I agree except that to me that is where the club started it's faults at halfback. Not only did we let smith go, we let Long go and then tried to negotiate with Eastmond.

I'm sorry but in an industry were the talent is key, giving the talent all the cards, then you have nothing to negotiate with. If we still had not told Smith and Long to take a running jump, then When Eastmond was negotiating we could have tried harder to seal him to a longer term deal, had he stuck to 2 years, then we could have offered Smith or Long something to reduce the impact.

Yup, Eastmond was streets ahead of Smith and the obvious choice to hold on to, but allowing Smith to leave when we didn't have Eastmond tied down was poor form. I'm not sure whether that was a simple bad decision or that we were out manouvered by Eastmond's agent.

We have at least two half backs better than Smith.

I'm not going to debate that as I think it's too early to say that at the moment, but even if we all agreed on that, it does not change the shambles at halfback for the last 3 years.

This is the same Nathan Brown who said that Greg Eden was the next Billy Slater.

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.