Not being a smartarse but this is the key element. Basically what you are saying is, he is quick and can run a gap but if he "can just improve all the hooker things, he will be a good hooker".
This is the question with Cook. Other than his running game, his dummy half game is not exceptional.
Time will tell.
To be fair though, his game management and passing have actually improved already as well. I think he learned a lot from the stint that Robbie Farah had at Souths and besides this, his overall fitness improved last year and I think this also had a positive effect on his game.
In 2017 he was basically an impact / bench hooker. Good for a 20 minute stint running around tired forwards.
This year he became an 80 minute player and if you ignore his speed for a minute, you could still pick him as an 80 minute player based on his good service and solid defense. In 2017, if you took his speed away, he’d be lucky to be NSW cup standard.
The fact that he is lightning quick has gone from being his only attribute to just the icing on the cake now and it’s what takes him from being just another solid NRL hooker to being the NSW and Aus hooker.
People also point to the back end of his season this year and say that the wheels fell off and that may be true but he played 80 minutes in just about every game for us, plus he played Origin and backed up. That can’t be easy first time around for a guy that was basically a bench player 12 months ago. Sure his form dropped but I think that was as much to do with fatigue as it was anything else. This is one area where Bennett will help. He knows how to manage fatigue around origin.