/ Jul 31, 2025
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Going back over the past 30-odd years since I played in the top grade, the game has been blessed with incredible halfbacks and playmakers.
Each has brought different strengths and styles of play. And now I’m going to play mad scientist and build the perfect playmaker, drawing on the champion halves and ballplayers from the early 1990s.
The two dominant halves of that period when I first came into grade and was growing up were Ricky Stuart and Allan Langer.
Ricky had these beautiful long, spiral passes you’d try to imitate. But no-one could throw a 20 to 30-metre bullet pass like Sticky. His combination with Laurie Daley was just so dangerous for that brilliant Raiders side.
Sticky’s long kicking game was just a class above too, back when pretty much everyone used the torpedo kick to go long. Sticky’s punts were like scud missiles that flew 50 and 60 metres, and he was one of the first players to perfect the torpedo bomb.
I grew up idolising Ricky – and Alfie, too. I’d copy their every move. That was until my first game when I played against Sticky – a typically balmy night at Bruce Stadium, when we got hammered and Ruben Wiki scored four tries.
Sticky absolutely terrorised me. He was just relentless. So as an 18-year-old I got home after that game, rang my mum and said: “Those posters on the wall. You can leave Alfie’s up but take Ricky’s down.”
I’ve never seen a player put opposition teams or individuals off their game through sledging like Sticky. He was the master.
And then there was Alfie. As cheeky as Sticky was ruthless, you could just never predict what he was going to do next. His running game close to the line was the best I’ve seen.
Short, stocky and powerful – over 10 or 15 metres, Alfie was just dynamic. As far as ad-lib play goes, Langer is without peer.
As far as support play and anticipation, “Baa” was just first class. In total, he scored 164 tries across his career. The next closest halves to come near him – Bob Fulton (147 tries) and Phil Blake (138) – each played other positions in the backline.
Terry’s basically all came at five-eighth as the best supporting half I’ve seen. I once asked him what his secret was, and he said he never stopped jogging downfield. Even if the ball was 50 metres away, he was always moving, just in case.
Only small at 172 centimetres and nicknamed “Noddy” for a reason. But Kimmorley was just so strong. It might surprise, but hitting Noddy was like hitting granite. He was really strong with the ball and in defence and it served him very, very well.
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Nathan Cleary is my goalkicking halfback. His body of work speaks for itself, and it’s the same story with his ability to pull out a match-winning play.
His cool head prevails so often, he just never seems to panic or get frustrated when the pressure is on.
Look at his heroics in the 2023 grand final against Brisbane. Cleary’s final 20-odd minutes were, without doubt, the best big-game delivery I’ve seen from a halfback.
Cliffy and Cody are just geniuses when it comes to pass selection, both playing long into their 30s and bamboozling defences. Both strong Indigenous men and the truly gifted Indigenous players have a gift and spatial awareness that makes them a joy to watch.
Cody Walker has been my favourite player to watch of the last 10 years, just a beautiful ball-player like Cliffy was before him.
JT would push himself to exhaustion like no-one else, all in pursuit of any little win on the field. He was only slight, and at the start of his career he was just bones, big ears and nothing else.
But he built his body throughout his career through sheer hard work and nobody competed harder than Thurston. Except maybe Tommy Raudonikis, but he went about things very differently.
Les Boyd and Tommy Raudonikis rip into a raw steak.Credit: John O’Gready
Tommy would bite, scratch, kick, fight and squirrel grip. Anything he thought he had to do to win a game, Raudonikis didn’t think twice about. So JT and Tommy, so incredibly competitive. One quite clean, the other incredibly dirty.
For sheer ability to execute a game plan and be the coach’s eyes and ears on the field, it’s Cooper. No-one was as prepared and organised as a halfback. Nine grand final appearances says it all.
Mitch’s biggest strength is his running threat from 40 metres out or his own side of halfway. He’s got real high-end speed and can maintain it, he’s always so dangerous from long distance.
Moses’ long kicking game is phenomenal too. How often have you seen him save a poor set with a drop punt that can travel 60-65 metres on the fly?
Not to be underestimated in a playmaker is knowing and understanding what your halfback or five-eighth is up to. All the best halves combos have a strong bond. But I still think Kevvy was the only person in the world who knew what Alf was thinking when he had the ball.
