Matt Frawley times NRL arrival at perfect time to cash in on bizarre halves market

PAUL KENT: Matt Frawley was worth about 10 cents on the open market a month ago but in this bizarre halves market his lottery numbers will soon come in.

MATT Frawley was worth about 10 cents on the open market a month ago but his lottery numbers will soon come in.

Fortune has turned for the Bulldogs halfback. And it gives the heart a little warmth.

Frawley signed with Canterbury looking for nothing more than a chance after captaining Canberra’s Holden Cup team and he looked destined to stay in Canterbury’s NSW Cup team for as long as that contract, which ends next year, lasted.

Not anymore, though.

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Frawley is the other side of the overcooked player market, meaning he is underpaid and appreciated. He might well be the difference if the Bulldogs are going to transition from the competition’s most frustrating team into what they believe is their rightful place, contenders.

I have never seen player market more liquid than it is now.

One signing could set it off in forty different directions.

The reasons why are complex and might not be around again for some time. It began when managers timed the contracts of their best players to come off this year, in time to cash in on the new broadcast deal, and new salary cap, to begin next year.

It swelled to extravagant measures early when it was realised Wests Tigers’ four best players, like burley in water, were all off contract at the same time.

Suddenly they began circling.

Matt Frawley could benefit from the crazy NRL market. Photo: Gregg Porteous

Then it stepped up when Cooper Cronk rolled a grenade into the room with his announcement he would leave Melbourne for a contract in Sydney.

Add to this St George Illawarra’s sluggish chase for Gareth Widdop and other off-contract halves, Johnathan Thurston, Kieran Foran, Chad Townsend, Tyrone Roberts, Ryley Jacks, Kurt Mann and more, and nobody can be certain who will be playing where next season.

The dominoes are lined up and nobody knows how they will fall.

And then comes Frawley, the bargain buy. Who can say some club won’t be left short and suddenly need a halfback.

He could be the surprise beneficiary of all this madness and clubs could do a lot worse. He is providing tremendous value to Canterbury.

Coach Des Hasler knows the worth of players like Frawley.

In 2011 he had a young halfback named Daly Cherry-Evans on $75,000 a year and five-eighth outside him, Kieran Foran, playing for $115,000 a season and they took Manly all the way to the premiership. They got a little upgrade afterwards.

Frawley is on second-tier money and his true value at Canterbury is he is finally making Josh Reynolds and Moses Mbye appear somewhat close to the salaries they command.

Together, without Frawley, Mbye and Reynolds bump into each other.

They are runners and not organisers, their games similar enough that they leave the Bulldogs absent a natural playmaker to guide them around.

With Frawley thrown in, both are better. Hasler is using Frawley perfectly.

He puts a big number on his back that tells everyone he is coming off the bench and he leaves him there while Reynolds and Mbye run out in the halves with Michael Lichaa at hooker. It is no permanent arrangement.

Lichaa is there to take the sting out of THE game, particularly defensively, as Mbye plays wider.

The Bulldogs are benefiting from Frawley’s place in the team Photo: Gregg Porteous

When the edge has gone from the contest and the Bulldogs can drift a little from their high completion, low error mentality, Mbye slips into dummy-half and Frawley arrives to guide home the performance.

Hasler’s concession to Frawley’s talent is he no longer carries four tight forwards on his bench. He hardly used the fourth change, anyway.

Canterbury are a better team with Frawley.

That is a little tough love for the Bulldogs, who pay top dollar for Reynolds and Mbye to be their established star halves and for Lichaa to be the dummy-half, but who must concede Frawley’s talent might be the difference. And his value is on the rise.

After toiling for so long in the minors Frawley is on the verge of something grand. He is a triumphant story. A chance to celebrate what the game can do for young men who work hard.