It’s kind of the opposite situation here. With Clifford I’ll put my hand up as one who got over-excited, but I’m far from alone in thinking he’d be a gun - massively hyped junior who has every physical tool you’d want in a halfback or five-eighth (except for his pretty bad passing for a first grade half, which I guess I just assumed would get better rather than worse). It was excitement over what we thought the kid may be one day. And to be fair he went really well in his first half season for us and looked like he could be a good foil for Pearce, who from what we had heard would be sticking around for a few more years, and take over when he’s ready.
Hastings isn’t a guy where you salivate over his potential. He’s not likely to become pacy and elusive, suddenly add distance to his clearing kicks, become as precise and accurate as Nathan Cleary, etc. He’s a high floor, low ceiling signing, his main areas where he’s likely to keep getting better are incremental stuff around his understanding of his role, manipulating defences, organising, decision-making around which triggers he pulls and when, etc - all categories in which he’s already miles ahead of any other spine player we have.
Pretty sure the broad consensus was - he’s a no-brainer signing for us, he should help our attacking weapons play better (particularly KP, and that goes double now he’s gonna play 6), and he’s a way more obvious fit for what we need than Luke Brooks.
If there’s jubilation, a lot of it might be over that last point in particular - he’s not Brooks lol.