Kevvy’s ability to play Alf was a true gift and it made him the perfect Robin to his Batman.
Izzy Katoa’s tempo – his ability to play fast to slow, and slow to fast with the ball to manipulate the defence – is just incredible. Already at the age of 21, he executes the block play better than anyone in the game.
His deception with ball-in-hand, the way he looks in and plays out, his change of speed, it all makes the defence think the opposite of what he’s actually going to do. And that is what playmaking is all about.
Tommy Dearden’s running game is built on a classic show and go and his Origin III masterclass will be remembered as one of the great individual performances.
He’s just as tough as they come and that was plain to see when he led Queensland to a famous win. His try-saving tackles are already iconic. And out of all these halves, if you were to get them all together, I’d say Dearden would be the fittest of the lot.
A special mention to these two greats of the late 90s and early 2000s. No-one played short sides better than Jason Smith and Jim Dymock. With four-on-four, three-on-three or three-on-two set-ups, these two just mastered knowing when to catch the defence napping.
There’s an art to short side play. Smith and Dymock were our Picassos.
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So for any young aspiring halves and playmakers; these champions that I’ve highlighted, go and study them on YouTube, TikTok, however you like. Everything they do – their body position when they pass, how they hold the ball and why, where and when they get their hands on the ball, how they guide their team around the field, which defenders they target and their kicking styles.
Put it all together and you get the perfect playmaker.
This week it’s master and apprentice with Craig Bellamy’s Storm up against his old assistant Jason Ryles, who learned his craft down in Melbourne, along with stints under Eddie Jones in English rugby and Trent Robinson at the Roosters.
Craig Bellamy with Jason Ryles in 2020.Credit: Getty Images
His first year as an NRL coach has seen him make some massive calls and I think, all in all, he’s done an incredible job.
I can see their attack evolving and getting better each week after biting the bullet on first Clint Gutherson for Isaiah Iongi, and then dropping Dylan Brown to get a head start on building for 2026.
And then Parramatta turn around and pull off one of the biggest upsets of the season, knocking off Brisbane in Brisbane.
Ricky Stuart without a doubt deserves to be Dally M coach of the year. But for me, Ryles is second behind him. He’s still changing a lot within the club, so Eels fans need to be patient. Maybe not next year, but definitely in the next two seasons, I see them challenging for the top eight again.
Melbourne are without Jahrome Hughes on Thursday night in very wet, miserable conditions.
Can the Storm win the competition if he doesn’t come back? Well, when Hughes was fit I thought they’d be our premiers for sure. But to lose your Dally M halfback this late in the season, even if he does return, it brings them back to the pack.
We’ll see Cameron Munster take on extra responsibility and we saw him thrive in Origin when he was challenged. And we saw Harry Grant take that responsibility last week and produce what would have been the very rare 10 out of 10 performance in the old Rugby League Week player ratings.
I’m at the point now where I rate Harry among the best three hookers I’ve seen.
Jonah Pezet has been named on the bench with Tyran Wishart at No.7. But I think we could see a switch, or Pezet at least getting big minutes at halfback.
Jonah Pezet has been waiting in the wings at Melbourne.Credit: NRL Imagery
He’s had his share of injuries so I haven’t seen too much of Pezet. But from what I have seen he’s an on-ball halfback with control and a very good kicking game.
Pezet knocked back big offers last time he was off-contract, Newcastle chased him with big dollars, and he has served a lengthy apprenticeship behind Hughes. He has clauses in his deal that should come into play now Hughes has re-signed, so to me, he deserves a shot at halfback.
Where the Eels have an advantage though – regardless of who is wearing the Storm No.7 – is Mitchell Moses’ kicking game and the longest boot in the game.
Melbourne used to be almost impossible to beat in the wet because of their ruck control. I haven’t seen quite that dominance this year though, which could bring Moses and Parramatta into the contest.
It’ll be a low-scoring, wet weather affair, but I think the class of Munster and Grant gets the Storm home.
Joey’s tips: Storm by four.
