Tough call or easy option? Coaches drop halfbacks to solve early season woes

Team list Tuesday always produces a host of talking points, and May 19th's edition had people talking even moreso than usual.

Any time an NRL club makes an unenforced change in their spine, conversations start.

This doubles down when it's the team's halfback. The general. The playmaker. The main man.

Tuesday afternoon provided us with not one but two such occasions as both the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Newcastle Knights named new starting number sevens for this weekend.

The Tigers also made a change in their starting halves but this always felt like a work in progress with the very real possibility of rotation.

So too the Dolphins who saw Sean O'Sullivan left out of their big win over the Dragons after overseeing a horror Round 1 loss.

With both the Knights and Bunnies though - both currently winless across the opening fortnight, we saw two huge decisions in breaking up established halves combinations.

Lachlan Ilias has been relegated to NSW Cup duties after two below par performances to kick off the 2024 season.

Meanwhile, Jackson Hastings has been named in the number 22 jersey to make way for recruit Jack Cogger. I'd assume he fills the NSW Cup halfback spot that has been left blank when the Knights named their side.

It's natural that the chief playmaker be held responsible for a winless start, especially seeing as neither Ilias nor Hastings had set the world on fire thus far in 2024.

That said, I have a sneaky suspicion that both of these "huge" calls are easy options and haven't addressed much bigger issues.

Let me preface this by saying I don't disagree with either decision.

Ilias suffered a severe drop off in form in mid-to-late 2023. The hope was that the pre-season would reinvigorate the young half. It had not.

Meanwhile, I always felt it was a matter of time before Jack Cogger was handed the reins in Newcastle. Hastings hasn't had the greatest of starts to 2024 but can absolutely feel a little bit hard done by.

I do however caution fans of both teams against expecting a huge difference due to the change at halfback.

Souths' horror run extends way further back than 2024 losses to the Sea Eagles and Broncos.

They have been a shell of their early 2023 selves since around the halfway point of last season. They led the comp and were title favourites at one point.

They would fall away, drastically, and miss the finals altogether. This, combined with a winless start to the season, has heaped pressure on Jason Demetriou and forced his hand.

Yes, Ilias hadn't been playing to expectations but I maintain that there are far better players playing far worse in red and green than the relative rookie.

Superstar Latrell Mitchell's frustrations have boiled over to the point he unloaded in a post-game radio interview.

Souths may very well have had a quiet word but their public reaction has only furthered speculation that Latrell Mitchell is above punishment.

Don't get me wrong, his language sits very much at the bottom of any atrocity scale, but it was unprofessional and shows his frustration.

Meanwhile, Cody Walker and Damien Cook are playing well below par.

Then there's the fact that Demetriou himself moved the team's best middle forward to an edge, blunting his impact on the game, to make way for a fringe first grader to start at 13.

Or Demetriou's refusal to hold big-name players accountable during their horror end to 2023.

Or Demetriou's decision to move on from Adam Reynolds and replace him with a rookie halfback, lumping mass pressure on Cody Walker.

I could go on, but the point stands; Lachlan Ilias being out of form is hardly the core reason Souths have started slowly.

So too up the Pacific Highway, Knights fans are being asked to swallow the notion that Jackson Hastings, who oversaw the club's run into the second week of finals in 2023, was the reason they're now 0-2.

Don't get me wrong, I am on record as stating my belief that Jack Cogger is the best option at seven in the Hunter.

That said, offering up Hastings as a scapegoat seems supremely unfair. Especially considering how good he was last season.

To say they've missed Dom Young out wide is an understatement. Greg Marzhew has been largely blunted by coaches who now know what the bulldozing winger is all about.

Throw in the fact that Kalyn Ponga is yet to re-find anything even close to his 2023 form, the fact Dane Gagai is now another year older, or even Tyson Gamble's uncertain form ... suddenly I'm seeing why Hastings reportedly took up an offer to skip a session after being told of his demotion.

Hastings hasn't made himself undroppable by any means, but he's been offered up as a sacrificial lamb with Cogger ushered in as the hero in waiting.

Much like their South Sydney counterparts, bigger-name stars are performing far worse.

It's just much easier for coaches to demote a rookie or unestablished halves rather than make difficult calls and face the wrath of fans.

I can totally get behind Adam O'Brien and his decision. Cogger should have been the number seven from the start of the pre-season.

For the Bunnies though, Jason Demetriou has absolutely made an easy call in making a 23-year-old halfback the scapegoat.

It's probably the right call in the end but it's equally as much the easy one.

As a Souths fan I would take issue with the club's megastar fullback gloating about his 100th try in a disappointing loss.

Or with Cam Murray being shifted, and blunted, for seemingly no reason despite a genuine back-rower being named there originally.

I fully expect we see an improvement from both sides this weekend but I won't be sold on that there aren't more complex issues at play here than a change at number seven.