Signed a 3 year deal according to the Newcastle herald

https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/stor ... dUyzzEO5BQ

https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/stor ... dUyzzEO5BQ

Good news. The club have acted quickly and have signed a promising player with a fair few years left in him.

Respectfully can the experts just give him a chance and welcome him on board. Feel free to have an opinion once the lad has played a dozen games. Only seems fair and polite.

Very good signing for you.
He is a very good playmaker and game organiser and he has worked really hard on those skills in the Knights reserves for the last few years.
He is too small and not a good enough defender for the NRL, but a poor defender in the NRL is fair to average in the ESL, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Trust me that’s not totally true, you do need to defend in SL it’s vital! The only difference is that there are less monster sized players so size is not such an issue. So the small bit isn’t such an issue.

All the same he won’t get an easy ride here, if his defence iis a weakness he’ll need to work on it.

I agree there Vasty. No hiding place on a rugby pitch if you can’t tackle, other teams players do target weaknesses, and this is the same in most sports.

I was a fan of Williams, but was surprised we were being linked in bringing him back. Good work by the club in focussing on someone else and getting the deal done quickly.

Not yet confirmed by the club, but if and when it is, welcome aboard Mason

Good deal for both parties, I suspect. He's a young guy not getting his chance in the shop window, and we need a quality half-back.

The clips of him I've seen show he can certainly play.
And an accomplished goal kicker too.

FWIW I think we dodged a bullet with Williams. I never thought he was much good last time and now he's two years older with little game time. No idea about this guy but our overseas signings have been pretty decent in recent years. Welcome aboard.

I'd guess, that with him being at Newcastle Knights, we may have taken some feedback from Colin Sanctuary on signing Lino.

Let's be positive.

Anybody got access to the article to post the content, not gonna subscibe just for this.

If confirmed, welcome him with open arms and hope he can be the leader we need.
I did not really notice any defensive frailties this season, some good hits on the big guys- although defence is important in all positions, its not the first thing I would look for in a half.

I have seen every game he played during the current season with Newcastle and based on what I have observed his defence is indeed lacking and he likes to jump the defensive line. With Newcastle he defends on the left and I have not seen any obvious game running skills or long kicking game but that may be due to the instructions he received at Newcastle.
I am willing to see how he goes but I would suggest that some will need to give him time which was not granted to Williams.