NEWS Wayne Bennett declares: 'I will stick with Kodi at half'

[Super Freak]

Wayne Bennett declares: 'I will stick with Kodi at half'

January 27, 2018

Wayne Bennett has declared he will stick with Kodi Nikorima at halfback this season in another boost to the Kiwi international's confidence in his new full-time role at the Brisbane Broncos.

Nikorima told NRL.com last week how Bennett's public vote of confidence in him playing in the halfback position last year, and subsequent one-on-one conversation, had given him a great boost when there was speculation the Broncos would go to market to replace Ben Hunt.

The 23-year-old started at half 13 times in 2017, mostly with Anthony Milford by his side, and Brisbane won 11 of those games.

Bennett knows the importance of stability and the right mindset for any player taking on such a pivotal role and he has given Nikorima another huge vote of confidence as he continues to train in the halfback role full-time and prepare to partner Anthony Milford.

"Kodi will have a lot more confidence this year because he knows I will stick with him as halfback as well," Bennett told NRL.com.

"He is talented. He is dedicated and he has good footy nous.

"Kodi has a lot of wonderful qualities that you need to play in that position.

"This time last year Kodi was training to be a hooker and utility player for us. This year he is training as a halfback full-time.

"That shows the advances he has made and we are confident in what we have done, and we are confident in him."

Bennett got to see what Nikorima had to offer at half in the cauldron of the NRL through unforeseen circumstances, but said that he delivered when it counted.

"Ben Hunt got injured and that is what got him the opportunities, and from then on he showed us what he could do," Bennett said.

"Andrew McCullough got injured and we put Ben Hunt at hooker because we had enough confidence in Kodi to play halfback.

"Inadvertently, he got a lot of experience last year. He is training there now. It is his full-time position and he knows he has a bit of stability in his life."

Former Broncos captain Wally Lewis said Bennett's public display of faith in Nikorima was a masterstroke.

"You have a look at the history chart of the Broncos' No.7 jersey and there have mostly been stars who were strike players for Brisbane," Lewis told NRL.com.

"So there is a fair bit of pressure attached to wearing that jersey, but for Kodi knowing and reading that his coach has faith in him in that position will boost his confidence as the season continues and will be a huge benefit mentally.

"Bennett has had this plan in mind for a while and he would have been working in well with Kodi at training and telling him exactly the style of football he wants him to play at halfback.

"I think Kodi has enough experience, and enough very good advice from the man in charge, to do the job.

"When he does go on the field in round one I am sure Bennett will pat him on the shoulder and tell him he believes in him, and to play his own game and just feel comfortable."

Bennett will be patient with the Milford/Nikorima combination which he said was "a work in progress", and said that on reflection the club's achievement of reaching the preliminary final last season under duress was a worthy effort.

"Anthony played Origin last year and he will be a lot more confident player this year," Bennett said.

"But we nursed ourselves through to the end of last season.

"Anthony had a bad shoulder and we were nursing that each week. McCullough was gone. Hunt had to go to hooker and Kodi came into half.

"When I look back on our season, we probably did a lot better than we thought we did."

Source: NRL.com

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Stats don't lie. 11 wins from 13 starts tells me he deserves AT LEAST 10-12 rounds to see where he is at. Kicking will remain an issue, but as long as we're scoring points with flare (the same tactic that got us to the 2015 GF) and Macca is delivering 40/20's then who cares?

 

[Foordy]

Stats don't lie

no but they don'y always tell the full story either ... and in some case they can be misleading ... this isn't supercoach where the game is played on the stats sheet.

in several of those games, we didn't start winning until Nikorima was hooked ... and is several others he went missing.

Don't get me wrong, he is currently our best option at halfback, and he should and will be given 6-10 games to prove whether he is the long term answer or if we need to go to the market/rookies to find the long term option. the issue we will have is that if we decide we need to go to the market, we need to do so relatively early or there won't be any quality playmakers left available.

