Tim Smith close to signing elsewhere.

[Anonymous person]

the thing is, Hooker has ALWAYS been an 80 minute position - its not something new.

the only reason teams should be replacing their hooker is if they have 2 quality hookers, like QUEENSLANDER said. i never understood why Bennett would replace our hooker (well i did - senility) when all it does is disrupt the team. NSW did this time and time again, and it NEVER worked for them. theyd replace Buderus, and just crumble. QLD on the other hand has Smith for the entire match.

look back to 5 years ago and no teams had 2 hookers. it was just something stupid that a few coaches did when they saw one coach having success with it, despite him only having success with it because he had 2 genuinely first class hookers.

Tim Smith is a potentially huge loss. we all know he can be an absolutely brilliant player, and can lead a team around the park with the best of them. personally i wouldve been happy to rest wallace and see how smith could go with us. as good as wallace is, hes NEVER going to be a game-breaker. he just isnt the type of player. he can shuffle the ball to the right person, hes got an above-average kicking game, but he will never be anything more than a 'good' halfback.

 

[ALH]

Smith was rookie of the year since that year has done nothing.

Wallace on the other hand has proven himself at Origin Level.

Behind him we have Hunt so I am fine with Smith leaving.

 

[Bannermania]

Smith was rookie of the year since that year has done nothing.

Wallace on the other hand has proven himself at Origin Level.

Behind him we have Hunt so I am fine with Smith leaving.

Since then? the guy's bipolar for god's sake.. not much he could do.

 

[Anonymous person]

Wallace on the other hand has proven himself at Origin Level.

I wouldn't say Wallace even went close to proving himself at Origin level. he's hardly proven himself to be anything more than adequate at club level.

 

[ALH]

Smith was rookie of the year since that year has done nothing.

Wallace on the other hand has proven himself at Origin Level.

Behind him we have Hunt so I am fine with Smith leaving.

Since then? the guy's bipolar for god's sake.. not much he could do.

He went to England and wasn't that great I didn't need to state the obvious with his time away from the game with Bipolar.

I think he will go okay but to put him ahead of Wallace and Hunt would be a bad decision

 

[Flutterby]

Oh well no point going for East in the Qcup now

For sure he is a loss for Easts. But TBH - he spent pretty much the whole off-season training with the Broncos not Easts, so they haven't really had him around that much and it's not like their whole game plan has been built around him. Easts still have 4 quality QRL-level halves in Van Dijk, Georgiou, Pill and Phillips.

 

[PETERN]

What a joke, Wallace has NOT proven himself at Origin level, let alone at NRL level. Wallace has had more then enough time to settle with the squad, and has not had more then a couple games where he has clearly dominated and shined above the rest of the squad.

Wallace is a decent player, I'm not saying his not good enough, but Tim Smith was a player who would've brought some creativity and spark to the Broncos squad, something which is clearly lacking at the moment. It would have been worth giving him a chance after all the talk of him 'killing' the trial games he played in.

I for one am disappointed, and believe letting him go will cost the Broncos. If the Sharks start scoring points, it will be on the back of Smiths' creativity.

 

[QUEENSLANDER]

yup, we will regret letting him go

 

[Meat77]

yup, we will regret letting him go

Maybe...but realistically how were we going to keep him? He's got a guaranteed spot in First Grade as starting halfback for 2 years at Cronulla - that was never going to happen here.

 

[Charmamba]

We have 2 Halves playing now

Hunt and Norman who can play in the halves.

Nothing to regret at all imo. 5 Halves in the top25 is over board.

 

[Anonymous person]

well lockyer will be gone in 2 years maximum, probably end of next year, wallace is failing to set the world on fire, and hunt just never gets any game time. norman is our fullback, not one of our halves.

Smith couldve been just what we need had they given him a chance.

 

[Charmamba]

Norman is a natural half however and with Hoffman and Kemp hanging around and able to play fullback. As nice as it would be to have Smith around its no massive loss either.

 

[Anonymous person]

i disagree, i think its a huge loss.

we have seen that he can be a MUCH better player than Wallace can ever hope to be. we saw that in his debut year when he was like 18 years old. we've been waiting and waiting for Wallace to blow our socks off, but its increasingly looking like hes just another slightly-above-average number filler.

 

[lynx000]

I still don't quite get where we `let him go'. We did not have a contract with him, Easts did. We apparently made him an offer of a two year contract which he did not take up. How did we `let him go'? He took the path to a starting halfback role with a desperate club, that is his choice. Time will tell if it was a good decision or a poor one.

 

[Bannermania]

I still don't quite get where we `let him go'. We did not have a contract with him, Easts did. We apparently made him an offer of a two year contract which he did not take up. How did we `let him go'? He took the path to a starting halfback role with a desperate club, that is his choice. Time will tell if it was a good decision or a poor one.

He had a joint contract with the Broncos and Easts.

 

[Charmamba]

i disagree, i think its a huge loss.

we have seen that he can be a MUCH better player than Wallace can ever hope to be. we saw that in his debut year when he was like 18 years old. we've been waiting and waiting for Wallace to blow our socks off, but its increasingly looking like hes just another slightly-above-average number filler.

So many players are awesome in their first year. We have no idea if he still has "it" at NRL level. We know what Wallace can offer and his a very solid half playing along side one of the games best.

We missed him massively last year against Melbourne.

 

[Anonymous person]

He took the path to a starting halfback role with a desperate club, that is his choice. Time will tell if it was a good decision or a poor one.

thats what im saying - we should have told him that if hes good enough, the starting halfback role will be his.

 

[Charmamba]

He took the path to a starting halfback role with a desperate club, that is his choice. Time will tell if it was a good decision or a poor one.

thats what im saying - we should have told him that if hes good enough, the starting halfback role will be his.

Yep and just push Hunt out. A player who has done nothing wrong by the club and is patient and waiting his turn.