Not in my eyes along with the eyes of 150 players anonymously polled in 2019.(in fairness to Fainu that poll may or may not have taken in the whole season)
For a player that has an average passing game, average at best defensive qualities, showed no real kicking game, no leadership qualities, no energy to rush out of dummy half defensively or be one of the leaders in kick chases sometimes, fatigued big time when the intensity was up beat, this is not the attributes of a top 5 hooker.(even for his age and experience)
For the right price Fainu is a keeper, but he most certainly isn't a player worth keeping on the books for 2yrs in the hope he either comes through the court case ok or off the back of "future potential" that i think is well over exaggerated beyond belief.
Plenty of other positions to sure up to make us a premiership threat along with depth before we should worry about a classy dummy half to capitalize on these good foundations.
Many hookers in the competition are making a name for themselves off the back of the team performance not as a result of them being the reason of that up tick in performance---to me this suggests you are better off focusing on other areas and a classy hooker completes the equation.
Not saying a top line hooker is not necessary as they can make a big difference, more a case of getting our priorities "acquisitions/retention" right before worrying about a hooker.
So many hookers have come out of nowhere and did a good job in teams with a good playing roster, along with good playing rosters have adapted well to not having their starting hooker.
Serious?
He was lapping Api - basically everyone on here said that. Api was hampering our attack with poor service - Fainu started our attack.
He was that much more effective in attack than Api. Maybe a factor of rotation as well. But I remember watching every game going 'just get Fainu on', then he would come on and completely change momentum.
He is one of those players that has
so much time with the ball. Not comparing him to these guys at all but theres some of those freak just real footy players ,i.e. your Johns / JT, that have that time with the ball where they just pick every right option. Cleary had it somewhat this year. His running game added a threat and he just perfectly timed his passes, created go forward through running e.g.
He comes back we move up minimum 4 teams in the ladder. His inclusion would still maybe make us scrape the 8. There is a huge difference between a first grade hooker and Danny Levi and Lachlan Croker, let alone a hooker that was a form one of the comp last year.
Bring in Tom and Dylan with fitness, we probably scrape the 4 (or fight for it).
Its concerning the lack of signings but still fully fit with luck we can beat anyone. We just need a couple of budget shrewd signings: 2. Saab 12. Garner 18. Backup Hooker (literally anyone proven in case the Cade / Foran experiment doesn't go well)
We don't need a prop - Paseka is ready to step up, so is Olakau'atu into a starting bench role and more minutes. Saddler deserves some game time. S.Fainu will probably be our starting prop in a couple years or so, may as well start thinking about him too. K Titmuss looks up to it physically.
Saab would be huge - added point of attack --> the air. Something we missed a lot this year.
