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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2788481, member: 1899"] While forced goal-line drop outs may not be the most accurate statistic, it's a key signifier. Using the Melbourne example, while Ben Hunt was unfortunate on that ocassion, there were several others where the kick wasn't that great but the opposition player made a meal of it. As they say, swings and round-a-bouts. For what it's worth I looked through the footage using Champion Data as a guide and had both Milford & Hunt with 12 FGLD (Forced Goal Line Drop-Outs) from 26 Games. The Daily Telegraph may have counted other instances (eg. knock ons inside the 20) as apart of their stat. Point being, Hunt has led the stat for the Broncos these past three years, with little support. Meanwhile Johnathan Thurston enjoys the input of Lachlan Coote (16 FGLDs) and Michael Morgan (7), Cronk has Green (16) and Smith (9), Maloney has Townsend (12) and Ennis (9), and what that allows them is more time and space to put through the kick since the defence has to make a choice. With the Broncos, Ben Hunt has had to do more kicking than any other player in the competition over the past three seasons, making it an easy bet. The problem with this thread is that people use colourful language to express their points and it causes members to get salty. It would be one thing if stats showed Hunt had the least effective kicking game, but in this instance even when he was 'struggling' Hunt was merely average. If that's an issue, that's fine, but there's no need to be over-dramatic. It isn't persuasive and it's limiting otherwise effective arguments. As an aside, there's more criticisms to be made of Hunt's game. His defence was among the worst in the NRL and if he didn't have the best second row in the world alongside him then it would have been more pronounced. The other issue is his passing game which leaves a lot to be desired. If he's going to replace Thurston as the Origin halfback, these three areas need to be addressed. In addition, the Broncos need to provide Hunt with more support. Andrew McCullough is often criticised for going missing, and while last season was an improvement on previous years (4 FGLDs, 4 times that of 2014 & 2015 respectively along with 3 40/20s), he needs to do a better job of organising the ruck, especially with Parker out of the equation. As he demonstrated against Melbourne, McCullough is capable of organising the side into a potent force, the issue is that he has tunnel vision and will often dispense the ball down one side of the ruck without ever threatening the defence or placing the ball in an area of the park where Hunt and Milford aren't comfortable. The Broncos also require better production from their centres. Finding a suitable replacement for Jack Reed will go a long way to helping the sides fortunes, but they also need to get more out of Roberts. Roberts' form was patchy in 2016 as he struggled to position himself and make the most of his electric speed. Then of course there's Milford who fell asleep after an explosive start to the season. Milford was never quite the same player after the Cronulla game, shirking a lot of the general responsibilities and making a gluttony of errors for his troubles. Usually this goes without saying, but I believe this is worth pointing out. I don't believe anyone on here isn't appreciative of the input Ben Hunt has made from 2014-16. The issue is that in this game, if you're not constantly improving, then you're going backwards. Look at the adjustments Johnathan Thurston and Darren Lockyer made to their games over the year. Their bodies may have slowed down, but they constantly improved aspects of their game. Naturally fans just want to see the same improvement in Hunt. [/QUOTE]

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