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Message: [QUOTE="Morkel, post: 2850354, member: 8215"] Didn't watch it, but listened to 95% of it live on ABC. Was Nikorima's defence that bad? I didn't hear any mention of it in the call, but it's not out of the question for one solitary player to be so out of sorts that it ***** up the whole team (Steve Michaels). If he was hooked, and Hunt was brought on for that reason, then for mine it shows a clear pattern: Hunt isn't at his best when he's told to run the ball, Hunt is at his best when he defends hard. Missed tackle stats notwithstanding, he is a very strong defender for a half. If he gets things right on that side of the ball, he invariably is much better with the ball in hand. The confidence transfers. I do feel for Nikorima and hope it's not the end of his aspirations for a halves spot next year. I still maintain it was not a fair fight when comparing Hunt vs the Top 4 and Nikorima vs some pretty shitty sides, but Niko did everything right during those games, and never seemed to be more of a defensive liability than most NRL halves. So obviously this is something that comes up every now & again when a team has too many good playmakers to choose from. And after a few experimental games it normally ends up going back to two 80 minute halves and Option C misses out. But while Milford is out do we experiment with a 3-halves rotation? McCullough is finally getting through 80 minutes routinely and with no drop in performance. And you could argue that Ben Hunt was all the better for having 30 minutes less running in his legs than his opposition. So do we keep him on the bench, start with Marshall & Nikorima, and keep Hunt up our sleeve? He is serviceable enough to play an impact role should the starting 6 & 7 be performing well (like he did for Australia that time), but can be waiting in the wings for us to bring on if and when the time suits. Will that be bad for Nikorima, knowing he's only one bad error away from being hooked? Or will it spur him on, knowing he's still in the run-on-side, and still in the plans for 2018, and it means he'll bust his arse to make sure he performs so well that Bennett doesn't want to take him off? The added advantage is that Nikorima can learn from Benji, who seems to be enjoying his role as the grisly old man who can still show these kids a thing or two. [/QUOTE]

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