NRL 2021: Are Tevita Pangai Jr, Paul Vaughan good signings? | Paul Kent
Clubs are busy trying to improve their rosters for the finals run and 2022, but who has signed well and who has made mistakes, writes Paul Kent.
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There are three different players in the NRL, and all have varying effects on the heart.
The first has a flourish that mesmerises coaches, a talent all the best judges spot and immediately begins them dreaming of lifting trophies and accepting great awards but, for some reason, it never happens.
They almost get there, every time, but only when there is a body of work do coaches realise you cannot win with this player.
This makes him the most dangerous kind.
The second are those that, no matter what is happening on the field, whether six in front or six behind, get the job done. They find a way to win, even if it means manufacturing something that is not even in the playbook to get the result.
These are the winners, the players that can deliver premierships. They are at their best when the result is on the line.
The third is somewhere in the middle.
He will do his job as best that he is able and often will improve a team from 12th to eighth, or even eighth to third, but is not quite good enough to be important enough for a team to go all the way.
The trick is identifying who is who.
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All this week clubs across the NRL have been adjusting their rosters in the hope of sharpening their squads.
Some for this season, given the NRL’s late transfer deadline of August 1, and others for next season as they attempt the long crawl back to respectability.
This week began with news that Tevita Panga was heading to Canterbury next season and before it was even half over news broke that Pangai would be making a cameo at Penrith on the way through, finishing this season with the Panthers as they try to maximise their best chance for a premiership in some years.
Dale Finucane is on the market and as many as six clubs are competing to sign him for next season, almost half the competition interested in a player who was never the best player in his team but always the first one teammates looked for in the dressing room.
The NRL confirmed Paul Vaughan has suffered enough and his eight game suspension for breaking Covid protocols will be counted as the eight club games he was suspended for this season before St George Illawarra sacked him.
Parramatta was briefly interested in Anthony Milford for the rest of the season, and Milford was briefly interested in Parramatta until it was confirmed it was just for the rest of the season, and so he remains in Brisbane as he tries to find a club.
Why is Vaughan a poor signing for the Dragons but a good signing for Canterbury, where he is rumoured to be heading?
Why is Finucane still considered a good signing given he turns 30 in six weeks and wants a three-year deal but, more, has treated his body like a rental car his entire career?
Why did the Broncos release Pangai immediately, given he was heading to Canterbury next season, but reject Melbourne’s approach to swap Xavier Coates and Brenko Lee immediately, given both will swap clubs next season?
Pangai is 25 and at a crossroads.
He could be a winner and all that the Bulldogs hope he is but, so far, the Broncos have never regularly been in enough dogfights to determine what he has deep down inside. His excellent performances have been spaced, with no rhyme or reason to explain them.
So the jury remains out, although the Broncos believe they know the answer and were happy to release him immediately. For this reason Coates, a popular Broncos teammate, was retained until the season is over.
Pangai joins Penrith in a few weeks and with the Panthers set to go deep into the finals it will go a long way towards answering in what box Pangai sits. The Panthers have rolled the dice believing he can fit into their system.
This is where Finucane has excelled and is the reason why he is in such demand.
If the Storm are lapping their rivals then Finucane is hardly noticeable. When the contest is on, though, it is more likely Finucane that is influencing the result.
It is a consistency his teammates see every day, from the moment they watch from afar with an amused wonder as he puts on his boots, same way every time, then stands and touches his toes and sprints onto the field.
Whatever he has lacked in skill he has overcome in toughness and application, making him a favourite teammate.
Vaughan was identified at St George Illawarra as a player who had done all he could to help the club. While he is a former Kangaroos and NSW representative the Dragons regarded him as a solid first grader now and not the kind of player who can take them from two-thirds of the way down the table all the way to the title.
The Dragons have also begun moving other players along they believed were satisfied with having made it to first grade.
For Canterbury, though, who struggle with depth and talent, Vaughan is seen as an ideal signing to lift them from the bottom of the ladder and start driving them in the right direction.
Milford was once seen as one and is now fighting to be seen as the other, a player who can improve a team but does not quite have it to take them to the title.
Such a perception is why he was briefly considered at Parramatta and it is what he now fights, the perception that he is not the player who can take a team all the way.
The difference is small but the outcome is huge, and the ability to identify it is often harder.
But the good ones get it right.
For years Melbourne boss Craig Bellamy, who identified Finucane early, has recruited character ahead of talent.
It is a simple rule to identify but, clearly, hard to stick to.
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