The Halfback Conundrum

Which potential halfback, available from November 1, should the club make the #1 priority?

  • Ben Hunt

    Votes: 7 13.2%

  • Braydon Trindall

    Votes: 7 13.2%

  • Jonah Pezet

    Votes: 27 50.9%

  • Sam Walker

    Votes: 3 5.7%

  • Daniel Atkinson

    Votes: 2 3.8%

  • Lachlan Ilias

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • None of the above - Stick by Jack Cogger and continue to nurture kids currently in the system

    Votes: 5 9.4%

  • Other (comment with their name)

    Votes: 1 1.9%

  • Ronald Volkman

    Votes: 1 1.9%

  • Toby Sexton

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    53
HarVeeGee13

HarVeeGee13

Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Looking at the off-contract names, it's been a few years since there were this many established or high potential halves off contract at the same time (last time was probably in 2020/1, when Reynolds, Townsend and Hynes were all signed for the 2022 season in mid-2021, after Jake Clifford and Matt Burton were both snapped up not long after November 1 2020).

You can probably sort the names into three categories:

Definitely available in 2025 - Lachlan Ilias
Potentially available in 2025 - Ben Hunt, Jonah Pezet
No chance at all of arriving before 2026 - Braydon Trindall, Sam Walker, Daniel Atkinson

Would be interested to check the temperature of the forum on this front.
 
I'm 50/50 between Trindall and Pezet right now probably leaning towards to Pezet.

I wouldn't complain if we got either option to Newy.

Hunt while a good player not sold on us signing him as we'd get 1 good year out of him and then it's back to square one.

Atkinson is more of a 6 imo

Definite no to Ilias. Would rather stick with Cogger than bring in Ilias.

Sam Walker I feel would want too much to come here.
 
I'll be honest, I put Ilias in just for the sake of completeness. Dear God I hope there's no prospect of him coming.
 
Definitely available in 2025 - Lachlan Ilias
Potentially available in 2025 - Ben Hunt, Jonah Pezet
No chance at all of arriving before 2026 - Braydon Trindall, Sam Walker, Daniel Atkinson

Thanks for adding above HVG.

Lachlan ILias - no
Sam Walker - No, coming of the back of ACL late season. And price tag.
Braydon Trindall - No. I would have considered him, but if he definitely won’t arrive till 26. No.
Hunt - yes if we can get him. Not ideal for 2 years, but he’s had a relatively injury free career. He is a class play maker, we have a better side than the dragons, he would next year be a massive boost for us.
Pezet - Yes, for next year and beyond, long term hopefully. He could take over from Hunt. Hunt in his second year nurture him.
 
Still a conundrum after seeing all the options. Hunt is old and i'd only take him for a season, Walker injured, the rest you kind of know what you're gonna get and they're not much better than Cogger to the point where they'll take us to the next level. Pezet an unknown, at worst can't be much worse than Cogger and still has potential.
 
Ben Hunt has the most try assists in the comp by a huge margin.

Old af though so not necessarily advocating for it but if he were to somehow magically arrive for next season we'd be a considerably better team
 
Treadly said:
Id like both hunt and pezet. Pezet for the long term future role, hunt for rolling the dice that we can have a tilt at the title next year
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The more I think of that idea, I reckon it's a good one.

Random and irrelevant comparison but in the NFL several of the gun quarterbacks over the years including two of the best have spent a year or two behind a solid and experienced qb eg Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love (who I think will continue long tradition of Packers quarterbacks) all spent their first years behind someone (coincidence Love was learning off Rodgers)

So I don't mind signing Hunt for a year before transitioning to Pezet long term.
 
Ben Hunt I don’t think would be good here. I actually am quite surprised the free pass he gets with the media, was on colossal money at the dragons for years and got them to the finals once. He also gives up alot in games for the Dragons and turning 35 next year. I’d pass but also understand he is a substantial upgrade on what we have.
 
Hunt just makes too many errors. He does a great job for Queensland at hooker but the bad far outweighs the good at club level imo.
 
My ideal halfback would be Trindall but he’s the least available and probably will be in the halves for the Sharks in the long term, second would be Pezet who is only rumoured to come back.

No to Hunt. While the most experienced he’s at the back end of his career and 2nd in the comp for errors made. Plus he would only leave to go back to QLD.

Would rather persist with Cogger/Phoenix/Gamble if it meant getting Illias. Hard pass.

Atkinson, whilst a talent, looks more of a running five-eight rather than someone who’ll steer the ship.

