Brett is not out of form just his limitations as a player are being exposed more due to a lack of ball players on his inside (both sides) setting up the opportunities for Brett to pick and choose when to inject himself into the back line.
Last year with Foran and DCE still playing on either side for the most part (but yes starting to float around with more freedom at times) there was still a ballplayer on his inside playing to a back-line structure to bring him in to play.
Now with all the new halves pairings lacking time and experience together, only able to play with a basic structure for various reasons, DCE not locked in to a far right corridor as often as the past or playing off the back of second man short side plays, Brett's opportunities to pick and choose when to inject himself are very limited.
All this talk about Brett being a ball player was way over the top and taking away the value of his brother on his inside and Foran setting him up to finish off back-line plays (they were the ball-playing class along with DCE not Brett)
I wouldn't be looking into his kick return numbers to gauge his level of interest or attitude as they have always been poor, but at his age his footy smarts should shine through and get himself involved with more touches in other areas of the field that are about a fast football brain not just fast hands on the edges.
To me the most disappointing aspect of his game is for all his years in the game he should be displaying more footy smarts/footy speed and get his hands on the ball in more areas----just jogging to the left or right back-line spread corridor waiting for a second man play is not good enough.
Yes Manly could do with better kick return numbers which help out every set of six but in the past we compensated for Brett's weakness in this area with David Williams, Taufua and Matai making inroads in the early tackles now this weakness is being exposed a lot more.
Plain and simple, lacks the exhilarating speed to make something out of nothing like his earlier years (beautiful to watch back then), never was a ball player, never had footwork, lacks size and power, so if Brett is not bringing any footy smarts to the table he is just making up the numbers.
Fans keep harping on about the win ratio and performances over the years with Brett at FB, this should be the case when he has been a big part of our structured well drilled and orchestrated plays for years along with his experience at the back marshaling the troops.
Without change and allowing another FB time in the position Brett will always be the better option and offering more wins----doesn't make it the right option unless you only care about the present.
I still have my fears of Tom ending up being an Inglis at FB where he gets exhausted doing forward like hit ups, plays injured due to all the grinding hit up plays, or fatigued at the wrong times of the game, its not like he has a big all round skill set on display(at the moment---- he does show glimpses though) other than his size and speed but he goes looking for the ball and gets his numbers up, which Brett isn't doing.