One needs a lot of faith to compare a rookie coming back from a serious ACL injury with all those proven quality backs .One also need a lot of faith and hope that Gutho will fulfil his potential and recover 100% from his injury
My thoughts too.
Matai, Killer and Snake may all be past their best but they are still way better than Gutherson ( and Tom T for that matter ) and their current contract values reflect that.
Does anyone have an idea on what Gutho's new deal was?
Just say he was on $150-200k ( a guess?) and we upped Tom to around the same that means we are paying both of them together $300-400k for what, half a season max?
Yes, it's great to have depth but at what cost?
Ideally we'd want our top 5 (and highest paid) backs playing every week to have a shot at the title, sure they may miss a week or three here and there but look at the season just gone
- Snake 22 games, Hiku 22, Matai 19, Lyon 17, Taufua 17 which compares quite well against other teams backlines.
Tom T played 9
Not exactly a bunch of crocks are they.
So do we pay Gutho overs to play reserve grade or drop proven stars that still do the job better than most?
A decision was made and who knows, Gutherson's management may have instigated it, the days of young "stars of the future" biding their time in reggies are over. They want to play 1st grade now and make the money that goes with it.
Time will tell whether it's a prudent decision but on the information in front of me, I'm prepared to go with it.
MCK came to us as a "superstar of the future" and three years later he played how many games? 5 or 6? Yep, the Tigers may end up reaping the rewards but you can't win 'em all.