I think that we're missing a trick by not trying to repurpose Star as a winger.I’ve got a weird one here but I was just going through some of our backs and a little devil on my shoulder told me something.
How would Starford Toa fair as a winger. Now before we grab the pitchforks let’s have a little looksie. Now in no way am I saying that Toa and To’o (yes Brian) are on the same stratosphere but I do believe Toa could have a similar impact.
They have pretty similar builds with Toa being a couple centimetres shorter but negligible in weight. They have a similar run style in a strong fend and tough carries, it would also eliminate the amount of defensive pressure he is under as he does tend to miss tackles and have lapses in defence.
All you have to do is go back to the Knights 2020 season on the wing and he was outstanding, now granted he had KP feeding him good ball but he was still great regardless.
Tough carries out of our end is what we need and suffer greatly in. I mean Tupou is the only one with a good carry but he has an error in him and he is leaving. We all know Toa has potential, all you have to do is look back at the cowboys game. It’s just like every other back we have, he fails to find consistency.
Now I’m not expecting him to play like that every week but I still believe he has a place in our backline hopefully. Thoughts?
He's here for a couple more years, unless he's moved on.
Last time he had a longer run on the wing, his two main deficiencies were his hands and his positioning (at times). If we can do a lot of work around his ability to catch, particularly in traffic, I think there's a decent 3rd or 4th choice winger there. His ability to play centre or fb (if desperate) helps his case.
I know he has a lot to work on, and has had ample opportunity to jump out of the ground and hasn't, but I'm a little more bullish on his ability than others. It's easy to forget he's only 23.....