 

[Porthoz]

no but they don'y always tell the full story either ... and in some case they can be misleading ... this isn't supercoach where the game is played on the stats sheet.

in several of those games, we didn't start winning until Nikorima was hooked ... and is several others he went missing.

Don't get me wrong, he is currently our best option at halfback, and he should and will be given 6-10 games to prove whether he is the long term answer or if we need to go to the market/rookies to find the long term option. the issue we will have is that if we decide we need to go to the market, we need to do so relatively early or there won't be any quality playmakers left available.

The calibre of opposition is also not taken into account. List of games with Kodi as HB:

1 Titans
2 Souffs
3 Penrith
4 Manly
5 Tigers
6 Souffs
7 Faders
8 Titans
9 Cronulla
10 Dragons
11 Parra (Loss)
12 Cowboys
13 Chooks (Loss)
14 Melbourne (Loss)

 

[CaptainHook]

The calibre of opposition is also not taken into account. List of games with Kodi as HB:

1 Titans
2 Souffs
3 Penrith
4 Manly
5 Tigers
6 Souffs
7 Faders
8 Titans
9 Cronulla
10 Dragons
11 Parra (Loss)
12 Cowboys
13 Chooks (Loss)
14 Melbourne (Loss)

Bahahaha Kodi gets no respect because he wasn't playing against quality opposition.

Yet plenty on here were ready to welcome back Ben Hunt with open arms for a pretty impressive ten minutes against the Raiders, who were well on their way to another premiers... Wait a minute...

 

[PerthBrissy987]

Until he doesnt have waynes faith

 

[Porthoz]

Bahahaha Kodi gets no respect because he wasn't playing against quality opposition.

Yet plenty on here were ready to welcome back Ben Hunt with open arms for a pretty impressive ten minutes against the Raiders, who were well on their way to another premiers... Wait a minute...

I didn't realise that listing the games he played as Halfback, was a lack of respect.
Learn something new every day!

Your reaction however is quite telling...

 

[CaptainHook]

Until he doesnt have waynes faith

I think he'll be right. Bennett has had great success with this approach. When he was at the Dragons he persevered with Soward. After their first round loss to Melbourne where GI shrugged him off like a speed bumphis attitude was "I'll stick with Soward."

Was there a more in-form playmaker between 2009-11 than Jamie Soward?

Sometimes a coach needs to just put his arm around a playmaker and say "I'm backing you no matter what." It does wonders for their confidence.

Bennett dropped Ben Hunt but to be frank he should've done it even earlier. Maybe even in 2016.

 

[CaptainHook]

I didn't realise that listing the games he played as Halfback, was a lack of respect.
Learn something new every day!

Your reaction however is quite telling...

Does quality of opposition count or not?

Or does it depend on certain players fans happen to like or don't like...

ps: not calling you out personally. Have always enjoyed your thoughts pre and post match on team and individual efforts.

 

[Porthoz]

Does quality of opposition count or not?

Or does it depend on certain players fans happen to like or don't like...

ps: not calling you out personally. Have always enjoyed your thoughts pre and post match on team and individual efforts.

Ok, that's not how I read your post, sorry.

I do think opposition counts, absolutely. Any team capable of slowing our momentum and derived running game, will likely dominate us, because we have very little in terms of other weapons in our arsenal.
And yes, fans will often let their like/dislike of players guide their evaluations of any player.

I still believe we lack organisation and a kicking game, and nothing in Kodi's career makes me believe he has what we need. This in no way reflects on how I think of him as a RL player!

In fact, I would be really happy for him to prove me wrong, because I actually really like the "little bloke", in the same way I wanted Hunt to prove me wrong, because I definitely admired him for his attitude and personality.
I just never saw him as a halfback, but more a Five-Eight, in the same way I see Kodi more as a Fullback/Five-eight.

