NRL Notepad: Round 13 (Saturday)
From now through to October, I’ll look back at my notes from the prior round and highlight an area of each team to keep a close eye on from your couch.
Subscribe to have the full version of the NRL Notepad delivered to your inbox every Thursday.
Melbourne Storm v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
Storm
Oscar mentioned the signing of Ricky Leutele as “another example of the Melbourne Storm’s supremacy as one of the best-managed clubs in the competition” in his preview this week.
Add Nicho Hynes to the list.
The Storm have had him hiding away in the Queensland Cup but an injury to Ryan Papenhuyzen sees the 24-year-old prepare for just his fourth first-grade game this week.
Some numbers: Hynes played 21 games for the Sunshine Coast Falcons in 2019 scoring 6 tries, handing out 21 try assists, and running for 116 metres per game as a five-eighth and fullback.
You can see how some of his long passes to end sweeping plays will fit right in with the Storm on Saturday.
Bulldogs
Following a quintessential Aidan Tolan hit up on the 2nd tackle in good ball and with the defence bunched close to the ruck with an eye on the two lead runners, Sione Katoa throws an excellent ball to Kieran Foran who heads straight for the four-man inside Mitchell Moses. As Foran engages the defender, he hits Raymond Faitala-Mariner on an overs line. Moses is never stopping the big back-rower from there.
The Foran/Faitala-Mariner combination is Canterbury’s best-attacking weapon at the moment. Can they crack one of the best defences in the competition?
Newcastle Knights v Wests Tigers
Knights
How Blake Green and Mitchell Pearce combine will determine Newcastle’s finals chances. As high-usage players playing their first game together with the Knights looking to avoid a three-game losing streak, they don’t have long to figure things out.
As touched on for Sport Tech Daily this week: “Pearce and Green make up two of the top three players in the NRL in the proportion of total team receipts in 2020 amongst halves that have played 11 or more of the 12 games.”
Green provides the Knights with an improved kicking game while taking some of the organisational duties away from Pearce. While Kurt Mann’s move to hooker isn’t ideal, he’s provided some nice touches from dummy half already.
It’s not perfect, but if the trio can hit the ground running and put in a strong performance on Saturday evening, the Knights should retain their place in the Top 8 for the rest of the season.
Tigers
There is no faulting David Nofoaluma’s effort. It’s a large reason why he’s gone from jumping in and out of first-grade and into the State of Origin conversation. However, his desperation to get involved isn’t always for the best. We’ve talked about Nofoaluma’s high work rate costing him opportunities in attack before. There is a defensive trend that popped up last week that the Knights may look to expose on Saturday.
The Warriors made an effort to kick to Tommy Talau whenever they could in Round 12. As you’d expect, Nofoaluma still tracked across the field to take his carry. However, he didn’t take his hit up until the fourth tackle on this set.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck sees the space out wide straight away and fires a pass to George Jennings. Jennings doesn’t quite get past Luke Garner, but he picks up a few extra metres nonetheless.
While Nofoaluma and the Tigers got away with it here, a quicker winger that is anticipating the early shift may get past Garner entirely and start the set over halfway.
I’ll be watching Nofoaluma and the Tigers tackle count when they’re working out of their own end.
Penrith Panthers v Canberra Raiders
Panthers
As a former Jarome Luai doubter, I’ve come around on him being the long-term option beside Nathan Cleary.
Luai came into first-grade as a dynamic ball-runner and exciting attacking player. He jumped between the halves, fullback and bench utility while struggling to lock down a single position. But after being awarded the number six jersey this season, it’s been the ball-playing and short kicking game that has seen Luai excel.
While he will be faced with tougher tasks in his career than feeding Viliame Kikau and Stephen Crichton the ball outside him, Luai is making the right decision more often than not at the moment. His kicking game allows Nathan Cleary to pick his moments in attack more freely too.
“When the Panthers aren’t scoring points, they’re piling up pressure through an excellent kicking game. It’s an area that best displays Luai’s growing maturity as the first-choice five-eighth with his new-found reliability giving Cleary the freedom to pop up when he wants.” - Repeat Set: Round 12
With so much of the focus on Nathan Cleary, it’s Luai’s growth that we’re monitoring as the finals approach.
Raiders
With 80 minutes under their belt, we’re looking at the continued development of the Raiders right-side attack.
An early shift and some slick hands created the space out wide before George Williams scurried away to score last week:
But it’s the tackle-breaking ability and overall individual brilliance of John Bateman that is most encouraging:
Plenty have written the Raiders off as premiership chances already, but if this right-edge can pile up points while the team continues to play with a top five defence in the NRL (currently conceding 14.8 points per game), they might just cause a few problems in October.
Subscribe to Rugby League Writers: Two articles on a Monday to recap the round, and another two on Thursday to preview the next one.
Socials
Rugby League Writers on Twitter, Facebook & Medium
Jason Oliver on Twitter & Facebook
Oscar Pannifex on Twitter