First try-scorer: Cameron Munster
Man of the match: Harry Grant
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter
Going back over the past 30-odd years since I played in the top grade, the game has been blessed with incredible halfbacks and playmakers.
Each has brought different strengths and styles of play. And now I’m going to play mad scientist and build the perfect playmaker, drawing on the champion halves and ballplayers from the early 1990s.
The two dominant halves of that period when I first came into grade and was growing up were Ricky Stuart and Allan Langer.
Ricky had these beautiful long, spiral passes you’d try to imitate. But no-one could throw a 20 to 30-metre bullet pass like Sticky. His combination with Laurie Daley was just so dangerous for that brilliant Raiders side.
Sticky’s long kicking game was just a class above too, back when pretty much everyone used the torpedo kick to go long. Sticky’s punts were like scud missiles that flew 50 and 60 metres, and he was one of the first players to perfect the torpedo bomb.
I grew up idolising Ricky – and Alfie, too. I’d copy their every move. That was until my first game when I played against Sticky – a typically balmy night at Bruce Stadium, when we got hammered and Ruben Wiki scored four tries.
Sticky absolutely terrorised me. He was just relentless. So as an 18-year-old I got home after that game, rang my mum and said: “Those posters on the wall. You can leave Alfie’s up but take Ricky’s down.”
I’ve never seen a player put opposition teams or individuals off their game through sledging like Sticky. He was the master.
And then there was Alfie. As cheeky as Sticky was ruthless, you could just never predict what he was going to do next. His running game close to the line was the best I’ve seen.
Short, stocky and powerful – over 10 or 15 metres, Alfie was just dynamic. As far as ad-lib play goes, Langer is without peer.
As far as support play and anticipation, “Baa” was just first class. In total, he scored 164 tries across his career. The next closest halves to come near him – Bob Fulton (147 tries) and Phil Blake (138) – each played other positions in the backline.
Terry’s basically all came at five-eighth as the best supporting half I’ve seen. I once asked him what his secret was, and he said he never stopped jogging downfield. Even if the ball was 50 metres away, he was always moving, just in case.
Only small at 172 centimetres and nicknamed “Noddy” for a reason. But Kimmorley was just so strong. It might surprise, but hitting Noddy was like hitting granite. He was really strong with the ball and in defence and it served him very, very well.
Loading
Nathan Cleary is my goalkicking halfback. His body of work speaks for itself, and it’s the same story with his ability to pull out a match-winning play.
His cool head prevails so often, he just never seems to panic or get frustrated when the pressure is on.
Look at his heroics in the 2023 grand final against Brisbane. Cleary’s final 20-odd minutes were, without doubt, the best big-game delivery I’ve seen from a halfback.
Cliffy and Cody are just geniuses when it comes to pass selection, both playing long into their 30s and bamboozling defences. Both strong Indigenous men and the truly gifted Indigenous players have a gift and spatial awareness that makes them a joy to watch.
Cody Walker has been my favourite player to watch of the last 10 years, just a beautiful ball-player like Cliffy was before him.
JT would push himself to exhaustion like no-one else, all in pursuit of any little win on the field. He was only slight, and at the start of his career he was just bones, big ears and nothing else.
But he built his body throughout his career through sheer hard work and nobody competed harder than Thurston. Except maybe Tommy Raudonikis, but he went about things very differently.
Les Boyd and Tommy Raudonikis rip into a raw steak.Credit: John O’Gready
Tommy would bite, scratch, kick, fight and squirrel grip. Anything he thought he had to do to win a game, Raudonikis didn’t think twice about. So JT and Tommy, so incredibly competitive. One quite clean, the other incredibly dirty.
For sheer ability to execute a game plan and be the coach’s eyes and ears on the field, it’s Cooper. No-one was as prepared and organised as a halfback. Nine grand final appearances says it all.
Mitch’s biggest strength is his running threat from 40 metres out or his own side of halfway. He’s got real high-end speed and can maintain it, he’s always so dangerous from long distance.
Moses’ long kicking game is phenomenal too. How often have you seen him save a poor set with a drop punt that can travel 60-65 metres on the fly?
Not to be underestimated in a playmaker is knowing and understanding what your halfback or five-eighth is up to. All the best halves combos have a strong bond. But I still think Kevvy was the only person in the world who knew what Alf was thinking when he had the ball.