 

[Jedhead]

His first game pits him against St.George and Hunt will obviously be keen to make a point. I'm backing Kodi to school him. His second game is against JT and the Cowboys. Two real tests of character for him. His learning curve will need to be lightening fast and steep if nothing else.

 

[Wolfie]

He still has to perform to a good level for Bennett to keep faith in him. Bennett wont hesitate in dropping him if he isnt performing. At the same time though, Dargan or Scarlett have to be playing well enough to become viable options or it wont really matter what Kodi's form is like. I suppose the other player that could be thrown into the mix is Bird. He wont be a long term center for us as i belive we want him in a position where he has his hands on the ball a lot more than he will at center.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

no but they don'y always tell the full story either ... and in some case they can be misleading ... this isn't supercoach where the game is played on the stats sheet.

in several of those games, we didn't start winning until Nikorima was hooked ... and is several others he went missing.

Don't get me wrong, he is currently our best option at halfback, and he should and will be given 6-10 games to prove whether he is the long term answer or if we need to go to the market/rookies to find the long term option. the issue we will have is that if we decide we need to go to the market, we need to do so relatively early or there won't be any quality playmakers left available.

Quotes can also be misleading.... "several" sounds like a lot but it technically means more then 2. I'm not trying to start another debate on this topic as it's been done to much on here but I would be very interested to know the 6 (at a very minimum as you said several for 2 scenarios) games out of those 11 wins he went missing or didn't play his role in the team. It would be odd to win 6 games out of 13 when the halfback totally went missing or got hooked never mind 11/13...

 

[Foordy]

Bahahaha Kodi gets no respect because he wasn't playing against quality opposition.

Yet plenty on here were ready to welcome back Ben Hunt with open arms for a pretty impressive ten minutes against the Raiders, who were well on their way to another premiers... Wait a minute...

FTR, my post wasn't entirely aimed at having a dig at Nikorima... It was having a dig at the assumption that just because we won 11 out of 12 when Niko started, that he is a guaranteed success in the halves.

Stats are often misleading or don't tell the full story and as @Porthoz rightly pointed they also don't take into account the quality of the opposition ... if stats were the be-all-and-end-all to determine a players worth, then we should have never got rid of Hunt (maybe even made him our first million dollar player instead of Milford) because Hunt was near the top of the majority of halfback stats for the last couple of years (mainly sitting behind JT and Cronk) ... yet most on here were calling for his axing.

IMO, Nikorima isn't the right option for us in the future, but that doesn't mean he isn't a talented player. I just believe that he is too similar to Milf and it would be much more beneficial to the team to have a halfback whose skills complement those of Milford.

and let's face it, one of our biggest issues with Hunt was his kicking ... the problem is that Nikorima doesn't fix that issue. his kicking game is no better than Hunt's (at least he hasn't shown it to be better than Hunt's)

 

[Foordy]

t would be odd to win 6 games out of 13 when the halfback totally went missing or got hooked never mind 11/13...

not when we always had a half on the bench (Hunt or Benchi) + Milford

 

[Thelmus]

I think with knik, it's going to be a season of rocks or diamonds, where some teams get blown out the water with relentious attack, and others where the forwards fail to dominate and we end up on a losing battle of defensive attrition, when a Cronk or thureson pin us down with classy kicking, and there is no escape.
I'm hoping more of the former and less of the latter.

 

[badyon]

From Oct 28, 2015 - "BRONCOS coach Wayne Bennett has declared Dale Copley's time has come after formally installing him as the centre successor to retired skipper Justin Hodges."

 

[Unbreakable]

I'm pretty excited tbh, a full off-season & pre-season working exclusively in the Halves with Milford & Walters guiding the way.

There is a small but very real chance that halfway through next season we'll be breathing a sigh of relief that Taylor decided to stick with the Titans.

Not doubting that Taylor is a better player right now, but with the amount of money we would've had to fork out to get him it would've hamstrung the rest of our player retention & recruitment. And you never know, maybe Kodi steps up big time, it's definitely in play.