Coming into the pre-season, there’s no denying that our halves and hooker rotation was the area that most Eels fans were concerned about.
However, were we all worrying over nothing? A successful pre-season and some positive form from our halves has mostly seen those fears dissipate. Indeed, one media report suggested Jeff Robson may have been the star player of the trials.
Which just goes to show that in Rugby League, you’re really only as good as your last game.
From one perspective, it should not surprise. The Robson/Mortimer combination was good enough to take us to a grand final in 2009.
So what happened last year? I think in 2009 Robson and Mortimer played a role in the side. They weren’t expected to create tries. Robson drove the forwards around the park and Mortimer essentially played a supporting role that was quite focused on backing up the play. With the Eels creating opportunities via Jarryd Hayne and their second phase play they didn’t need to do anymore.
By 2010, other teams had twigged. Oppostion sides manned up on Hayne and were ready for the second-phase play. Suddenly, we had nothing and it was expected the halves would step up to provide a more traditional “provider” role. At the same time, coach Daniel Anderson was anything but clear about his halves strategy. He started with the same combination but it was clear he saw a longer-term future with Mortimer at seven and Kris Keating at six. But this pair never gelled and none of our halves ever seemed really comfortable with their roles.
I have no doubt, Stephen Kearney’s decision to make an early decision on his halves was the best possible move he could make. When you go into a season with question marks around your halves, it makes it very difficult to build a solid platform.
What Parramatta need most from their halves is a good kicking game. This was perhaps the most mysterious aspect of 2010. Especially towards the back-end of 2009 both Robson and Mortimer were producing solid kicking games. Mortimer in particular improved that aspect of his immensely in a very short period of time, and while he doesn’t have the biggest boot he was finding good space. However, from the opening kicks of Round One, our kicking game last year was diabolical. We never managed to sustain pressure by trapping opposition teams in-goal or on their line and without that foundation it is very difficult to compete effectively.
Pre-season indicators are that both Robson and Mortimer have worked very hard on this aspect of their game. It needs to be. For while, a simple, structured style takes the pressure of both players in terms of having to come up with try assists and line-breaks, it must be supported by a better-than-average kicking game.
I think all Eels fans admire Jeff Robson for his tenacity and his defence. He is a good organiser and if he had a yard more pace, he’d be much more dangerous as he has a good go-and-show that often creates half-gaps. I’d like to see him get more support when he runs the ball. Daniel Mortimer has a solid all-round game that is clearly still in the developing stages and this is his year to step-up and take his skills to a higher-level. My belief is he need to challenge the line more because the opposition was sliding way too early on him last year. We need our halves to have the opposition worried about their running games so you can create space on the outside.
Neither players has a track record of creating try assists from their passing game, but I think that also has a lot to do with the fact that the Eels have played without a lot of decoys or bodies in motion and that makes it hard for any half to put players through gaps, because there just aren’t any gaps to go to. If the Eels can do better on that front, we’ll see if our halves have that instinct for knowing when to go to the short man and when to pass behind.
Casey McGuire’s signing is now looking like a master-stroke and not just because his early season form has been so promising. McGuire also gives us a proven, genuine backup in the halves in case of injury and again provides stability.
And then there is Tom Humble and Brad Murray. Both players need to excel playing for Wentworthville and then take any chance that comes their way. But it’s good to know at this stage we have solid depth around the six and seven positions.
We’re also relatively well-served in the hooking department with McGuire, Matt Keating and Anthony Mitchell.
At this stage, it looks like McGuire may be given the nod for the nine jersey, however personally I’d open with Keating who is the best defender of the three. McGuire provides some spark and creativity around the ruck and I think it would provide a nice option for Kearney to change the tempo of the game by injecting McGuire. If McGuire is the number nine, I don’t know if Matt Keating offers much as a bench player. For mine, the best combinatios are 9. Keating 14. McGuire or 9. McGuire 14. Mitchell. We all know Anthony Mitchell is a talented young hooker and while he still has a bit to learn about playing at the top level, it’s a very nice situation to have someone at that level to call on.
That said, our depth falls away pretty quickly after those three. Our NYC hookers aren’t ready for the step up but I guess either Humble or Murray could fill an interchange role.
At this stage, I don’t think our situation in the halves is going to be a concern as long as we do everything else right. The halves have a lot of responsibility for kicking well, but even on that front I think you’ll see Jarryd Hayne contributing a lot of clearing kicks and our hookers too are likely to kick a bit out of dummy half.
So, no, we don’t go into this season with any superstars in our halves. That’s ok, just as long as you don’t structure a gameplan that requires your playmakers to do more than they’re reasonably capable of.
Replies
It's great to see Robson and Mortimer hitting their straps, so hopefully they can continue that good form in Rd 1 and beyond.
Looking forward to seeing McGuire in action too.
