How does Josh Reynolds fit in with Luke Brooks at Wests Tigers?

JOSH Reynolds will move from Canterbury to the Tigers on a massive contract. How will he fit in with Luke Brooks?

THE Tigers have found their replacement for Mitch Moses and it’s the angriest man in rugby league, the pride of Belmore, the man who makes chairs across Australia shake in their boots, Josh Reynolds.

The fiery Bulldogs pivot has signed a massive four-year deal to partner Luke Brooks in the halves for the joint venture as the club looks to move on from the Big Four era.

It’s the Tigers second big signing in as many days after they captured Warriors prop Ben Matulino on Tuesday night.

While the concerns with Matulino are purely injury related the risk and the reward are much higher for Reynolds.

Reynolds has been the Dogs five-eighth since 2012.

On the surface, him and Brooks seem a likely combination. It has only taken a few weeks alongside Matt Frawley for Reynolds to start showing some of his best football again. While Moses Mbye is a talented footballer him and Reynolds have the same strengths and the same weaknesses.

It remains to be seen what kind of NRL player Frawley can be in the long-term but simply having somebody with a confident kicking game next to Reynolds frees him up to play to his own strengths — which is running the ball.

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On paper, Brooks can do that and more. The Tigers halfback has struggled with injury and confidence issues over the last two seasons but he has the tools to be a top class halfback.

His kicking game and his ability to play straight, direct football are his two greatest strengths. He has the skills to be strong where Reynolds is not — the two can cover each others weaknesses, which is the foundation of all successful halves combinations.

On paper, Brooks and Moses can work well together.

The two best stretches of Reynolds’ career came in 2012 and 2014. In the former, the structure provided by Canterbury’s playmaking forwards allowed him to buzz around the field and attack wherever he wanted. In the latter, he was paired with Trent Hodkinson, who’s controlling style of play at the time freed Reynolds up to do the same.

As shown by his comments after Frawley’s debut in Canterbury’s 10-7 win over Brisbane a few weeks ago, Reynolds is surprisingly self-aware.

“Frawls was great for me. For his first game, it was like he’d played 100. I’d call something and he would say ‘nah, nah, let’s settle it down’. I was like ‘Hey?’. But honestly it was perfect. Sometimes I’m in the game and get a bit carried away. So for someone to say that, it was good.

“It’s funny, when they were setting up for that field goal before halftime, I wanted to run up, out of the line and get to Jordan Kahu but Jacko (Josh Jackson) said ‘mate, don’t you dare’.

“For me, that was the old me. I could’ve come out of the line, they could’ve played and scored a try. But it’s good someone like Jacko can say to me, just relax.

“Even though my intentions are right it’s probably not the right option at the time. I’m always going to have that. So it’s about controlling my emotion and using it at the right time.”

He knows what he’s good at and what he’s not and Brooks has the qualities to be the ideal partner for the former Origin representative.

We know what we’re going to get from Reynolds at this point. After six seasons at five-eighth for Canterbury, he’s a known commodity. There’s going to be unyielding, unending, boundless hustle book ended by some sharp footy and some days where his temper gets the better of him and all hell breaks loose.

Reynolds can let his temper get the better of him.

He’s a good player who wills himself to be better.

But for this signing to be a success it almost depends more on Brooks than on Reynolds himself and for their combination to work, Ivan Cleary needs to get more out of Brooks than what he’s shown over the last 18 months.

There are two things that weigh in Cleary’s favour for this. For whatever reason, several of the best performances of Brooks’ career have come when Mitchell Moses has not played. When he’s been the dominant half, when the show has been completely his, he’s done well.

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Cleary has also made a career of extracting consistent footy from enigmatic players. He only missed the finals with the Warriors twice, once when they started the season on negative points due to salary cap sanctions and once when Sonny Fai died.

He rejuvenated the career of Jamie Soward and helped guide a developing Penrith team who were destroyed by injuries to a prelim final in 2014.

If there is a good player in Brooks and he stays healthy, Cleary will find it.

After months talking about the Big Four, the Tigers now have a big one. Reynolds chances of success at the Tigers will rely a lot on Brooks and if he can be the player the club needs him to be.