Discussion: Bulldogs Hooker

[COVENS]

There seems to a growing number of people who like the idea of Mbye being moved to starting hooker. I've long been an advocate of giving Lichaa until 25 years old to round out his game before we lump him as being a dud.

It's undeniable Mbye could give us a dangerous runner out of dummy half but I have my doubts about his ability to make 30-40 tackles a game and give reasonable service for 80 minutes - short of developing him in that role for another 2-3 years. My other issue is again, we're talking about playing a guy out of position, how many times has this tactic been a success for us?

Given this thought process, my question is this: Is Moses Mbyes best position (in terms of value for us) off the bench to primarily offer spark out of hooker and secondarily cover 1-7?

 

[silva]

Mbyes best current position would be centre as people have said on here for a while. Hes being developed into a halfback but he has shown he doesn't have the skill or balls to run a footy team.

 

[Spoonman84]

Anyone but Lichaa he is a bust of a buy. I have no idea how he has made first grade with his passing it's terrible, he cannot pass left to right and he never gives crisp service. In attack he has only started to run this year and it's slow and indecisive he has either stops before the defensive line and passes to a player in a worse position or he ducks into a tackle. He has admitted himself he has no kicking game. His positive is his defensive game with the amount of tackles he makes but due to his lack of pace he sets a slow line speed and his first contact is often weak.

Mbye isn't a halfback and I'd be willing to try him there but I'd also look to go into the market. The jury is still out on Woolford he could be another potential option.

 

[Hacky McAxe]

It surprises me that Mbye seems to have great vision at hooker but no vision at halfback. Meanwhile Lichaa just has no vision at all.

 

[Indiandog]

the situation is

Liccha is out of contract at the end of this year and he has proven to be useless at hooker compare to others in the comp
Mbye we already signed for 800ks or something like that, his best position is centre so we can not really waste that amount of money on a centre, he has the stamina, speed and can tackle, even though not ideal but i think Mbye is the best choice at hooker given our cap situation and liccha coming off contract.

 

[COVENS]

the situation is

Liccha is out of contract at the end of this year and he has proven to be useless at hooker compare to others in the comp
Mbye we already signed for 800ks or something like that, his best position is centre so we can not really waste that amount of money on a centre, he has the stamina, speed and can tackle, even though not ideal but i think Mbye is the best choice at hooker given our cap situation and liccha coming off contract.

Good point, we have the perfect opportunity to move him on now if he hasn't proved himself.

People seem to get stuck in the trap of comparing Lichaa to guys like Granville, McCullough, Friend etc which is absurd. We need to be measured and realistic and compare him to guys like McInnes and Levi instead.

Salary cap aside (closer to $600-650k) do you think Mbye can handle the work load of a hooker?

 

[Indiandog]

Good point, we have the perfect opportunity to move him on now if he hasn't proved himself.

People seem to get stuck in the trap of comparing Lichaa to guys like Granville, McCullough, Friend etc which is absurd. We need to be measured and realistic and compare him to guys like McInnes and Levi instead.

Salary cap aside (closer to $600-650k) do you think Mbye can handle the work load of a hooker?

maybe may be not, lets put him in and see how he goes, maybe sub it with another hooker for 30 minutes, we have spent too much on him to be playing off the bench or at centre or any other non key position

one thing for sure he is not the half who will win us the premiership, tested and trialed and failed, only realistic position for him is a hooker which will justify his salary too. Liccha if signed at low salary , could sub it with Mbye as hooker.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Mbye has a cracking good right/left pass (showed that on Freddy's pass off), plus an average kicking game, and speed. Plus he's a solid defender. That ticks all the boxes for a hooker.

I was really hoping Lichaa would show his NYC form, but he's either struggling, out of his depth, or too comfortable in his role.

I'd honestly like to see something like this moving forwards to the end of the season:

This will give Lichaa till end of season to prove his worth, and allow Frawley or Lewis to be blooded early to see if they are NRL grade.

If Lichaa can't handle it off the bench - release him.
If Lewis/Frawley don't work out - find someone else. If they fire, theres a solution.
If Reynolds fires in his position - recontract him.

That way we aren't waiting till the end of the season to try and replace players, AND Win or Lose, the fans will be happy that Hasler is at least TRYING something different rather than going into a holding pattern.

1. Abbey/Hoppa
2. BMoz
3. Lee
4. JMoz
5. Montoya
6. Reynolds
7. Frawley / Lewis
8. Whoever
9. Mbye
10. Whoever
11. Whoever
12. Whoever
13. Eastwood (he NEEDS to be back at lock).

14. Lichaa
15. Whoever
16. Whoever
17. Whoever

 

[Yanni Gogolak]

We need Cam Smith as our hooker lol but seriously if we let Liccha go, will he blossom elsewhere - like Ennis and others have ? Mbye has been good at hooker but I reckon it would take a toll on him. Reynolds used to play hooker and much as I love the guy we need more from him, his energy may be put to good use as hooker and we replace him in the halves with an organiser. More needs to be done to get our machine working me thinks

 

[craigo]

Lichaa has no speed can't pass or kick. Mbye has speed but is a door mat in defence no way he could play hooker. dogs should've tried hard for segyaro. Our club is a rabble at the moment

 

[COVENS]

We need Cam Smith as our hooker lol but seriously if we let Liccha go, will he blossom elsewhere - like Ennis and others have ? Mbye has been good at hooker but I reckon it would take a toll on him. Reynolds used to play hooker and much as I love the guy we need more from him, his energy may be put to good use as hooker and we replace him in the halves with an organiser. More needs to be done to get our machine working me thinks

I've said it time and time again, you need to give hookers time to develop their arsenal of options. If we want a quick fix, by all means, lets go out and buy an established #9 but if we want a long term spine we need to be patient while our youth develops. If we put Mbye there it isn't for a game or 2. we're talking about 24 games in the regular season where he's completely untested as a hooker. I agree about Reynolds, for me though we should look like:
6. Mbye
9. Lichaa
14. Reynolds

 

[COVENS]

Follow up question: What's more important, getting value out of our salary cap or the team functioning better?

