What made Ice weaker this year was poor coaching and shit halves. Players I agree to an extent we didn’t have the same like Eels did last year, but we still had a pretty weak squad especially in the halves. We’ve seen what he’s capable of so we know how good he can be. And if we did move him on now for AFB, we don’t have anyone to replace him with and the market isn’t really that good for backrowers for 25. Some might have potential but we can’t always bank on it. Haumole is the only one that is a genuine replacement and even if we did manage to land him he won’t be here until 26. We would be dumb to do the same with Stef, but we do have options if we did especially since it’s one prop for another.AFB is in the top 5 front rowers in the game at the moment. IPap is a very good player but you could probably argue not currently in the top 10 edge forwards in the NRL. If IPap was the trade you had to make to get AFB, it’s a no brainer. Ideally you keep IPap and get AFB anyway, but if you have to choose…
A damaging, elite front rower or a very good edge forward who needs good players around him? AFB makes the players around him more effective, I reckon IPap needs good players around him to get the best out of him.