Brooks has all the skills and also time on his side. It took Ben Hunt a few years and he's now brilliant. Hopefully as fans we allow him time to develop. As ordinary as his tackling stats are at this stage, his try assist stats are just as good.
How much time though, do you reckon?
If we do a comparison with Farah, Robbie made his debut in 2003, played 4 games, then missed most of 2004 through injury. 2005 was his breakout year and 2006 really the season where he first produced elite-level form.
As soon as I saw Farah take the field in 2003, I knew he had a special quality. Not as fast to mature as Benji, but clearly a standout talent. He was helped by being in a fairly strong side in his formative years.
Brooks debuted 2013 and has now had two uninterrupted seasons. Apart from his debut match, I have honestly yet to see him produce a complete game of footy, where he held the match in his control for 80 minutes. It's a lot to ask for, of course, but if a team is going to be a legitimate chance of taking the title, the halves need to have regular standout games, where they drag the team across the line through their own excellence.
That's not to say he can't become this type of player, and as others have noted, patience can sometimes be the biggest virtue with these young talents.
But of our standout juniors in the past decade, Brooks has not come on as quickly as our best talents have. Certainly he has sufficient ability to be first-choice in 2016, but I expect more of him next year, more improvement.