 

[CrittaMagic69]

In the 2014 gf Moses played 69 minutes at hooker and made a game high 44 tackles with only 1 missed tackle. This was a game where we had 30 points put on us and one of his first few NRL games.

Defensively Moses has no real problems tackling the big forwards, he has stopped backrowers in their tracks close to the line. He has more of an issue tackling halves and agile backs as he can't set himself and gets caught arm grabbing on the edge.

I have no doubt he would perfrom well at hooker, he has a very crisp passing game despite what some people say, and he has some pace that could cause trouble through the middle running from DH or picking up an offload. The QLD camp also identified Moses as the next 9 for them to take over from Smith even though the media kept running with the next JT rubbish.

Id still like to see him at 5/8, but his development has totally been fucked up in the halves thanks to Des ball and having no real halves partner to learn from...could have been different if Trent was still here as i did think the Mbye/Hodko combo during that period when JR was out of the side showed the most promise...even forced JR to the bench when fit despite Des NEVER dumping players from the starting 13.

If we did move him to 9 i really don't think we need to bother with rotating him...he doesn't need to have a massive defensive load like Des thinks. We have players like Tolman that are totally ineffective running the ball that cluld easily up the load in defense. Would also help if certain other playets would hold their weight in the team.

I think we could line up like this if we genuinely do have the money to chase the 4 Tiger *****. Id throw everything at Cronk, if he 100% wanted to play on at Melbourne he would of signed by now. He WILL eventually move to Sydney and marry Tara, so why not atleast make him an offer of being the highest paid player in the game and give him the chance to move in with his girl a year early while racking up $$$ and managing his move into media.

1. Bird/Teddy/Hoppa
6. Keighran
7. Cronk/Hingano
9. Mbye

 

[Mr Invisible]

Maybe he can deploy: Josh Reynolds Tackling Technique aka "when in doubt, throw the leg out".

Gotenks: Are we still sponsored by Dolton House? Hey Cooper we'll do your reception for free!

 

[Nasheed]

Why isnt anyone suggesting Reynolds at Hooker?

To me he is the most logical fit.

 

[COVENS]

In the 2014 gf Moses played 69 minutes at hooker and made a game high 44 tackles with only 1 missed tackle. This was a game where we had 30 points put on us and one of his first few NRL games.

Defensively Moses has no real problems tackling the big forwards, he has stopped backrowers in their tracks close to the line. He has more of an issue tackling halves and agile backs as he can't set himself and gets caught arm grabbing on the edge.

I have no doubt he would perfrom well at hooker, he has a very crisp passing game despite what some people say, and he has some pace that could cause trouble through the middle running from DH or picking up an offload. The QLD camp also identified Moses as the next 9 for them to take over from Smith even though the media kept running with the next JT rubbish.

Id still like to see him at 5/8, but his development has totally been fucked up in the halves thanks to Des ball and having no real halves partner to learn from...could have been different if Trent was still here as i did think the Mbye/Hodko combo during that period when JR was out of the side showed the most promise...even forced JR to the bench when fit despite Des NEVER dumping players from the starting 13.

If we did move him to 9 i really don't think we need to bother with rotating him...he doesn't need to have a massive defensive load like Des thinks. We have players like Tolman that are totally ineffective running the ball that cluld easily up the load in defense. Would also help if certain other playets would hold their weight in the team.

I think we could line up like this if we genuinely do have the money to chase the 4 Tiger *****. Id throw everything at Cronk, if he 100% wanted to play on at Melbourne he would of signed by now. He WILL eventually move to Sydney and marry Tara, so why not atleast make him an offer of being the highest paid player in the game and give him the chance to move in with his girl a year early while racking up $$$ and managing his move into media.

1. Bird/Teddy/Hoppa
6. Keighran
7. Cronk/Hingano
9. Mbye

All very true, though 69 minutes is very different to potentially 1920 minutes + finals

 

[Raikkonen]

Why isnt anyone suggesting Reynolds at Hooker?

To me he is the most logical fit.

Because he can't defend and the few games in first grade and origin where he's played hooker have shown his service is rubbish.

I also don't think he has the smarts to be a hooker.

 

[COVENS]

Maybe he can deploy: Josh Reynolds Tackling Technique aka "when in doubt, throw the leg out".

Gotenks: Are we still sponsored by Dolton House? Hey Cooper we'll do your reception for free!

Best we could do is a Kia wedding car service to the reception

 

[COVENS]

Why isnt anyone suggesting Reynolds at Hooker?

To me he is the most logical fit.

There are better options to sign in every position he could possibly play

 

[jasonsmith1994]

YEAH I JUST SAW FLETCH ON THE MATTY JOHNS SHOW SUGGEST REYNOLDS AT HOOKER,MAYBE HE COULD GIVE THEM THAT ENNIS INTENSITY THAT WE LOVE TO SEE FROM A LIVE BAND