Over the last few seasons, more teams have started to name two hookers on their team sheets for the upcoming games.
Brisbane, the Roosters, Penrith and the Knights are just a few of the teams employing this system. The question is, does it really work?
For the past two seasons the Broncos have named Andrew McCullough as a starter and Ben Hunt on the interchange.
You can almost set your watch to it – at the 30 minute mark, ‘Macca’ will leave the field and be replaced by Hunt. Around the 60th minute, Macca comes back on to replace Hunt for last quarter of the game.
Penrith employ a very similar strategy with Kevin Kingston and James Segeyaro, the Roosters also bring on Daniel Mortimer at almost identical intervals.
The Tigers even tried it against Manly in Round 4. Mick Potter, in a moment that can only be described as lunacy, brought on Masada Iosefa for 20 minutes and benched Robbie Farah.
It’s no coincidence the Tigers fell apart when their arguably best player was on the exercise bike. The Tigers took a hit (not to mention my fantasy team suffered also).
The theory is that you give one of the hardest working positions a break and bring on a fresh and quick player to provide a spark.
The other theory, the one I subscribe to, is it is a peace offering to players on the fringe. If a player can’t crack the starting line-up, throw then in the game for 30 minutes at hooker, give them a taste of the game.
You can’t tell me that Macca, Farah and Kingston can’t handle 80 minutes of football and require a mid-game break to gather themselves. I know I’d rather have another big unit coming off the bench to tire out my opponents.
The dummy half is meant to be the fittest player on the park, capable of tackling down the middle and then backing it up in attack. These days you will often see them attempt 40/20s and kick on the fifth, in a pseudo-halfback capacity.
Ben Hunt is primarily a halfback or five-eighth, as is Kurt Gidley and Daniel Mortimer. It just seems at this stage all three can’t get a run in their respective sides without being a substituted dummy half.
Are they worth the two substitutes that teams burn to utilise this strategy during games? In the days where we had 12 interchanges, I would tend to say yes.
With teams being stuck with 10, I just can’t justify it.
Regan
Guest
With Mick Potter giving Robbie a spell on the touch line was just dumb tight game and you take off the guy who control's the tigers attack and defense half the kicking game who is the tigers best player and captain rookie coach and just dumb
Anakin
Guest
Yet the # 1 hooker in the game - Cam Smith - plays 80 minutes!? Just look how the teams you've mentioned are travelling .. they're clutching at straws IMO.
Bazzio
Roar Guru
The game is way faster than it used to be, and scoring opportunities more often than not come from bombs on the goal line. It's more likely that today's dummy-halves are used mainly for probing the middle when wingers drop back anticipating the bomb, which widens the distance between defenders. In order to exploit gaps & tiring forwards, the #9's need to be very fast at all times, not just fast sometimes, so having fresh dummy-halves during a game makes more sense than having one guy carry the full responsibility full time.
iambunney
Guest
I think it has more to do with changes in the game over the last 20 years: There are very few 9's, who have played 9 their whole life. The best in the business in the last 10 years - Buderus & Smith, started their footy careers as halves. People are copying that. Both Andrew McCullough & Ben Hunt are halves turned 9's, as is Gidley, Mortimer, Nathan Fien, John Morris, MIchael Ennis, Rory Kostjasyn, Ray Thompson and I'm sure a few others. As halves are generally smaller, they struggle to tackle the big guys. And now the big guys avoid the other big guys and run at the small fellas to tire them out. I think the pure McCullough / Hunt swap IS a waste as you say - what Penrith are doing with Segeyaro & Kingston is far more useful where they both play about 60mins, meaning they are on the field together for half of the game. Canberra are now doing it with McCrone, and even Brisbane trialled it in teh Dragons game where a forward came on, Gillett, slid from right 2nd rower to centre, Hodges went to fullback, Norman pushed up to 5/8 (on left side) and Wallace had a run at 9, while McCullough had a spell.
Luke M
Guest
I think it can hurt a teams fluency. A dummy half is the centre of the team these days, and is the flow of the team also. They spend time watching the other teams defensive pattern, and spotting weaknesses and tired players. Then all of a sudden they are subbed and a new guy comes on and starts the process again. An 80 minute hooker has the advantage of controlling the game and orchestrating attacks. I understand that a fresh dummy half can add a bit of spark but it also takes away from what the starting dummy half has spent all afternoon trying to achieve. I am a Penrith fan and i honestly think having Kingston as captain now seems like a bad idea. He works hard in defence but the team looks so much better when Segeyaro is on the field probing at dummy half.
SuperEel22
Roar Guru
Most teams do it these days. They generally do it to rest their hooker. Some replacement hookers have the ability to play second-row ala Ryan Hinchcliffe. Some do it to add unpredictability or spark. Parramatta run a system whereby Matt Keating starts the game. He'll come off and be replaced by Nathan Smith who is more creative and by the end of the game Keating will usually end up in the second-row. We haven't seen it yet due to injury to Smith. It's also the opportunity to have a utility on the bench who can play in the spine. I know Ben Roberts isn't the best example but he can play both hooker and 5/8, Gidley is a jack of all trades so he's useful.
Michael Waldron
Roar Rookie
Same with Gidley being captain, but getting subbed for Buderus, strange stuff indeed.
peeeko
Roar Guru
What position does Kingston play when Segeyaro comes on? they do spend a lot of time on the field at the same time? personally i think it was a strange move making Kingston captain with Segeyaro deserving a large amount of playing time. I think the Roosters are kind of wasting a bench spot with Mortimer