The Tigers have a halves problem. Wakeham cannot be relied on. Galvin & Large are a few years away you'd imagine. Doueihi is injured. Brooks is gone. Laurie & Will Smith are unsigned.
This is, however, what we are dealing with right now.
We lack direction. We lack a good tactical kicking game. We lack a good reader of opposition defences.
We have 2 reasonable runners of the ball in Brooks & Laurie. Doueihi kind of fits that role too.
People on here are very quick to say Sezar, Clune, Cogger etc are not an upgrade.
I disagree. They add ALL the things we currently lack. Direction. Kicking game. Defence reading. Are they elite talents? Hell no. But, they do ADD to what we have, or in this case, don't have. Sezar additionally comes with a bunch of 1st grade experience. Clune is a very steady performer at all levels. Cogger has shown he keeps the Panthers team running, but we often discount his SL experience.
You can add players like Flanagan & Drew Hutchison to that list as well.
Or, Mitchell Pearce.
All these players offer something we currently lack, so adding them is an improvement to the squad, regardless of what you feel of their reputation.
Losing Brooks (and probably Laurie/scratch Doueihi for now) means we need to add that running factor as well. Fainu is the obvious choice. But this is where Blake Taaffe becomes an option. Off contract, by the way, in a team that has him way down the pecking order. If we DID get Sezar, Blake Austin additionally adds that running game. Now, before we yell "Austin is rubbish"...is he WORSE than what Brooks has offered the last 10 years? Worse than what Laurie offers?
Signing superstar halves is hard. Developing them is MUCH better. We have a few coming through. We have a competitive forward pack. We have some promising outside backs & fullback. We need a couple of guys directing these pieces around MORE EFFECTIVELY than Wakeham & Brooks have. With that in place, the club is moving forward.
The absolute key is- do NOT overspend on players that are not going to be long term solutions.