Here’s your repeat set for Round 12:
Panthers attack leads premiership push
The big man that can pass: Junior Paulo
Give him the coaching gig, Warriors
DWZ’s nightmare
Play of the Round: Jake Averillo
Graham Annesley’s Briefing Summary
Premiership Panthers
The Penrith Panthers are at the top of the NRL ladder. They’ve beaten some of the best teams in the competition and handled those they’re meant to with relative ease. But it’s their Round 12 performance against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles that really highlights their premiership credentials.
They vary everything they do in attack all the way up the field. Early shifts stretch the defence before Penrith tend to play one-out on the tram line. From there, they go searching down the other side of the field.
Other times, it’s the initial early shift that catches the defence out to generate the line break. The ball-players Ivan Cleary has at his disposal through the middle makes this all possible. James Fisher-Harris, in particular, is a big body that has significantly improved his passing game.
Playing closer to the middle, the Panthers work well in pairs when coming out of their own end. Simple overs lines with Fisher-Harris once again providing the pass here.
In good ball attack, the Panthers play both sides. We’ve talked about their left and right edges ad nauseam here over the last few weeks. Both once again dominated proceedings in Round 12.
Left Side: Perfect service from Api Koroisau creates the numbers with Taniela Paseka unable to affect Nathan Cleary from the inside. Now with a five on four advantage, the Panthers send Fisher-Harris at Daly Cherry-Evans who holds just long enough for Viliame Kikau to get his arms through the one-on-one legs tackle. Moses Suli recovered well to get hold of Kikau, but the ball was gone. Jarome Luai draws the covering defence and feeds Stephen Crichton for yet another try.
Right Side: Just as they did when working out of their own end, the Panthers employ a big ball-player through the middle. Here, Isaah Yeo holds up the defence as they know he can play late to James Tamou. He has engaged the line for Cleary to get on the outside of Joel Thompson and create the numbers. As Thompson slides and Lachlan Croker is left one-on-one with Liam Martin, it’s a numbers game on the outside. Tyrone May throws a beauty and Brent Naden goes over untouched.
Around the ruck, Koroisau’s subtlety has seen him recognised as one of the best hooker’s in the NRL. He’s a maestro out of dummy half and would be awarded a try assist for this play nine times out of ten.
Shaping right before turning back, Koroisau forces Thompson to turn in leaving Cherry-Evans one-on-one with Kikau. A remarkable try-saver is all that stopped Koroisau from setting up yet another try.
When the Panthers aren’t scoring points, they’re piling up pressure through an excellent kicking game. It’s an area that best displays Luai’s growing maturity as the first-choice five-eighth with his new-found reliability giving Cleary the freedom to pop up when he wants. Cleary doesn’t need to avoid contact later in the count.
He takes the line on here and almost goes through. By forcing Brendan Elliott into the play and keeping him at A defender, Luai takes the open space in behind the defensive line to dribble in a grubber and earn his side a repeat set.
The Panthers scored shortly after.
Consistency, being able to play the full 80 minutes and responding the right way to chaotic moments in a match have been issues for the Panthers in recent years. But this group is different. They can play responsibly from in front and have the attacking patience and power to pull back a lead. The Roosters and Storm still deserve to be the benchmark, but the Panthers aren’t far behind. They may already be ahead of the Eels who have been building this team for three years.
The big man that can pass: Junior Paulo
Junior Paulo is one of the most dangerous attacking middle forwards in the competition close to the opposition goal line. He’s a triple threat in that he can engage the line before releasing an excellent pass out the back of a block, just as he did against the Broncos in Round 3:
If he’s taking possession closer to the defensive line, few can stand and deliver an offload better than Paulo. He created the space for Reed Mahoney to sent Ryan Matterson over the line in Round 9:
In Round 12, Paulo absorbed three Bulldogs defenders close to the line and was still able to shovel a pass out to Mitchell Moses who saw it coming - like Mahoney did again - the second Paulo motioned to turn.
Paulo’s speed, size and footwork makes for a difficult defensive assignment when players turn him in close to the line. It’s only a matter of time before he scores one like this:
In a top tier side filled with star names in key play-making positions, Paulo’s work in the Eels attack is grossly underrated. He can be the link that opens up space through his ball-playing on the edges, or attract the defence through the middle of the field before either offloading the ball or shrinking the defence for his playmakers on the following tackle.
The Paulo signing was initially met with a strange level of doubt by the general footy public. It may have been down to the fact Parramatta had won just two of their first nine games of the 2018 season when the signing was announced. But after fessing up to a bad call a couple of weeks ago, I’m claiming this one.
It was a round to remember for…
If Todd Payten is announced as the Warriors head coach for 2021, their 26-20 win over the Tigers this week will have played a part. So too will his post-match press conference which answers a lot of the questions many people have over who will lead the club beyond this season.
