NRL Notepad: Round 9 (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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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.
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