Examples of the outside defending Hooker since Barrigan in 2006?

[Mustafur]

Has anyone seen it done by any other side since Bennett worked it like magic in 2006 with Shaun Barrigan, I'm honestly surprised it has never been thought of properly since then considering a firing fit dummy half in the modern game is soo over powered.

 

[Alec]

I'm guessing it's mostly because it's tricky to find a hooker who can defend in the centres and also someone who can defend well in the middle while also playing like centre in attack.

 

[BroncsFan]

I've noticed BHunt defending inside of the second rower during origin and other times he's played hooker.

I'm guessing it's to keep him away from the middle 'A' defenders to give him stamina in attack.

I think it's a good approach to protect a smaller hooker, but it puts pressure on the second rower who effectively has halves on their inside and outside.

I also recall Hodgo playing fullback in attack and center in defence (rotated with Hoggman)... worked extremely well and surprised I haven't seen other teams do it when they have a good defensive fullback that is completely inept on the attacking side of the ball.

Someone like Isaako who appears limited with ball in hand, but good enough under high balls, etc. whilst we have someone like Staggs sitting in the centres. Not saying it should happen just giving a current example (also I don't know if Staggs has the ball playing to excel at fullback as it is).

DEdwards also seems a prime candidate for fullback in defence, but center/winger in attack

 

[Alec]

I've noticed BHunt defending inside of the second rower during origin and other times he's played hooker.

I'm guessing it's to keep him away from the middle 'A' defenders to give him stamina in attack.

I think it's a good approach to protect a smaller hooker, but it puts pressure on the second rower who effectively has halves on their inside and outside.

I also recall Hodgo playing fullback in attack and center in defence (rotated with Hoggman)... worked extremely well and surprised I haven't seen other teams do it when they have a good defensive fullback that is completely inept on the attacking side of the ball.

Someone like Isaako who appears limited with ball in hand, but good enough under high balls, etc. whilst we have someone like Staggs sitting in the centres. Not saying it should happen just giving a current example (also I don't know if Staggs has the ball playing to excel at fullback as it is).

DEdwards also seems a prime candidate for fullback in defence, but center/winger in attack

Fullback and winger/centre rotation is an interesting concept, it definitely worked well with Hodges who probably didn't have the agility or experience to position himself defensively, but could throw some insane passes towards the end of his career.

I used to push the centre/winger rotation as well, back in the dark days where it was always "centre = good, winger = bad", and all the good attackers just couldn't defend in the centres at all at all.

 

[Mustafur]

Fullback and winger/centre rotation is an interesting concept, it definitely worked well with Hodges who probably didn't have the agility or experience to position himself defensively, but could throw some insane passes towards the end of his career.

I used to push the centre/winger rotation as well, back in the dark days where it was always "centre = good, winger = bad", and all the good attackers just couldn't defend in the centres at all at all.

I guess its just a personality thing, Hodges was already considered the the best centre in the game when he moved to fullback for that season, even though we had a crazy talent in Karmichael hunt who was a natural fullback that year.
Honestly in 2006 we where stacked in most positions though, we had players that's where either rep level or future rep level in nearly every position except Perry doing the hold it steady role in 7, which didn't really matter since we had the best half in the game with Lockyer.

 

[Mustafur]

I'm guessing it's mostly because it's tricky to find a hooker who can defend in the centres and also someone who can defend well in the middle while also playing like centre in attack.

Possibly but it's hard to say it couldn't be trained, the advantage of not having a spine player doing significantly less defensive work has its benefits.

Hookers in general are one of the positions that has the smallest players on the field, the effectiveness of them defending in the middle is questionable to began with, considering we are the only team in modern history to even experiment with this and actually win the Grand final I'm surprised it hasn't been emulated.

 

[Sproj]

You can’t do it at the modern day Broncos, you need guys who are competent at two different positions, we have very few guys who are even competent at one.

 

[abashii]

Even with Hodges, we did that because his hammies were made of old tissue paper at that point but, were he healthy, it would have been better having him play fullback on both sides of the ball. It probably contributed to Hoffdog thinking he was a top grade fullback and taking off to see his fame and fortune instead of staying as a decent winger.

