Putting aside all the 'for the good of Australian rugby' pieties re the Mason matter (that typically are far more sentimental than factually thought through), I possess a more brutal calculus as a Reds and broader rugby fan:
- if the Reds languish as a 'just OK' S18 team in 2017 and 2018, the QRU will enter a state of serious financial trouble once more, Suncorp crowds in the high teens thousands or close are simply not viable (let alone the seeping negative flow-through to lowered sponsorship $s and Foxtel numbers)
- it's clear that all Aus S18 franchises bar perhaps the Tahs are in various gradations of chronic financial fragility or worse (rumours swirl in MEL that the Rebels new owners need more subsidy from the ARU than is contractually agreed) and the ARU will only be able to bail so many out at once
- it's proven beyond doubt that very few if any current day S18 teams get into the Super Finals without a very good, consistently playing 10
- QC (Quade Cooper) has a bad history of injury and he's not the Super player extraordinaire he was in 2010-11 and, for the Wallabies, in recent years he's been mixed-to-good but rarely outstanding and his place kicking is adequate not upper % level.......and that's before we assess just how much the Super comp has increased in competitive quality (from NZ and Aus) since QC (Quade Cooper)'s golden era
- in short, the Reds need to be rapidly developing exceptional back-up 10 capability to QC (Quade Cooper) and, whilst others will disagree, I do not see an 'exceptional developing and ready-to-take-over' 10 in McIntyre, quite the contrary. He's been tried and typically found wanting at Super level, either in terms of natural 10 talent at that level, or perhaps it's mental, or both
- so, if QC (Quade Cooper) is injured and/or performs less well than we all sentimentally want him to, I believe that objectively McIntyre will not be a game-wining force for the Reds and he could well be the opposite
- To me, Duncan P is not a 10, more a 12 on all current evidence and we probably need him there
- there is no guarantee that young talented 10s like S Greene (gone to Japan) or M Mason (Tahs) will become established high-class Super 10s but I have seen enough of both at GPS and other levels to be convinced that are or were better prospects than McInyre and that the QRU should have bitten the bullet with McIntyre and kept at least one of the above two in play as back-up to QC (Quade Cooper), or maybe take the other risk of Duncan P as consistent back-up 10 and give some Super playing time to a Mason
- let me stress: all the above is predicated upon my conviction that the QRU's actual, real situation today is not one of being able to in any way afford 'a few years of relaxed player development premised upon a long-term plan to get to the S18 Finals in maybe 3-4 years time', its commercial survival needs are far more pressing and require an utterly ruthless pruning of squad under-performers, in both prime or immediate back-up positions
- the Tahs have a good supply of backs talent in NSW; they have picked Mason very shrewdly from QLD for a reason - he has on many occasions shown not only exceptional, classic 10 skills but has an excellent place kicking ability as well. The Tahs rightly know they need a top quality stock of 10s coming up and in behind Foley if they want to gain and sustain further Super success and.....survival, by the way.