He talks about playing “tough footy” which will keep them in games whether they end up winning or losing. That’s the sort of platform the club has lacked since the likes of Steve Price, Reuben Wiki and Michael Luck kept the middle together through the mid-to-late 2000’s.
He doesn’t beat around the bush. For those demanding the Warriors employ a hard task-master like Anthony Griffin or Geoff Toovey, you can have one in Payten.
Daniel Alvaro and George Jennings did well enough in their debut for the club, but Payten spoke more about being “underdone” in terms of their conditioning. Presented with a question about Jack Hetherington who had some good moments himself, Payten first mentioned the try he let in, conceding:
“We knew we would have to cop a little bit in terms of his defence and not having the experience there. But I thought he gave us a lot from the attacking side of the game.”
If you’re desperate for the old days - which weren’t successful either - Payten is aware of the ‘club DNA’ and the expansive style of play many associate with the Warriors when at their best. The Wests Tigers allow the fewest offloads in the competition, but the Warriors released 18 on Friday night:
“When we play well, we offload the ball. That’s always been in our DNA here as a club.”
But, Payten knows how quickly things can turn when playing that brand of football without considering the situation:
“There is a couple there I wasn’t really happy within the last ten minutes. We’re in front. That’s our learn, I guess, understanding the context of the game and learning when to pull the trigger on that sort of stuff.”
Payten is across things from an on-field point of view, but where he has the advantage over other candidates is in his relationships with the players. Even under normal circumstances, Payten has continuity on his side. He knows how the club works and can bypass a lot of the early work new coaches need to do at a club. But with everything the club is going through right now, players need to believe in their coach to produce performances like that on Friday. The captain, in particular, needs to lead and that starts with an understanding with the coach.
Payten on Roger Tuivasa-Sheck:
“He’s probably doing it the toughest out of all of us to be fair. He’s the only Kiwi over here without his family…It’s tough for him. He’s got to lead a club, he’s got to lead a footy team and some days I can just see the burden it carries on his shoulders.”
While Payten says the club’s search for a head coach in 2021 “will unfold in due time,” they can sign him up now. He ticks all of the boxes, and there isn’t another coach on the market that is enough of a sure-thing to waste what has been a character-building and relationship-forming season for Payten and his playing group.
A round to forget for…
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak has had a nightmare here…
It’s one that he will be forced to relive whenever an NRL bloopers reel is shown for as long as rugby league is played.
Play of the Round
This might end up as the play of the year…
Jake Averillo’s put down in the corner on Sunday afternoon is one of the most freakish finishes ever seen. How do players keep doing this?
Averillo is one of the shining lights out of another bleak Bulldogs season. However, they’ve not always used him effectively - he should be seeing more of the ball. Perhaps this moment of individual brilliance sees the Bulldogs draw up more plays for the youngster? I’d be getting him involved when they’re awarded a scrum close to the opposition goal line.
Take the Two: There’s always next week for…the Canterbury Bulldogs
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.
On Tyson Frizell’s grounding, he talked about separation and showed the incident frame-by-frame. There is no separation between his wrist and the ball; you can ground the ball with your wrist.
Alex Johnson was deemed to be in-touch as he tip-toed down the sideline. Replays showed that his foot didn’t touch the line, but unlike us and Annesley on Monday, the touch judge doesn’t have the benefit of an unobstructed replay. An incorrect call like that is “understandable” but could have been challenged.
Round 12 produced a couple of mid-air challenges.
On the penalty called on Eli Katoa after Chris Lawrence attempted to leap over him: “There is no criticism you could make of that contest for the ball.”
The same applies for Brendan Elliott who also fell heavily in a mid-air contest for the ball.
Annesley made sure to mention that the difference between James Tedesco avoiding the sin-bin and Brian Kelly being sent has been this way “for quite a number of years.”
In Tedesco’s case, Anthony Don scored the try:
“Players aren’t subject to double-jeopardy. They’ve conceded the points.”
As for Kelly he quite clearly grabbed hold of Joseph Manu before he took possession of the ball:
“In this case, a try hasn’t been scored. The illegal interference from the player has prevented the opportunity for that try to be scored.”
Marcelo Montoya had a try wiped away for obstruction when Raymond Faitala-Mariner collided with Mitchell Moses.
“In this case, we’d call that a poor defensive read.”
“That is not an obstruction.”
Annesley would have preferred the referee let the play run and check with the Bunker. Although, plenty also complain about referees relying too much on the Bunker so doesn’t want to come down too hard or produce an edict for the officials.
In a round lacking controversy, a bit was made over Maika Sivo’s pass into touch to end the match on Sunday. Again going frame-by-frame, the movement of Sivo’s arm suggests the ball goes backwards.
Camera angles and the position of officials all come into it for Annesley: “I can’t have any criticism of the officials.”
Asked about the concerns some have shared over social distancing at Sunshine Coast Stadium, Annesley says the venue “had less than 50% capacity” - the hill included. The Queensland premier has no concerns.
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