Our new halfback should be

[Pushkin]

Only saw him a few times he replaced o'hara and he was quite good definitely my pick of the halves. spent time at five-eighth with Brimson at 7 then moved to halfback and isaako played 6. His age might be an issue

What issue with his age ?

 

[Danoz Direct]

What issue with his age ?

I think he is only 18 or 19.

 

[Allo]

Also another solid option who Bennett must rate is Darren Nicholls. He is only a back up at the panthers. Age is an issue probably another Shane perry kind of player

While I really wanted to see Nicholls play for us, I doubt he'll come back unless guaranteed a starting spot.

Due to his age (which isn't that old, but old for a rookie) and reserve grade journeyman career, he will probably stay in Sydney due to the Panthers having a biscuit team (potential for a spot) and proximity to other NRL teams that need emergency halves this season.

But if he's willing, I'd sign him up tomorrow

 

[Accept]

While I really wanted to see Nicholls play for us, I doubt he'll come back unless guaranteed a starting spot.

Due to his age (which isn't that old, but old for a rookie) and reserve grade journeyman career, he will probably stay in Sydney due to the Panthers having a biscuit team (potential for a spot) and proximity to other NRL teams that need emergency halves this season.

But if he's willing, I'd sign him up tomorrow

Sign him up for what? To play for Redcliffe again? There is a reason that he is a second tier journeyman. A decent player but nowhere near NRL standard.

 

[Allo]

Sign him up for what? To play for Redcliffe again? There is a reason that he is a second tier journeyman. A decent player but nowhere near NRL standard.

On the premise that Hunt phones it and/or gets dropped and we don't try Kodi there. Give him a run and see if he can do something. Players generally always play better around better players.

Also, I hate this 'not NRL standard' line people trot out when suggesting reserve grade/ 20's players. Have a look at some of the garbage players that get picked weekly or somehow manage to get thrown a contract each year. If they can get picked, why not an unknown quantity?

 

[Sirlee oldman]

I don't see the point of dropping Hunt. If we are paying him then we might as well play him.
Why not give Kodi first shot at replacing Hunt next year? He has played halfback for the Kiwis and while I have heard all the arguments about needing a kicker and game manager who is to say Kodi can't learn these skills. Maybe he can kick but we haven't seen him do it because it hasn't been his job.
If Kodi spends some time this year playing halfback in the ISC (with Benji as our bench utility) then it is possible he could be ready for next year. I have read many complaints on here that Hunt was used as a utility for too long and this stunted his development. Are we going to make the same mistake again?

 

[Painin the Haas]

One pro is in the junior squads nikorima played many games with Milford in the halves. Con that out of the two Milford was the better organiser and named at halfback which doesn't give me a lot of confidence in nikorima being what the team needs

 

[Unbreakable]

The only scenario I see Hunt getting dropped is if A) He's playing worse than he did in 2016 or B) We're losing a lot of games and collectively decide that there's no real chance of winning a premiership this year.

Hopefully we get J.Nikorima back, then we'd have quite a few options (Not saying any of them will be immediately good or an upgrade on Hunt, but it'll be a good experiment to try 2 or 3 of them out, similarly to what the Roosters did in 2016 by testing J.Nikorima, Watson, Hastings & Matterson)

I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of games at Halfback out of K.Nikorima, J.Nikorima & Scarlett.

 

[M.B.88]

The only scenario I see Hunt getting dropped is if A) He's playing worse than he did in 2016 or B) We're losing a lot of games and collectively decide that there's no real chance of winning a premiership this year.

Hopefully we get J.Nikorima back, then we'd have quite a few options (Not saying any of them will be immediately good or an upgrade on Hunt, but it'll be a good experiment to try 2 or 3 of them out, similarly to what the Roosters did in 2016 by testing J.Nikorima, Watson, Hastings & Matterson)

I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of games at Halfback out of K.Nikorima, J.Nikorima & Scarlett.

And how good did the roostets' season turn out

 

[Big Pete]

Great point, Marty.

