Turpin has done some good things, but his crisp service isnt as crisp as some of you lot like to make out. His decision making in terms of pass selection isnt that great either.
He has got a bit of leeway from fans for 2 reasons imo. The first is basically his style of play. He is all effort and competes for everything every time he goes out onto the field. Its also a weakness of his imo as he just burns himself out and his form generally drops for a couple of weeks. Its been happening to him ever since i started watching him regularly and taking notice of him in 2018. He needs to adapt his game a little to avoid this happening.
The second reason is because he isnt Andrew McCullough.
The only thing that I would say in defence of Turps is that he hasn't really had a solid run as the no. 1 hooker.
2019 he got a couple games after Seibold finally had enough of Macca... only for Dearden to get injured and eventually Turps going to halback for the rest of the year
2020 he got rounds 1 & 2 where he was ok from memory (scored a soft try vs cows... souths game may have been quiet after Croft was injured in the opening minutes and we lacked a cohesive attack from then on)... and then he broke his arm after 80mins against Eels and making 64 tackles. By the time he came back (round 10 or so??) the team was shot and then he broke his hand (I think??) and was done for the year
I don't know a lot about his juniors, but I think he came through as a halfback and has had 2-3 knee recos? before then being moved to hooker, but potentially storm were done with him after his injuries and moved their focus onto other prospects... noting that he was effectively a manufactured hooker at that point.
As with many things, 2020 was hugely disappointing for him, but it would've been interesting to see how he would've gone knowing he was the number 1 hooker and if he hadn't picked up the injuries.
I'm not ready to give up on him yet, as I feel like I haven't really been able to see him play hooker for a prolonged period
One thing I like about him is that he brings quick line speed in defence and is very capable in defence, but I agree that he needs to manage himself better through a game.
I also think his service is perhaps a bit overrated... he's not out there firing 30m spiral passes from dummy half, which nowadays is an absolute necessity because it allows your half to receive it outside the first 2-3 defenders on the front foot. But as mentioned I feel like I haven't seen enough of him to be able to right him off just yet. I haven't seen a whole lot of BSmith's service in this respect either (primarily due to a lack of appearances at 9), but you would imagine he is aware of how important service is after learning off CS9
Hooker is far from the most pressing need, but B Smith is absolutely the best free agent currently on the market and we should be going after him... as with most things Broncos at the moment, the timing of BSmith entering the market is not that great for us, but we should be looking to pick him up
