NRL Notepad: Round 8 (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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Gold Coast Titans v Cronulla Sutherland Sharks
Titans
Just when the Titans pull off a big win and start to look as though they can at least compete with the top sides in the competition, they cast a gaping hole in their defence on the right edge.
Tyrone Peachey
He’s one of the worst defenders in the NRL. On the rare occasions he produces in attack, it’s soon cancelled out by a poor defensive possession.
The Titans have some good talent. I’ve harped on about Moeaki Fotuaika for 18 months. Ash Taylor and Jamal Fogarty are cooking something up in the halves, too. Keegan Hipgrave has even looked like a first-grade footballer this year.
But the holes can’t be ignored. Peachey is the big one for Saturday, and it has potential to grow if Bryce Cartwright is sent out to play beside him off the bench.
The Titans right-side defence might be the difference between winning and losing if they compete well in all other areas.
Sharks
There is one play, in particular, that I’m looking for the Sharks to run directly at Peachey.
They ran it in Round 1:
And again in Round 5:
There is no chance Peachey stops Wade Graham from there if they can work to a position to run this play.
New Zealand Warriors v Brisbane Broncos
Warriors
You know what? It might not be such a bad thing that Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is suspended this week.
For Roger, he needs the break. I’ve never seen him lose it with his teammates quite like he did last week.
For the team, not having him out on the field could force a lot more action in attack. Tuivasa-Sheck is one of the best individual attacking players in the NRL - there is no doubting that. But as much as the Warriors might want him to, he can’t do it all on his own.
This play last week goes a long way to highlighting what is wrong with the Warriors attack.
Green has either made a poor decision to go back to the short side over putting a grubber through for a pointing Isaiah Papali’i and instead thrown a panicked past to Tuivasa-Sheck, or, it’s a planned move for Tuivasa-Sheck to kick. Since when has he been known as a handy kicker?
The Warriors attack without Tuivasa-Sheck is of huge interest when assessing the teams potential over the long-term.
Broncos
I covered the Broncos at length earlier in the week and am on the lookout for a change in their approach.
A more simple approach, in particular.
From Anthony Seibold's rigid tactics could be Broncos' Achilles heel:
Seibold needs to turn things around. He must change the way his team approaches the game and rather than talking about how young his players are, talk to the players themselves about how they can overcome the perceived lack of experience.
READ: Heads In! Round 8
Wests Tigers v Penrith Panthers
Tigers
Luciano Leilua is coming of age before our eyes.
Playing off the bench in 17 of his 22 appearances for the Dragons in 2019, Luciano has started all seven games in the back row for the Tigers in 2020. He’s getting better every week, too.
Coming off an impressive 166-metre performance in Round 7, we’re looking to Luciano to do it again. In particular, the destructive hard carries he produces through the centre third that resulted in 79 of those 166 metres coming post-contact.
Seeing him go up against this Panthers pack will give us a good idea of where Luciano is at as an improving first-grade player.
Panthers
I asked the big question after Round 7…
…and Jack had the answer in the comments.
“Very”
I mentioned James Fisher-Harris’ ball-playing earlier in the week. It is what has turned him from a very good middle forward into one of the best in the NRL. Now, I’d like to see him drift over to the left side and use Viliame Kikau as his lead runner.
Imagine you’ve got Fisher-Harris and Kikau running at you. Both can either bowl you over, offload out of your tackle, or shift the ball early.