In terms of the British hookers in Super League, Cunningham is absolutely miles ahead of the others. He stands apart from them and has done so consistently throughout his career.
The next in line is a very good debate. I personally would go for Alker. He is the player who always shows himself when I watch Salford. For the physical stature of the guy his defending is phenomenal, both in terms of its impact and its volume. He really does get through a ton of work in a game and always tops the Super League rankings for tackling and I can't remember him missing many. His attack is not as deadly however. Potentially this is because he plays for Salford behind some poor forwards. He is lively and his distribution is good. Newton is a better attacking player but completely lets himself down with his appalling discipline, something he has failed to control throughout his career. Newton also misses plenty of tackles because he's always acting the hard man and not concentrating on completing the tackle.
I don't rate Matt Diskin at all. He looks average to me in the Leeds side behind some world class international players. I can imagine him being anonymous in a weaker side. He has no particular strengths and no obvious weakenesses, average all round.
Higham is a great little player, but his best use is from the bench against a tiring defense. His ability to gain metres from quick play the balls is a potentially deadly weapon and I think Wigan will make some truly massive metres next season with Paelaesina(sp?) and co giving him the go forward to work off. His downsides are his defending, which isn't great and his awful passing. Wigan fans should get used to watching their forwards chase the bouncing egg around next season if they are not on top.
I'd love to see Alker given a go at a competitive club and I was amazed that Bradford didn't try to sign him when they needed a hooker. I think Noble is trying to replace Jimmy Lowes with another 'dog' of a competitor, but I think Lowes was unique in so many ways that chasing Newton for those qualities will damage Bradford.
