Full credit to fullbacks as they command big bucks
THE fullback has surpassed the halfback as the most dominant position in the game.
A coach’s future used to live and die on the No.7 but not any more.
This weekend the finalists will send out eight halfbacks ranging from two rookies, several journeymen, two high on potential and one who has all the goods. But not one outright champion. The fullbacks are a different story. Ben Barba is the Dally M Player of the Year and the most lightfooted ball runner in the NRL.
More kids would walk more kilometres to see him play than any other.
Then there is Billy Slater, already being discussed as an Immortal.
Brett Stewart averages nearly a try a game, the best fullback at Manly since Eadie, and maybe before then.
Cowboy Matt Bowen has the touch of a ballet dancer.
Josh Dugan is still developing his game, like a baby giraffe finding his feet, but already does things that educated football brains can’t explain, only endorse.
And then there is Greg Inglis, who just might be the best of the lot.
In each case you could argue these fullbacks are more vital to their team’s success than their halfback. It has created a new economy within the game.
The money always used to go to the chief playmaker. The halfbacks, like Langer and Stuart, Sterling and Mortimer. Without them you couldn’t win a premiership.
The changing trend was begun by Melbourne, who years ago rolled out Matt Geyer, normally a winger, to play five-eighth in a grand final.
Everybody began to look differently at the way they used their playmakers.
At the same time, fullbacks drifted towards the middle of the field, no longer chiming into the backline, as they say, but looking for scraps around the ruck, following forwards.
Now, they get their hands on the ball as much as anyone. It makes them the most valuable players.
While the AFL denies it, secret meetings are taking place about the possibility of Israel Folau coming back to rugby league, amid sums that will take the sting from his decision to leave the AFL.
But why if the fullback is now the most dangerous ball-runner on the field.