Other than Cameron Smith, no forward in rugby league has as great an influence on their team's performance than Jason Taumalolo. It's fine and dandy for a half or fullback to have such an influence and even though Smith is a forward, who makes 40+ tackles along with his wizardry with the footy, his job isn't carting the footy down-field. Sure, Taumalolo has more wrinkles to his game, but his influence is based on what he does when he runs the footy.

We saw it with North Queensland Cowboys this year and we've recently seen the South Auckland Rhino lead Tonga to a strong Rugby League World Cup performance. Given that I'm happy to put Smith in the alien basket, Taumalolo's the best forward in the game and as long as he's got some solid players around him, whether it's the Cowboys or Tonga; that team is rolling down the field like some cheese rolling down Cooper's Hill.

Taumalolo has been so good in steaming through 200m+ from less than 20 carries a game, that some view his current deal with the Cowboys as a bargain. On the surface, a $10 million deal sounds fairly bonkers but when you break it down to $1m/season, it's not all that crazy and if that mark isn't already, it'll soon be stock-standard for above-average NRL players (definitely do not be surprised when the next broadcasting deal is sussed and NRL's popularity combined with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Youtube bidding for rights means that $1m/season is the standard for average NRL players). There are many NRL players who earn $1m/season, although the richness in Taumalolo's deal comes from the length of it.

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While Taumalolo is worth a lot more than $1m/season, the real funk sits in whether Taumalolo can maintain this level of output for nine more seasons. It's one thing to sign Daly Cherry-Evans on a lengthy deal, or any other play-maker for that matter and while there's always risk involved, Taumalolo's value is based purely on how his speed and agility allows him to make metres. Nothing about what Taumalolo does is suited to sustainability and if Taumalolo is able to maintain a certain level of consistency - averaging 17 carries/200m for example - over the next seven years and then dip as he gets older, we will be dealing with the best running forward to ever play the game.

Seven years is a long damn time and my head spins even when I ponder if Taumalolo can maintain this level for three years, let alone five, let alone seven and 10? That's kinda impossible, like, surely Taumalolo will move back to the edge later in his career to ease up and run at smaller edge forwards and halves. How Taumalolo works his way through this decade with the Cowboys will be a top-five narrative in my #KiwiNRL notebook; at 24-years-old Taumalolo is already a North Queensland Cowboys legend, he's already a South Auckland hero and he's already a Tongan icon.

Obviously injuries will be a factor and when you're playing through the middle in the NRL, you're simply smashing your body. Taumalolo has shown signs that he is incredibly durable though and before RLWC, Taumalolo played 26 NRL games this season and that's the status-quo for the most destructive forward in the NRL; 25 games in 2014, 26 games in 2015 and 27 games in 2017.

Please let that sink in.

And in each of his last four seasons, Taumalolo has averaged over 10m/carry.

2014: 142.2m/14runs.
2015: 154.1m/14runs.
2016: 165m/15.5runs.
2017: 205.8m/18.8runs.

Please let that sink in.

There is an interesting case of recency bias at play here though as Taumalolo's 2017 workload was beyond nek-level. If Taumalolo can maintain an average of 205m/19runs even for just two more seasons and then come back down to Earth, we would have all ascended into a higher dimension.

While there is definitely a case of Taumalolo starting to really understand what he's capable of and how to use his weapons against NRL opposition, you can point to the losses of James Tamou and Matt Scott as key factors in Taumalolo's bump in work. Tamou departed to Penrith Panthers and Scott suffered a season-ending injury, resulting in Taumalolo being the only middle forward of note for North Queensland.

Scott Bolton was huge in 2017 as well, but it was mainly up to Taumalolo to pick up the slack from Scott and Tamou's absence. He did exactly that and with Scott returning in 2018, along with Bolton now low key one of the better props in the NRL, I suspect we will see Taumalolo's workload drop back down to averaging 180m/16runs. That factors in Taumalolo's growth, so there'll still be an increase on his pre-2017 work but the load will be shared more evenly for the Cowboys.

The chances of Taumalolo maintaining such averages for nine more seasons are slim, hence the $1m/season price-tag for Taumalolo's deal. This deal may see Taumalolo earn more money now and less money later - the lack of transparency means we've got no idea - but the way it was reported was $1m/season for 10 years. From this deal it's clear that Taumalolo wanted to play out his career for the Cowboys and that both Taumalolo and the Cowboys didn't want to deal with an off-contract situation any time soon.

Taumalolo is helping the Cowboys immensely right now by taking less than his market-value, allowing the Cowboys to handle their business. The true value is in the fact that the Cowboys have hooked Taumalolo up with security as he approaches 30years, when common sense would suggest that Taumalolo won't be churning out such crazy metre-eating. Such security also helps Taumalolo explore all sorts of third-party deals in Townsville as everyone knows that he'll be a strong part of the community for a long time.

Money coming into the NRL is only going to increase and salaries will increase, which could be viewed as a loss for Taumalolo. This is a pretty smart deal though as the increase of NRL salaries coincides with Taumalolo's contributions decreasing as he gets older, resulting in Taumalolo earning what he's worth or more, when he's over 30years. And having Taumalolo locked in also allows the Cowboys greater stability in their salary cap as the numbers only get higher.

Even if Taumalolo gets injured or his performances fall off a cliff, the Cowboys have effectively said 'we'll take care of you toks'. Many people questioned the risk on the Cowboys' side of things in such a long-term deal, but they are only doing right by Taumalolo for the extraordinary output Taumalolo is giving them now and is likely to replicate in the next few years.

Based on what Taumalolo has done for the Cowboys, I reckon everyone involved in the Cowboys - fans included - will be happy to take care of Taumalolo in the second half of this decade deal. This is a good vibes deal and now we can kick back to watch Taumalolo embark on 'how long can he do this for!?' journey.

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Peace and love 27.