BY DAN

Ah yes, the sweet smell of cap space.

Canberra’s inevitable reach into the free agency market begin in full today with the emergence of news they were potentially, maybe, sorta like, you know, a bit keen on Bent Hunt. The rumour came courtesy of Dan Walsh of The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Raiders interest in Hunt makes perfect sense. The Milk have a metric crapton of cap space, and Bent Hunt is very good at football. He’d add an elite half to a team that has yearned for one like Wile E Coyote dreams of deep-fried roadrunner. Remember that time the Green Machine signed an origin quality half? Me neither. I’m sure we’ve used this analogy before, but it’s kinda like the feeling of buying a lotto ticket. Half the fun is the thought it might work out.

Of course there are questions. Do you want to play any old 34 year old a lot of money? It’s a fair question. My guess is to get him you’d need to extend him beyond his current deal (to end 2025) and suddenly that means you’re paying him for his 35th, 36th and 37th year. It’s a risk. Spending all that cash on a player that, while amazing, only has a few years left in them could affect their ability to chase other names with a longer potential tenure. By choosing Hunt over other (theoretical) options you’re privileging the now over the future. That’s not a bad thing, just something you need to do with your eyes open.

There are also questions about fit. For so long the Raiders have played an ‘organising’ half and a running five-eighth. It’s been a while since they’ve had two players that could cover the traditional role of a seven by themselves (maybe since Todd Carney played regularly alongside Michael Dobson?). But there are plenty of examples in history of it working (Cronk’s Roosters, and the DCE/Foran Sea-Eagles off the top of my head). If the decision was made that way there’s nothing stopping Fogarty and Hunt succeeding together. Neither’s game is exclusively on one side of the field, and as much as Fogarty tends to be a right-sided half, that’s largely driven by Jack Wighton’s positioning more than anything. He’s shown he’s happy enough to play at first receiver on the left, and also wider outside Wighton, and looked threatening doing so. At an individual level Fogarty’s strengths are matching running the ball and engaging the line with an excellent short kicking game. None of those things feel like they would be thwarted by Hunt’s presence.

And more importantly you would have Ben Hunt. He would bring elite creativity, leadership and mental toughness to a team in need of it. At the very least the Milk would be better placed to play a bit smarter down the stretch of games rather than the current ‘approach’. He would provide good defence at the half spot – not quite as physical as Jack Wighton but otherwise as good as any half out there. With him in the squad the Raiders wouldn’t be adding further weaknesses to their defensive line, or anywhere else for that matter. They’d be different to a side with Wighton in it, but it’s probably the best alternative scenario that’s been offered.

Indeed the real question isn’t whether the Milk are interested. I’ve no doubt they are. The Green Machine should be pursuing all angles in their chase for top level talent to replace Jack Wighton. The actual obstacle, as it always was and always will be, is whether he’d come to Canberra. That’s a harder path of inquiry to answer.

With Hunt it’s actually two questions. Would he actually leave, and would he actually come to Canberra.The reasons for Hunt leaving are obvious. The Dragons don’t have a coach or major sponsor. They’ve been rejected by their primary target to coach, and beyond that the only solutions offered are old boys already associated with the club. Hunt is 34 and doesn’t want to stay around hoping that an organisation bereft of, well, organisation, will get it’s shit into gear rather than continue to lay it’s hopes with Jack De Belin. He’s contracted until 2025 but if given permission he can discuss a new home.

And there’s the rub. Given the Dragons have lost everything else right now, losing their star player would be the end of whoever is in charge over there. It’s impossible to see this rumour outside of that discussion. St George would be absolutely insane to let Hunt go. That makes me think that this rumour is more about an attempt, either by Hunt or someone else in the house to undermine the existing club leadership. An inside job. Hunt’s incentive for that may be purely at face value; they may also be his way of swinging his 40-20 around to make sure he gets what he wants from the club. Others may be positioning for a shot at control of the club. It’s impossible to tell from the outside.

Indeed I doubt this rumour is coming from the Canberra camp. The last thing they want is to go down the Dolphins approach of being linked to everyone and signing no-one. The phrasing that Walsh used of reaching out via third parties to player management screams a player agent trying to make sure the club is aware their man has options (can it be a Raider Raise if he’s just leveraging power? I guess if he gets more money, or a different club out of it we can say yes). But while it’s unlikely he’s leaving the situation seems unstable enough for the Milk to be waiting with cheque book in hand. Chaos is a ladder after all.

While the Raiders are no doubt ready for that scenario, it’s hard to see them as a front runner as Hunt’s preferred option. He’s a Queenslander and presumably would want to move home at some point. The Titans have plenty of quality talent and if Hunt came it would give them a focus they’ve lacked in recent years. While the Milk are closer to the top of the competition than the Titans, the gap isn’t so big that the decision would be farcical.

Canberra should recognise that but not accept it. It’s good to see them playing in the deep end of the pond, with both Fifita over summer and Hunt now. There’s a reputational risk if they keep getting associated with players that will never come here but given their cap space that was going to happen regardless. All they can do is identify the best talent and hope to bring them to god’s country.

In the meantime the rest of us can enjoy the thought.

If like me you believe the philosopher Gabrielle’s view that dreams can come true, like our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or share this on social media. If enough of you email me at dan@sportress.org I promise I’ll do a mailbag.