#KiwiNRL Things Get Even More Confusing For Tuimoala Lolohea...
Less than ideal that there's a Part 2, even less than ideal that Part 2 is about Tui.
So yesterday I went down a little avenue about Tuimoala Lolohea and Benji Marshall. This zoned in on the intriguing futures of two halves at opposite ends of their careers and this was soon followed by news that Wests Tigers could be making a play for Roosters utility Connor Watson.
This is a major spanner in the works for Lolohea and usually I wouldn't be as interested in such a situation as competition for places in the starting team is exactly what every club needs; Lolohea has got to try be better than those who the Tigers have signed and could sign. What makes this so crazy is that this is the exact situation that Lolohea left the Warriors to get away from and now he could find himself in a Tigers squad where he's not the first-choice fullback, nor is he a first-choice half.
Lolohea was never going to be selected over Roger Tuivasa-Sheck or Shaun Johnson at the Warriors and his only opening was if he was viewed as a better long-term half than Ata Hingano. Most people view Lolohea's best position as a half, although the prospect of Lolohea and Johnson playing together would be bonkers as Lolohea is effectively a less-experienced and generally not as good version of Johnson.
I don't consider Johnson to be an elite NRL half and that means that there needs to be another half to do much of the mundane tasks, allowing Johnson to solely do what he's good at. This is why Johnson tends to go best when playing alongside Foran and Hingano is as similar to Foran as Lolohea is to Johnson; you need the yin-yang. Even Mason Lino is better suited to playing alongside Johnson, pushing Lolohea further down the pecking order.
Hence Hingano was chosen as the better long-term Warriors prospect and as Lolohea didn't really want to try crack the Warriors team as a winger, he looked and/or was forced to look elsewhere. No one thinks Lolohea could have been selected as a winger instead of Ken Maumalo, David Fusitua, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad or Manu Vatuvei, right?
Lolohea was pretty much a third or fourth halves option and a fifth outside back option.
So when there was an opening in the halves at the Tigers, it suited Lolohea nicely as it was his opportunity to show the NRL that he's a legit NRL player. There was a general idea that Lolohea would move to fullback next season with James Tedesco leaving and Josh Reynolds arriving, which makes sense and would allow Lolohea to play without the responsibility of organising his right edge. He'd do more running of the footy and his skillset is suited to taking the best option (last pass, funky step or kick) out on the edges as Tedesco, Darius Boyd and Billy Slater do excessively well.
Yet the Tigers could be chasing Watson and given that the Tigers have brought Reynolds to the club and are apparently showing interest in Watson, while they have Lolohea on their books is a very weird move. It's not weird when you consider that Reynolds and Watson are both better than Lolohea in those respective positions, it's weird to sign a bloke knowing that his major weakness is that he doesn't own a position and then murky those waters even further.
If it wasn't Ivan Cleary at the helm, I'd view this as a typical Wests Tigers predicament. Cleary seems very un-Tigers-like though and it's strange for such a logical geezer to sign Lolohea and put him in the same situation that didn't exactly bring the best out of him at Mt Smart.
Even the slim chances that Lolohea could be viewed as a bench utility don't make sense as the Tigers just re-signed Christchurc hooker Matt McIlwrick for two more seasons and he was recently dropped to the bench to allow youngster Jacob Liddle to start.
All Lolohea can control is how he performs in the halves alongside Luke Brooks for the remainder of this season. It is strange though that even if Lolohea looks the goods for the Tigers as a half, he is likely to fall behind two expensive recruits come 2018. Lolohea left the Warriors to find some clarity, now he's found himself back in a bit of dead-end street, not the avenue I was hoping.
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