. They got the job done for us last year when we came equal first in the number of tries scored and they'll do fine again this year.
Sutton is not a lock any more, he's a five eighth and when he takes on the line he's a very good one. Last year Sutton had the most try assists, line break assists, offloads etc... his slow start to this season is mostly due to a recent operation for a bulging disc in his neck which considerably shortened his off season preparation. Hopefully he'll come good again for us soon and if he does... look out!
Wesser, I think has been doing a great job so far and played very well against the Tits, running the ball back strongly and at speed. He's far from past it and if he stays fit and keeps progressing the way he has been, he'll soon be back as one of the top 5 FBs in the comp again. Statistically he's currently in the top 3 FBs for kick returns, line breaks, avg kick return metres and is no1 for total kick return metres. Although he and Luke Patten are leading the way on missed tackles atm and coincidentally our respective teams are both 0 from 2... hmmmmmm.
As far as Tim Smith is concerned, he'd be a good pick up if we could manage to keep him off the grog.... a la Carney. However, we don't have any cap space left unless we let someone go and I can't see that happening somehow.