Walker would be a fantastic signing only for the fact that he’s going to be the Chooks half for the next decade and his price tag is too much for a club like us that can’t acquire brown paper bags.
 
Les Misérables said:
Ben Hunt has the most try assists in the comp by a huge margin.

Old af though so not necessarily advocating for it but if he were to somehow magically arrive for next season we'd be a considerably better team
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Yeah he's attacking dynamite, one of the most dangerous #7's when it comes to just ripping a team apart.

The thing which has always been the knock on him is his decision-making in tight games & just how he goes under pressure generally. He’s kicked one field goal in 334 first grade games, a truly remarkable stat. Beside not being the man for that sort of moment, he also has form as a guy who’ll put in an awful kick or otherwise give away field position when scores are tied or your team is defending a narrow lead.

We’d want to pair him with a cool head who has form managing leads and who can kick field goals when they’re needed. That’s where the Dragons have stuffed up a bit I think - they always wanted to try to find an Ezra Mam or Cody Walker type to play with him, but it’s probably not a coincidence that they had the most success with a combo of Hunt and Widdop.
 
My instinct re: Hunt is that the Dragons probably do think it’s best to cut bait, but they’ll want to use his contract to try to get some talent in to help them rebuild. So, I think there’d be some sort of player swap involved to get it done. That’s what they’re angling for.

Eg someone like Jake Averillo from the Dolphins, AJ Brimson or Jayden Campbell from the Titans, etc.

I can’t imagine they’d be overly keen on Jackson Hastings…
 
Treadly said:
Id like both hunt and pezet. Pezet for the long term future role, hunt for rolling the dice that we can have a tilt at the title next year
Click to expand...
Think that's pie in the sky type stuff. If Pezet is leaving Melbourne it's probably for a team that is going to have a punt on him with decent money and a crack at 7. That's just how the game is these days, young guys with hype often get paid before their time. We won't be signing two halfbacks on marquee money.
 
There was an article written by Matty Johns before the Cowboys game titled Matty Johns: ‘Kalyn Ball’ will end Knights’ season.
It was an interesting take but he was proven to be right. I think the Dragons suffer from ‘Hunt Ball’ and the Broncos has suffered from ‘Walsh Ball’ this year. When you have a superstar in your side, every single play is through them. Individually they play spectacularly like what we saw from Ponga on the weekend but often the team doesn’t get the win. Hunt led the NRL for try assists by a huge margin but his side still didn’t make the 8. You could make a fair case that we played more like a team when Ponga has been out over the last couple seasons. We won 4 on the trot when he was out earlier this year. Which brings me back to Hunt. We need an experienced halfback that has the balls to overcall Ponga. We need to find the right balance of ‘Kalyn Ball’. If we can replace Hastings salary with Hunt’s for the next 2 season then I wouldn’t be too disappointed.
 
I tend to see it your way Josh.

I think Sam Walker and Ben Hunt will get a lot of interest from the Titans and Dolphins. His management will want to see if they can get anyone to offer close to the $1.5 million he allegedly wants, but I think the goal is just to get the Roosters to meet him in the middle rather than stick by the $900K/season they're offering him.

I think Hunt just ends up at one of the Titans or Dolphins. I think his main motivation in footy is money and the Titans love a big payday so that's where he'll end up - on an upgraded deal.

My understanding with Trindall is that the Sharkies have done very well by him off-field, and not just with regards to the stuff we know about. He's strongly expressed a lot of loyalty to them and I think it'd take a big big financial offer or a big big club to turn his head. I have no mail at all on this but I reckon the Broncos would be a smoky to nab him. He'd fit with their off-the-cuff style and the wheels fall off up there whenever they're playing without a true halfback to make all their end of set decisions etc for them. Rabbitohs too, always seem to have a bit of an inside track with good Indigenous players.

It could be a real feeding frenzy. And then you've got Pezet, who just doesn't have the same smoke around him - for whatever reason, players in the Storm system don't seem to generate the same hype as ones from some other clubs, eg Harry Grant was reasonably available for a long time while absolutely carving up QCup and no one really chased him. Who knows how good Jonah is? People at our club would have an idea. Real sickos who watch as much junior Knights footy as they can would have an idea. Bigwigs at Melbourne would have an idea. But for whatever reason there's likely just less attention on him than the next big thing coming out of Brisbane or Sydney. He'd be closer to family if he came back to Newy. If the drama with his dad is water under the bridge, and he knows he's our #1 option rather than a fallback plan, I can see it happening.
 
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