I think O'Loughlin at 6 is not as bad as it is being made out. He has a very good cut-out passing game, allows us to play an extra forward with a bit more oomph (O'Loughlin for me is excellent at precise contact points in the tackle to not get dominated, but generally not as much impact as say Joel), which will hopefully mean we will not get dominated again.
On the other hand, O'Loughlin does not have the speed a decent 6 should have. The same can be said for Deacon, however Deacon more than makes up for it in organisation, kicking game, choices in passing. This may be recouped by the fact that O'Loughlin in attack could be just laying a platform for deep standoff/full back play for Sam, which as we know can work wonders in attack.
Sam can kick from fullback, it isn't impossible, just less choice meaning more pressure on him and Tommy near the end of each set. With Riddells distribution I think we would be OK if they position correctly, but I still don't trust McIlorum's deep distribution yet.
But for me the biggest loss by moving O'Loughlin to 6 is the loss of a pivot. All year we have more or less played with 4 pivots - O'Loughlin, Leuluai, Sam and either Deacon, Phelps or Roberts. Even if one had tried to make a break as opposed to passing (Sam
) we would always have a 3-deep attacking line, which is by far and away the best way to break a line in my view. By not having the 4th pivot and simply having 3 second rowers (a bit like Aus) we will have a different dynamic in attack, where individual brilliance may have to play more of a role than a good structured attacking line. Whether this works or not against Hull KR is yet to be seen, but I think this is the direction we may be taking in the next match...and I'm not sure we should be changing this dynamic this late in the season.
...or I could just be reading too far into it
