Do we trust our young players enough, for example we have Litten and Hookem, both played representative football, stood out in academy and reserves and praised by coaches and players. Hookem is 19 (20 in October) compare this to players about his age?
Both Corey Hall and Lewis Murphy are both playing regularly for Wakefield
Same with Connor Wrench and Jake Thewlis at Warrington.
Plenty at Leeds the same age, playing games and not looking out of place.
Ok so none of these are halfbacks, so lets compare him to Mikey Lewis and Lewis Dodd, both are about 1 year older than Hookem.
At the same age as Hookem is now, Dodd played 21 games including the grand final for Saints, Lewis 13 games for Rovers.
Maybe Hodgson doesn't rate him, but his performance and comments after the Wakey game last year doesn't make be think so,
This isn't just about Hookem, the same applies to Litten and Balmforth, if they were at Leeds, Wigan or Saints, I'd bet that all 3 would be in double figures on appearances by now.
Brown was under used the previous two seasons too IMO, often preferring Bowden, even though most people could see Brown was a better player.
We look to have an outstanding academy at the moment, but that is no good is we don't offer them a pathway to the first team and give them a chance when players playing in their positions are under performing or you have lots of injuries and you choose to play a slow average hooker in your position.
