I'm very happy with this signing, gives it 100% wherever he gets played

Unusual to make announcements on a Bank Holiday!

Moran must be offering the overtime

Guess he fills the quota spot for next year.
Happy if that's the main deal done and dusted.

That depends on whether we offer Drinkwater a new deal.

Now that Hayes is unavailable, and possibly going into next season, it is inevitable that we will retain Drinkwater.

Industry in the engine room, hopefully removing a few tackles from the playmakers quota and thus allowing them to focus on building off a solid platform.

If we've got him and Crowther on the pitch during an opposition purple patch it could be a nice mitigation

He made a few errors in the Catalan game, saw Fitzgibbon give him a rocket.

Nicholson confirmed to Canberra just now, so I suppose that'w why we pre-empted it with the announcement of Yates, to soften the blow.

We don't have another emerging half back ready for Superleague in our Academy, to cover Hayes' absence.

The problem with retaining Drinkwater is a Quota player who won't command 1st team selection when Hayes recovers from his injury.

Serious question, would you rather have Yates or Nicholson?

I think the only advantage Nicholson has over Yates is age. At the moment Yates probably is a slightly better player. I think Nicholson could easily surpass him but as a replacement I think it’s a very good one. Softens the blow.

Different players with different roles in the team

Also this is likely Yates last big move. We should get a solid few years out of him playing 100% and at the top of his game.

Nicholson always had that next move on the horizon.

For team stability, this is a very good signing.

The question of who we would rather have is irrelevant. Nicholson isn’t leaving because we didn’t offer him enough money, he’s off to the NRL to show off his undoubted talent at only 20 years of age. Hopefully the fact we let him go early, means he’ll look favourably on us when he returns.

Plus, the biggest loss we are facing happens at the end of next season when Burgess goes.