NRL Repeat Set: Round 13
Recap the latest round of NRL action with the Repeat Set.
Here’s your Repeat Set for Round 13:
What is a knock on?
Appreciating wet weather footy
A round to remember for…The Titans
A round to forget for…The Broncos
Play of the Round: Panthers
Graham Annesley’s Briefing Summary
Knock on or not?
Is this Blake Ferguson drop on Sunday a knock on?
Sharks coach John Morris certainly thinks it is. “That’s a knock on. Under 7s watching that game of football know that’s a knock on. It was clearly a knock on,” Morris told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Greg Alexander agreed in the broadcast: “Nine times out of ten that’s a knock on because there’s not many knock backs these days.”
Until he didn’t: “Even though I thought it went over his shoulder and went backwards.”
This comes a fortnight after Graham Annesley said he and Bernard Sutton both agreed that referees need to reexamine what they’re looking for and determine whether or not the ball went backwards.
So, are they doing that?
Personally, I’d leave it as it is. If there is any doubt, call it a knock on. Keep the onus on the players. Mitchell Moses provided poor service to Ferguson who dropped the ball in this case. Instead of asking the players to complete a fairly simple pass and catch even in poor conditions, the question is put to the referee’s ten metres away whether or not the ball went the slightest bit forward or back off the hand.
For all of the complaints about inconsistency and grey areas, this is about the only ruling we see little controversy. However, if referees are going to start making more decisions like this, we need to hear it from Sutton and the NRL.
Wet weather footy: How good?
We don’t need a game like that every week, but seeing the Sharks and Eels swim around Netstrata Jubilee Stadium made for an enjoyable 80 minutes on Sunday night. They’re two teams that are set up to handle the outrageous conditions better than most as big and direct packs trucked it up the middle while the halves put on a clinic in short kicking.
Per Fox Sports, Mitchell Moses forced five dropouts with Dylan Brown making it six for the Eels on the night. While Shaun Johnson only had two forced dropouts, he produced this absolute worldie for Jesse Ramien to score:
In a round defined by blowout wins as the Top 8 put some distance between themselves and the teams chasing a finals spot, this slugfest wrapped up the round nicely.
But that’s enough of that for a little while; we don’t need another 25 errors out of these two attacking powerhouses anytime soon. With the Eels playing the Dragons and Sharks taking on Titans in Round 14, I’m hoping the weather is more accomodating and we see Parramatta’s bruising left edge and Cronulla’s silky right side open things up.
It was a round to remember for…
The Gold Coast Titans have offered the odd glimpse of promise in the past. Some have been quick to call a turn around in their fortunes only for a lengthy losing streak to put them two or three steps further back. However, the Titans are consistently moving forward at the moment.
It started with the signing of David Fifita, but Sunday provided us with an on-field example of what is to come in the future. While their forward pack looks relatively stable with Fifita joining Tino Fa’asuamalaeui, Moeaki Fotuaika, Herman Ese’ese and Jaimin Jolliffe, the backline hasn’t been afforded quite the same optimism.
AJ Brimson is changing that, though.
All eyes were on this Gold Coast backline against one of the worst defensive teams in the NRL this week. After saying they “don’t look half bad on paper”, I wanted to see them put it together on the field.
Putting 30 points on the North Queensland Cowboys isn’t a very high bar, but it’s a start. How quickly the develop in attack will depend on Brimson who was outstanding in the first 40 minutes of the game on Sunday.
Brimson played a hand in the Titans first try.
Two tackles after finding himself on the left side, he swung over to the right to throw the final pass to Anthony Don. A triple-block shift isn’t the sort of play that will break down the better defensive teams in the competition, but Brimson used his speed to get on the outside of his man and send Don over in the corner here:
Shortly after Kevin Proctor broke through Michael Morgan and Connelly Lemuelu, Ash Tayor swung around to the short side to hit the pair again early in the set. Brian Kelly is a destructive ball-runner and perfect for filling the role of a probing run early on in a set of six. It’s a great heads-up play from Taylor who feeds Kelly before he skips through with relative ease while Brimson backs up to score:
Having identified the right edge pairing as a significant weakness, Taylor went back to the well.
