OFFICIAL Broncos sign John Asiata to one year deal

[Marty Deutschmann]

Asiata: First Day As A Bronco

We talk to John Asiata on first day at the Broncos as a player.

www.broncos.com.au

This is well worth a watch. He's super professional, well spoken. Very impressed, I hope he kills it this year and forces our hand to re-sign him for another 2.

He certainly looks fitter than Milford

 

[Marty Deutschmann]

I suspect Kev will play him a bit like James Graham at the dogs (Trbo at Manley). A lot of ball playing before the halves which will take a lot o pressure off of Milford and Dearden. He’s a big talker in attack but admittedly i haven’t paid that much attention to him in defence.

You assume Dearden

 

[theshed]

You assume Dearden

I do. I was actually going to write Dearden/Croft but cbf’d with replies shitting on Croft.

 

[Foordy]

What is the actual deal with Asiata? Was he just stuck behind lolo at the cowboys and just copped the versatile tag as he’s just super handy to have on the bench? What’s his defence like? I know he’s got wicked ball skills for a middle but he’s also not overly big. He’s also only 27 so he should be in his prime. Is he talker on the field? Seems like he will be great for the culture of the club.

lots of questions in there but I’ve only ever really seen him come off the bench or play in the halves (randomly).

This is just my guess, but I think it's likely to be because Cowboys are really the opposite of us in that they had a glut of playmaking options. You could argue a lot of those aren't firing right now, but if they were to come good then it would really make Asiata as a ball playing Middle Forward a little surplus to their needs. This is the total opposite of the Broncos though in that a ball playing Middle Forward would be wonderful support for our very thin and unproven spine and he is likely to be far more valuable to us.

I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with him being surplus to requirements or not being good enough or anything like that ..

It was quite simply that Lock is his preferred position, one that he is hoping to settle in (rather than being moved all around the park) ... and that was problematic at the Cowboys because he was stuck behind arguably the best lock in the world.

 

[something]

I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with him being surplus to requirements or not being good enough or anything like that ..

It was quite simply that Lock is his preferred position, one that he is hoping to settle in (rather than being moved all around the park) ... and that was problematic at the Cowboys because he was stuck behind arguably the best lock in the world.

He's arguably the best lock ever. Without doubt the best lock in the world.

 

[theshed]

I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with him being surplus to requirements or not being good enough or anything like that ..

It was quite simply that Lock is his preferred position, one that he is hoping to settle in (rather than being moved all around the park) ... and that was problematic at the Cowboys because he was stuck behind arguably the best lock in the world.

Arguably? He is the best lock in the world, he is quite possibly the best lock of all time, and an argument to be made that he’s the best forward of all time.

 

[Sproj]

Arguably? He is the best lock in the world, he is quite possibly the best lock of all time, and an argument to be made that he’s the best forward of all time.

Nah that's clearly David Fifita, the Titans sure think so to pay him what they are anyway.

 

[Jason Simmons]

He certainly looks fitter than Milford

Is that a feat?

 

[theshed]

Is that a feat?

 

[kooly87]

I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with him being surplus to requirements or not being good enough or anything like that ..

It was quite simply that Lock is his preferred position, one that he is hoping to settle in (rather than being moved all around the park) ... and that was problematic at the Cowboys because he was stuck behind arguably the best lock in the world.

So... surplus to requirements then.

 

[Foordy]

So... surplus to requirements then.

only if you want no depth (and a versatile player).

i'm actually pretty sure they wanted to re-sign him ... he chose not to for the reasons previously stated

 

[kooly87]

only if you want no depth (and a versatile player).

i'm actually pretty sure they wanted to re-sign him ... he chose not to for the reasons previously stated

You seem to be interpreting calling him surplus to requirements as a criticism of him, even though I made it abundantly clear that it wasn't.

Brandon Smith and Harry Grant are both absolute guns, but both are surplus to requirements at Melbourne if Cameron Smith plays on. Matt Burton at the Panthers looks to be a gun of the future but he too is surplus to requirements at the Panthers behind two other young guns in Cleary and Luai.

Being behind Taumalolo doesn't diminish Asiata as a player. Every other Lock in the game would be surplus to requirements at the Cowboys too. You don't need to leap to defend him here because no one is bagging him, least of all me. I'm simply saying he doesn't hold much value for the Cowboys because they have JT, whilst he offers plenty of potential value to us because we (at least last I checked) do not have JT.