The way I see it, it's the same as having Oates on the bench, with Sailor on the wing - except in reverse, if you get what I mean. That is, that Oates is the actual utility, who can play in the forwards or backs. Unless Walsh or one of the other backs is injured. In which case, we're down a forward.
Yeah if a second rower goes down... Oates moves infield and Sailor to the wing.
I'm more interested if there are no injuries and how Kevvie intends to use him then.
Kevvie carried Mariner on the bench against dogs and it was Cobbo that went into the forwards for a stint... he could do similar with Oates moving infield.
Or does he throw Sailor into the middle defence as a roaming lock/fullback... does he throw him into hooker and Smoothy/Billy doing a stint in the middle as lock.
I'm not sure how Kevvie will use him at the moment... and I'm also not sure how Sailor will play when he's not strictly ball playing from fullback.
I flagged Kodi and how he was a supersub that we had in 2015, etc. He used to come on with an intent to run... none of this fucking around at lock, it was just pass from dummy half or run if there was an opportunity.
Tristan looks to be more of a ball player first and a runner second, from what I've seen so far... so even that Kodi supersub role at hooker may not be suitable for Tristan... however he might have a license this game so I'll be interested to see how the game plays out and whether it's an option moving forward.
I think one thing this early injury crisis is providing is an opportunity to check flexibility of players to play other roles in the team.
Our depth is fucking trash this year, but if we can find some guys outside the top 17 that are NRL level quality and can play multiple roles it helps us out immensely for the rest of the year and they might even find themselves in the 17 due to their flexibility i.e. Oates.
We know Tristan can cover Reece... if we find that he can do a role coming off the bench... suddenly his value across the squad is increased and he's potentially not looking to move to ESL in November, and then we have our top notch fullback cover sitting there ready to go, but he might have a job in the 17 every week as well.
Similar with Oates... he's an NRL level winger, but if he can play in the forwards off the bench... then it could be a mini career revival and gives us more options in the 17 and across the squad moving forward.