Welcome to Des Hasler ball, version 2.0. Nine years after turning James Graham into the biggest ball distributor in the NRL in his first year at Canterbury Hasler is at it again. Only this time it's in reverse, with Hasler switching from a reliance on big men ball-playing to banking on extra playmakers in the new attacking era. At almost any given time in Friday night's must-win semi-final against the Sydney Roosters, Manly will have up to five natural halves on the field. Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans at No.6 and No.7, Lachlan Croker at hooker, Josh Schuster in the back row and Dylan Walker as a roving middle. "They're all playing that well they'd probably put up arguments that they're (forwards) and not halves anymore," Jake Trbojevic said. Manly ranked 11th for attack last season and were the second-worst in the competition with ball in hand over the opening month of this year. "Every coach does that but he exploits it really well. "He did that with us in 2012. He got there and he was like 'I've got all these guys that have this skill set. "'How do I design a game plan where they can use what they've got in the best way possible to execute the game plan?' Hasler's attacking shift was as much planned as it was evolutionary.
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