Saints Forever
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The thing with Nighty is that he was never fast but was always a great finisher.
His inability to finish last year and to a degree the previous year was also due to the fact that the centres gave him nothing to finish thus highlighting the real issue with our centres.
No doubt IMO that Lafai & Aitken will again be the centres so therefore you have no option but to go for an abundance of speed and some bulk on your wings to assist with kick returns and being able to chase in defence.
For me Nighty's defensive brain snaps (probably due really slowing down and panicking) were the major issues for why it was time for him to go.
Lack of hight in defending kicks was also becoming a more constant problem as the opposition often had 6' plus x 100kg plus players marking him.
OT, I think the answer is father time caught up with Flo.
That coupled with most wingers selected by other clubs were simply faster and bigger athletes.
The service Flo received from his centres was ordinary, but that only served to highlight his physical decline.
He simply wasn't fast enough to make up ground when caught out of position. When you lose faith in the man defending next to you, you make decisions you probably wouldn't otherwise make if you were confident in the ability of your teammate to make a one on one tackle.