You are 💯 correct in saying we desperately need some experienced depth in our outside backs.
I have long been a fan of Brent Naden, I don’t think he ever reached near the heights of what he was capable of, but I’m now seeing signs of him slowing down and I think the timing is right for us to offload him.
Similar with Tui’tupou, he added some real value to our NSW Cup team this season, but he will be 29y.o next season, I think it’s time to give some younger players with bigger potential an opportunity in our NSW Cup team.
I’m not all that keen on Tommy Talau retuning. He has undoubted talent and very good physicality, but he’s just slow for an outside back and we are already slow in the outside backs, we desperately need to find outside backs with more speed.
Talakai would be a great signing, I see him more as an impact power running forward which is also something we need, but his versatility to also cover the backs is just an added bonus. If we offload Jack Bird and replace him with Talakai as our regular number 15, it would be a very good upgrade.
A few others have mentioned Corey Allan and although he’s not overly fast either, he would be my strong preference as a versatile, experienced outside back to add depth and quality to our squad.
Unfortunately I think he will head to the UK as he’s too good to be playing NSW Cup for large parts of the season.
If we cannot add someone like Corey Allan I would be locking up and developing our own Max Taotua.
I like how to make the hard decisions.
I like Naden too. I love the fact that he came from a dirt poor env and made it in the NRL. Yea, we need to make harder choices and offload him.
The difference with 2025 has been the outside backs..
You have:
Turuva, Toa, Bula, May (Tyrone)/AD and Skelton
Compared with 2024
Staines, Toa, Bula, Naden?/AD and Tupou...
Take May out of it, and the try scoring ability is comparable... a little better in 2025.
The Defense though is a total improvement. Naden sucks as a center, but goes better on the wing.
Toa improved out of site and suddenly our back line can hold... not perfect and I doubt were even in the top 50% of NRL backlines. Were at a competitive standard now.
I like the idea of Siosifa Talakai. Someone who can play in the forwards but cover the backs for injury. If I have to be critical of Marshall for something, it's having a bench of backs. I personally like Seyfarth, but playing him for 80 minutes is asking for mistakes. Having a Gavin Cooper style back that can cover center is exactly what we need. It's also why if we have to keep a fringe-grader. Jack Bird is able to fill so many roles, he is good utility value.
Overall though, having first grade backs like Turuva has made such a difference to the side. Such an incredible difference. If we start hiring backs I don't want us to hire juniors and have them learn in the first grade side. Nor NRL hasbeens. Lets pay up, forget about back-depth and get really really solid backs that can defend. People that always take the field in any team. Cash and pony up.