The Hoffman Dilemma

[nopatience101]

Hoffman displayed the same deficiencies in his game at FB last night that have been there his entire career and you just can't get away with it in the modern game, FB is too important. Even slater with his speed and agility had to learn to ball play.

 

[Donny]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

Hoffman is great at running lines and his strength is great but when he gets the ball at FB inside the attacking twenty and we try and run that FB sweeping move he just crabs across the field which results in the centre and winger running out of room and Hoffman being tackled. He was playing outside Foran and Johnson last night and the same thing happened.

Dont get me wrong. Hoffman is great under the high ball, he runs the ball back hard and makes plenty of metres, his support play up the middle is good, he is a good dummy half runner but he just doesnt have the ball playing ability. Maybe he can turn that around but i doubt it.

He would make a decent centre IMO. Good speed, good fend and good in defence.

 

[Splinter]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

Hoffman can be a great winger or a run of the mill fullback. Last night while willing he still cut off ball movement inside the attacking 20 meter line.
lets just be thankful they did not sign Soward.

 

[rnabokov]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

Let's play Hoffman in the halves so we can bag him too

 

[Big Dave]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

I'm not sure what's stopping Hoffman from passing it.
He has it in him but rarely displays it. Reed and Norman both struggled with it and they are doing alright now.
Maybe he still lacks the confidence and maybe it was coached out of him as well.
I would still like to see Hoffman get another crack at fullback

 

[Mister Wright]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

I don't. He's been awesome on the wing. He is a great finisher. We wouldn't have scored half the tries we have this season without Hoffman on the wing.

 

[Big Dave]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

I don't. He's been awesome on the wing. He is a great finisher. We wouldn't have scored half the tries we have this season without Hoffman on the wing.

Lets not get too carried away with Hoffman's wing play. Most decent wingers would've scored those tries.

 

[Viti]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

I'm not sure what's stopping Hoffman from passing it.
He has it in him but rarely displays it. Reed and Norman both struggled with it and they are doing alright now.
Maybe he still lacks the confidence and maybe it was coached out of him as well.
I would still like to see Hoffman get another crack at fullback

To me it seems like he's never in the position to pass it, whenever I saw him running the lead play last year he always seemed to be getting the ball against a line that was set and marked up man to man, whereas this year Norman is getting the ball against a sliding defence that aren't set and are having to make a decision while they're on the move.

 

[Big Dave]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

To me it seems like he's never in the position to pass it, whenever I saw him running the lead play last year he always seemed to be getting the ball against a line that was set and marked up man to man, whereas this year Norman is getting the ball against a sliding defence that aren't set and are having to make a decision while they're on the move.

It gets back to the forwards not doing their job then.
I think it has more to do with the coach telling the likes of Hoffman, Norman, Reed to play safety first.
I would like Hoffman to be given another crack with the current form of our forward pack

 

[Kimlo]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

Lets not get too carried away with Hoffman's wing play. Most decent wingers would've scored those tries.

Well out of the players in our current 17 he's probably the only one who could have scored half those tries.

 

[Viti]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

It gets back to the forwards not doing their job then.
I think it has more to do with the coach telling the likes of Hoffman, Norman, Reed to play safety first.
I would like Hoffman to be given another crack with the current form of our forward pack

Yeah definitely, I think the difference between this year and last year is this year our forwards are getting over the advantage line and also using some ball playing skills to hold defenders up in the middle so we can isolate defenders on the edges.

 

[Big Pete]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

There was an instance leading up to the Dean Whare no try where Hoffman did a really good job at engaging GI before passing that almost lead to a try to Perrett in the corner.

It's definitely in him, but ball playing doesn't come as naturally to him as it did Karmichael.

Right now I believe his future is in the centres.

 

[Splinter]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

I think some of Hoffmans problem at fullback is he does not stay deep enough like Norman. He ends up getting the ball too close to the defensive line and gets turned back inside instead of staying back and using his speed to get to the outside shoulder of his man to help create the overlap

 

[Ari Gold]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

The problem is plain and simple -- Hoffman likes to run. If it is an obvious passing situation he can do what is required (like in ball it to Reed) but he just doesn't instinctively see overlaps and choose the right person to pass it too. And he doesn't really look to support often enough to make this okay.

Hoffman is not a fullback.

 

[rnabokov]

Re: The right to bag the Broncos halves

The problem is plain and simple -- Hoffman likes to run. If it is an obvious passing situation he can do what is required (like in ball it to Reed) but he just doesn't instinctively see overlaps and choose the right person to pass it too. And he doesn't really look to support often enough to make this okay.

Hoffman is not a fullback.

Spot on. And the key word is "instinct". He has none when it comes to ball play. His timing sucks. He goes to sleep as the Kiwis discovered.

Centre? Maybe. Wing? Perfect. His game is to run the ball.

I thought this thread was about bagging halves and not Hoffman ...

 

[Black Philip]

Is there a dilemma? He is ordinary at best at fullback, but makes a pretty good winger. Boom. Your new position is wing unless you want to play Qcup or we have a player injured. "Dilemma" over.

 

[jarro65]

I hope they leave him on the wing .... he really has been doing a great job for us there, and his combination with reed is starting to work well.

 

[Coxy]

Yep, when Norman goes, assuming we haven't signed a player from elsewhere to play fullback, give one of the young guys a go there - Kahu, Bond, even Kemp if he's showing enough form.