I WATCHED young Ben Creagh play for the Dragons in the match against the Roosters on Anzac Day. In the program he was listed to play at lock. Incredibly, though, his game resembled nothing more than that of a prop looking to inspire his lacklustre teammates with Kamikaze-style runs into a brick wall of defence.

It was painful to watch and I felt sorry for him. His stats were 29 tackles, 14 hit-ups, no passes and no line breaks.

I hate to sound old-fashioned but that is not the way this kid, or any kid with his talent, should be made to play. I have seen this happen all too often over the years to players with great constitutions to provide heavy workloads. Teams simply use them up and burn them out.

Across the board in the NRL, forwards are passing and offloading the ball less than ever.

Several of our bigger and more senior forwards such as Willie Mason, Nathan Cayless, Steve Price and Petero Civoniceva lead the way in most stats, but their figures are surprisingly low when it comes to releasing the ball.

Mason, with an average of 2.7 offloads a game, is top dog in that skill. Surely a guy of his size and dominance can provide more. Roy Asotasi is regularly praised as one of the games's best forwards, yet data says he has not offloaded the ball once this season.

Many NRL forwards average less than one pass and one offload a week. It appears the modern-day definition of a good pass from a forward is a solid hit-up followed by a quick play-the-ball.

I know the game is changing and I've been out of mainstream coaching for some time, but surely there has to be more to football than just belting it up with no thought of promoting the ball.

Have we become so security-conscious that attacking skills with even the slightest element of risk are being eradicated from the game altogether. In most cases, players don't even support the ball carrier.

The interpretation of rules and the style of league being played really seem to be sending us down that path. Again on Wednesday, every time young Roosters forward Anthony Tupou threatened to dangle his arm free in a tackle to force an offload, you could hear the crowd hold its collective breath and the words "hold onto it" echoed around the stadium.

It reminds me of a time in 1977. I was 19 and playing reserve grade at Penrith. We had an eager young team and we were doing pretty well - leading the comp.

On this particular week, however, our club's No.1 front-rower, Bob "The Bear" O'Reilly, was returning from injury and was surprisingly selected in reserve grade. O'Reilly had played Test football for Australia in the early 1970s. He was tall and he had a big barrel chest and strong shoulders but a less than athletic girth. He also had a very smart footy brain.

O'Reilly was described as a ball distributor, or a ball-playing forward. These labels have long since been removed from the league vocabulary. He was creative around the rucks and a real handful for oppositions.

We were surprisingly beaten by the Roosters that week. It was one of those games in which we were the better team but the vital pass went to ground and the bounce of the ball didn't go our way.

O'Reilly was one of our best, but when we got to training on the Tuesday night (no early-morning recovery sessions the next day back in that era, baby), the coach unloaded on him as the major cause of our loss and announced that O'Reilly was not being returned to first grade.

But the coach didn't stop his tirade there. He told O'Reilly he was not allowed to pass or offload because he was a security risk and a mistake factor.

We were stunned. Bob shrugged his shoulders and said, "OK, coach".

I went home and told my dad what the coach had said. Dad said: "Well, if I were you, I'd tell Mr O'Reilly that you'll be following him all day and if he feels the need to pass the ball, you'll be there for him."

I was too afraid to approach Bob at training but when we got onto the field I told him. He put me in for the first try of the game, he set up another three in similar fashion, we flogged Souths and the coach took the credit.

It was my first encounter with a coach telling a player to leave his skill in the sheds and just take his body out to play. The era in which I started playing had tremendous ball-playing forwards such as Arthur Beetson, Rod Reddy, John Donnelly, Brian Lockwood, Geoff Gerard, Malcolm Reilly, John Maguire, Darryl Brohman, Graeme Hughes, Bill Ashurst and Mick Stephenson.

Even into the '80s, forwards such as Kevin Ward, Peter Kelly, Paul Dunn, Craig Young, Royce Ayliffe, Steve Roach, Bruce McGuire, Gavin Miller, Les Davidson, Paul Mares, Peter Tunks and Graeme Wynn were all big men with the ability to pass and offload.

Put it this way: they all released the ball more than 2.7 times a game!

I was so fortunate to coach teams with forwards who could create breaks and tries, guys such as Paul Langmack, John Cartwright, Mark Geyer, Paul Clarke, Tony Iro, Bryan Fletcher, Jim Dymock, Dean Pay, Adam Muir, Ben Kennedy, David Barnhill, Scott Gourley . . .

Times change, but it's sad that we rarely see this style of forward playing. But it's not as sad as watching a talented and brave player like Creagh being used up as a battering ram.

FOOTNOTE: Penrith 20 (Gary Allsopp, Phil Gould, Mick Kelly, Tas Baitieri tries; Gould 4 goals) def Souths 3. Penrith Park, July 3, 1977. Man of match: Bob O'Reilly.