You could say the same about centres, hookers, and second rowers too right now. But no one seems to find that an issue.
In fact I’d say the lack of quality centres is far worse than the halves depth right now. NSW’s centre depth is so bad we probably won’t have a genuine centre in a blues jersey for quite some time.
Hooker is an almost equally important position compared to half and outside of Grant and Hodgson who could be considered great at that position? Let’s be fair dinkum Cook wouldn’t have made the bench for city/country if he played in the early 00s, and now he is practically a walk up start for australia.
The thread is about halves so that’s what I’m focused on.
Those positions have changed significantly over time... centres are now split on the field while Hooker is not the scrum rake, “shovel the ball from dummy half” player any more. They Run, kick, control the tempo... amongst other things.
The Halfback has always been first receiver, and so the primary driver of the attack...
But since you’ve suggested it, if I look at these positions... I’d argue that Hooker is currently of a generally great quality compared with previous eras. Cameron Smith is possibly the best player of all time - a true great - Hooker... From the days of Simmons, there have always been greats in the game like Elias, Walters x 2, Buderus, Smith etc, But at the start of this year the class of 2021 has guys like Cook, Friend, Mahoney, Korisau, Grant, Smith - who IMO are all high class 9’s.
Centre was only up until recently the ugly duckling position of the backline... actual centres were wanting to move to fullback... eg Inglis, Mitchell, even Lomax (who didn’t work out at all).
But I think there’s been something of a renaissance here in the last season or two. Hoping the centre position regains prestige which has been lost for so long.
