Recruit watch: Sam Verrills
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The NRL market has been in full swing for 2023 with several stars switching clubs ahead of the new season.
NRL.com takes a look at the major transfers and how your club will benefit from a star arrival.
Sam Verrills (Titans)
- Age: 24
- Position they'll fill: Hooker
- Contracted until: 2024
What Verrills will bring
Sam Verrills shifts north to the Gold Coast for a change of scenery after four seasons at the Roosters.
The arrival of Brandon Smith to Bondi left Verrills, a premiership-winner at the club, with little choice but to move elsewhere if he wanted to remain a starting dummy half.
At 24, Verrills has experienced the highs and lows of rugby league, winning a title in his maiden year at the Tricolours before a season-ending knee injury in 2020.
He's had two more injury-affected seasons but managed to remain on the park for the remaining 11 games of the year in 2022.
There is plenty of promise in Verrills, who showed last year he can have an impact on a team when he can put games together.
Overall, the Roosters won 71% of matches when Verrills was on the field.
Why it will work
Verrills' responsibility at the Titans will differ to his time at the Roosters and with that should help take his game to more of a leadership level.
He joins a club that is desperate to get back into the finals fold, a heavy contrast to being at a club who is star-studded and allows him to do his role.
The Titans have lacked consistency at hooker in recent years with Erin Clark, Mitch Rein and Nathan Peats all sharing the duties, while Aaron Booth had a brief four-game run before suffering a nasty knee injury.
Verrills averaged 64 minutes per game in 2022 with his service out of dummy half set to prove the Titans halves and forward pack a platform to build on.
Defensively, he has been pretty sound too, improving on his 2021 efforts by dropping his missed tackle count from 33 (14 games) to 25 (15 games) respectively.
The Titans also ranked 15th for dummy half runs last year and while Verrills isn't a run-first type hooker, he ran more at hooker in his final season at the Roosters than his previous three with 39 metres per game.
Gold Coast's usual style of attacking play should encourage Verrills to express himself more in this area.
"I like to run the ball and defend as much as I can as a hooker," Verrills said after arriving to the Titans in November.
"I was really happy with my game last year, but there is always room for improvement."
If Verrills can find his running game, not only he but the Titans halves and side in general, should benefit.
