Tackles
Try-Assists
Tackle Breaks
Metres Gained
Missed Tackles
DreamTeamers obsession with hookers (or more accurately NFI’s obsession with hookers) continues this season, as we come to Rabbitohs dummy half Issac Luke.
A Kiwi international, Luke has developed himself into an 80 minute player of the past 3 years, and it has helped his DT scoring capabilities massively, let alone his general play.
He was in the pricier range for hookers, but Souths form this year, and his own personal scores, more than justify his high asking prices. He was averaging 55.42 at one point for season 2012, with a PB of 92 against the Tigers in Round 5. A lowest score of 38 shows that Luke is definitely consistent,.
The one area which has let him down in the hooking role is his defence. Michael Crocker in the centre of the park usually does the cleaning up that a hooker would, and Luke often only gets numbers in the late 20s to early 30s. He also has at least a few missed tackles in each game, which can be costly if he’s not attempting to make as many.
At the same time, Luke is a hooker in the Robbie Farah mould, with an ability to be a play-maker out of dummy half and create chances of his halves. His dummy half running is also very good, and often sees him score 10-12 points per game. The big point of difference for Luke is his tackle breaks. He is amongst the best in this stat in the NRL, and double that of any other hooker. He doesn’t have the kicking game of some, but has the ability to make up for it in metres gained and other attacking stats.
While he was suspended towards the end of the season, he did still produce enough to claim to be a legitimate other option – as in, not Smith or Farah.