 

[007]

if your hooker is fast enough sure, but also needs a strong winger and centre to move up and put pressure on.

 

[1910]

At the heart of it has to be weakness that you don't want exposed.

Berrigan not having to defend in the middle.
Hodges not bringing the ball back out of his wrong side.
Stagg not fielding kicks.
Perry not being posted on his own.
Stagg not making leg tackles with Perry.

It was the Dragons finals loss that was interesting and the win against the Dogs. Brown and the Dragons did a great job on Hodges in the finals and nullified him with a terrific kicking game and bombing him and making it hard to get out of the right hand corner which Hodges hated.

Then against the Knights, Hodges played left wing in defence with Berrigan at centre and Hodges moved to left centre in attack when Berrigan went to hooker Hunt played fullback in the big win.

Stagg played left wing in attack and left second row in defence so he didn't have to field kicks.

Hodges went to fullback against the Dogs at half time and had an immediate impact in the second half and in the Grand Final he was at fullback in attack, try off Lockyer, 10 tackle breaks and two line breaks.

That 10 weeks or so was great coaching and adapting to what the other side is doing, the Dragons did a massive favour winning that finals game. But a plan with so many moving parts and it coming off is interesting. Not too sure too many teams would do that anymore you'd almost avoid that much confusion.

 

[Kooly87]

At the heart of it has to be weakness that you don't want exposed.

Berrigan not having to defend in the middle.
Hodges not bringing the ball back out of his wrong side.
Stagg not fielding kicks.
Perry not being posted on his own.
Stagg not making leg tackles with Perry.

It was the Dragons finals loss that was interesting and the win against the Dogs. Brown and the Dragons did a great job on Hodges in the finals and nullified him with a terrific kicking game and bombing him and making it hard to get out of the right hand corner which Hodges hated.

Then against the Knights, Hodges played left wing in defence with Berrigan at centre and Hodges moved to left centre in attack when Berrigan went to hooker Hunt played fullback in the big win.

Stagg played left wing in attack and left second row in defence so he didn't have to field kicks.

Hodges went to fullback against the Dogs at half time and had an immediate impact in the second half and in the Grand Final he was at fullback in attack, try off Lockyer, 10 tackle breaks and two line breaks.

That 10 weeks or so was great coaching and adapting to what the other side is doing, the Dragons did a massive favour winning that finals game. But a plan with so many moving parts and it coming off is interesting. Not too sure too many teams would do that anymore you'd almost avoid that much confusion.

The general talent and football IQ of that Broncos side was absolutely leagues above what we have now and even they only just managed to pull it off.

 

[gUt]

^ Shows the value of:

* Berrigan's utility. He became the benchmark.
* Perry, the non-flashy but completely competent journeyman half able to fit in with whatever plan so long as he's not expected to be the main man.
* Lockyer, the main man with the footy IQ of a god, in the centre of it all, coordinating and using that special tactical kicking game he had.

 

[Kooly87]

^ Shows the value of:

* Berrigan's utility. He became the benchmark.
* Perry, the non-flashy but completely competent journeyman half able to fit in with whatever plan so long as he's not expected to be the main man.
* Lockyer, the main man with the footy IQ of a god, in the centre of it all, coordinating and using that special tactical kicking game he had.

Even that is selling it short. We had one of the best Forward Packs of the modern era laying the platform for a backline that had also career best form Justin Hodges and Karmichael Hunt not to mention Brent Tate as well. It was wall to wall Rep quality and even our Bench would go on to become gun Rep players in the future.

 

[Sproj]

Totally agree that the 06 side were LEAGUES above the current version. How many of the current players are likely to go down as all time club greats?

We currently have four guys that look like they could be special in Haas, Carrigan, Staggs and Coates but none of them are actually even close to being there yet with the exception of Haas, but even he is still a powderpuff in defense.

 

[Mustafur]

I guess it is something you can teach though, have some of our younger lower grade Hookers play games at Qldcup level in centre to understand the defensive line better.

If the NRL is going to go ahead with the 6 again rule long term I can see teams bringing in these tactics, just like the 13 being the 3rd playmaker in the team.