I think for whatever reason if you refuse to go to market, that Isaako should remain fullback out of the current squad. If that were the case I would throw whatever money it took to get Billy Slater to do 1:1 sessions with him during the off season. Billy played a huge part in transforming Paps into (imo) the best fullback in the game. I’m not sure if Isaako is as coachable as Paps but his biggest flaw is his defensive organising and Billy could improve that part of his game immensely. Physically he is a beast, and has amazing footwork like Roger but if we could get a tenth of Slaters brains in him he would be very serviceable. He has improved a lot under the highball and I think he could learn a smarter passing game.
Otherwise I’d look externally to a guy like Hynes as a cheap specialist option to hold down the spot for a year or 2 on a moderate contract until someone more exciting becomes available.
We need to sign Reynolds, which means Kev has to decide between his alleged Staggs experiment and keeping Dearden.
We need a hooker to support Turpin. Doesn’t have to be too flash but experience would be handy.
Here's my take on Isaako. He has a lot of talent and very good skills however, my problem with his play is the he believes his own hype. Self portraits are usually coloured. Rather than helping the team as his absolute 1st priority, for mine, he instead helps himself - to show off. That try he scored with his amazing stepping against the Dogs was for mine, all ego. The better option was to look inside and pass to Herbie who was unmarked, and would have strolled in under the posts. This was the safest option. Isaako did not look to his inside. He saw an opportunity to show off his very good footwork. His ego came first, the team second.
Then, when he is put under serious pressure, he panics and either doesn't pass, kicks stupid or just takes a tackle when other options would have been better.
Because of this ego, which for mine is an example of the self entitlement a number of our players have, he just doesn't put in where it counts, like organising the defence on the line. He may have footy smarts but he doesn't show them. Because of this, I wonder if he is, at this stage, able to be coached. Coached to always look to support Haas as Paps and Teddy support their running forwards, or standing up or to the sides of a scrum ready to run an angle say, changing the point of attack, as Paps does so well.
I would have expected by now that he would have moved a lot further in his growth as a player than he has. He is for mine a very good player who could become so much better if he put himself second, and the team first.
As for Reynolds, absolutely. He is what we haven't had for as long as I can remember - an organising, game managing half back. I think a combination of Reynolds and Milford would be killer.
Lastly, again at this stage as I see it, we don't need a hooker to support Turps, We need a hooker who Turps can support, off the bench. If only we could lure Harry Grant here.
