Paul Kent: New rules will make or break highly-paid halfbacks

While it is considered a necessity to have a quality half to win a premiership, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee it. It asks the question, are too many of them overpaid?

Mitchell Pearce, Mitch Moses and Luke Brooks.

Halfbacks are like beachfront real estate.

Their values fluctuate according to supply and demand but, in a general sense, their trajectory is forever heading north.

They never come cheap.

A small cheer went around the Newcastle dressing room on Monday afternoon when Mitch Pearce, the Knights halfback, broke the news he was signing on for a further season.

Watch The 2021 NRL Telstra Premiership Live & On-Demand with No Ad-Breaks During Play. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >

Mitchell Pearce has signed a one-year contract extension at the Knights. P

This was good news for several reasons, not only because it put the ghosts of Christmas to bed forever, when Pearce’s life imploded after a texting scandal with a female staff member that left him offside with several teammates and his wedding plans in tatters.

Pearce is a quality halfback at a time when one of the few solid truths in the game is that a team needs a quality halfback to win a competition.

He spoke about the contract extension on Tuesday, but unrevealed in the fine print was the fact Pearce took a substantial haircut to remain in Newcastle.

It was a strategic move from the Knights.

A three-year deal would have heaped criticism on the club for signing a player who, in his three years at Newcastle, has taken them to 11th, 11th and seventh.

Plus, it is good, said a club insider, that Pearce “feels the pressure to perform”.

It reveals the pressure on the modern halves who, increasingly, are being lured as hired guns to deliver premierships.

But while it is considered a necessity to have a quality half to win a premiership, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee it.

It asks the question, are too many halves overpaid in the arms race between clubs?

Adam Reynolds has taken the Rabbitohs to the past three preliminary finals.

Two weeks ago South Sydney put a one-year deal to Adam Reynolds and Cooper Cronk responded to those insulted by the offer by agreeing with the Rabbitohs.

Reynolds, he said, had got Souths to the past three preliminary finals but failed to take them further each time.

Halfbacks, Cronk said, are there to deliver teams premierships.

It was unequivocal.

A week earlier, former NSW coach Laurie Daley put the crosshairs on Parramatta half Mitch Moses.

Moses had claimed he wanted to put the focus back on his organisational game, saying he spent last year focusing on running the ball.

Daley denied seeing much change at all in how Moses played.

“They have a term for it in cricket,” Daley said, “a flat-track bully.”

Yet their values remain at a premium.

Mitchell Moses is one of the Eels’ highest-paid players. Picture: Getty Images

It peaked several years back when a posse of halves all had their contracts finish in time for the new broadcast deal to bump up the salary cap, resulting in small lottery wins for more than a few.

But since Pearce won a premiership with the Roosters in 2013 and Reynolds won Souths the premiership in 2014, the premierships have been won by Jahrome Hughes (2020), Cronk (2017, 18, 19), Chad Townsend (2016) and Johnathan Thurston (2015).

A whole generation of young halves have come through, with their big money, without a premiership to show for it.

Moses, 26, Luke Brooks, 26, Ash Taylor, 25, Shaun Johnson, 30, and Ben Hunt, 29 are all yet to deliver on what their market value suggests they are being paid to deliver.

This season might provide some answers about true value for money.

The NRL’s new rules look set to create more uncertainty among the halfback stocks this season.

Halfback Luke Brooks has yet to play finals at Wests Tigers. Picture: Toby Zerna

Some believe the faster-tempo game, with scrums replaced by six-again calls, will place a premium on the game managers who can control tempo and know when to slow the game down to rest the troops or to speed it up to exploit opposition fatigue.

Others believe the new rules will instead benefit the running halves, those who can take advantage of a fatigued defence.

Either way, it’s a situation set to make halves have an increasing impact on their team performances.

For the likes of Pearce, who is out to show he has value beyond the 2022 season, it could be a windfall similar to that which the halves received some years back.

For those unable to transfer reputation into performance, though, it might be all over.

Originally published as Paul Kent: New rules will make or break highly-paid halfbacks