Where did you get this idea? We have had to play backups because we've had players unavailable. None of them have been given responsibilities they can't handle.
Again, false. He was given three games to prove whether or not he could do it, then we brought Hands in. It was one of the earliest adjustments we made.
Where the f**k do you get these shit ideas from? Hopgood has played more 80 minute games (two of them) in the past month than he did in the first month (only played a full game against Melbourne). It depends how much defence he's had to do and whether or not we need him out there. He played 80 in the wins over Souths and the Cowboys. It's an option. It was an option in round one and it's an option still today. Nothing has changed.
The backups are as trustworthy as they have proven to be. That's a fact for every coach, not just Brad Arthur.
He has never played them for 60 minutes every week. Like with Hopgood, it depends on how much work they've had to do in defence (are they gassed) and whether we can afford to rest them (i.e. is the score close).
163 NRL games says he is.
He had no trouble finding another NRL backup gig.
He sticks to his guns, which is what you want from a coach. Knee jerk reactions won't get you into a grand final. They certainly won't get you 130 career wins.
He has already proven he knows what he's doing and when things need to change. He has persisted with players who dopey fans demanded to get rid of (e.g. Gutherson, Simonsson, Drown) and he has persisted with players who eventually overstayed their welcome (e.g. Norman, Edwards). Without the latter you don't get the former. Bellamy got to a grand final with Croft and then played him right up until round 22 the following year (they were leading the comp at the time) when he decided Papenhuyzen should start (shifting Hughes to the halves). The information required to make these decisions doesn't emerge straight away. Quite often the alternate options aren't demanding selection either.
But Arthur knows what he's doing, and he's known it long before we beat Souths three weeks ago (incidentally, besides Hopgood's 80 minutes that week, Paulo played 72 and Hodgson 54). Recent wins over a couple of dud sides doesn't really signal anything about what Brad Arthur's has learnt, that geniuses like yourself knew all along.
