Yeah so given the Wayde Egan thing turned out to just be fans putting 2 + 2 together and ending up with three hundred and fifty five, and the names now are Sandon Smith, Billy Walters, Cory Paix or Wishart, I think what it points to is that yes they do still buy into Matt Arthur but as a long term thing & they don't want to burden him too much right now.
All four of them, to some degree or another, can play both hooker & in the halves. Smith & Wishart are the most legit performers in the halves, Walters is a bit Phoenix Crossland-y in that he provides value with defence & intensity but to me is best as more of a 9/13 rather than a 9/7, Paix has been a full time hooker for a while now but is a converted half.
So someone who can:
- Play hooker straight away next season
- Offer cover in the halves
- Do both of the above without demanding a salary which messes with the cap if he transitions to being a 14/depth player over the course of said deal as Arthur improves (I don't think Wishart satisfies this one, I think he has a deal in excess of $5-600K waiting for him at his next club)
- Potentially be *a* solution to the resulting hole in the spine if Kalyn elects to leave at the end of his current deal
I don't think Wishart is realistic for salary reasons. Now I know it's a real possibility I want Sandon Smith, I think he's the rare Rooster who's underrated and underhyped, people see him as this meh long term Cup plodder but he's not - he's 22. He is genuinely a good runner of the ball and very consistently makes the right, simple play irrespective of position and role, and he consistently executes well on his passing options & kicks. I see that as a good framework to build off rather than fixating on his game not being "sexy" enough. Between him, Jake Arthur and Matt Hunter we'd have three guys where growing into the starting halfback/five-eight role from 2027 or 2028-on is actually plausible. Also I think at hooker he's stylistically similar to Arthur and this is important - an underrated aspect of why the two hooker rotation sometimes looks great and is sometimes horrible is that if the two hookers are too dissimilar in their service and work around the ruck, it can be difficult for the halves because they have to make in-game adjustments constantly (i.e. to where they position themselves relative to the ruck, how they move onto the pass, etc). I think Sandon is a $400K player, which is an absurd outlay for a back-up half, but very reasonable for a decent hooker who provides halves cover.
Cory Paix would be my second choice, he's a bit inconsistent but he'd be cheap and again I think you can start him then bring Arthur on without causing a lot of disruption for the rest of the spine. I don't buy him as an NRL half and think he moved to 9 for a reason, but he at least wouldn't be totally at sea (IMO if we sign Paix he's not playing in the halves over Jake Arthur if there's an injury, whereas Sandon getting moved there rather than Jake playing is plausible).
Billy Walters is a good player and I think he could command more on the open market than a lot of people assume. I don't think we should sign him - we already have Phoenix Crossland at home.
Wishart isn't happening.
