One of the reasons I have been bamboozled by St. George Illawara Dragons' desire to splash cash on big names, or slightly big names is that they have shown that they can make smart, low key recruitment moves. The prime example for that is Taane Milne, who the Dragons took from the Roosters Under 20s team and despite getting a limited opportunity to show what he can do at centre last season, former Junior Kiwi Milne did manage to stand out in a fairly average Dragons attack.

Granted, it wasn't all that hard to stand out in the Dragons' fairly average attack. The power, footwork and offloading ability of Milne was incredibly refreshing for the Dragons and any time they hit their right edge, Milne was their weapon of choice. All of this game in just six games starting at centre after Milne made his NRL debut off the bench against the Roosters.

In four of those games that Milne started at centre, he played 80 minutes while he finished the season with 53 minutes and 76 minutes in the last two games. In a four-game stretch from round 20 to round 23 while the Dragons lost three games straight and then snatched a win away from Cronulla, Milne put up some impressive numbers in his 80 minutes at centre.

Round 20 vs Wests Tigers: 16 carries, 162m, 1 line break, 7 offloads.
Round 21 vs Bulldogs: 14 carries, 115m, 4 offloads.
Round 22 vs Broncos: 17 carries, 137m, 1 line break, 2 offloads.
Round 23 vs Sharks: 16 carries, 140m, 4 offloads.

The Tigers, Bulldogs, Broncos and Sharks all finished higher than the Dragons on the NRL ladder - hence they lost 3/4 of these games - but Milne was still able to influence the game from his spot at right centre. Finishing the season averaging 8.34m/per-carry and 3.28 offloads/per-game is a handy effort in your debut season.

My #KiwiNRL perspective has me assuming that Milne will start the season holding down one centre spot, while Euan Aitken takes the other. The Dragons do have a bit of a conundrum here as Tim Lafai is still on their books and Kurt Mann can play centre, although I wouldn't be overly concerned about Lafai or Mann posing much of a threat to Milne's starting spot.

Milne will however have to demand selection and Lafai is fairly similar to Milne in that he's a large unit with nice footwork. Of course, I'll lean towards Milne getting the opportunity as he's a more nimble on his feet than Lafai and this also amplifies the Dragons' conundrum as Milne, Lafai, Aitken and Mann are all coming off-contract this season, meaning that the Dragons will want to re-sign two of the four. They only need to sign two because they have another Junior Kiwis gun Patrick Herbert signed for this season and next season; he'll be looking to sneak on to a wing this season at some stage.

Aitken is almost guaranteed to get signed on for a few more years, effectively leaving Milne to compete for a new deal with Lafai and Mann. Again, you'd struggle to argue that Lafai and Mann have greater upside at centre (Mann can play any where) than Milne and if the Dragons don't want Milne, other clubs definitely will.

That just puts the ball back into Milne's court, assuming he's given a chance to settle in at centre. If that's the case then expect Milne to roll through big metres every time he gets the footy, being a focal point of the Dragons attack with his offloading ability out wide and causing nightmares for opposition centres with his size and footwork.