Brisbane prop Josh McGuire says his brief move to hooker in the Broncos' Round 13 loss to the New Zealand Warriors inspired him to one of the best performances of his career.
McGuire ran 216 metres from 25 runs in Brisbane's eight-point win over the Raiders on Thursday night, but it was his lacklustre performance the week before that fuelled his desire to get the better of a big Canberra pack.
Coach Wayne Bennett moved McGuire to hooker in a late change that backfired for the Broncos, with New Zealand running all over a Brisbane side without usual rake Andrew McCullough.
McGuire struggled in the position, running for just 73 metres, and he says he felt like he needed to give back to his teammates after a below par performance.
"Obviously last week I had to play hooker so I felt a bit bad always having to pass the ball and having someone else do all the hard work," McGuire said.
"I had a word to Wayne [Bennett] and I just wanted to get in there and run hard for the boys.
"Canberra have a big forward pack so we knew we had to stick it to them in the middle.
"We had a real emphasis on working fast up the middle and it worked. Myself and Corey Parker really worked hard on our speed so it was a good game plan and I really enjoyed it."
It was this hard work up the middle that McGuire missed most when he was moved to hooker.
Although a strange move by Bennett, it was not the first time McGuire had started at rake, with the 26-year-old playing at hooker for Samoa throughout the 2014 Four Nations.
But don’t expect him to be back in the position anytime soon, with the Queensland forward admitting that he prefers to start at prop.
"I've played a bit of hooker before and I think Travis Waddell came off a short turnaround in the Intrust Super Cup so we thought it was a good idea to put me there for the first 25 minutes to defend in the middle," he said.
"The plan was to bring Kodi [Nikorima] on after that period but obviously the game didn't go to plan.
"We were under the pump from the get go and didn't have any ball. It's something that we tried and it didn't work.
"To be honest I'd rather be playing front row. In saying that, I'll always go where the team needs me and that's what footy is about."