As much as i liked having Brooks in the team .. he just has never progressed into that super halfback that everyone said he would be. He has served his time with us, but he needs a sea change .. I think its best that he moves on to try to become that super half .. maybe another team will allow him to develop into that. My concerns with Brooks is that .. he has a poor kicking game, he not creative / deceptive enough with his ball skills .. he's not a talker .. which means he cant lead the team around the field .. and he panics on the 5th tackle options .. !!
I will have to agree with peoples opinion that if we go with Hastings and Doueihi we have the slowest halves pairing in the comp. However Hastings is a massive jibberer / talker on the field .. he barks orders all game long .. he is creative with the ball .. he appears to have a good kicking game, especially close to the line (from what we have seen) .. he has a good passing game .. where Doueihi has size and strength .. not that quick off the mark, but appears to be deceptively quick over the distance .. has a big boot when kicking and pretty good a spiral torpedo bombs .. Wally Lewis and Alfie Langer where never quick but they found a way to confuse the opposition. But who knows maybe Sheens / Marshall have a different plan for our halves for next few years. Like people have said in here, Sheens likes what Brooks brings.
But i thinks its time for Brooks to move on .. big question though .. if he goes because he wants to go, it appears that he has requested an early release from his remaining contract .. so are when then required to pay him out .. i thought that if player requests an earlier release their current team isn't required to pay out their contract .. ?? So if Brooks is on $800K+ Newcastle must be prepared to take his contract on, and that means we don't have to pay a cent.
Klemmer on the other hand .. is on $800K for the first year then as some have said a reduction over the following years .. around $500K .. he's a forward pack leader which what our forward pack needs .. he still makes meters in attack .. he offloads the ball in tackles, something the Easter Island Statue didnt do .. i think Klemmer still has a year or 2 in him.
So its time for the Tigers to move in another direction without Brooks steering the helm .. he's had several years at trying with this team and it hasnt worked for him.
Sorry for my novel .. ;-)
