NRL Notepad: Round 14 (Sunday)
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.
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Newcastle Knights v Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
Knights
As the Knights continue to tinker with how they use Kalyn Ponga while adjusting to Blake Green at five-eighth, there is one promising partnership that can blossom early.
I’m looking for Ponga to link up with Kurt Mann on the short side a little more often this week. While they’re in the middle of the field here, we caught a glimpse of what it could look like against the Tigers in Round 13 as Mann pounced on a quick play-the-ball, engaged the marker and sent Ponga through a hole behind the ruck.
But something like this if we replace Mitchell Pearce with Ponga…
…would cause havoc down the short side.
Sea Eagles
Hey, you two!
Yes, you Taniela Paseka (197cm/120kg) and Haulome Olakau’atu (196cm/113kg).
This should be you:
Wests Tigers v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
Tigers
Joseph Leilua may not be there this week, but the right edge really needs to improve. The Knights did whatever they wanted down that side of the field in Round 13.
All three players on the edge sit on their heels and are late to slide as Kalyn Ponga takes possession out the back of a block. It’s a numbers game from there:
With Herman Ese’ese isolated on Benji Marshall, Mitchell Pearce simply feeds him the ball before Leilua offers a soft effort in cover defence:
In what looks to be a planned move given the depth and how wide he is when receiving the ball, Ponga is one-on-one with Marshall and beats him all ends up:
While the Bulldogs hardly pose the toughest threat to their defence, the Tigers need to show a lot more in this department on Sunday.
Bulldogs
The Bulldogs don’t have a lot going with their attack. Kieran Foran and Raymond Faitala-Mariner have built a nice little combination, but as expected, a premier coach in Craig Bellamy shut down their one consistent avenue of points last week.
It did force Foran to look elsewhere, though. He found Reimis Smith on one occasion.
While earning tries through cross-field kicks are frowned upon, it’s one of Canterbury’s best bets at the moment. I’d like to see Foran send a few more Smith’s way in this one.
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