Will Smith signs

When Will Smith was selected in Rd 1 against Brisbane, i simply thought of two reasons why; 1: Give Mahoney a breather throughout the match with the new rules and 2: Cartwright is out as that utility type. However with Cartwright coming back in and Smith retaining his spot, and also seeing the role he's played in the first month of 2021 it is becoming clearer to the role of Will Smith.

The role of a supersub is becoming more important and crucial in the NRL with HIA and the speed of the game becoming more prevalent, injuries can happen anywhere on the field and fast. Reshuffling kills teams just as much as teams losing a player for the match. If you go through the team list of every NRL team this week you will see only 2 teams are playing 4 forwards on the bench. That used to be us before shifting the narrative to thinking instead of playing Hipgrave or Stone for 5-10 minutes, why not have a cover for the backline sitting there as a worst case scenario

In comes Will Smith, ability to play Fullback, Centre, Five-Eighth, Halfback, Hooker and even seen playing a designated Lock role against Melbourne playing as a sort of a second halfback distributing in the middle as a pathway towards Brown and Moses on either side. Now this became more and more obvious as the season went for all of us to know what is going on in that rotation, though it just makes me think how lucky we are to have Smith as a mr. fix it.

At the start of the year if you asked any Parramatta fan who knew Will Smith to describe they would perhaps say, he is a capable first grader who can fill many positions though would not be ideal as a full-time starter. I think that would be a fair assumption, however being on the bench as a mr. fix it on the bench to avoid re-shuffling particularly in the backline as much as possible is as important as him being available to cover say Gutho for a game or two.

Now there has been chatter that it is a wasted bench spot and he's only getting 5 mins in some games what is the point. Well yes but then i look at Canberra tonight losing Nicoll-Klokstad, re-shuffle Rapana to 1 and their left side is out of whack. You can see the one game Smith is not on the bench there will be a backline reshuffle and there goes the attack, Smith came on for Moses against Cronulla and though you noticed Moses missing it was not as bad as if 4 forwards were named.

I think this is the way of the new NRL, with a player who is considered very versatile being valuable to have on the bench, moving away from teams having a second hooker unless that hooker can play middle forward, but the speed and player safety leans in favour of a Will Smith type and there is no issue for me as for now it is working and makes me feel comfortable if he has to be shoehorned into somewhere mid game.

The only thing that may cause Smith will be if Waqa Blake comes back soon, shifting Niukore to the bench doubting Papali'i, Kaufusi or Cartwright being pushed for Niukore.

On last note, i do believe Nathaniel Roache could be a handy player in this type of role. Played Lock and Centre before coming off the bench for the Warriors, though he possesses good speed and attacking skills in order to take over that role, though unlike Smith he cannot play fullback, but who knows maybe he can