22 years old - going to be a great player.

Fantastic news. The best hooker in Superleague.

He’s an exceptionally good player and it wouldn’t surprise me if he got the captaincy when Farrell retires. I’ve always suspected that eventually he would end up playing 13 however, Ellis has proven to be an excellent 13 and he will take some shifting from that role particularly over the next couple of years.
Yet another good piece of business by the club.

What is he good at?

He's done well to be first choice hooker at his age but I don't get comments like this.

For example Leeming scored as many tries last year as O'Neill has in his entire career, can drop into the halves during play and puts on really good kick pressure. I'm not sure what O'Neill is particularly good at.

Watch the trophies he wins. He sets the standards, his defence is exceptional and he will only get better.

All the little things, with the ball he’s quite simple. He gives the ball to our play makers fast. He is a physical ball carrier when he does run.

In defensive he is ferocious, most hookers are target for ball carriers but not Brad. He leads our line speed, leads our kick chase, puts pressure on kickers, is immense in the ruck, great in the wrestle, he has a great engine.

Kind of player his teams mates love.

Leeming does flashy stuff being fast but sometimes frustrates the halves by going off on his own adventures at times (especially on the last tackle), also not the best defender (but improved later in the year).


Brad is the glue of our team. He’s miles ahead of where Micky Mac was at age 22.

Lucky to have him.

Rather than me answering that, ask yourself why a coach of Matt Peet's obvious ability has him as first choice hooker? Leeming is good and makes for an excellent rotation with O'Neil but, if he was better as you claim, he'd have the 9 jersey.

I was going to post about the comparison with MM.

I think McIlorum was a great player for us and, imo, Brad is in a similar mould but I agree with you that he is ahead of where MM was at his age.

O'Neill seems to be a combination of MM and Terry Newton

He’s a good tackler and that’s about it. His distribution is laboured and inaccurate and is too slow in attack. The guy you quoted is a well known troll so ignore him

yeah, what the hell would Peet, the club and the coaching team know anyhow.......

If anyone wants a lesson on how good he is, go and watch the Penrith game again. He went toe to toe with Leota, Fisher-Harris, Kenny and Yeo in that middle and was absolutely unbelievable. I think there's a misconception that he doesn't have a running game but there is a difference between somebody with no running game and somebody playing to a gameplan and being selfless by getting quick ball to the teams biggest attacking threats. When O'Neill runs the ball, his average gain per carry is very good (8.11m) and comfortably above guys like Leeming (6.54) and Litten (7.1m) and similar to guys like Danny Walker (8.22) and Andy Ackers (8.54). All of those are more renowned as being hookers with a running threat. Only guys like Clark and Ipappe sit above 9 metres per carry but that is the main part of their game, unlike Brad O'Neill.

I'm not daft enough to question his ability, but this one did raise an eyebrow given the injury he is still out with for another 4 months. Its a big contract to give when there must still be an element of doubt about his return

If you are judging a player by how many tries they score….with all due respect you don’t really have a clue about rugby.

...

Appreciate the actual response that some people seem incapable of.

I'm suspicious how good a lot of people would think he is if we didn't have French and Field scoring and creating tries for fun.

We had some of that criticism of Harry Smith for a bit.

Also Sam Powell was good at these effort areas, maybe not as good, but I believe he got a lot of stick and people called for more attacking hookers.