Here’s your Repeat Set for Round 10:
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui terrorizes Keegan Hipgrave and the Titans
Cameron Smith and Nelson Asofa-Solomona linking up
Nathan Cleary is justifying the hype
Cowboys and Paul Green go their separate ways
Play of the Round: Danny Levi’s dart from dummy half
Graham Annesley’s Briefing Summary
Tino Terrorizes Titans
Two points in an otherwise poor performance a week earlier offered the Gold Coast Titans faithful a glimmer of hope. It was always a big ask for the Titans to compete with the Melbourne Storm on Friday night, though. The Storm don’t lose to bottom four teams; they don’t do big upsets. The 42-6 win is Melbourne’s 20th consecutive defeat over a bottom four team.
Depending on which way you look at it, Keegan Hipgrave’s nightmare 80 minutes can be seen as a crippling negative in 2020 or a reason for hope in 2021.
He missed 12 tackles and added another three ineffective tackles for a horror 64.3% effective tackle rate. With the ball, he dropped it twice while only adding 28 running metres for the match. It’s one of the worst individual performances we’ve seen all season.
However, one of the leading causes of Hipgrave’s shocker is where we find the reason for hope.
In Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, the Titans have a future superstar arriving on the coast over the summer.
The 20-year-old provided 120 running metres and five tackle breaks off the bench while making 21 of his 22 attempted tackles. He tormented Hipgrave with his footwork on numerous occasions.
His quick feet here and big don’t argue disposes of Hipgrave with relative ease in a David Fifita-like roaming run:
Later in the set, Fa’asuamaleaui’s movement before taking possession beats Hipgrave and Tanah Boyd with Moeaki Fotuaika just getting across to cover in time:
Landing Fifita for 2021 still seems unlikely for the Titans, but man, a pack led by Fotuaika in the middle with Fa’asuamaleaui and Fifita on the edges is a mouth-watering prospect.
Cam to Nelson
Cameron Smith sees the game better than anybody. His mind churns through defensive setups like a supercomputer before his body, still at 37-years-old, completes the right play from dummy half.
He combined with Nelson Asofa-Solomona beautifully over the weekend.
At two metres tall and 115 kilograms, Asofa-Solomona is a monster. He’s near impossible to stop one-on-one. So, what does Smith do?
He isolates defenders to allow Asofa-Solomona to run riot.
Smith has Fa’asuamaleaui run a simple block with Asofa-Solomona as the lead. Fa’asuamaleaui’s presence is enough to keep Hipgrave out of the tackle long enough for Asofa-Solomona to run straight over the top of Corey Thompson while Tyrone Peachey hangs off him.
Just seven minutes of game-time later, Smith and Asofa-Solomona ran the same play.
Asofa-Solomona is out the back this time and with Felise Kaufusi forcing Beau Fermor in while Jahrome Hughes’ subtle drift keeps Ash Taylor out, the Kiwi international barges over the line.
Smith could have passed further out the back to Hughes for the Storm to score here, too.
Later, he did:
Cristian Welch sees it early and tells the defence exactly where he’s going. Brian Kelly shoots out to where the ball went last time, but Smith splits the defence and hits the sliding Hughes who uses quick hands to feed Brenko Lee.
The Storm completed perfectly executed plays crafted to expose what is the Titans biggest weakness. Beautiful.
Seeing Cleary Now
Nathan Cleary is a strangely polarising figure in rugby league. Footy fans either love him unconditionally and won’t hear a bad word, or don’t believe he’s anywhere near the sort of player his biggest supporters claim him to be.
He’s either over-hyped or excessively death ridden.
Perhaps his biggest supporters were a little premature in their praises, but the detractors don’t have a lot to work with right now. As the undisputed lead half in a side sitting at the top of the NRL ladder, Cleary has a strong case for being the best halfback in the competition at 22-years old.
He put together a complete performance on Sunday afternoon to guide his Panthers to victory.
In the space of two minutes, Cleary created this try for Brent Naden on the right wing:
And put in two crunching tackles to reaffirm his position as - at least - the best defensive half in the NRL if not the best overall:
Later, and this will have had Super Coaches and a few punters feeling all sorts of emotions, he produced a similar crabbing run to the Naden try, only this time, he tucked the ball under his right arm to fend Josh McGuire away with his left to score.
