OPINION Anyone recall previous seasons where a team had two seasoned 7s in the same team in the Halves at the same time outside Origin?

[Mustafur]

I struggle to find it but my knowledge gets bad outside the late 2000s, anyone recall it happening at other teams?

I assume it's rare because you are talking about having 2 players of the most expensive position in the game in the same team with a salary cap which makes it very difficult to do.

The only comparison I can honestly make is Origin with Thurston and Cronk for QLD, nothing in club land actually has it from what I know of.

Sure there is plenty of examples of the inexperienced 7 playing 6 with the experienced 7 but never when both are basically similar status in the same team at club level.

I feel the idea of two 7s not working which has been put out there hasn't included a situation like this at all where you have two very established 7s in the same team.

 

[Xzei]

I struggle to find it but my knowledge gets bad outside the late 2000s, anyone recall it happening at other teams?

I assume it's rare because you are talking about having 2 players of the most expensive position in the game in the same team with a salary cap which makes it very difficult to do.

The only comparison I can honestly make is Origin with Thurston and Cronk for QLD, nothing in club land actually has it from what I know of.

Sure there is plenty of examples of the inexperienced 7 playing 6 with the experienced 7 but never when both are basically similar status in the same team at club level.

Brett finch and Cooper cronk be the closest I think in 2010

 

[Mustafur]

Brett finch and Cooper cronk be the closest I think in 2010

doesn't help that the season was a write off from cheating though, but it seems to match the requirement atleast.

They would have came 5th just on results but it's hard to judge them just on that since they had nothing to play for.

 

[Sproj]

Technically you could argue Cleary and Luai.

 

[theshed]

DCE and Brookes lol

 

[theshed]

Benji Marshall and Ben Hunt 2017
Marshall and Adam Reynolds 2021
Marshall and Brooks 2018ish
Arguably Marshall and Widdop

 

[Big Del]

Benji Marshall and Ben Hunt 2017
Marshall and Adam Reynolds 2021
Marshall and Brooks 2018ish
Arguably Marshall and Widdop

Bunji is a #6 not a #7 .
And Widdop too .

 

[BroncosFever]

It will work for us because Ben Hunt is a running half, Reynolds has always been a kicking half.

I don't think Ben Hunt is the tackle busting half he used to be but he's avoided major injuries throughout his career so he's hardly slow either. Quick enough to provide doubt. If there's this conception that Hunt is injury prone given his age, there shouldn't be.

It's almost the perfect combination. Hunt has always had lingering doubts over his ability to do it in the crucial moments, having Reynolds means he doesn't have to. I think the try he scored for QLD in Origin is the biggest "big" moment play of his career. He hasn't been shy of opportunities either. He's kicked 1 field goal in an NRL career that is 300+ games old, most of them as a starting halfback. That's telling.

 

[ningnangnong]

Matt Orford and Scott Hill at the Storm in 2002... though I guess they weren't overly seasoned then. Both mid-20s.

 

[BroncsFan]

It will work for us because Ben Hunt is a running half, Reynolds has always been a kicking half.

I don't think Ben Hunt is the tackle busting half he used to be but he's avoided major injuries throughout his career so he's hardly slow either. Quick enough to provide doubt. If there's this conception that Hunt is injury prone given his age, there shouldn't be.

It's almost the perfect combination. Hunt has always had lingering doubts over his ability to do it in the crucial moments, having Reynolds means he doesn't have to. I think the try he scored for QLD in Origin is the biggest "big" moment play of his career. He hasn't been shy of opportunities either. He's kicked 1 field goal in an NRL career that is 300+ games old, most of them as a starting halfback. That's telling.

Yeah I'm thinking Bhunt will thrive in the current setup... even when he was killing it for us in 2013/14/15 it was mostly through his running game and playmaking.

His kicking was never really a strong point of his game back then, but had a big upgrade at dragons for whatever reason. It's not really his strong point now either and some of his best seasons at drags were when Widdop was alongside him and doing a lot of the first receiver stuff.

He's probably always been a 6, but because he was the best player coming through juniors they just chucked the 7 on his back and so at that point he was a halfback.

Even in the rorters game there were two kicks back to back down the left... Reynolds did the first one that was absolutely pin point with backspin that pulled up about 5m from the goal line and 2m from touch... perfect kick to box Teddy in.

Basically the next set Bhunt put a kick in down the blindside and it almost went out on the full at around the 20m.

That's a huge difference when it comes to controlling field position and where you hand the ball over.

There is going to be a huge drop off in kicking game quality when Reynolds retires even if Bhunt replaces him at 7.

It may be more appropriate to run Coby at 7 straight away with Bhunt or Ezra at 6 (Bhunt at 9 if Ezra comes in), because Coby's strength appears to be his kicking game.

 

[BroncsFan]

Knights have effectively been running dual 7's for a couple years up to this point... combos of Hastings, Cogger and Gamble... maybe even Pearce although unsure when he left.

Some will claim that Gamble is a six, but he looks more like a 7 to me.

It's not exactly as per the OP question, as the above isn't representative of two 7's in peak form coming together, but it's interesting that AOB was trying it and it just wasn't close to working, because all the halves were too similar... none of them were able to take the pressure off Ponga by contributing to the attack... I would say Gamble was probably the closest though.

That's probably the biggest thing for me when it comes to halves pairings is the balance... you need at least one to be a game manager and get the team around the field, and one of them needs to be able to contribute in attack.

Some halves like DCE do both especially when he's playing for Manly, which means Brooks isn't really needed to do anything but chime in every now and then.

Cleary is on his way to doing both as well.

Moses looks like he could do both, but I think he still needs that attacking outlet from his partner.

Pairings like Cogger and Hastings provide no attacking output so is lacking... and then others that have two 6's struggle to get the team around the field and look directionless... Wahs last week, but it will be interesting to see how titans go this week with basically 2 fullbacks.

Storm's system is so strong that they can run 3 fullbacks and Hughes is the 7 because someone has to kick... but I'm not sure he's a pure halfback if a team like Knights went after him instead of Brown.. maybe he is after doing the role so long for storm, but even when they're going for field goals, etc. it seems like it goes to Paps for shots more so than Hughes.

 

[theshed]

Bunji is a #6 not a #7 .
And Widdop too .

Well, he was a better 6 than 7 but he played about 50 games or so at halfback

 

[mrslong]

Walters and Langer

 

[Locky's Left Boot]

Walters and Langer

I read in Wayne's book that Kevvie was a halfback but Alf was so dominant that he was always named at 7