naaa mate surely not , hookers are there these days to heel the ball arent they ???




only 1, 6,7,and 13 are the pivots.... maybe thats where roby ,Cunningham, Berrigan, so forth were going wrong as they thought they had a say in things

The best example of a SL team largely building around their hooker is Saints with Kieron Cunningham. They have been the most consistent challengers of the entire SL era, and are always the most creative side.

Also, we played our most creative rugby in recent years when built a lot around Richard Swain.

Saints have had other creative players than Cunningham.

And Swain wasn't "creative", he milked penalties and was great at acting half with the first pass.

IMHO

Who was saying that the hooker had to be the creative player? The question was whether or not a hooker was a player to build around. The distribution from dummy half is essential to be creative, without necessarily being where the creativity happens. The hookers have to lay the groundwork for the creative players to be able to produce, by providing the time and space they need.

The 2 examples I gave were not intended to be of 2 creative hookers, they simply display that building around a hooker who can consistently choose the right option from dummy half and distribute accurately is an essential part of building a good attacking side, not the defensive option you stated. In fact, if you look at the top 6 sides I think it's probably Wigan who are the least based around their hooker, and they are also the most defensive-based IMO.

How did leeds win 3 GF's with diskin as hooker?

I would be amazed if any club in the NRL wanted Danny Houghton.

Saying that, Michael Worrincy went over there......

Stick him with Webb, McGuire, Burrow and Sinfield then you have your pivots. Saying that they replaced him with Buderus.

And they're worse. You saying diskin > buderus?

Houghton is young, homegrown, off quota and a bone fide Super League player with a very good injury record. He will improve, because he seemingly also has a good attitude to his rugby.
What else do people want?!

I said that?

One man does not make a team. Leeds had important players all over the park and had been coached really well which is why they had their success.

Indeed, we have the players.................

Not to win trophies we don't imo. To compete for the top four, yes with the right coach. We would need to add addition players to win things.

can't disagree Paul

but it looks like our recruitment is going to be as disappointing as ever in the important positions

I am happy with McKinnon. Not seen enough of Heremaia to comment but we need another hooker imo, too much to ask Danny to play 80 mins week in/out. I'm pleased we got Gleeson.

The crux will come with what we do with Long/scrum half.

Gleeson has a lot to prove, we know he has the ability, has he got the desire.

We cannot keep Long and Horne, may as well play the game with one hand tied behind our back all the time.

We cannot keep Radford and Dowes and Lauaki(sp).

We cannot keep Fubar

but we will

I can see us going into next season with Long unfortunately (and him playing < 10 games).

I would be happy resigning Horne for one more year, but Long doesn't justify another year IMO. Having said that, i expect it is difficult signing a decent scrum-half at the moment

I got the impression from a HDM article recently that Westerman would be out LF next season which i am looking forward to. perhaps that will make up some of the shortfall in our attacking prowess

Long won't re sign if Seymour has.

That is a big IF, and Seymour isn't all that, is he?

Which was my original point. You don't need a world class player at hooker (or any position for that matter) if you have good quality players in the important areas

He's a good player, he'll go very well in sl.

Indeed, 6,7 and 13 are much more important, if only FC could see that.

One man never makes a team but hooker is as an important position as scrum half these days and with the right man at hooker you can build a team around them.

Why do you mention Seymour - is this a rumour doing the rounds?

on another thread, "TheBrother" says we've signed him.

They're both important but a top class player in one position can make up for an average one in the other