Kevvy’s ability to play Alf was a true gift and it made him the perfect Robin to his Batman.
Izzy Katoa’s tempo – his ability to play fast to slow, and slow to fast with the ball to manipulate the defence – is just incredible. Already at the age of 21, he executes the block play better than anyone in the game.
His deception with ball-in-hand, the way he looks in and plays out, his change of speed, it all makes the defence think the opposite of what he’s actually going to do. And that is what playmaking is all about.
Tommy Dearden’s running game is built on a classic show and go and his Origin III masterclass will be remembered as one of the great individual performances.
He’s just as tough as they come and that was plain to see when he led Queensland to a famous win. His try-saving tackles are already iconic. And out of all these halves, if you were to get them all together, I’d say Dearden would be the fittest of the lot.
A special mention to these two greats of the late 90s and early 2000s. No-one played short sides better than Jason Smith and Jim Dymock. With four-on-four, three-on-three or three-on-two set-ups, these two just mastered knowing when to catch the defence napping.
There’s an art to short side play. Smith and Dymock were our Picassos.
Loading
So for any young aspiring halves and playmakers; these champions that I’ve highlighted, go and study them on YouTube, TikTok, however you like. Everything they do – their body position when they pass, how they hold the ball and why, where and when they get their hands on the ball, how they guide their team around the field, which defenders they target and their kicking styles.
Put it all together and you get the perfect playmaker.
This week it’s master and apprentice with Craig Bellamy’s Storm up against his old assistant Jason Ryles, who learned his craft down in Melbourne, along with stints under Eddie Jones in English rugby and Trent Robinson at the Roosters.
Craig Bellamy with Jason Ryles in 2020.Credit: Getty Images
His first year as an NRL coach has seen him make some massive calls and I think, all in all, he’s done an incredible job.
I can see their attack evolving and getting better each week after biting the bullet on first Clint Gutherson for Isaiah Iongi, and then dropping Dylan Brown to get a head start on building for 2026.
And then Parramatta turn around and pull off one of the biggest upsets of the season, knocking off Brisbane in Brisbane.
Ricky Stuart without a doubt deserves to be Dally M coach of the year. But for me, Ryles is second behind him. He’s still changing a lot within the club, so Eels fans need to be patient. Maybe not next year, but definitely in the next two seasons, I see them challenging for the top eight again.
Melbourne are without Jahrome Hughes on Thursday night in very wet, miserable conditions.
Can the Storm win the competition if he doesn’t come back? Well, when Hughes was fit I thought they’d be our premiers for sure. But to lose your Dally M halfback this late in the season, even if he does return, it brings them back to the pack.
We’ll see Cameron Munster take on extra responsibility and we saw him thrive in Origin when he was challenged. And we saw Harry Grant take that responsibility last week and produce what would have been the very rare 10 out of 10 performance in the old Rugby League Week player ratings.
I’m at the point now where I rate Harry among the best three hookers I’ve seen.
Jonah Pezet has been named on the bench with Tyran Wishart at No.7. But I think we could see a switch, or Pezet at least getting big minutes at halfback.
Jonah Pezet has been waiting in the wings at Melbourne.Credit: NRL Imagery
He’s had his share of injuries so I haven’t seen too much of Pezet. But from what I have seen he’s an on-ball halfback with control and a very good kicking game.
Pezet knocked back big offers last time he was off-contract, Newcastle chased him with big dollars, and he has served a lengthy apprenticeship behind Hughes. He has clauses in his deal that should come into play now Hughes has re-signed, so to me, he deserves a shot at halfback.
Where the Eels have an advantage though – regardless of who is wearing the Storm No.7 – is Mitchell Moses’ kicking game and the longest boot in the game.
Melbourne used to be almost impossible to beat in the wet because of their ruck control. I haven’t seen quite that dominance this year though, which could bring Moses and Parramatta into the contest.
It’ll be a low-scoring, wet weather affair, but I think the class of Munster and Grant gets the Storm home.
Joey’s tips: Storm by four.
First try-scorer: Cameron Munster
Man of the match: Harry Grant
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter
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