NRL Notepad: Round 16 (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.
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New Zealand Warriors v Newcastle Knights
Warriors
You could hear them coming from the second the siren sounded for full time last week, but thankfully, the calls to keep Paul Turner in the side were ignored by Todd Payten.
Turner was great in his debut. He ran the ball well, settled things down when required, and overall, played beyond his years (20) and experience. But it wasn’t the sort of performance that should keep a healthy Chanel Harris-Tavita out of the side this week.
So, going back to Round 15 before Harris-Tavita was ruled out, I’m looking for more plays like this:
What looks like a poor pass to the ground is actually an encouraging run and nice change of tempo that Harris-Tavita can use to stifle a defence if he gets it right. He has excellent feet and isn’t afraid to take the line on. Hopefully, we see both fairly often on Saturday afternoon.
Knights
Adam O’Brien has opted to start Mason Lino in the halves ahead of Tex Hoy while avoiding another change at hooker to keep Kurt Mann at dummy half.
Plenty have questioned why Lino will play his first game of the season after Hoy impressed throughout his seven games in 2020. O’Brien’s decision makes sense, though. The Knights have looked a lot better in attack with Green out there over the last two and a half weeks. It has opened up space for Ponga out the back who is touching the ball fewer times but having more of an impact. While Mann played some of the best footy of his career at five-eighth, he doesn’t fill the position in the role that best suits the attack.
Lino has his struggles defensively - that will have been something O’Brien considered. But for this week at least, I expect him to be asked to do little more than direct traffic and move the ball wide. Like Green, Lino will act as more of a link between Ponga and Pearce than somebody expected to add creativity themselves. It may take a week or two for the trio to work things out, but I expect to see the Knights attack at least try to run similarly to the last couple of weeks.
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks v North Queensland Cowboys
Sharks
Connor Tracey joins Shaun Johnson in the halves this week. It’s an interesting wrinkle to this Sharks side that is still trying to find its best 17. However, it’s Briton Nikora’s return and his combination with Johnson that is the focus on Saturday.
It looked as though Johnson and Nikora could form a deadly right-side duo after regularly linking up in 2019. But while Johnson leads the NRL in try assists in what is one of the best seasons of his career, Nikora has found himself dropped from the side for the last three weeks.
His running metres per game have dropped from 92 metres in 2019 to 74 metres in 2020 while he’s broken the line just twice in 10 games after breaking through 11 times in 24 games last season.
Nikora is a fearless hole-runner at his best. He’s the perfect partner for Johnson on the right side with defences forced to consider him as a likely option as a lead runner on block plays. Johnson makes the right pass more often than not. This year, Nikora hasn’t put himself in the right spot often enough to receive it.
Update: Johnson is out…Still, Braydon Trindall comes in and is an exciting prospect. He’s certainly not afraid to take the line on. His show-and-go last week played a big part in Jesse Ramien darting over on the following tackle.
While we won’t see how the Johnson/Nikora combination develops this week, our eyes are still on the Cronulla halves.
Cowboys
I don’t know what Josh Hannay has in mind here. I said on Monday that I’d like to see Jake Clifford paired with Michael Morgan in the halves, but he’s failed to make the squad again this week.
Do they think Clifford and Morgan are too similar? Morgan looks as though he’s trying to fill the traditional halfback role at the moment. Perhaps that’s the problem. As overused as “he’s his best when running the ball” can be, it’s Morgan summed up in a sentence.
Let Clifford play the role of the traditional halfback and have Morgan put his best skills to work. While they wouldn’t produce the same quality, Morgan and Clifford should work in a similar way to Jack Wighton and George Williams. Instead, Daejarn Asi - who did impress in his two starts this year - will pair with Morgan in the halves.
The Cowboys need to identify their first-choice halves pairing for 2021 over the next five rounds. We will see yet another combination try their hand on Saturday evening.
Penrith Panthers v Wests Tigers
Panthers
I’d been watching the Panthers and thinking that they had upped the number of attacking kicks as Nathan Cleary continues to put the ball on a dime for his big units on the left edge.
He hung one up for Viliame Kikau to score against the Storm in Round 6:
And did the same for Stephen Crichton against the Sharks in Round 15:
Again, Rugby League Eye Test confirmed as much and highlighted Penrith’s 28% increase in attacking kicks this season. The Tigers right side defence is awful. They’re going to struggle enough to keep the Panthers from crossing the line as it is, but I’m looking out for how often Penrith take the aerial route, and how future teams might be able to defend it without resorting to escorts.
Tigers
Benji, I love you.
You’re one of the all-time greats.
But what is going on here?
We don’t need to go through the Tigers right-side defence again - it’s bad. Instead, let’s look at the positive: Harry Grant is back!
He adds another dimension to the Tigers attack. The way he works behind the ruck takes the pressure off Benji Marshall and Luke Brooks with markers and A defenders not able to blindly track toward the two halves. His running game will give the Panthers middle something to worry about while this struggling Tigers attack looks to iron out a few kinks on the edges.
But it’s the little things he adds that may go unnoticed, but are more important than his solo runs out of dummy half.
In this set against the Eels in Round 11, the subtleties of Grant’s play around the ruck draws the defence in before David Nofoaluma goes over in the corner.
First, it’s the long pass out of dummy half to get the ball quickly to the other side of the field. He then holds up Ryan Matterson twice before dropping Matt Eisenhuth off in the middle:
By engaging Reagan Campbell-Gillard at marker and dragging him across the field on the following tackle, the Eels all of a sudden have nine players occupying a relatively small area.
It's not how the Tigers drew it up. It’s not all that pretty given how far Adam Doueihi is behind the play. But with Grant drawing in defenders throughout the set and plugging the left side, the Eels can’t get back across to the right side fast enough to stop Nofoaluma going over in the corner.
Grant is sure to produce a run that will feature in the highlights reel, but it’s the little things we’re looking for in this one.
More from me this week:
For and Against: Parramatta Eels winning the Premiership
Your Edge: Gun locks, firing fullbacks & how lazy is Latrell?
Sport Tech Daily: Round 16 Preview & Value Plays
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