Top No.9's in the game

[Captain of the Gate]

I had an arguement with someone at work who said Michael Ennis is the best hooker in the game behind Cam Smith. I argued there was no way Ennis was 2nd best no.9 and I honestly couldn't even put him in my top 5, especially after 2010. He asked me to name my top 10 then. Here is the unbiased opinion I gave him

1 Smith, 2 Farah, 3 Luke, 4 Ballin, 5 N Friend, 6 Young, 7 Fien, 8 Ennis, 9 J Friend 10 Kingston

What do you think of this list and who would you rate as the current top 10 hookers in the game?

 

[eagles2win]

Don't rate Farah that high.

Rob Burrow would be pretty high up as well.

Last season Keiron 'the King' Cunningham from St Helens would be my number 2

 

[willstyles]

Smith a clear favourite, Farah/Luke are close possibly with Luke getting the edge.

Below that there's a bit of a drop to the next tier which includes Ballin/N Friend/Ennis/De Gois. Payne is good as well but seems to have dropped off (along with a lot of Cowboys, so hard to judge him a touch) last year. Another drop to the young guns J Friend/McCullough.

Aside from the top three I don't think there are any "elite" hookers in the game, although Matty Ballin probably deserves to be considered the fourth best and is definitely an excellent servant of our club already and has some years ahead of him.

 

[DSM5]

Ballin seemed to fade out last season.  Hurt possibly?

 

[The Eagle]

Worn out,his not an 80 minute player

Farah i cant stand,he is an absolute glory/ball hogging moron
Ennis isn't that bad
Luke does alot of flat/forward passes
Smith is easily the best.....as much as i hate that grappler

 

[Chip and Chase]

Would love to have any of Smith, Farah or Luke at Manly. Those 3 are the stand outs. Also don't mind the guy from North Queensland that signed with the Rorters and got injured in trial...his name escapes me.

 

[King]

Anthony Watts.

My top NRL hookers would be.
Smith
Farrah
Luke
Ballin
Ennis
Friend
Payne
Degois
Fien
Roughly in that order.

 

[Andrew..]

Smith and Luke are in another class, N.S.W has limited options in the hooking department that one of the reasons for our poor showing in the state of origin.

 

[bob dylan]

Cant argue with the top 6 Captain of the Gate, after that it gets a bit grey.

 

[Guest]

because you said in the game & not NRL im going to include two from superleague... le strange  in feins spot  he loses it & mona  takes jake freinds spot .. 😉

 

[Masked Eagle]

No way should it be Ennis.  He is just a bully.  Will dominate when your forwards are on a massive roll but is anonymous when they aren't.

Farah and Smith are easily the two standouts, they can create out of there and what they do make the jobs of their halves so much easier.

Chip & Chase, I think your talking about Anthony Watt.  Very enthusiastic but I don't think he has much more to him than that.

On our Matt Ballin, I probably rank him 4th behind Farah, Smith & Luke.  Although I wonder if Seu Seu will see more game time this year as I think Ballin was looking a bit fatigued in the backhalf of last year.

 

[lloydy]

If I could pick a hooker to come to Manly it would be Luke closely followed by Smith, but I think Ballin/Seu seu will come good this year so I wouldn't swap them.

 

[Guest]

If I could pick a hooker to come to Manly it would be Luke closely followed by Smith, but I think Ballin/Seu seu will come good this year so I wouldn't swap them.

i`d just want le strange back ..