NRL Notepad: Round 9
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.
North Queensland Cowboys v Sydney Roosters
Cowboys
Per Fox Sports, Esan Marsters and Kyle Feldt have been involved in the most try causes in the competition with 12 each.
Per Stats Insider, only the Broncos (18) have conceded more tries down their right edge than the Cowboys’ 17.
Any ideas where Trent Robinson might focus his attack this week?
Roosters
With North Queensland’s issues on their right side in mind, this is surely the game Ryan Hall bags his first NRL meat pie.
The 32-year-old Englishman has had an outstanding career and arrived at the Roosters after scoring 232 tries in 372 games for Leeds in the Super League. The 28 tries in 33 Tests for England weren’t bad either.
Hall is one of the best wingers we’ve ever seen in rugby league, but his NRL career has been held up through injury. The reputation he’s built down under as a result doesn’t do the career, nor the man, justice.
A personal favourite, I’d love to see him finally dot down on Thursday night.
Gold Coast Titans v New Zealand Warriors
Titans
Corey Thompson
Anthony Don
Beau Fermor
Bryce Cartwright
Treymain Spry
We last kept a close eye on the Titans backline in Round 6, but we’re back.
Why? Because, of the five players named that week, only Anthony Don kept his place in the same position throughout the following fortnight.
The Titans attack is poor, scoring just 13.3 points per game (13th). It’s laboured, often unthreatening, and more often predictable. A lot of that comes down to cohesion. Rather, a distinct lack of it.
Still, Ash Taylor and Jamal Fogarty are linking up nicely. We’ve seen enough positive signs out of Taylor to be hopeful of the 2017-18 version reappearing in the not too distant future. He and Fogarty need consistent faces around them, though. The same hooker - which has changed five times already this season - would help as well.
But, as was the case in Round 6, the Titans have a good opportunity against a poor defence to build some cohesion.
Warriors
Tohu Harris has found a home in the middle of the field. At least, he should have. With Jazz Tevaga returning to the squad and Karl Lawton named to start at lock, Harris made have been shuffled back to the edge for good.
Albeit one of the best edge back rowers in the game, Harris thrived in the middle of the field. A decent enough runner of the ball, his footwork and ball-playing are at a level that could see him recognised as an elite middle forward. It’s the more influential position of the two and the Warriors have looked their best with Harris filling it.
Tevaga tries hard. He’s going to put in plenty of work. But, he’s riddled with errors and his decision-making isn’t up to scratch.
Todd Payten has a few decisions to make with his rotations this week.
South Sydney Rabbitohs v Wests Tigers
Rabbitohs
Campbell Graham…
Is he good?
It’s starting to look that way. Still only 21-years old, Graham has been shuffled between wing (46 games) and centre (10 games) to start his career. He looks like a left-edge centre for the long-term, though.
With Dane Gagai finally accepting his position on the wing, James Roberts slotting in at right centre and Braidon Burns now out for the season, Graham has the rest of this season to cement his spot.
His numbers playing at centre so far this season make for appealing reading: Three total line breaks and a try while managing 148.8 running metres and four tackle breaks per game.
Graham’s issues may come defensively. He struggled out on the right edge with Viliame Kikau forcing him into tough decisions. I’ll be keeping a closer eye on the young centre when he’s without the ball this week.
Tigers
Shock: Benji Marshall is back already.
We’ve talked about Wests lack of creativity in attack with Marshall out before.
While 22 points per game throughout his four-match absence looks nice, the Tigers scored a total of 18 points against the two good defensive teams they faced in that span.
The indecision during good ball sets is hurting them. So too is a general lack of direction close to the opposition goal line. How much can Marshall help off the bench? I’m interested to find out.
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks v Penrith Panthers
Sharks
Another shock: Matt Moylan is out.
The Sharks looked great in attack with Moylan out there. His ball-playing allowed the Sharks to move from one side of the field to the other, providing early ball to Wade Graham and stretching the defence for Shaun Johnson to dominate on the right side.
Josh Dugan, fairly underrated given his reputation as a bit of a sook, does not provide the Sharks with the same skill set. More of a yardage fullback, the Sharks won’t be able to spread the field quite like they have been.
Just as the Sharks look to build some consistency in their attack and results, Moylan is ruled out for another month. Will they have Dugan assume a role closer to Moylan’s, or mould their attack to accommodate Dugan?
Panthers
I talked about the Eels left edge after Round 7 as they continue to be one of the most dangerous combinations in the NRL. The Panthers left side isn’t far behind, though.
Viliame Kikau touched the ball just six times last week. SIX!
In doing so, he highlighted just how dangerous the Panthers left side can be.
Kikau hadn’t even touched the ball before he played a part in Penrith’s first try. Running a basic shape with James Fisher-Harris, Kikau draws Joseph Leilua in early who allows a simple three-on-one outside him.
Later, Kikau catches Leilua out again as the Tigers centre creeps up and in to give Stephen Crichton a clear path to the Jarome Luai grubber.