He put Proctor one-on-one with Morgan - who came off the line heading out at Proctor - with the Cowboys half unable to wrap up well enough to stop the offload. With a high-IQ fullback trailing on the inside, the Titans cruised out to a massive first-half lead:
We can put the relatively quiet second half down to Brimson still getting his legs under him. He was brilliant in the first half, after all. While we regularly praise the attacking ability of fullbacks, those with lazy tendencies in defence struggle to crack the top tier in the competition. But with Brimson’s tackle and repositioning here, he has the potential to one day be in the conversation as one of the best in the game:
We’re going to hear a lot about this Titans pack over the next 12 months. The improved play of Taylor and how close he goes to justifying his pay packet will occupy more column inches, too. But Brimson appears to be the missing piece of the puzzle in attack. His health and development over the summer will play a big part in how close the Titans go to cracking the Top 8 in 2021.
Titans fans, Oscar also has some love for you in ‘Take the Two’ this week.
A(nother) round to forget for…
The Brisbane Broncos have remarkably found ways to dig the hole deeper over the weekend.
As if the on-field product wasn’t bad enough in their 28-10 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Anthony Seibold reverted back to his deflecting tactics in the post-match press conference:
With Mark Nicholls’ try arguably worse than this effort above, there is no room for “resilient” in any conversation about Broncos defence right now.
It follows a trend around a lack of accountability in the club at the moment. At least, nothing that is acting as enough of a deterrent to the players or motivating them to change.
On the field, some of the efforts are beyond poor. Off it, Tevita Pangai Jr has earned himself two weeks isolation for attending a barbershop opening alongside members of the Mongols bikie gang. Of all the players that owe this side time on the field, Pangai Jr instead chose to ignore the rules and roll the dice on an afternoon out of the house.
With Anthony Seibold also in a Covid-hold, this is a weekend for the Broncos to forget, but one Pangai should perhaps remember the next time he puts himself before the team.
Play of the Round
It’s simple, effective, and growing in popularity.
James Fisher-Harris runs an admittedly soft overs line with Viliame Kikau trailing in behind him. Penrith uses Fisher-Harris as a ball-player to feed Kikau at times already; seeing him so wide isn’t a surprise. But as Kikau starts to come in against the grain, John Bateman has already turned out. You need to put your whole body in front of Kikau to be a chance of stopping him from there. With the misdirection throwing Bateman he can only muster a flimsy arms effort.
The Storm have run a similar X-shape action with Ryan Papenhuyzen and their right side centre a few times already this season. Having Kikau and Fisher-Harris running at you is an impossible decision, though.
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.
Round 13 Briefing Summary:
Annesley quickly cast aside any controversy on the captain's challenge involving Jordan Rapana in Panthers v Raiders by producing the rule book:
"All of those three factors were all complied with"
"The decision on the field was absolutely correct."
Rapana was himself called for a flop later in the game. Some argued he hadn't been punished but Annesley highlighted the action that was taken: a set restart.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad had his try sent up for review. Gerard Sutton only wanted the Bunker to check if the ball had been lost as he had already seen it on the line himself. Annesley has "no issue with the decision."
On Blake Ferguson's dropped ball that had John Morris frustrated: "We can argue and take different points of view on this."
He made reference to wanting referees not to be so pedantic over knock ons but added, "I think the odds are the referees got this 100% right."
Annesley had recently talked about teams being able to push in scrums. He pointed out the Eels and their shove on the Sharks as a perfect example of how, when and why a team can push.
This had been covered last week, but because the people that need to watch these reviews the most don't, they missed the discussion on double-jeopardy. Karl Lawton was sent to the sin-bin for tackling Jake Trbojevic before he touched the ball on Friday night. The Bunker wasn't going to award a penalty try AND send Lawton to the sin-bin. Annesley is happy with the decision not to award Manly a penalty try.
On Jack Hetherington’s high-shot on Marty Taupau: "I wouldn't have been disappointed about him being sent off."
He also acknowledged that isn't how these issues have been dealt with in recent years. There have been 758 charges since the beginning of 2015 with only three send-offs.
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