Maligned St George Illawarra halfback Ben Hunt says he has contemplated making a permanent switch to the hooker role.
Lured by the Dragons on a $6 million deal as a star halfback, Hunt said he had finally embraced his utility value and would be comfortable playing dummy half in the NRL next year.
Hunt will get a chance to impress at hooker for the Prime Minister's XIII clash with PNG at Port Moresby on Saturday.
Hunt may have been troubled by well-documented social media criticism this year but it was advice closer to home that really made an impact on the playmaker after the State of Origin series.
The Dragons No.7 said his wife got in his ear about making the switch to hooker permanent after impressing at dummy half off the bench for Queensland in Origin III.
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"My wife has told me a few times 'why don't you play hooker you seem to go alright there'," Hunt laughed.
Hunt - who has also been picked as a bench utility for the Kangaroos' Tests against New Zealand and Tonga this month - said his preference was halfback.
But asked if he wanted to play hooker in the NRL, Hunt said: "I have had a fair bit of thought about it since the last Origin.
"Every time I have had an opportunity to play there I think I have played pretty well.
"Wherever the coach wants to play me whether it is half or hooker I am happy to play there.
"I have learned to live with the fact I can play hooker pretty well so if they want me to play there I will play it but at the end of the day I would still like to play halfback."
Just what the Dragons think about it is unclear, though the club does already have one of the better hookers in the competition playing for them in Cameron McInnes.
In the first year of his marquee Dragons deal, Hunt was the scapegoat for the club's late season fadeout and copped social media heat that got so bad his wife Bridget publicly hit out at the "despicable bullying".
Hunt again bore the brunt of trolls for his ill-fated decision to run the ball on the final play in the dying moments of the Dragons' semi-final loss.
This time Hunt was blissfully oblivious.
"Throughout the middle of the year I think I did a bit (get distracted by social media)," Hunt said.
"But the last month I've got away from social media and stuck to the people I trust and what they have to say."
Hunt will travel with the PM's XIII to PNG on Thursday.