I can't totally agree. I'm going to put my nuts on the chopping block and declare that we won't make the 8 if Robson and Mortimer are the halves all season. We are attempting to play structured footy this season however when your halves have sub par levels of skill in general facets of the game such as passing, kicking and running it is going to make the task of creating pressure, let alone creating points a very arduous task. This isn't to say we won't be competitive, Its just the elements of class from good halves that can get you over the line in close games.
Look I'd love to be proven wrong, and I understand by all reports the boys went well in the trials, but it is going to take a lot more than that to prove to me that they have the ability to create enough points to take this team to the finals. Luckily I have great hope in the potential of a Murray/Humble partnership both have exceptional passing games, and balance each other with Murrays kicking ability and Humbles running game, I expect them both to be in the halves by the end of the season, barring injury.
I agree with 1Eyed with the hookers, Keating starts or shouldn't be in the squad as he really doesn't offer anything in terms of impact from the bench.
Mate please.... I understand what you are trying to say, but facts are Soward is ten lengths in front of Morts and Robson in terms of skill. He has a fantastic kicking game, especially long, can throw bullet left to right passes and is one of the quickest players in the game over 20-30 metres combine that with his excellent vision makes him an extremely dangerous runner of the ball.
Understandably he isn't the best organiser and leader of a team but thats why with Hornby calling the shots and keeping a cool head keeps the team in rhythem.
At the Roosters Soward was never given an extended chance to prove himself, plus the roosters have had Pearce positioned o be the long term halfback since he was 15 years old.
Here are some of our Halves & Hookers we have let go of the last few years
Witt,Smith,Kelly.Hodgkinson,Maloney,Keating,Kingston
and now we are struggling for Halves & Hookers??????
I tend to agree with bNg. Soward is more skilful than either Morts or Robson and isn't a traditional organiser. To be honest, Soward is probably as close a throw back to the old school 5/8th and despite the fact that he's an objectionable little cat (and it pains me to say this) is probably the only 5/8th in the comp whose style recalls Brett Kenny.
Soward doesn't really 'organise' per se, he just runs the highly scripted plays. Same with Hornby. It is fair to say that the Dragons, from 1-16 (as grumpy old Bennett rarely uses all his subs) are so well structured and disciplined both in attack and defence that they don't require super talented halves to get the job done.
That's why they're accused of being boring - because they are so damned predictable. Problem is, nobody bar the Raiders seems to know how to consistently counter it.
I hear you, but its far too simplistic to just dismiss 2009 as a fluke or say it was all down to Jarryd Hayne. The current halves played their role in that run of victories.
I have a lot of hope for Mortimer's short kicking game. We've seen glimpses of it, like his grubber ahead he scored off in 2009, the kick into the in-goal for Cayless' try in the last game of last year. That's a skill you can work on and get better at. And by the end of last season his short ball too was getting a lot better. He's a hard worker so if anyone is going to lift their skill level it will be a kid like him.
My own view on Robson is that he has always struggled with the pace of the game. He has pretty good all-round skills but he always seemed rushed in the red zone and ended up coming up with bad options. More structure will help that and two years experience in NRL now would have made him feel more comfortable with having to make quicker decisions.
I'm certainly prepared to give both the benefit of the doubt.
Yes but mate 2009 was 2009, you would be the first to admit that. As great as it was it's just an unrealistic expectation for us to compare our future success/failures to. In terms of us going forward I'd love every player to have those memories wiped and start fresh.
What we saw that year was something wer'e probably never going to see again from a team, it was built on unbelievable confidence of one man which spread to a team, which lead to momentum and with that we created our own luck. Teams didn't know what was going to hit them, because we didn't even know what we were going to do.
Morts and Robson played there roles, but they were completely different roles to what we are expecting them to do this season. I'm all for them letting them prove themselves, I just can't see it happening.
I think everyone needs to go back and review the tapes of 2009 to see that Morts can actually play the game, same for Robson. Everyone keeps saying it was a fluke, but you don't do what they did on the back of luck. Also keep in mind that plenty of players suffer from second year syndrome, a good example is Hayne. Think back to the semi against the Dogs, no one thought we could win without Morts, a pretty good compliment for a young kid with a handful of games behind him.
I was not trying to say that Morts and Robson are as good as Hornby and Soward, but they are a similar style. Hornby is a good defender (and a fullback) playing 7 who just feeds his outside men. Soward just picks a runner to pick, he does it very well, but it is a stretch to say he has vision. Thurston, Prince and Cronk have vision, Soward simply hits the right runner.
And I did see some trial action, and Morts looked very impressive. His short passing game was good, and his kicking game (along with Robson) was fantastic. If we play a structured style this year I think you will find Morts wil flourish. I said it all last year that our backs and outside line runners were a major let down, we offered nothing in the way of decoys, the outside men did not push up consistently, and therefore Morts and Robson had no options. Our second phase play was also no where near as effective.
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