Peats, Bird, Paasi, James, Pulu, Shillington ... nice middle gang for the Titans.

The first sacrificial lamb in the Parramatta Eels salary cup saga has bee found, with Nathan Peats joining Gold Coast Titans for the rest of this season as well as next season. Apparently this has resulted in the Eels dropping under the salary cap, so happy days yeah?

Despite how much this sucks for Peats, it's a smart move by the Eels as they have adequate depth at dummy half to cover the loss of Peats. Isaac De Gois is a battler of some quality and will plug the gap left by Peats, along with Kaysa Pritchard who has gradually enjoyed greater game time under Brad Arthur. Pritchard played alongside his brother Frank for Samoa and I wouldn't be surprised if Arthur and the Eels are willing to give Pritchard a long-term opportunity to be the No.1 Eels hooker.

Peats is a fine hooker, one of the best in the league but there are other blokes, worth less money who can do a similar job to Peats.

That is also why this is a great pick up for the Titans, who lack a solid, experienced and skillful dummy half. The Titans do have Nathan Friend, but he's only contracted for this season and at his age, he isn't the sort of hooker you want to build your team around. Friend has been backed up this season by Kierran Moseley, who is also off-contract at the end of the season.

Daniel Mortimer? He's a fine utility who, like the other two, is off-contract after this season.

Moseley was a gun for the Panthers' Under-20's and reserve grade teams, before moving up to the Gold Coast where he has struggled to establish himself as NRL hooker. That's why Friend was signed and it's going to be interesting to see what direction the Titans head in as they'll need either Mortimer or Moseley to play back up to Peats.

Or the Titans could bring through a young hooker.

Peats can play 80 minutes in the middle of the field, it's meat and vege for a player of Peats' toughness and he often shifted to a lock sort of role with the Eels when either De Gois or Pritchard came on. This could see the Titans use Peats in a similar role, alongside Friend which would mean the Titans have two smaller blokes in the middle, this wouldn't be a bad thing though as the Titans could use a bit of extra mobility in the middle.

The Titans obviously benefit fro Peats' arrival as they get a dummy half who is on the fringe of Origin selection. They needed a classy hooker - more so for next year - and Peats ticks all the boxes.

For Peats, this isn't the worst place he could have gone. Peats joins a Gold Coast team who reflect Peats' toughness and I can see Peats forming a rugged combination with Greg Bird. Peats has a chance to be a key figure in a team that is rebuilding, that rebuilding won't take too much longer though as they have their foundations rooted in a tough, rugged style of footy.