As somebody that saw Cleary slot a field goal from 40 metres out at roughly 12 years old, I’ve never doubted the player he could become. He has everything you could want in a premier halfback right down to his biggest influence growing up now sitting in the coaches box.
It’s taken a couple of years to justify some of the hype, but Cleary deserves it all at the moment. With a premiership push and State of Origin series still to come, he’s in the middle of a career-best season.
Cowboys Coaching Gig
Thanks to Paul Green for getting this sorted nice and early on a Monday.
He and the Cowboys have agreed to part ways with one of the best coaching gigs in the game now on offer.
With the best forward in rugby league in Jason Taumalolo clogging up the middle along with Josh McGuire and possibly Jordan McLean (player option for 2021 & 2022), Michael Morgan, Scott Drinkwater, Valentine Holmes, Kyle Feldt, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Jake Clifford making up an exciting backline, whoever does take over for Green in 2021 walks into a Top 8-quality roster.
As touched on for Sport Tech Daily last week, Green is lucky to have lasted this long. He’s won just one more game than Dean Pay since the beginning of Round 1 in 2018. Regardless of a handful of injuries, mainly to Morgan, this Cowboys list is better than that.
Green’s stale and block-heavy attack hasn’t adjusted with the times. While he conceded slightly with the introduction of the new six-again rule, Green still employs a style that requires one of the greatest halfbacks ever to pull the strings if it is to succeed. Drinkwater and Clifford have impressed throughout their time together, but they’re not replicating the decision making of an in-form Johnathan Thurston.
A fresh approach can work wonders for this playing group.
Meanwhile, it’s an appealing job off the field. There is a lack of scrutiny you don’t get at other clubs. The new stadium will add a different element when it can be filled without restrictions too.
With the Warriors and Bulldogs in the market for a coach and the Dragons surely only one more losing streak away from being in the same boat, the Cowboys is the pick of the bunch.
Todd Payten is a chance given his experience with the club at NYC level. However, Shaun Wane might be the sneaky favourite given their interest in him as an assistant just last week - around the time the club and Green agreed to part ways.
Play of the Round
There isn’t much to it, just good scouting and timely execution.
Clint Gutherson is one of the most active fullbacks in the NRL. His fitness and the ground he covers is what has seen him become one of the best in the position over the last 12 months. However, it worked to his detriment here.
Danny Levi knows that Gutherson will be desperate to get from where he’s defending at A on the short side and to the other side of the field as the Sea Eagles shift back to the left.
The Sea Eagles hooker shapes left to send Gutherson on his bike and takes the gaping hole he’s presented with:
This solo-effort by Hamiso Tabuai-Fiddow needs a mention here too:
Graham Annesley’s Briefing Summary
Despite not being ones to spend a lot of time focused on referees and measuring the impact a single poor decision can have on the game, we want to offer a summary of Graham Anneseley’s weekly reviews that doesn’t deliberately mislead or misuse quotes to generate further controversy.
He was eager to put one issue on the radar to start: Dangerous contact around the legs. In particular, coming into a standing tackle late and dropping bodyweight onto the legs. Annesley gave two examples from last year with the Match Review Committee likely to look at these incidents a little closer.
"You can expect some action to be taken if it is considered by the MRC that these incidents aren't accidents."
He's mentioning it today in an effort to be proactive. It's now up to the players to take it on board.
In an "unusual" incident, Royce Hunt could have been awarded a try under the posts against the Warriors on Sunday afternoon. Neither Hunt or the referee saw the ball touch the line.
The Rabbitohs gave up one last roll of the dice by not setting the scrum on the mark against the Knights on Saturday. Some apparently questioned it, but it's clear cut.
"This is not a matter of the referee making an error."
We don't see them often, but the Sea Eagles conceded a penalty from a scrum on Saturday night and Ashley Klein was correct in awarding it with Joel Thompson breaking early.
The big issue of the weekend came through Waqa Blake's try. The Bunker ruled Marty Taupau lost the ball through a loose carry as he tried to offload. Annesley doesn't want to see the Bunker rewarding loose carries so, while he didn't explicitly say it, seemed happy enough with the decision.
"You'll probably go either way with this decision."
"I'm still not sure."
Asked about the quality of refereeing so far this season, Annesley offered a "pretty good" before highlighting that any controversies are isolated incidents. They are one error in 80 minutes and there will never be a time where referees, like players, won't make errors.
We saw Brett Morris embellish some contact on Thursday night. At this stage, the NRL doesn't see a significant issue with diving.
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