I understand your point re Cogger being more of a facilitator, but to me other than a few games at the end of the season when the whole team was humming, he wasn’t really helping facilitate KP or the outside backs (I’m taking earlier before KP got injured). We’ll never really know how much of an individual impact Cogger had on those final few games, but I’m a bit hesitant to say that Cogger did better in that situation than say Gamble or Hastings could have, as when we were in a bad situation earlier in the year, Cogger wasn’t any better than they were, a lot of people would argue he was worse. I think we also need to put those last few games into context: we beat the Titans and Souths who were horrendous, Dolphins who were sliding, then got beaten by a Cowboys side who got flogged by the Sharks the following week.
Your points re Penrith are valid, however it doesn’t really impact us or whether Cogger is the right half for us. We know they’re a special system and can make players look better than they are. I (unfortunately lol) work with a lot of Penrith supporters and most of them equally like Schneider.
I just don’t think he’s the best halfback option for us tbh. Seems AOB doesn’t either as I doubt he’d lose his place in the pecking order for Gamble who isn’t even a halfback after 1 trial game if AOB really had faith in him.