The Roosters experimented with Nikorima, Hastings, Matterson and Watson then decided signing Keary and Cornish was the way to go. In addition they made a well publicised bid for Moses, which was rejected since Mitchell wanted to wait another year so he could boost his value on the open market.

If Hunt goes down, it's between Kodi Nikorima and Benji Marshall. They'll get the full-time gig and the only way anybody else enters into that equation is if there's a mid-season transfer or an injury crisis.

 

[Unbreakable]

Not sure how it was a great point lol, I literally said in my post that one of the only scenarios we would do that is if we're out of premiership contention. (Generally implying a bad season!)

Not to mention the Roosters situation was completely different to ours, they had no Pearce for the first couple of months and were testing rookies from Round 1. That's not what we will be doing.

 

[Big Pete]

Because it's been proven time and time again that treating the halfback position like a merry go round doesn't achieve anything.

 

[Nashy]

You can have a gold star too UB, don't worry mate.

 

[M.B.88]

Because it's been proven time and time again that treating the halfback position like a merry go round doesn't achieve anything.

A halfback needs to be ingrained in a team for a long time in my mind. Why simply buying a halfback won't work straight off the bat.

It worked with Maloney because if Townsend. Townsend knew the club, players and culture before hand.

 

[Sirlee oldman]

T

Because it's been proven time and time again that treating the halfback position like a merry go round doesn't achieve anything.

That's why I don't think we should bin Hunt just out of spite. We should spend this year preparing Kodi to take over next year. If he doesn't look like getting up to standard then we go to the market.

 

[Unbreakable]

Because it's been proven time and time again that treating the halfback position like a merry go round doesn't achieve anything.

That's pretty arbitrary, the Roosters weren't treating the Halfback position like a merry go round, they were treating Fullback, Five-Eighth & Halfback like a deck of cards that they were shuffling. And they did it from Round 1 as well, due to the suspension of Pearce. In the scenario I listed we wouldn't be initiating the merry go round until 2/3's of the season in, and we wouldn't be shuffling any other positions, it'd be just exchanging Hunt for someone else, next man up, nothing about our game plan or structure would change.

And besides, I find it pretty unlikely that we're playing that poorly 2/3's through the season that Wayne says "**** it" and just throws a Nikorima or Scarlett in there, but you never know, 1 or 2 injuries to key players and we may be fighting to avoid the bottom 4.

 

[holdzy]

Have to play Hunt this year. Surely he would be more motivated than less.

 

[Big Pete]

A halfback needs to be ingrained in a team for a long time in my mind. Why simply buying a halfback won't work straight off the bat.

It worked with Maloney because if Townsend. Townsend knew the club, players and culture before hand.

Even in the case of Cronulla, it wasn't like Maloney and Townsend came into a side that relied on it's halves. Ennis, Graham, Lewis, Bird and Barba all handled the playmaking duties so Maloney and Townsend just had to fit into that framework.

That's why I don't think we should bin Hunt just out of spite. We should spend this year preparing Kodi to take over next year. If he doesn't look like getting up to standard then we go to the market.

Not to mention, it'd be foolish to give up on the Broncos based on what's still a rumour at this stage. They're still one of the best teams in the competition, experiments don't even enter the equation.

That's pretty arbitrary, the Roosters weren't treating the Halfback position like a merry go round, they were treating Fullback, Five-Eighth & Halfback like a deck of cards that they were shuffling. And they did it from Round 1 as well, due to the suspension of Pearce. In the scenario I listed we wouldn't be initiating the merry go round until 2/3's of the season in, and we wouldn't be shuffling any other positions, it'd be just exchanging Hunt for someone else, next man up, nothing about our game plan or structure would change.

And besides, I find it pretty unlikely that we're playing that poorly 2/3's through the season that Wayne says "**** it" and just throws a Nikorima or Scarlett in there, but you never know, 1 or 2 injuries to key players and we may be fighting to avoid the bottom 4.

So why are we trying to emulate the Roosters approach when it wasn't effective?

They're not the only side that has treated the halfback position like a hot-seat and it's been proven time and time again it's a horrible way of judging talent.