2023 in review - Zac Woolford

[greeneyed]

2023 in review - Zac Woolford

Now it is season over for the Canberra Raiders, we will be reviewing all 30 players who pulled on a green jersey in first grade in 2023. So far, we have looked at the season of Sebastian Kris, Jordan Rapana, Albert Hopoate, Nick Cotric, James Schiller, Matt Timoko, Jarrod Croker, Harley Smith-Shields, Jack Wighton, Matt Frawley, Jamal Fogarty, Joseph Tapine, Josh Papalii, Emre Guler, Pasami Saulo and Ata Mariota.

Hooker Zac Woolford started the 2022 season believing it would be his last in the game. He was playing for Newtown and was eyeing a future career in horse racing. The son of former Raiders hooker and captain, Simon, came through the Green Machine's junior representative teams. He took the long way round to his NRL debut with the Raiders last year - via the Bulldogs, Knights and Jets. He only re-joined the Raiders six weeks into the season, after Josh Hodgson suffered a third ACL injury. He went on to play 17 NRL games in 2022, becoming a regular fixture at starting hooker.



It came as a surprise to many when Woolford spent the first three rounds of the 2023 season in NSW Cup. Just quite why that was the case, we don't know for sure. Perhaps it was injury. Perhaps he didn't hit his pre-season training targets. He started off the bench in the first trial, and was banished to the NSW Cup trial the following week. In my view, the team clearly functioned best in the trials when he was on field. But a Danny Levi-Tom Starling hooking combination was preferred for Round 1.

Sadly, Levi suffered a broken jaw in Round 3 - and Woolford was recalled to first grade. And once Woolford regained the No.9 jersey, he held onto it. He was a late switch to the bench in Round 4, but started at hooker in his 20 other NRL games this year. He missed the Round 12 loss to the Sea Eagles due to a concussion stand down.

"It's funny - I made my debut last year and went OK and kind of expected to be there to start this season," Woolford as the run to the finals loomed.

"But I had a rocky start, a back injury didn't help and the other two guys were playing well. I had to suck it up and play NSW Cup but I battled away and by round four I was back in the top squad."

"Ricky told me the jersey was mine - for a while - and that gave me my confidence back and some breathing room. I'm enjoying the role and hooker at Canberra is one of the best jobs in the NRL with guys like Josh Papalii, Corey Horsburgh and Joey Tapine there to look after me."

Woolford ranked fifth for try assists and 13th for try involvements per game in 2023. He ranked ninth among the regular NRL hookers for try assists, but was a fair way down the list for involvements. And in general, his attacking numbers were a fair way off the benchmark hookers in the game like Harry Grant, Wayde Egan and Api Koroisau. Woolford's average running metres and tackle breaks per match were among the lowest at the Raiders - and among NRL hookers. He made 24 dummy half runs - but his average runs per match were the second lowest at the Raiders. His defence was good. His tackle efficiency rate was the highest at the Raiders - and was one of the highest among NRL hookers. His try and line break causes were very low.

I rated him an average of 5.9/10 on average in 2023 (5.4/10 for his rookie season), rating him a "7" in five games. His top tackle count (63) came in the Round 27 loss to the Sharks, while his highest running metres (35) were posted in the Week 1 finals clash with the Knights. He picked up one man of the match award in Fans' Choice voting - for the Round 5 loss to the Panthers.

Zac Woolford is signed with the club until the end of 2024. Strangely, the Raiders have their starting hooker on the shortest contract, this year having extended both Tom Starling and Danny Levi until the end of 2025. Woolford will be able to negotiate with other clubs after 1 November, and there seems to be no news of a contract extension at the Green Machine. At least not yet.

One reason for the Raiders to keep their options open is the return of young hooker, Adrian Trevilyan to the field late last year, after a long injury lay off. I guess the Raiders want to see how both Woolford and Trevilyan go next season.

There is no doubt that Woolford has a specific skill set. He's not big on running, not the most creative hooker. But I suspect he's instructed to keep his game simple. He provides very good service from dummy half and works hard in defence. And as mentioned earlier, the Raiders spine just seems to gel when he's on the field. He's proven to be the best option for starting hooker, two years in a row. From that perspective, I'm finding the extensions for both Starling and Levi - who are both similar players - a bit puzzling. In any case, it looks like it will be up to Zac Woolford to earn a new contract, based on what he does on field in 2024. Watch and wait.

How did you rate Zac Woolford's 2023? Do you agree with our rating? Tell us below.

Zac Woolford's 2023: 6/10



2023 Statistics: (Stats from Fox Sports Lab)
Games: 21
Average minutes: 49
Points: 0
Tries: 0
Try assists: 5
Try contributions: 0
Total try involvements: 5
Total kicks: 12
Kick metres: 168
Forced line drop outs: 3
Kick errors: 1
Kicks dead: 2
Total runs: 28
Dummy half runs: 24
All run metres: 210
Average metres per carry: 7
Average metres per game: 10
Tackle breaks: 5
Offloads: 4
Line breaks: 0
Line break assists: 6
Tackles: 565
Average tackles per game: 26
1 on 1 tackles: 13
Missed tackles: 15
Average missed tackles per game: 0.7
Ineffective tackles: 19
Tackle efficiency: 94 per cent
Try causes: 2
Line break causes: 2
Errors: 8
Penalties conceded: 7

[Off]

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[Azza]

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These are some of your best posts in awhile, waddlebum.

