I don't know old mate, I think someone like Maloney for a year with an option in our favour for another year might be just what we need. Just to give those young halves a bit of guidance. He brings with him issues in defence, but he is a competitor.
I had been tossing this idea in my head during our rudderless opening month of the season but didn’t really delve into it thinking it would be an unpopular opinion and probably wouldn’t suit our club and thought that would be the end of it. Then he gets that NSW recall and also kills it at club land and all of a sudden I have been given it a train of thought again.
And it wasn’t until watching the Matty Johns show last night and he floated the idea that I realised the pundits have now thought about it and the more I think about it now, I think it’s a good idea for a couple of reasons.
Delving into the Panthers recruitment strategy, I think the plan with Maloney all along from what I have put together was to attract him to the club with a 3 years deal, get those 2 good years out of him and then offload him in the final year of his deal when he has outstayed his welcome and the team get sick of him, which at that stage they would have a ready made Jerome Luai more accustomed to first grade so that they still maintain a bit of experience in the halves whilst freeing up some cap to spend elsewhere in the team.
In essence this means that the Panthers have been openly willing to chip in to offload him. Matty Johns described it best last night “The Broncos are like a V12 engine but with no steering wheel” Whilst I am comfortable enough to give SOS and Dearden a crack together moving forward, we have to remember Dearden is only 18 and between him and SOS have barely played a dozen NRL games in total.
We have a forward pack right now that has the potential to win a comp I have no doubt about that in my mind. It’s all about consistency with them and with more experience that will come. Payne Haas is only 20 and he has already found that level of consistancy already!
This is where having a big game experienced top level half who can take control of a team on his own would be absolutely critical in us taking the next step. If we had Maloney in this team since Round 1, you could make a pretty reasonable argument that we would have won another 3 games and been equal on 22 points with the top 4. We would have beaten Dragons, Tigers and Warriors with him in the side. We just have no one like that to close out those type of games.
My thinking is, try to get Panthers to chip in half of his wage, bring him in for 12 months before he goes to England whilst he is still in his prime, play him alongside whichever half is showing the most at the time, and keep developing the other for another year and then we would be in a good position moving forward. His experience would be invaluable for guys like SOS and Dearden and would at least provide us with a more reasonable expectation of giving the comp a shake in 2020. Would be $400,000-$500,000 well spent if we can get him for that.
Like others have said, you could probably offload Bird to get Maloney but then we would have some pretty skinny decent depth at Centre. But then again we can’t keep Bird on the field anyway as it is so what is there to lose? Maloney and SOS in the halves fills me with a shit load more confidence and I reckon our backline would finally be able to take advantage of the platform our forwards can provide. Milford continues at 1 with a full pre season training there could be great for us in 2020. Maybe get Darbs to play centre. I have been very critical of him but I could live with him at centre if he can defend out there like he has done at 6. Plus he has a good draw and pass which would help our wingers.
1. Milford
2. Oates
3. Boyd
4. Staggs
5. Isaako/Farnworth/Coates
6. Maloney (Offload Bird)
7. SOS
8. Lodge
9. Turpin
10. Haas
11. Gillett
12. Glenn
13. TPJ
14. Segeyaro
15. Ofahengaue
16. Flegler/Carrigan
17. Fifita
18. McCullough
This side would make me optimistic we could at least challenge next season.
