You can see the sense from both sides.

The club want him to sign early, get a better deal.

He wants to sign later, feels he can increase his price or get a better offer elsewhere once he has a chance to play and put himself in the shop window.

More power to him really, he's obviously confident in himself, if he does not put on a good show then his price would drop.

Eastmond was streets ahead of Lomax and the existing Gaskell, I think we can partly blame Eastmonds agent for messing him up during negotiations with a very frustrated Mc Manus giving up on direction of the talks.
Its 3 years on and its only now that it looks like we could be sorting the half back fiasco out, I just hope Brown can develop Gaskell very quickly to take some pressure off Lomax. Can only see Lance making the occaisional cameo appearance at 6........well lets hope so.

We [ipotentially[/i have 3 half backs better than Smith (Lomax, Gaskell, Wheeler) - as things stand at the moment you could only make an argument for picking Lomax over him (although naturally they are very, very different players).

Interesting

"Lance Hohaia is a unique player who is good in lots of positions. That is a real benefit for the team but probably DETRIMENT TO LANCE'S CAREER. He has represented his country at 9 and 1, and played a Grand Final at 6. He is a handy player and there isn't a team in Super League or the NRL that wouldn't have him in their side. They couldn't tell you what position to put him in, but they would all want him!"

am i reading too much into this or is nathan brown hinting that lance hohaia may not get a starting spot this season?? it just seems to me like a really nice way of saying
"i think lance hohaia is really really good. but we dont know where to play him"

maybe its wishful thinking on my part as i have never rated him much

Brown made a telling comment on the Beeb at one of the CHallenge cup games about hohaia at a something along the lines of he didnt fancy him at halfback.

Cant remeber if that was before or after his appointment.

I certainly feel he will be interchanging more than he will be starting this season, depending on injuries of course. Brown made a point of saying that he didn't think he was a halfback on a CC broadcast last year so it's fair to assume he won't be putting him into the halves unless he has to.

EDIT: ^ Great minds! And it was after his appointment IIRC.