Before the 2016 NRL season began, right around the time of the All Star clash in Brisbane, whisperers got a whispering. The best NRL rumour hounds reported that Konrad Hurrell was off to join Gold Coast Titans, there was just a passport/visa snag that was holding things up but we were told to expect Hurrell to join the Titans before the June 30th deadline.

This tweet is from March 2nd, a while ago folks...

At the time, I was intrigued. Obviously the thought of Hurrell moving to the Titans was super duper intriguing, but I was also intrigued in the battle between the rumour hounds and clubs, players and management. All the rumour hounds said that Hurrell was definitely leaving to the Titans, while the Warriors, Titans and Hurrell's management all strongly denied these reports. 
Lesson numero uno about following professional sports; never ever blindly believe everything your favourite club tells you.

Count it as a minor victory for the rumour hounds.

In Aotearoa, everything about Hurrell is clouded by the media and fans' desires to make Hurrell a scapegoat. Hurrell, a bloke who has barely played this season is apparently the root of all the Warriors problems. Hurrell, a young rugby league player (he's been playing league for what, five years?) who is yet to really prove himself in the NRL, is the chief destroyer of any great culture that the club and fans want. Fans and media put Hurrell on a pedastool to be some great hope and when that wasn't quite recipricated by Hurrell, he became the face of the Woerriers. 

It's all a bit silly really, so let's not let our emotions get in the way of breaking this move down.

This is nothing more than an NRL club moving a player who isn't playing first grade on to a club who can give him a shot, nothing more, nothing less and it happens all the time. Pretty damn similar to what could happen with Tony Williams, who looks set to go from reserve grade footy with the Bulldogs to the Manly Sea Eagles.

Hurrell's departure from the Warriors might save them some salary cap space, but not a whole lot. The Warriors can't just 'release' Hurrell from his contract, there would need to be some negotiations that take place so that Hurrell still gets some portion of the silly contract he was offered a few years back. 

I suspect the Warriors will pay a sum of Hurrell's contract while the Titans will take on the rest and this is where the Titans fit in as the perfect destination for Hurrell. Any time a player is up for grabs the Titans are mentioned because apparently they have lots of cash to splash, which is evident in their recent moves as they've snapped up Nathan Peats and now Hurrell. Not many other clubs would be able to afford Peats and Hurrell mid-season, but the Titans can (maybe thanks to the NRL as well). 

The Warriors needed a club to take on most (possibly all) of Hurrell's salary and the Titans have the scope to do so. The Titans also have pieces of their puzzle that come from the Warriors; Agnatius Paasi and Nathaniel Peteru both joined the Titans from the Warriors while Rohan Smith worked as an assistant coach at the Warriors and until earlier this month, Smith was an assistant at the Titans. Smith has since taken a head coaching gig with Bradford in the Super League, but as the seeds of this move were planted earlier in the year, Smith could have linked Hurrell with the Titans.

Don't sleep on Titans having the right players to make Hurrell feel comfortable in his move - Hurrell and the Warriors combined many times for the benefit of Hurrell and his family. Two of Gold Coast's best forwards this year, Paasi and Leivaha Pulu, are both Tongan but more importantly, they have seen their careers go to new levels since moving to the Titans. Paasi was a fringe first grader who never really got a chance with the Warriors and Pulu was picked up off the reserve grade scrapheap, they are now part of a super rugged Titans forward pack. That's a great sign for Hurrell.

The Titans do lack firepower out in the centres, which should be where Hurrell ends up if all goes well. There's a clear path for Hurrell to make the centre spot his own, after being thrown around every position with the Warriors. Josh Hoffman holds down one centre spot while Nene MacDonald and Nathan Davis have played in the other centre spot recently, Hurrell offers something unique though and if he ticks all the boxes for Neil Henry, he'd add a powerful edge presence to an already dynamic forward pack.

With Hurrell, the Titans could line up like this...

Zillman, Don/Mead, Hoffman, Hurrell, MacDonald. 

The noise about Hurrell to the Titans started before the season began, so why would the Warriors bother playing Hurrell at centre if they had already pretty much settled on his departure? This is likely to be the reason why Hurrell only featured off the bench and mainly in reserve grade as the Warriors knew that he was off to the Titans ... because they had shopped him there, duh.

As far as the Warriors go, Hurrell's departure won't actually change anything. The people who view Hurrell as the face of the problems at Mt Smart will be happy to see him leave, but he wasn't actually contributing to the NRL team. We as fans, won't notice that Hurrell is gone as he barely had a presence in the first grade group, so nothing will really change and Hurrell's departure won't suddenly mean that the Warriors can splash the cash themselves. Possibly because they are helping the Titans out a little bit with Hurrell's salary, but mainly because there's not too many players up for grabs right now. 

Hurrell doesn't need to be replaced, he was playing in reserve grade and there's enough young blokes in the club who can step into those boots.

This is all about Hurrell moving to the Titans and less about the Warriors 'axing' Hurrell as Hurrell was a non-factor with the Warriors. Hurrell now has an opportunity to join a very strong club in the Titans, the sort of club who play with the effort and desire that we all want the Warriors to play with and the Titans do so with less talent than the Warriors. 

Hurrell has a blueprint laid out in front of him of the Titans turning fringe NRL players into very slick NRL players, in a culture that is led by Greg Bird. I view Hurrell and the Titans as the big winners here, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Hurrell play finals footy with the Titans this season, possibly while the Warriors are pondering another stinker of a season.

At the very least, the ball is in Hurrell's court. The Titans will do everything they can to help Hurrell, they could use his power on the edges and he'll give them a bit of x-factor but most importantly Hurrell gets an opportunity to show us what he can really do at a club which is currently in a far healthier position than the Warriors.