[Matt]

Woolford is another of those guys in the high floor/low ceiling brigade. He's a 4-6 on any given year. TBH, I'd say 6 is too high given others scores so far, so I'll go 5.5.

However, it's 1 thing for your bench prop to be in this category, it's a whole different thing for your spine players. If you have 1 if these guys, you better have a couple of superstars in the other positions, which we dont.

Look around the league, which starting 9 wouldn't you take over Woolford? And that's the problem with 3 of our 4 9s. Trev is still a "?", so let's hope he comes good, or we will be on the lookout again.

[BadnMean]

I had high hopes Woolf would find more to his game physically after being a full time pro for a year, full off season etc etc. And get more comfortable with more authority over the team as a regular player.

That didn't really pan out.

Still our best drumbeat hooker who can get the time organised and rolling forward effectively. Didn't add enough often enough in the red xone ultimately and that disappointed me. Needs to add a more effective short kick or a few new tricks to deceive around the crash balls.

[reptar]

181/307

[Botman]

His service is good and he knows our bread is buttered in the forwards so that good early service helps us tremendously... He's our best hooker and he goes Ok and that's about it. Does most things to an acceptable level but it's hard not to think we could and should be looking for more in the hooker ranks

it still booggles my mind that we've got all 4 guys from last year retained and extended. He'll do until we can find better, but we should be looking to find better imo

5/10... and that might be a tad generous

[afgtnk]

Scary how much he reminds me of his old man..... which I don't really like, given the period for the club Woolford Snr's stay coincided with.

He's currently the best of an ordinary bunch; fine as a backup dummy half, but we need to actively scout an upgrade to fill the void Hodgson left us post ~2021 onwards.

[denissnowy]

Pass

[Billy Walker]

Nah you’re kidding yourself on this one GE. The groupthink on Levi hate has seeped through to give the Woolf a 6. 5 at best but even that is slightly generous. I get your rating system awards players that spent more times on the field than others, but when the sum result of the season is a swing and a miss, some of those players that spent lots of time in the middle without turning the dial on the results need to own much of the responsibility. Woolf was there often but provided very little. Genuine question- if we packed him up to ship off - who is buying what we are selling???

[RedRaider]

I rate him an easy 6/10. Very strong getting our side rolling forward due to accurate passing game and also very strong defensively. I think he improved defensively this year over last year. While I appreciate the likes of Grant, Api and Graham are very creative hookers the two 9's who played in the Grand Final for the two best teams in the competition were Mitch Kenny and Billy Walters. Imo he is not far away from those two.

[Billy Walker]

Pass

Are you rating him or outlining his job description?

[Mr Squiggle]

He's too lazy. Needs to be doing a lot more work on his endurance and wrestling in the off season and adding consistent kick pressure and better upper body control to his defensive output in matches. 5/10

Unfortunately he is severely hindered in his development by coaching staff that demonstrably don't understand what a modern hooker looks like or what the role is in a well organised defensive and offensive system. The fact that Levi and Starling are our two highest paid hookers speaks to that abysmal collective understanding of the rule.

[Ben & Sev Love Milk]

Gets the best out of his ability
Needs to get out and run more because at the moment just doesn’t create enough in attack.
5/10

[Andymachine]

5-6/10. We sure do have a lot of players at around this level.

He still needs to find a running game. I thought it would improve this season but it didn't. It's getting a bit ridiculous how reluctant he seems to be to get out and run when he's shown that he can do it. If he puts in a big offseason working on speed and fitness then we have a pretty decent hooker on our hands but at the moment he's as flawed as the others, just in a different way.

[dubby]

An average 9, but still our best option until Trevilyn develops.

As long as he keeps Levi away I'm OK.

Crappy passes at times needs to be better

[Raidernation]

What I most likely about woolford is he is always in the game. He will never allow our forwards to be driven back and will always help push them forward. He doesn't tie up the markers enough and is too one dimensional in attack. He had a really impressive kicking game in juniors which he clearly has put away. Rating is about right but I still think Levi starlo combo is probably the best hooking combo in this group. I don't rate trev at all but he has another season to try to get much much better. As everyone says, you can't buy speed and trev is really really slow.

[Roger Kenworthy]

An average 9, but still our best option until Trevilyn develops.

As long as he keeps Levi away I'm OK.

Crappy passes at times needs to be better

Below average I think. We all wanted to see him add a few more strings to his bow but he really just replicated his 2022 form.

Tbh he probably is being coached to play a super minimalist game. We all saw how competent CNK is at promoting the ball when allowed to.

[The Ang]

5.6
He dropped off some form at the back end of the season. Said a few times in this post, he is being held back and playing very conservative. Let the leash off a little next year and see what we really have. Our best hooker on the roster, we really need to be in the market for a better 9 until the kid that made aus schoolboys is ready for FG