Kikau has said he wants to touch the ball more, so it will be interesting to see how this very dangerous Panthers left edge juggles his touches and where on the field he receives them.
Brisbane Broncos v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
Broncos
All eyes are on Anthony Milford in this one.
This isn’t the usual ‘team is struggling so assign one of the halves as a scapegoat’ yarn, but Milford holds the key to Brisbane’s revival. Right now, he’s averaging a career-low 77 running metres per game while recording just 30.5 touches of the ball per game (down from 46.2 per game in 2019). Milford’s numbers work against the general trend of halves - and every other position for that matter - increasing their average running metres per game since the introduction of the six-again rule.
While the Broncos are 16th in possession per game at only 45.3%, Milford needs to find ways to get his hands on the ball more. He’s not touched the ball more than 40 times in a game since the season restarted. Regardless of Brisbane’s possession share for the match, I want to see Milford clear 40 touches this week.
Bulldogs
I’ve been waiting for this since the day Luke Thompson signed with the Bulldogs and it’s come a lot earlier than first expected.
Prepare for “I didn’t know he was this good” to fill the halftime show of this one, because my friends, Thompson is good.
He’s light on his feet for a big unit.
He’s fast on his feet for a big unit.
And, he’s sometimes just a big unit.
Go well, Luke.
Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm
Raiders
Nick Campton wrote an excellent snippet on Elliott Whitehead as one of the most underrated players so far in 2020 during the week. Whitehead deserves every inch of column space he receives for what he has done so far this year.
The ‘other English bloke’ has six line breaks already. One more and he will have a new career-high for line breaks in a season.
Whitehead’s approach is simple but effective. He knows that if he runs a straight and well-timed line - he’s sometimes the only player running straight during Raiders left-swinging shifts - that his ball-players will find him.
Jack Wighton found him here:
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad found him here:
This is a public service announcement more than anything: Watch Elliott Whitehead.
Especially you, Dally M voters.
Storm
We haven’t seen the steely-eyed Storm you just know won’t lose for a little while now.
There were times when Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk were running around together that you could see the trio on a mission. Understandably, it doesn’t happen for the Storm quite so often these days.
We saw a little bit of it last week. Justin Olam looked offended by something the Roosters had said with how hard he hit in defence. The Storm came out with a clear game plan to hammer Kyle Flanagan in attack, too. They then wrapped things up with my Play of the Round to send it into Golden Point.
In this sort of form and against a Raiders team that has beaten them three times on the bounce, we might just see one of those Storm games this week.
Newcastle Knights v Parramatta Eels
Knights
Where is Kalyn Ponga popping up?
That’s the question will be recording answers for during this one.
He’s not parking down the left side quite so much at the moment. Strangely, that’s being perceived as not working hard enough despite being on track to record a season-high in touches last week having registered 48 in only 68 minutes.
Is it the running metres? He did only run for 100 metres in Round 8 and 86 in Round 7, but there is more to Ponga’s game than piling up yardage. Let’s see where he pops up this week and what he looks to do with the ball rather than looking down at the numbers.
Eels
“Go left in attack, Parra,” I asked. And go left in attack they did.
Maika Sivo finished with four tries and the Eels left side used the Cowboys right side as a turnstile towards two competition points.
For Blake Ferguson’s sake, go right this week, Parra.
He’s without a try in 2020 and State of Origin chat and distractions are already popping up as a result. Feed him some ball and let him backflip over the line.
St George-Illawarra Dragons v Man-Warringah Sea Eagles
Dragons
My scepticism toward Matt Dufty continues for another week. Initially impressed with his long cut-out passes in recent weeks, the worry is now that it might be all he has in his tool box. He’s overusing it at the moment at the very least.
There is nothing on out wide here:
Bailey Simonsson has Mikaele Ravalawa covered before Dufty passes the ball. Moving across while the ball is in flight, Simonsson bundles Ravalawa into touch. Dufty had Tyrell Fuimaono winding up and one-on-one with George Williams on offer, too.
My eyes are staying on this new-look Dufty and whether or not he’s a long-term option as a ball-playing fullback or simply a flash in the pan.
Sea Eagles
As if things weren’t already tough enough for the Sea Eagles, Addin Fonua-Blake soaked the referee with an unnecessary and disturbing spray after full time last week and finds himself in the stands for Sunday.
As Oscar mentions in his piece, Fonua-Blake “is a big reason for Manly’s strong start to the year.”
He could also be a big reason for another loss and an increasing gap between themselves and the Top 8 if his teammates can’t dominate the middle in his absence.
This is a game the Sea Eagles should win comfortably. But without their best attacking weapon in Tom Trbojevic and the motor to their engine through the middle in Fonua-Blake, I know who the headlines will be about on Monday if they don’t.
Can the Sea Eagles hang in the arm-wrestle for long enough for Daly Cherry-Evans to work some magic out the back?
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