Newcastle’s decision to splurge upwards of $14 million on Dylan Brown is hard to defend. But there is a method in their madness, brought about by the lack of halfbacks in the NRL. More and more over the past couple of decades, most NRL players have become athletes who play football, rather than footballers who are athletic. You often hear commentators describing a player as “just a footballer”, as a way to compliment their instinctive ability to play what is in front of them.
