Richie Barnett: A Warrior who never did things by halves

Lance Hohaia has played all over the park for club and country. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Opinion

There will never be another Lance Hohaia. I'm pretty sure of that. Just look at what Lance has done in his career.

He's played in the halves, he's played hooker, he's played centre and in recent years he's become a very good fullback.

And he's not just done that at club level, he's done it at rep level for the Kiwis.

It's like asking Dan Carter to go out one week and play first five-eighths, then have a crack at centre the next week and fullback the week after that.

You just don't see that sort of thing these days.

Lance is a unique player. It hasn't all been plain sailing for him, it hasn't always been easy. He's had his downs to go with the ups, but he's always bounced back.

He's copped his fair share of stick during his time and, looking back, I wonder if we were all too hard on him.

Sometimes I think our expectations of the Warriors and our players in general are just too high.

One thing is sure, Lance was never given a real chance to settle into his favoured spot in the halves.

You wonder how good he might have been if he had been given some time to grow into the job. But time is the one thing players - particularly halves - don't get these days. We expect instant success.

Look at Brett Seymour this season. Yes, he was playing badly. But plenty of other players around him were playing badly, too. If the team had been playing better Seymour probably would have got through his rough patch.

Instead he's now down in the Vulcans. I reckon the same thing probably happened to Lance when he was younger. At times when he was dropped plenty of his teammates would have been playing badly, too.

We were pretty critical of him at the time. Too critical. Now when you look at his career you just think it is remarkable what he has achieved.

I'm quite glad he is going to St Helens to play halfback for the next four years. We'll finally get to see how good he can be in his preferred position. With Lance leaving, I think Nathan Friend will be a very good signing for the club. His experience and leadership will be critical.

These days so much direction comes from the No 9. Players like Cameron Smith and Robbie Farah really drive their teams forward.

Friend is a similar sort of player. He makes something happen all the time. He's quite similar to Nathan Fien, which is a bit ironic really given the way Fien was let go.

Friend will be 31 next season, but I'm not worried about his age. He is one of the fittest guys in the NRL and looks after himself superbly. Just look at his defensive workrate. It will be interesting to see what happens with the hooking situation at the club now. Ideally, you'd think they'd want to keep Alehana Mara as an understudy to Friend. The problem they may have there is if another club comes in for Mara with an offer that is too good to refuse.

Last week, I said the Warriors needed to beat the Roosters up front if they were to have a chance and it was great to see them do just that. They won the individual battles in the middle. But the important thing for them to realise is that they can get a hell of a lot better.

The Roosters dropped a huge amount of ball in that match. Yes, the Warriors' defence forced a lot of that, but against other teams that don't drop the ball so much they'll need to be a lot better.

With Brett Stewart and Anthony Watmough coming back, Manly will be tough. Watmough in particular has always given the Warriors trouble around that middle third.

The one area where the Warriors look to have the edge is the bench, with Ben Matulino, Ukuma Ta'ai and Russell Packer coming on to provide a real punch. I was pretty impressed with Jeremy Latimore last week, too.

The defence against the Roosters set a benchmark. The bar was raised. That level is where the Warriors have to be every week.