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Plenty of middle defenders play 80 minutes, and plenty of them make a lot more runs than the typical dummy half. In attack the hooker basically gets to take a breather. Five runs and fifty tackles in 80 minutes isn’t a huge workload.
*Asian
Plenty do, but the point is, he often doesn't play much more than half a game, and hasn't played 80 minutes for 5 months.
Does that mean he can't? He was in a team with James Roby ffs. There was no need to give him 80 minutes. Obviously his effectiveness declines with minutes played. This is true for any middle defender, including Isaah Yeo. The question is whether it declines enough to justify using an interchange (or two) to give him a rest. The coaching staff know their aerobic capacity; Lussick would have undergone plenty of testing when he got here. It's their call on how many minutes the player can play and how the limited interchanges should be used. And if it all goes wrong, then it seems we agree that Hopgood can take over at dummy half while Lussick dry retches on the sideline.
Satire
They didn't seem to know Hodgson wouldn't be effective for 80 minutes though, as that appeared to be the plan for Hodgson at first, even though presumably they did the same testing as you allude to. Why would they know any better with Lussick before they've tried it.
He was an unknown factor coming back from the best part of 2 seasons on the sidelines through injury. Once teams worked out (as in the following week) that he was ill-disciplined, slow and had questionable defence in the middle they targeted him and exposed him like the proverbial chicken of Portuguese extraction....
www.nrl.com
www.parraeels.com.au
My post was in jest mostly... Really I was just calling it as I saw it.... And stats have now lost all meaning given Junior's numbers last week which proved once and for all that you might as well try and read tea leaves and see you if they can tell you anything about a first graders performance given the "stats" made it sound like Barlow had a ripper of a game V the Storm... He was f**ked. f**ked I tell ya...Ah and then they bizarrely stopped targeting him in other weeks?
Official NRL profile of Josh Hodgson for Parramatta Eels | NRL.com
The NRL profile of Josh Hodgson including career statistics, season stats, games, tries, goals, tackles and fantasy scores.
The fact is his defence, like any hooker, depends on the level of support they get from team mates. Merkins were crowing about Hands' defence until he had a couple of games where the fat boys left him posted and suddenly he looked "ill-disciplined, slow and had questionable defence in the middle".
Brendan Hands
The NRL profile of Brendan Hands including career statistics, season stats, games, tries, goals, tackles and fantasy scores.
His defensive stats were poor. You just need to know what to look for:
| Merkin | Minutes | Tackles | Tackles per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hopgood | 75 | 58 | 0.77 |
| Ofahengaue | 26 | 19 | 0.73 |
| Ogden | 24 | 17 | 0.71 |
| Lussick | 52 | 31 | 0.60 |
| Moretti | 17 | 10 | 0.59 |
| Hands | 28 | 15 | 0.54 |
| Paulo | 54 | 28 | 0.52 |
That doesn't sound good.
80 games. Gotcha.
Hey, wait a minute!
