For the record, in the interest of the game, these mid-season loans/transfers shouldn't be allowed.
Particularly when it's a bottom 4 team giving a player to a top 4 team, much less their captain and best player. There's a part of me that is glad it didn't happen but I know from reading BHQ, there's a bit of carry on as if we just got robbed of our opportunity to pull off this sort of signing. They shouldn't be allowed to begin with.
That is all well and good, but the rule cant be no trades between top 4 and bottom 4... because where do you draw the line?
Dragons were sitting 2nd in round 2... does that mean they just wait a week to fall out of the top 4 and then pull the trigger.... or it's all good because it's early in the year (another rule / caveat to add then).
Parra are sitting in 7th at the moment... if Dbrown is banned for the year is it ok for Bhunt to go there, because they're not "top 4".
There just shouldn't be trades this late in the year, but there's still a month until August 1... so still plenty of time for Ben to agitate for a release.
And that's my biggest issue... how late in the season it is to be moving players around. It has a legitimate impact on finals where teams with cap space can cherry pick players that they otherwise wouldn't have.
It shouldn't be about player x going to team y, because it's bad optics... it should be about player x moving at all this close to the finals.
Everyone has known it's an issue since 2020 when they pushed the date out, but only now is it an issue in the eyes of the NRL.
Bhunt only has another 2 months of footy with dragons because no doubt he'll be moving before next preseason. I'm sure he can survive that long.... just like players used to be able to survive after the old June 30 rule
