IMHO we are probably guilty of judging Savelio’s performances in comparison to the wasteland our back row has become?
He is better than Lane - whose form simply dropped off a cliff seemingly when he signed the contract, but is that much of an achievement really?
His other competition this season is Griffin, a converted centre; plus (depending where they are played of course) Fash and Cator, who are whole-hearted 100% effort, but (unfortunately for us) ultimately undersized.
Savelio has spent significant time each season with us in the stand due to injury, and I haven’t seen it mentioned recently that when he left the NRL it was because the medical team at Brisbane Broncos assessed his knee as not up to playing professional RL after a severe ACL injury.
Being the best of a decidedly average bunch for me is not grounds to be “must play”, particularly if there is a disciplinary issue: we are all guessing this to be the case, but who knows.
He will also be on a relatively high contract, so renewing it may well not make sense given the changes we all hope to see into next season?
Personally, I choose to believe that Tony Smith is doing everything he can to turn around our dysfunctional playing squad, and that excluding one of your better players is not something he would do without very good reason(s).
