If anyone wants a lesson on how good he is, go and watch the Penrith game again. He went toe to toe with Leota, Fisher-Harris, Kenny and Yeo in that middle and was absolutely unbelievable. I think there's a misconception that he doesn't have a running game but there is a difference between somebody with no running game and somebody playing to a gameplan and being selfless by getting quick ball to the teams biggest attacking threats. When O'Neill runs the ball, his average gain per carry is very good (8.11m) and comfortably above guys like Leeming (6.54) and Litten (7.1m) and similar to guys like Danny Walker (8.22) and Andy Ackers (8.54). All of those are more renowned as being hookers with a running threat. Only guys like Clark and Ipappe sit above 9 metres per carry but that is the main part of their game, unlike Brad O'Neill.

[quote="The Whiffy Kipper":dyeot5bx]He's decent enough but he is no Mark Riddell[/quote:dyeot5bx] Piggy was a great controlling half. To get gear out of O’Neil in the NRL he’d have to go to one of the teams with a really good 7, which there is a bit of a lack of at the moment, hence Dodd being on $700k deal apparently.

[quote="The Whiffy Kipper":1i6forni]He's decent enough but he is no Mark Riddell[/quote:1i6forni] Or Sam Powell?

[quote="MattyB":1tqerrc5]Or Sam Powell?[/quote:1tqerrc5] He's way better than Powell, whom we have never missed

Games I`ve seen O`Neil play he is by far the better option between Leeming and him. When Leeming played for us he did do the flashy stuff taking on the line and scoring similar to Dwyer when he was with us. But more often than not he and Dwyer would run on the last and the rest of the team didn`t have a clue what they were doing. O`Neil looks hard as nails and doesn`t back down. He reminds me of the old school hookers in their days.

I still think he's likely to move to 13 if/when Ellis goes back to Aus. If we still have Leeming and Forber on the books...