Did a mini dive on SST and watched the Catalans v Saints semi (switching between 1.0x and 3.0x speed)
He was definitely very involved throughout his two stints (20 mins, 25 mins), taking a hit-up virtually every attacking set, even if heavily involved in defence the previous set. He ran for 134m, though I don't know how many were directly from hit-ups. His hit-ups were very Ava like (although he does change direction in the lead up a lot more), meaning they didn't have a heap of explosiveness, but were consistent. As such, he sometimes lost a metre or two in the collision against eager (and semi-final) defence, and started bending the defence back when they were more fatigued, for e.g. his best run late in the second half (and had a few more similar after this):
View attachment 87017
He moved the ball laterally a few times, which usually wasn't effective, but in this instance he showed some ball playing skills and helped create one of the few line breaks in this match
View attachment 87018
(he is the pixel that passes the ball right before the line and gets tackled)
He was active in defence and covered a lot of ground from first marker to close the gap between ruck and first defender every time, and looked to be constantly communicating from marker. I didn't notice laziness, though he reportedly missed 4 tackles (which I probably missed during the sped up parts).
I also listened to his Bloke in a Bar interview where he talks about stepping away from the NRL, and it wasn't
as doom and gloom as I'd thought it would be based on how some on here have referenced it. He definitely says his body was "done" at the time of leaving the Roosters for Catalans, saying that he had calf, hammy, and quad injuries, which would take turns getting injured just as one healed, and he felt that he couldn't deliver for the Roosters at an NRL(/ "Roosters") standard. Thus, he says he felt it better to go to the Super league to "relax
for a bit", which in the context felt to me like a step away from the NRL to heal up, essentially in high-paying reserves, and then potentially return. He even says that during the Roosters end of season review there was talk of an eventual return, with him saying "I don't know, I might come back, but the lifestyle over there looks a lot more relaxed...".
Make what you want of this info dump. I don't know if he will be a good signing or not, but at least his admission of his body being kaput was at the time of leaving the NRL, with it sounding like a return decision hinged on whether he would be mentally willing to put his body back through it, after it recovered in Super League. Seems like he's had injuries throughout Super League, but unless we are making an exception for him, he would have had to pass our medical. Fingers crossed
