Eels Blogs

With the little bulldog himself Reed Mahoney actually taking his nickname literally and heading off to Canterbury, we are obviously in need of a new Hooker for the 2023 season, or even 2022....
There have been options galore to which have been presented towards us with Robson, Koroisau and Liddle being offered to us for an opportunity in 2023, while Verrills and now Hodgson have been expressed interest by us. The thing for Parramatta is looking at our past hookers (Peats, De Gois, Pritchard, King, Mahoney) they are all primarily strong in the middle and distributers at dummy half running here and there, Pritchard was more on the running end, but Mahoney was the most different out of all of them showing his versitility in the kicking game too. Do Parramatta want a hooker that runs, kicks, distributes, gives perfect ball to Moses or all of the above?

Verrills seemed the name that perhaps could be the man we chase with Smith heading to Sydney City, now Canberra's Josh Hodgson seems to be the apple of the eye to BA and the Parramatta board. The question i have is why him? why him compared to the other options. We will have a look at stats, and yes Hookers do more than their stats dictate of course, but their stats can also underline the type of player they are in attack with most hookers being the same in defence as it is apart of the job, the part that separates hookers is attack and what they off the ball.

We need to first look at what each hooker offers in terms of attack and defence. Let's start with the least preferred option by the fanbase in Jacob Liddle. Defence wise he is sound with 92% effeciency and durability though in the past has been an issue he managed 20 appearances for Wests this year which is the most in his career. Attacking wise he scored 6 tries with 4 try and line-break assists each and 57 metres running a game so he is not shy running the ball. Kicking he is less of a factor overall averaging 5.2 metres a game kicking meaning he hardly kicked in his 20 appearances. Liddle is a strange option has he has get up and go in him and is playing in a team with a poor culture therefore how do you shine in that environment. Liddle to Wests fans though always had this "he is great, just needs to stay healthy" and he did this year and now Wests fans seem lukewarm on him, being 25 he still has prime years ahead of him but he is more of an cheap pick-up to sit behind an older hooker and then take over after a year or two in the system.

Reece Robson is actually one of my preferred options, being a nice up and comer at St. George Illawarra he left to North Queensland for an opportunity. Though Robson's stats are nearly identical to that of Liddle's. 4 try and linebreak assists each, 61 metres running per game and 6 tries in attack. 4.4 kicking metres per game and 93% tackle effeciency. Robson though shined a bit more in an awful team but stats don't lie and it shows they are both on par. One thing in Robson's favour is he is younger, had less injuries and has a much heigher ceiling. Robson though has been told he can leave even though NQ have Granville and Cotter, to which i think ummmm ok you prefer them to him? unless he wants to return to Sydney. Robson is a great option with room to develop. 

Verrills was a favoured option when mentioned by Eels fans, primarily due to being in a good culture at the Roosters hoping he can add some of that to Parramatta, has won a premiership and is young. But again based on stats is similar to Liddle and Robson, 4 try and linebreak assists, only 1 try compared to 6 to the others, 4.7 kicking average. Though it is important to not Verrills played less games than Liddle and Robson, only 14, so to compare could be a bit harsh for him. Also, only 25 metres running on average, which had the Roosters having a non-running hooker which is something they were not used to at a club, to which that type of hooker works fine for us with Moses dictating the attack. 93.9% tackle effeciency also so his defence is up to scratch. Verrills is a great option but could also be "apart of the system" player, in that Luke Kelly could look great in this Roosters team. Verrills i think can do well and is a great option.

Now we come to Hodgson, the so called "preferred choice" for Parramatta, wants out of Canberra to have one more shot at a title before giving it a miss. Has big game experience, is a leader and has been in around the top 5 hookers in the game for the last 5 years. So what is the issue? well age, off the field he can have some issues and on the field he has the tendacy to take control to which i think how will Moses cope with not being the main shot caller 9/10 times. Now at Canberra, they sort of needed him to be like that with Sezer and Williams as their halves they were manageable with Hodgson and Wighton running the show. As Wighton developed the more he wanted control and is where Starling became more preferred than Hodgson. Will BA say to Hodgson this is Mitchell's team and he says what goes? or will it be another Norman Moses issue? Though as a player overall, Hodgson's 2021 was better than most hookers in the NRL. Only scoring 1 try, though 10 try assists and 9 line-break assists, 57 metres kicking a game and 92% tackle effeciency. Hodgson is closer to Mahoney than any of the players listed, now being 32 next year is not ideal considering he has had a recent ACL injury, but i dont blame them for showing interest in Hodgson. Now putting on our tin foil hats you could say they prefer an older hooker to develop Matt Arthur so the Arthur's can run the club for decades, and honestly it would not surprise me and i would hate that to be the case, but looking at it if they want to replace Mahoney why not try to get a player that does what he can do also?

Now if i was choosing one of these hookers, Robson would actually be my pick due to his ceiling and how he lifted a bad NQ team at times, but as shown here, the options are limited with many players being roughly the same in terms of skills and abilities, it depends on if we want to wait and develop one or have a good hooker ready to go now? Hodgson though i would not mind having at the club and if we are wanting to develop a young hooker who better to help than Hodgson?