![CHOICES: It's not ideal, but Ben Hunt can reboot the Dragons season if he embraces a bench hooking shift. Picture: NRL Imagery CHOICES: It's not ideal, but Ben Hunt can reboot the Dragons season if he embraces a bench hooking shift. Picture: NRL Imagery](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ViGe8NXxNszpWGz2Wi7TWd/1367e4f3-c6f3-45c9-9823-c29adf86fe05.jpg/r0_0_5264_3392_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
THIS week, Kickoff found time to go back and have a peek at the very first interview we did with Ben Hunt. It made for interesting reading.
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Of course he'd just been signed to six-year $6 million deal. It was certainly the longest and richest deal in Dragons history; it might just stay that way for quite a while.
It sent the wider NRL halves market into a frenzy - incredibly he's still copping flak about that this many seasons on - and that day even he admitted the deal seemed to good to be true.
"It was of bit of a surprise and pretty unexpected to be honest," he said in February 2018.
"To get a deal that long and to have that much security in your career felt pretty crazy. It's something that doesn't come along very often in the game. It was going to set my family up so it was just too good to pass up."
Would he pass it up now? Have a quick think about what you'd be willing to do for $6 million and the answer's probably no, but he's changed his mind on a few other things. For one, he no longer believes there's greater scrutiny in Brisbane being a one-team league-mad city.
Interestingly enough, he was coming off a final season with the Broncos that looked pretty similar to the one he's having in 2020, shifting from halfback to a bench utility role. He addressed that in the same interview.
"Mary told me before I came, and when I first got here, that it's going to be No.7 and that's where I'll be playing," Hunt said.
"We've got a pretty good No.9 here in Cam [Cameron McInnes] and I think he's earned that spot, he's been really good there. Personally, and as a team, there's some goals there for us and I want to cement my role here as the No.7 and hang onto that."
It isn't just a mindless wander through the archives in search of some compelling hindsight but it is an interesting read given the time that's now passed.
It's hard to recall any player so ruthlessly scrutinised or criticised. For what it's worth, your columnist can't recall another player conducting themselves with as much class in the face of it (he hasn't once knocked back an interview request).
It's also an insight into the many myriad of things players need to consider in seeking and signing such deals. Phil Gould recently made the point that people need to sit down with a player and make sure they're awake to the other realities that come with the price tag.
Benny's aforementioned conduct is evidence he was, and remains, awake to that reality. What does it mean for him now? Guess it remains to be seen. There was a lot to like about his performance from the bench last week.
Plenty have people have made the point that 'you can't have a million-dollar player coming off the bench." It's a moot point. That bird's flown.
The money's spent. He won't be giving it back and, given all he's endured because of it, why the hell should he? Paul McGregor, who it must be said didn't make the deal, is now simply charged with finding the best way Hunt can serve the team's interests.
The fact that, with virtually no lead-in prep, he could produce 80-minute performances at State of Origin level at hooker is testament to his ability in that position.
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It might be an even easier proposition for McGregor were it not for the fact that Cam McInnes is one of the premier hookers in the game. Beyond that he's the captain and, as Hunt put it this week, "the heart and soul" of the team.
In that way, McInnes is a lot like current assistant coach Dean Young who was the beating heart of the club's 2010 premiership-winning team - a year in which he shifted between hooker and lock.
When the Dragons went up a gear down the stretch of that season, it came with Young working in tandem at dummy-half with Nathan Fien, who returned from an ankle injury with five weeks of the season to play.
![SWITCH: Kiwi Test half Nathan Fien was key part of the Dragons 2010 premiership as a bench weapon. Picture: Adam McLean SWITCH: Kiwi Test half Nathan Fien was key part of the Dragons 2010 premiership as a bench weapon. Picture: Adam McLean](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/dc5syd-61d6j9er1lk176z4i2at.jpg/r0_0_3460_2307_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
It proved the extra spark that really got them over the hump, Fien putting Young over for the match-winning try on grand final day a literal illustration of its effectiveness. Fien bagged a meat pie himself that day as well.
Not long before that he'd been the halfback in a Kiwi side that won a World Cup but, to make that contribution, he had to put a degree of ego aside and accept a different role as he matured in his career.
"Coming into first grade I was a young halfback and I wanted to lead a team around and have my hands on the ball all the time," Fien recalls.
"It wasn't until later in my career that I really understood it doesn't matter where you are in a team, everyone's job is just as important as everyone else's. You do have to get over yourself a bit and that does take a bit of character because it's a team-first mentality.
"That was my thinking when I was asked to play different roles in the team. It may be different this week to what it is next week but if the team's going to play it's best and I've moved into a role, I've got to play that role and not be worried about what I could be doing in a different position.
"There's a lot of pressure thrown at Benny because of the money he's on but, that's just an outside influence. Whether he's playing seven or nine, he can still have the same impact on the team.
"You look at how seamlessly he did it the other day [against Cronulla]. He was unbelievable there, he had so much more time, he looked relaxed in his role and the team benefitted from it."
While plenty, including Hunt himself, have dubbed the bench shift a demotion, Fien says he could even prove more influential at dummy-half than No. 7 with new rules opening up the middle of the park.
"The way the game's changed, it'll suit him to the ground just taking bit of pressure off him by starting him on the bench and throwing him into a role that obviously comes so natural to him," Fien said.
"If he's getting paid a million bucks or whatever and you want him to win games for you, hooker is a perfect spot. You're going to touch the ball more than anyone on the field and probably influence the outcome more than the seven does anyway.
"He can get you to a certain spot on the field, but if an opportunity opens up and he's got that halfback mindset of playing an opportunity if it presents itself. He did that the other day when he scored that try.
"They looked like they were all set to go left and he just went, bang, out to the right and tested some lazy defenders in around the a [defender] and he scored. He's got the ability in there to see opportunities and capitalise on them when they do present."
Crucially, it didn't dull the effectiveness of McInnes, who finished with a try laid on by Hunt and 52 tackles in 80 minutes on the park. It's not a like-for-like comparison, but Fien could see the similarities between their effort and his tandem act with Young.
"Deano was such an effective defender early on and that opened up the opportunity for me to come on when defenders, in particular the big boys around the ruck, are a bit tired and I could take advantage," Fien said.
"When I went on I stayed on. That's the way we did it and it was exactly how Benny and Cam did it on the weekend."
It takes buy-in, and a degree of maturity, but it can work. If a player's pay packet reflected their ego then Hunt would be on minimum wage. They don't and he's not... but they can still make it work.