AJ Kepaoa - absolutely clueless on the wing. Could not catch a cold. He played half a game at left centre which left many to think he'd found his calling. I am still not convinced.
Reece Hoffman - development severely hampered by COVID but has not done anywhere near enough in reggies to warrant NRL consideration.
William Kei - looks far too small from a limited sample size.
Oliver Gildart - unproven at NRL level. Injury prone and short. Size is subjective but I want my centres at least as big as the 4 who played in the GF.
Canterbury are going to have to part with an outside back. They have just signed Braiden Burns today whose career has been wrecked by injuries. Dogs would have 8/9 outside backs now who all might expect NRL minutes.
Cotric has been rumoured to be on the way out. I think the fact he covers all backline positions gives him big appeal for WT.
The other player who we hear might be unsettled is Zac Lomax. There was his refusal to sign a stat dec in relation to the Vaughan party (which was never properly investigated by the media). Why did this occur? Saints have also just signed Moses Suli on big $$$ which surprised me.
Lomax is on something like a 6 year $500k per year contract which he signed under Mary just before he was sacked.
In summary for me the last 4 spots might end up going to:
Peachey
Edge forward
2 o/s backs of a standard comparable to Cotric/Lomax (noting we already have plenty of backups among those named above)
Agree the outside backs need attention. None of our centers fill me with any confidence. I don’t think Talau is anything special but him doing his ACL in round 25 is a nightmare for us. On the guys you mentioned
Kepeoa: his hands let him down on the wing but otherwise I think there’s a good footballer there. He’s big, fast and has a go. All his juniors were at fullback or center. He literally only played wing in first grade for us. Centre is his best position, will be back to full fitness in December so will have most of the pre season
Hoffman: has put on a good amount of size. Will never be a stand out first grader but the type of guy who’s probably Do a job at center in a good side
Kei: I have never, ever seen anything from this guy. He is shit, I can’t believe we signed him on a 3 year deal. Can someone please plant some drugs on him and get him sacked? Every single one of our Jersey Flegg backline are better then him
Gildart: in 18/19 this guy was absolutely electric and would have 100% been a success in the NRL. In 20 he had some bad injuries and this year never got back to his previous form. Still only 25 so there’s hope for him, but I’m not sold.
Apparently we have signed Logen Dillon (fullback) and Liam Scolari (wing) from the Flegg side for next year. I’m unsure if they are NRL, development or Nsw cup deals.
Dillon was arguably the star of the Flegg side which was undefeated after 14 rounds. Raw pace and started to develop a good passing game. Plays in a simile vein to Papenhuyzen. I wouldn’t be playing him NRL in 2022 but he is worth holding
Scolari is a nuggety Hard working player. Not as explosive however he’s a very smart winger who reads defence well. Reminds me of Matt Sing. Probably not ready for NRL yet but wouldn’t be far off.
The one from the team who looked ready for first grade is Israel Ogden, can play all 3 positions but looked best at centre. I’d take him over the 4 we spoke about as being in the NRL squad.
