McCullough has been on the improve this season. What I find jarring as a spectator is the length of time he gets rotated out for; you usually see hookers on the field for 80 minutes unless they are having a dead-set shocker or go down injured. Anthony Griffin has said he believes McCullough needs to work on being an 80-minute player, and the idea with the rotation is to get him to the point where physically and mentally he is ready to handle the role as best he can throughout the entire game.
As fan watching it you get a
moment every time he comes off, but there is a madness to the method.
Whilst young Baptiste did quite well, Norman had a dream debut as well but turned out to be a bit of a damp squib for the season.
With regards to the post above about '06 and who we had at 7, it's worth remembering that it was a year with injuries, included the infamous slump-but-I-won't-use-that-word period, and still netted us a Premiership. It doesn't matter who you've got in your number 7 jersey (or 6, for that matter) as long as the team is producing.
Again, one game is not the best sample to draw on, but the effort against the Eels was really very good, and there were, what, four guys over the age of 22 in the team? All of the young blokes who stood up were blooded at NYC level by Griffin, and he got them across the line without a third of the regular team. Given what we've seen of Griffin's ability to develop players so far, I don't believe it's time to hit the panic button.
There may not be an obvious successor for Lockyer, but how exactly do you replace a player of his calibre any way? When the team needed a half to guide them around, a then-fullback stepped into the role, and it was derided at the time as an experiment that would never yield results. Instead, we got the best 5/8th of the competition and some kid called Karmichael Hunt became fullback.
That didn't seem to work out too badly, either.
2011 was a year of predicted disaster based on the loss of the head coach before a ball was even kicked in anger. Things seem to be going pretty well so far, though. Next year will undoubtedly be a big test- but when the production line is stamping out Matt Gillettes, Jack Reeds, Jharal Yow Yehs, Josh Hoffmans, Josh McGuires, and Dale Copeleys, it's not an insurmountable challenge to face either.
