Adam Reynolds is an absolute legend of the NRL.
There is no second-guessing that. This is a man who has rewritten the book on what it means to be a smart halfback, and has add chapters to manuals around kicking games and how to win.
He is the sort of player that South Sydney fans still love despite the fact he left that club at the end of 2021, and is a player Brisbane fans love.
Maybe the truest endoresement is that you can't really find a bad word said about him by the neutrals either.
The Sydney-born 36-year-old is the perfect embodiment of what a modern rugby league career at he top of the game should look like.
Clean off the field, excels on it, and very rarely had a bad game.
His latest concussion though, just weeks before he hangs up the boots at the end of a very disappointing Brisbane Broncos campaign, has threatened the fact he may not play again.
He will, at the very least, sit out this weekend's game against the Dolphins, in what has fast become one of the NRL's biggest derbies.
In his place, Thomas Duffy, who left the North Queensland Cowboys at the end of last year in search of more opportunities and has impressed when called upon by coach Michael Maguire, will have another opportunity to impress.
The Broncos are all but mathematically out of finals contention, and so the focus now is very much on building for next year at Red Hill.
That's not to say they will throw games away this year - far from it.
This is a club who need to finish with some momentum and, at the very least, the defending premiers might be able to escape the throws of the bottom four with a strong finish.
But that focus on next year means the halfback battle, which will be fought out between Duffy and the arriving Jonah Pezet, needs every opportunity for game time they can get.
Pezet certainly hasn't had the year one might have expected at the blue and gold after arriving from the Melbourne Storm on a stop-gap deal.
He was the expected walk-up starter, but injuries, suspension and poor form have singificantly limited his ability to get a run of games on, and when he has played, his performances for Jason Ryles' Parramatta Eels side have been underwhelming to say the least.
That ultimately leaves Pezet no guarantee to play the role he was signed for next year, and could mean Maguire is keen to have another look at Duffy - as much as he can anyway - over the final weeks.
It leaves an awkward predicament though, because Reynolds, who, if we are serious, has struggled in the final year of his career, does deserve to finish on his own terms.
He is a premiership winner at the Rabbitohs, but more importantly, a premiership-winner at the Broncos.
He was a controlling influence in that grand final last year against the Melbourne Storm, and has ben an enormous part of this club both on and off the field in recent seasons.
His influence has made South Sydney, who have worked through a number of options at number seven since his departure, wonder what might have been had the club favourite stayed around to finish his career as he wanted to before being told no more than a one-year deal was on the table.
Certainly, Reynolds has gone on a year too long, but his form in Brisbane for the most part has proven the Rabbitohs' recruitment staff very wrong over their initial one-year offer.
Now with 323 NRL games, including 92 at the Broncos, Reynolds may not be owed anything by Maguire, but he does deserve a chance to say goodbye.
It's almost at the point where he potentially gets one, or maybe two games.
After the Dolphins, the Broncos clash with the New Zealand Warriors, and then the Canberra Raiders.
Two tough teams.
The Warriors are on a collision path with the finals and a double chance at that, and the Raiders, who have turned a corner and are desperate to restore some pride into their season, on the road.
The vote really should be that Duffy has an opportunity to impress in those two games.
Reynolds can take three weeks that way to get over his concussion, and get his body right for a swansong.
At home, in Round 26, against the Melbourne Storm. A team he has spent so much of his career squaring off against in high stakes game, in prime time on a Thursday night.
There is an argument that he should finish his career in Sydney, and maybe it's a case of him getting two games, with the Broncos to clash with the Canterbury Bulldogs at Homebush in the final round of the season seven days later.
But really, his games should be limited to a farewell match.
He may not love it, but as he prepares to move into a coaching role with the club after playing, he would surely understand it.
The opportunity for Reynolds himself, alongside the under fire Maguire and the rest of the coaching staff, to gather more data on Duffy in games against teams who will put him under the pump is simply too big to overlook.
