Hodder pushes for revamp to lift fortunes

Northland coach Bruce Hodder says his side can aim for little more than a few bonus points for the remainder of the NPC season.

The bigger point he'd like to make, though, is that the Northland club competition needs a significant overhaul - a la Taranaki - to give hope for a brighter future.

Hodder, a Waikato hooker in the 1980s, returns to his old stamping ground today with a Northland team that started the season with promise but has faded alarmingly.

They were universal favourites to finish last in 2004, but opened with good if losing efforts against Otago and Auckland. But Invercargill was their Waterloo, and they crashed against Taranaki.

Northland have scored quite freely, but are still without a competition point after four rounds - and have lost by an average margin of 25 points.

Hodder, an old Fraser Tech club mate of Waikato coaches John Mitchell and Duane Monkley, conceded there was little that could be done to resurrect the situation now. The key to future success was compacting the club competition, he said.

Hodder is heartened by prop Stan Wright and halfback John Senio from Auckland committing themselves to Northland.

But it was vital to develop from within, especially as not all imports could be relied on long-term.

Hodder picked out lanky lock Brad Taylor and No 8 Jake Paringatai as showing first-division quality, although he wanted more consistency from Paringatai.

Hodder said: "In 2004, we can't do anything. I knew it was going to be tough but I'm a bit disappointed ... they did pretty well in the first two games but haven't bounced on.

"There have been a lot of individual errors, especially in the tackle, and throwing passes to nobody.

"I guess I'm scratching around trying to find what buttons to push.

"It's really hard to judge players in the Northland club competition because there really is no comparison to the NPC first division."

Hodder said rugby politics were a hurdle - an example was Bay of Islands and Mangonui playing in the Far North on the same day that Northland faced Auckland at Whangarei.

And the 12-team club competition lacked intensity apart from the final stages. It will be reduced to 11 teams but Hodder said the number should be closer to eight.

"Taranaki showed the way when they reduced their 35 teams down to 10.

"Their players are mentally tough," said Hodder.

"We need that, and to strengthen the coaching around those teams. There have been some moves in the right direction and long term there are good young players.

"But we really can't approach any games with confidence right now - our record doesn't allow that.

"We'll just try to get a bonus point a game, and see if we can pick up a win along the way."