Sporting Declaration: Jackson Hastings finds his niche at Knights

If Plan A had come up trumps, Luke Brooks would in all likelihood have been playing for the Newcastle Knights - instead of against them - at Brookvale Oval on Sunday.

You might recall that two years ago, when the Knights were struggling after the off-season departure of Mitchell Pearce left them without an established halfback, Brooks was seen as a quick-fix solution.

While Newcastle officials were wary of making any public comment, given that Brooks had more than 12 months to run on his contract with Wests Tigers, it didn't stop coaching consultant Andrew Johns declaring he would "love" to work with the enigmatic playmaker, adding: "He looks like he needs a change, and getting out of Sydney would be good for him".

The only issue was that the Tigers, for reasons best known to themselves, had no intention of releasing their highest-paid player.

So instead Newcastle turned their attention to another player on the Tigers' roster, Jackson Hastings, and a deal was confirmed on the same day it was announced that former Test prop David Klemmer was heading in the opposite direction.

Brooks, as it transpired, honoured his contract with the Tigers for 2023 before joining Manly at the end of last year.

And while he earned some rave reviews in the early rounds and was even labelled the "buy of the season", I can't help thinking the Knights should be mightily relieved about how all this panned out.

Brooks and Hastings are very different styles of player.

Brooks reminds me a lot of Jarrod Mullen. He's fast and elusive, with a left-footed kicking game, but he is more suited to playing second fiddle and presumably is quite content to let the old maestro, Daly Cherry-Evans, call the shots.

Hastings is less of a running threat, but it is perhaps worth noting that he has scored more tries (three) this season than Brooks (two), in fewer games. Nonetheless, he's an old-school first receiver whose primary task is to steer his team around the park.

It's Hastings' cool head and ball-playing nous that creates the space out wider for Kalyn Ponga to do his thing.

He's not flashy, but he's effective.

Moreover, Hastings offers two other attributes that I've never really noticed in Brooks - he's a leader, and he's tough.

Brooks played more than 200 games in his 11 seasons at the Tigers, but only occasionally was he entrusted with the captaincy role.

And while Hastings is yet to skipper the Knights - a job that Tyson Frizell, Jayden Brailey and Dane Gagai have handled whenever Ponga is unavailable - there is little doubt he is one of the most respected voices in that team.

He speaks his mind, and while in his younger days, at previous clubs, that may have rubbed some people the wrong way, at Newcastle he seems to have found his niche.

His toughness, I would suggest, is beyond question, physically and mentally.

The way he has played in recent weeks belies the fact that barely two years ago he suffered a horrific broken and dislocated ankle, which he re-fractured last season, and which continues to cause him grief.

As he told me earlier this year: "In the morning it's hard to get up and get around."

It surely requires a fair degree of intestinal fortitude to deal with that on a daily basis.

Then consider the tests of character Hastings has faced throughout his career, in particular the falling-out at Manly in 2017 that forced him to head to England to resurrect his career.

This week he shed light on the mental-health battle that followed, which may well have broken a lesser man. To emerge from that with a Super League Man of Steel award, having piloted two teams into grand finals, is a testimony to his self-belief.

On Sunday, the 28-year-old will rack up his 100^th NRL game.

A win against Manly at Brookvale would seem a fitting way to mark a hard-earned milestone.