Brett Stewart vs Will Hopoate

I'm pretty confident one of two things will happen in regards to our fullback role.

Either Will Hopoate goes back there or Brett Stewart is given a release and joins us.

Now, let's assume for a second that Stewart wants to leave Manly and that Manly grant a release.

Who do you prefer?

Stewart Pros

One of the great modern-day fullbacks, Stewart would add immediate experience, speed and class to the Parramatta backline. Just as Hayne was to Parramatta, Stewart has been similar to Manly - with him in the side the fit and firing, they seldom lost. 

Stewart for Hayne would be as close to like-for-like as Parramatta could manage. The loss of Hayne would be minimised and the Eels would go into next season pretty much on par in terms of the quality of their cattle. Their would be no need to find another centre as Hopoate would continue in that role.

With Watmough, Stewart would bring some of the Manly winning mentality to the club. The pair of them could maybe help the club lure Foran the following year. Parramatta's next big fullback prodigy is probably Bevan French, who is about the right age to manufacture a transition.

Stewart Cons

Stewart is injury-prone and he's only getting older. Once assumes that as he moves into his 30's, he is likely to lose that yard of pace that enabled him to routinely turn half-gaps into tries. If he loses his pace, where does that leave the rest of Stewart's gain. One would assume, that like Watmough, Stewart will be wanting a three-to-four-year contract to see out his career. At his age that has to be a risk. 

More importantly, Stewart will be expecting a comparable contract to Hayne. It will prevent Parramatta from restructuring their salary cap and moving more of their cap into the halves where we've struggled and where there is a once-in-a-decade level of opportunity to recruit the game's best. Is Manly's culture where the senior players appear to have had enormous influence really something we want to copy?

Hopoate Pros

Had Will Hopoate not left the game, no doubt Manly would have been grooming him to take over from Stewart  anyway. In the limited amount of games that Hopoate played at fullback in the NRL he was exceptional, producing multiple man of the match performances and stamping himself as perhaps the game's next big star. He is a smart player with great game sense and is potentially a representative fullback. The fact that he was considered good enough for Origin, despite playing only a couple of months football after a two-year break was a pretty amazing achievement. Fullback is his junior position and is probably the position best suited to his physique. Parramatta could very well be replacing the current NSW fullback with the next NSW fullback.

Critically, the maneuver opens up the Eels salary cap to recruit pretty much any player we want at a time when there is a lot of halves talent on the open market.

Hopoate impresses all with his work ethic and professionalism and he's the type of player that you might want as one of your core senior team members.

Hopoate Cons

Hopoate didn't set the world on fire in his return year. He was slower than Eels fans would have wished and there must be some doubt as to whether he has the pace to be a fullback where raw speed is so crucial to the way that position is played.

Maybe he'll be a great fullback? Maybe he won't? Fullback is such a key position, it might be argued that it's not the position you want to take any risks. It will weaken our centre options when there aren't a plethora of quality centres off-contract. 

Given we don't have a huge amount of creativity in the halves, there must also be some doubts as to whether Hopoate is the right kind of fullback for us and whether we need a fullback with a few more playmaking strings to their bow. 

My verdict:

I'm good with either option. I think Hopoate will be an exceptional fullback and that we won't lose as much as most people are making out with him replacing Hayne at the back. Stewart is an amazing footballer and who would say no to his class and experience.

In the end, who best replaces Jarryd Hayne is not our major issue, in my view. To build a football team you need quality halves to control a game and right now we don't have the control or the creativity we need at six or seven. I think addressing that issue must remain Parramatta's number one objective and so where we go in regards to fullback has to be made with one eye on what direction we hope to go with our 2016 half recruitment.

If Stewart can be recruited at a not unreasonable level and it increases our chances of signing a Foran and we can manage our cap efficiently enough to make all that happen, then it gives us a very good platform to move forward from. However, is Stewart impedes our ability to recruit Foran or another proven half or five-eighth, in my view I'd be happy to trust that Hopoate is good enough to own that fullback role.

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Replies

  • I don't want Stewart. He relies a lot on his halves to give him the room to create and when he has centres like Matai and Lyon he doesn't need to give them a lot of space. In terms of quality, Stewart and Hayne are worlds apart, don't try and replace Hayne with Stewart.

    Our best bet is moving Hopoate to fullback. It may open ourselves up a little more out-wide but we've got to bite the bullet here. It might mean we trade off some short term pain for long term gain, but I think Hopoate can do a job there and do it well. Stewart will cost a lot and if he bombs then we're stuck with him, whereas we have Hopoate at the club anyway.

    • How much short term pain do we want? 5 years not enough for you?
    • I want hoppa to go to fullback. But it means we need to buy a quality first grade centre to partner champion before the season starts.
    • Have to agree that Stewart is not a like for like. Hayne added another ability in play making that Stewart can't, not to Hayne's level anyway. Where he would be good is if the halves step up and take control, creating the gaps for Stewart and any other fullback considered to run into. we don't need another Jarryd Hayne (as much as it would be great) if the halves do their job week in week out.

  • no comment!
    • There were a few Stuart typo's in there 1EE.....I started to get palpitations.

    • Hoppa announced he was gay a fortnight ago?
  • Half a season? I'm not saying we write it off but with two new centres it might take a bit for them to settle into our systems. At least in Champion we have a seasoned professional who shouldn't take too long to adjust. I'm more worried about who replaces Hopoate.

  • lol. so there was! hoorah for find and replace

  • lets puts this blog up again if we get stewart first then put this blog up untill then waste of time

This reply was deleted.

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