Hodges for mine with Parker the vc.
If Macca can be as good a player that people think he can be under Bennett i would promote him and Hunt above Glenn in the pecking order for when Hodges and Parker are on rep duty.
I don't buy into captaincy making Hodges a selfish player or robbing players of opportunities by going himself, he does that whether he has the C next to his name or not.
As I said before, Macca is the only guy that strikes me as a capable captain at the moment. Obviously, he needs to perform on the field, but hopefully this could take him to a new level...
I find a lot of comments towards McCullough on here very interesting, particularly the ones that mention him 'going up a gear' and being the player we need him to be. Let's keep in mind that he's played 170-odd games, has been in the NRL a long time now and he's definitely not a rookie. Does he really have another level in him? I don't know what the average lifespan of an NRL career is but I'm guessing if you haven't reached your peak potential by the time you're closing in on 200 first grade games you probably won't ...or you've hit it but haven't realised it.
For mine the captaincy is the main priority in rebuilding the team - yes, even more so than the fullback debate and our forward problems. I was reading Bellamy's book 'Home Truths' during the week and there is a great quote on leadership. He writes:
'If you watch a team often enough, and they haven't got good leadership, you can see that on the field.
They are inconsistent from week to week. They are inconsistent in games, during certain periods. When they are under pressure, you can see that no one is taking the game by the scruff of the neck and saying 'hey, this is what we need to do now'.'
I think this sums up our season perfectly. It's the reason why we cannot build pressure after scoring points, it's why we play our best football when we are down 12-0 and the game is out of reach. It's why we cannot string
convincing wins together. It's why the great Brisbane sides never had these problems - because they had great leaders on and off the field.
Bellamy goes on to say clubs without good leadership often have off-field trouble as well - like the dramas this year with several players being stood down for disciplinary reasons.
The captaincy is a crucial issue and Bennett needs to get it right.