Payne Haas is under contract until the end of 2024 but because this is rugby league there's already been talk about his future.
There have been suggestions the star Broncos prop will make a move to the Roosters through his close association with Sonny Bill Williams, which may just be grist for a news cycle that is powered by transfer speculation, but regardless, if Haas ever was to entertain leaving Brisbane the offers would come thick, fast and lucrative for the best young forward in the league.
Because this is Brisbane and Haas is the club's best player, the saga will continue until a solution is found. It's unlikely to impact Haas's play.
As Brisbane has spiralled into misery in the past few seasons, Haas has been the one reliable force.
Even in grim defeats, like the 38-12 loss the Broncos suffered against the Cowboys last Sunday, he still does his job. It's been a similar story in recent years for Jason Taumalolo, the leader of the North Queensland pack that has brought the Broncos to heel. Through Taumalolo's journey we can see what the future may hold for Haas.
It has been a lean few winters for Taumalolo. Rule changes, a series of broken hands, a poor Cowboys roster and Todd Payten's attempts to use him differently in an effort to prolong his career have taken the shine off the Tongan colossus, but that doesn't change the fact that Taumalolo boasts a resume that arguably makes him the best running forward of the past 10 years.
His peak was the form he showed in the 2017 finals series is arguably the greatest play-off run by a forward in the history of the game.
Surrounded by honest toilers in the pack, Taumalolo tore off 259 metres, 240 metres and 256 metres in each of North Queensland's three finals wins. The first game, an extra-time victory against the Sharks, and the third, an incredible upset win over the Roosters, are among the finest games any forward has ever played.
Taumalolo had signed his famous 10-year deal in March of that season, before he ascended into true greatness, but after the previous year when he became the first running forward in almost three decades to win the Dally M medal.
You can make the case that no forward in living memory has had two better seasons than Taumalolo put together in 2016 and 2017. Every team in the league would have signed him up for a million a year and most of them would have been cackling at the bargain.
Times have changed since then but Taumalolo remained a force that could seemingly move earth and heaven even as North Queensland's status as a top contender crumbled around him.
As recently as 2019, when he led Tonga to their miracle victories over Great Britain and Australia, he could claim status as the top forward in the game, and one of the best players overall.
Then everything became different. In round two of 2020, the last game Taumalolo played before the set restart rule was introduced, he put up 345 metres with ball in hand. It's the most by any forward since records were kept. Nothing in the game could stop him, until the game itself was changed.
The six again rule transformed the game in a fundamental way and was ramped up again last year to the point where the sport looked unrecognisable.
It did not eliminate the usefulness of forwards like Taumalolo, who used size and strength and acceleration and footwork and power to dominate his opposite numbers, but it made the services he provided a little less valuable.
Forwards setting the platform to win matches had been a solid path to victory since 1895 until the quick-draw chaos of 2021. In an effort to "bring back the little man", the big men were picked off like elephants being hunted for ivory.
The restart rule has now been rolled back to a happier medium, with penalties taking the place of restarts inside the defensive 40 metres, and as a result (three rounds is admittedly not a large sample size, but it is enough to establish a trend), power in the middle of the field is once again a significant factor in determining a match.
Speed and mobility are still important, but big fellas run the yard up the middle third, which is as it should be. Rugby league is a game of speed and flair and skill and creativity, but it is also a game of power and aggression and collision and muscle, and it should be both at the same time.
Therefore it's no coincidence that in the past two weeks Taumalolo has played two of his best games in a couple of seasons, even though the two metre totals he put up against Canberra (161) and Brisbane (141) would have classified as a down game during his absolute peak. The game has come back closer to where it should be, and Tauamlolo has revelled in it.
And while the Cowboys wouldn't trade Taumalolo for any forward in the competition, a series of injuries, some of the rule changes in recent years and a slight drop in form have resulted in him being surpassed as the game's top forward.
The new kings are Penrith's Isaah Yeo and South Sydney's Cameron Murray, who are close enough together that whoever you have on top is a matter of preference on any given day.
Both are strong yardage men, with Yeo having a slight edge in raw numbers while Murray is a touch more explosive, and both are passers of enormous sophistication. Both Yeo and Murray can slot in at first or second receiver with ease at the point forward role which has become ubiquitous in recent years.
Taumalolo is no slouch as a passer – his sharp ball for Griffin Neame's try on the weekend is proof enough of that – but he's 12 years into his career at this point, and he's not going to became as quality a distributor as Yeo and Murray. He's still top tier, but he might not be able to make up the ground on the Sydney duo.
What Taumalolo still provides, and what he does better than Murray and Yeo, is metres, tough metres and plenty of them. Even last year, when forwards didn't matter as much and almost nobody in the middle ran for as many yards as they once did, Taumalolo still put up 155 metres per game. No matter how much the game changes, that's still an incredibly valuable force for a team to have at their disposal.
Which brings us back to Haas, who is just as reliable when it comes to yardage. He does not have the explosiveness of Taumalolo, but in terms of attritional gains there are few forwards who are better. It's subjective, but there's only a few middles who can be ranked ahead of him – Yeo and Murray are still the clear leaders, but Haas is close to the front of the chasing pack.
Haas doesn't quite have the runs on the board in big matches of some of his contemporaries like Josh Papalii, Daniel Saifiti or Taumalolo, but his youth possibly makes him the most valuable. Barring injury, you can jot him down for around 150 metres – sometimes more, but almost never fewer – for the next 10 years or more.
Traditionally, middle forwards hit their prime in their mid to late 20s and Haas is just 22. He can still develop a pass and an offload, which means as good as he is now he can potentially get even better.
Giving big money to any player is a cross between a gamble and an investment. You never know what you'll get because maybe the player puts the feet up once he's got the big deal, or maybe the rules change overnight and transform the game in ways nobody anticipated, or maybe two years into a four-year deal someone does a knee and is never the same again.
There will always be an element of chance, but reliability is the closest thing to guaranteeing a return on an investment. What Haas provides, and what Taumalolo has provided, is much easier to replicate week in and week out than what a star halfback or five-eighth might produce.
There is some creativity to their work, but mostly it's based around running the ball hard and well and doing it again and again and again. That's reliable. That's consistent. That's knowing you're likely to get what you paid for each and every week, and if having a certainty like that isn't worth a million dollars or close to it a season, what could be?
Even with all Taumalolo has achieved – it's not hard to make the case that he is the best forward of the 21st century – the take machine still came for him, as it does for everyone at one time or another.
He has kept putting up the numbers and kept playing well, but if a player does not keep improving we tire of them and expect more. Producing the same thing again and again is necessary but it isn't fun and exciting and fresh and new, because we've seen it before.
If Haas signs for a million, be it with the Broncos or the Roosters or the Dolphins or whoever else, the same thing will happen. One day, when the club is in a slump, we'll ask if he's worth the money, or question why he hasn't led the team to a premiership yet.
When that day comes it's a fair bet that Haas will still be doing what he's always done. The metres won't stop. The runs keep coming. You'll get what you pay for.
