Sure ... you convinced me. However, I'm still not sure about the concept of playing No. 9s for 80 minutes when you have a nippy, impact type player like Granville who has shown he can make a difference when coming on.
This, combined with Hook's consistent practice of only using three off the bench. That doesn't make sense to me. Seems we are losing a lot of impact at the end of each half, and not making use of our bench wisely (either to win games or give up-and-comers a run).
I guess in Hooks mind he tried having a 60 minute hooker with a nippy backup (Macca/Hunt) and it didn't work. Granted that was a completely different set of circumstances, and I would probably prefer that to having a fresh set of legs sit on the bench all game, but if you have a hooker who can play 80mins,make 50 tackles and still give good service why waste an interchange? It's taken a few years for Macca to be able to play the full 80, now that he can I'd rather see the bench spot used on a forward or cover for our outside backs.