Positional watchlist: Hooking targets for 2025

Not a single hooker featured in the top 20 averaging players last season and only one (Harry Grant) featured the season before.

This makes it tempting to go cheap at hooker and use the cash on higher upside positions.

However, it’s easy to burn through trades in these types of positions. Fortunately, we have a few handy duals this season to help us navigate this.

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Join our premium NRL content for less than $2 per week! Get access to additional articles every week. Gain access to our Whatsapp community with team news for every game, team feedback, and contributor trade and skipper plans every round and stacks more more. SUBSCRIBE NOW

Embed from Getty Images

Targets

Harry Grant – Storm – $691.6k

Connor Watson – Roosters – $583k (HOK/2RF)

Peter Mamouzelos – Rabbitohs – $302.9k

Sandon Smith – Roosters – $237.6k (HOK/HFB)

Harry Grant is the best hooker in SC but has settled at around a 70 average over the past few seasons. He also has the highest ceiling, with a career high of 149.

It’s hard to envisage a ceiling-game of this sort coming in the lower scoring early part of the season though. A round 2 bye for the Storm is also far from ideal. Nonetheless, Harry’s a safe pick to start the season, it’s just a question of how much value we want to chase from others.

Like many Supercoaches, Roosters duo Watson and Smith are the two players at hooker who I’m most interested in.

I expect Watson’s game to continue to be SC friendly. Across four games at hooker last (regular) season, he averaged 62 PPG, and that figure jumped to 67 PPG across three finals matches (per Fox Sports stats). A pre-season spent training at hooker will also help.

Embed from Getty Images

Sandon Smith has impressed at every opportunity for the Roosters. The possible addition of the goalkicking would make him an easy start in our 17s to start the season. Sandon’s dual is also a gift that allows our team great flexibility to start the season. I’ll be keeping an open mind as to how he’s best utilised, including the possibility of starting him on-field.

Peter Mamouzelos has previously shown his attacking potential in reserve grade, scoring 10 tries and providing 9 try assists in 2023.

In first grade last season, he managed 1 try and 4 try assists across 647 minutes, averaging out to one attacking stat approximately every 130 minutes.

His base PPM of 0.63 suggests he could deliver around 35 Base PPG in 55 minutes, and if he secures extended minutes, he could push towards 45 PPG or more. With decent job security, this makes him a solid budget option to start.

Embed from Getty Images

Job watch

Damien Cook – Dragons – $662.3k

Max Plath – Dolphins – $617.6k (HK/2RF)

Blake Mozer – Broncos – $312k

Owen Pattie – Raiders – $198.8k

Cookie’s move to the Dragons comes with an intriguing role. Early indications suggest he could split time between hooker and lock, which might increase his tackle breaks and offloads.

While he’s now 33 years old, he’s proven to be incredibly fit and durable. I doubt he’ll play 80, but injuries during games could change this (and possibly require him to fill in at other positions, such as centre).

Max Plath is a young player on the rise and showed plenty of promise last season, averaging 60 PPG in 62 minutes when playing at lock. While he is unlikely to see a major increase in minutes, he remains one to monitor and another with handy dual positioning.

Former Queensland U19 captain Blake Mozer has plenty of upside but the competition for hooker minutes at the Broncs is a red flag. If he can force his way into a big minute role he could become an option.

Owen Pattie is a highly regarded junior, but with most of his 2024 reserve grade games coming off the bench, it’s difficult to see him getting significant minutes early in the season. Wait and see.