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Message: [QUOTE="rnabokov, post: 2604374, member: 1847"] [b]Re: ben barba/josh hoffman[/b] Alec, I am glad you disagree and you bring up good points - makes for a good debate. What I meant is that the whole team is organized to play with Hoffman where is, playing the way he is and hoping Barba comes up into the line as he has sporadically, and when he did, great things happened ... mostly. When Barba hangs back, it's all on Hunt which is for mine, counter productive, and individual talent, including support play for offloads from Parker and Gillett. I still believe our whole game plan and its variations, such as they are, are built around Hoffman at 5/8 playing the way he does, with the rest of team playing their game knowing Hoffman will play the way he does. In my view, if Hoffman is moved, then there will need to be some major re-alignments in the game plan, and positional plays. I remember when Hodges played at 5/8, the whole attack looked disjointed and Hodges just was, well, Hodges: he did his own thing mostly and the attack IMO was sloppy as a result. As for Barba's strength being his running game, I see very little difference between him and Milford in this regard, although this year as we know - and I know you are on to this, Barba has been fattened up, lost speed and is still to find his old form. For mine, I see Milford as the better FB than Barba and Barba the better 5/8 although at the end of the day, either will do me in either position. I keep coming back to the Manly game and a few others when Barba was for whatever reason, much more active than in at least half our other games and the form showed that clearly: when Barba is on, the whole team is switched on, much like when Hunt is switched on which again, is uneven this season because of ... I still stick to my original view that our finals hopes this season rest on Barba becoming much more involved, and consistently so, as our 5/8, our 2nd key play maker. Parker's form in Origin 3 is also a really good positive if he keeps it up. That game was the best I have ever seen him play, and if he offloads from now on as he did in SOO3, I can see us making a good play for the top 4, as long as Barba lifts and keeps lifting his game. For mine, we are stuck with Hoffman like it or not, and I don't, which I have made abundantly clear like most of us this year. I will say though thatHodges's performance in SOO3 made me change my mind somewhat as to his potential as a 5/8. That was a vastly different Hodges to the one I have seen so far this year. He actually almost looked like a centre cum 5/8. I would not be opposed to him at 5/8 with Copley in his rightful place in the centres. [/QUOTE]

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