Here’s your Repeat Set for Round 17:
NRL’s Most Improved Player
Old rookies making their mark
It was a round to remember for…Kalyn Ponga
It was a round to forget for…Corey Norman
Play of the Round: Classic Warriors
Graham Annesley’s Briefing Summary
Ravalawa in the MIP discussion
Mikaele Ravalawa debuted last season to score 11 tries in 19 games while running for 122 metres per game. A decent effort for a 21-year-old who hadn’t watched a single NRL match on TV before playing in his first last year. It’s the 29 errors that had fans banging their heads against the wall. For every positive play Ravalawa provided the Dragons, an error, sometimes two, never felt far away.
But it’s a different story in 2020.
Through 16 games this season, and with only 14 errors to his name, Ravalawa is running for 144 metres per game and is 6th on the scoring list with 13 tries. It’s his ridiculous tight-rope effort on Sunday that highlights the improvements Ravalawa has made this season as he puts forward a case for the Most Improved Player in 2020.
Perhaps we should have seen all of this coming with what he produced with his first touch of the ball this season:
He still has some outrageous touches in him. He’s going to be a rocks and diamonds player his whole career. But a play like this was almost exclusively rocks in 2019. In 2020, he’s putting his outside man into space down the sideline.
Plenty called for Ravalawa to be left out of the side over the last two seasons. But with Paul McGregor sticking with him for the most part to now have a legitimate first-grade winger on the right edge, the incoming Dragons coach has a strong strike weapon out wide to work with.
As impressive as Ravalawa’s rise has been, the field for the Most Improved Player in 2020 is still wide open.
Siosifa Talakai almost quit rugby league but is now a regular performer for the Sharks. His versatility as a powerful 100kg body is unique with the new-found speed in the game perfectly suiting the fleet footed big man.
While he’s equal-4th in try causes and displaying very few signs of improvement on the defensive side of the ball, David Nofoaluma has been excellent in attack. His high work rate brings with it positives (17 tries, 189 running metres per game) and negatives (18 errors), but overall, Nofoaluma is a much-improved player in 2020.
Some consistency and with the knowledge he would be given an extended period to make his mark at five-eighth, Kurt Mann has turned his career around this season. The fit isn’t ideal with how the Knights need to attack if they’re to maximise Kalyn Ponga’s talent, but Mann can certainly fill the gap at five-eighth when asked. He hasn’t embarrassed himself filling in at dummy half in recent weeks either.
He may have played State of Origin last season, but Daniel Saifiti wasn’t close to the player he is now. He’s added 56 metres to his yardage to average 150 running metres per game. The Knights look like a different team without him.
Into his fifth season and playing within a relatively poor Wests Tigers pack, Josh Aloiai has taken a big leap in his career. Averaging 140 running metres per game, he will be recognised across the competition as a high-level prop by this time next year.
It’s amazing what a bit of consistency in a position can do. Said to be the Dragons first-choice fullback to start the season, Zac Lomax has since started 15 consecutive games in the centres. He’s now inching closer to the Origin conversation. His teammate, Matt Dufty, is experiencing a similar season to Nofoaluma. Dufty has become one of the Red V’s most potent attacking weapons to have 11 tries and nine try assists this season. Although, he leads all fullbacks in try causes this season with 17.
With so many players taking the next step in their career this season, perhaps we can hand Ravalawa the Most Unexpected Most Improved Player of the Year award.
Davey & Lewis giving the old debutant hope
While legitimate concerns are being raised over the reserve grade competition and how many second-tier players the game might lose for 2021 and beyond, two older debutants offer every mid-20’s footy player hope for the future. They’ve both made their debut at 28-years-old this season, and both have provided key plays leading to points in limited minutes.
Andrew Davey produced this offload in his first game for George Jennings to go over in the corner.
A week later, it was his offload that triggered the second phase and ultimately allowed Reagan Campbell-Gillard to get himself into the highlights package.
Davey has featured in five games since making his debut in Round 10 and is proving to be a reliable performer for Brad Arthur. Parramatta could do worse than signing Davey on for 2021 as cover in the back row.
Chris Lewis played in his fourth first-grade game over the weekend and didn’t disappoint. In this case, the highlight’s package will cut his run and instead show the tackle directly before the try. But it’s this incisive run and quick play-the-ball that gets the Storm downhill:
After Lewis breaks through the Patrick Mogo tackle and gets Thomas Burgess and Tevita Tatola into the tackle, the Storm have a numbers advantage down the left side.
As Cameron Munster pokes his head through, you can see Cameron Smith prompt Ryan Papenhuyzen to hit the short side in behind the ruck.
The defence still hasn’t been able to recover down that side. Melbourne still have an extra man on the short side, and as the defence slides across to make up for it, Bailey Sironen can’t fill in at A quick enough. Papenhuyzen draws in the scrambling defence before sending Munster over the line.
It’s a great try - one kicked off by the 28-year-old rookie three tackles earlier.
With the number of injuries NRL teams are dealing with this year, the elder statesman - professional reserve grade calibre player - is growing in importance. They’re the perfect low-cost players to have at the end of the roster to fill in off the bench for the five or six games they’re required.
It was a round to remember for…
Kalyn Ponga was in one of those moods on Friday night. We don’t see it nearly often enough, but when the game slows down around Ponga as it did against the Sharks in Round 17, he’s almost unstoppable with the ball in hand.
Finishing with three tries, 15 tackle breaks, 222 running metres and a broken nose, Ponga tormented the Sharks.
With nothing on and handed the ball in a bit of a ‘give it to Ponga’ play type, he shrugged off four would-be tacklers to score his first try.
His second try looked a little more deliberate. Setting up on the left post, Mitch Barnett releases an offload for Mitchell Pearce to send it wide. As the defence slides, Lachlan Fitzgibbon’s hard run into the gap keeps Braydon Trindall engaged for Ponga to be one-on-one with Briton Nikora. He makes it look easy in the end.
His third is the most encouraging of the lot given there was more to it than simply giving Ponga the ball. Straight after running a left shift you’d expect Ponga to be part of, the Knights have Brodie Jones in the middle of the field to act as the link between Pearce and Ponga. With Jacob Saifiti drawing the attention of Wade Graham, a yawning gap opens up for Ponga to skip through for his hattrick.
A 10/10 performance on this occasion, we want to see Ponga start to produce these flashes of brilliance a little more regularly against the top sides in the competition.
It was a round to forget for…
It’s a leading contender for bombed try of the year, and it’s one Corey Norman will be desperate to wipe from his memory.
With a menu of options which included going to the line himself after making the line break, Norman shovelled a pass along to Euan Aitken. It hit him in the thigh and ended with the Cowboys in possession. While Aitken should have done a much better job of at least getting a hand to the ball, it’s a pass Norman would like back.
The Dragons were awarded a penalty on the play to go 12-6 in front at halftime. It could have been a different story at 16-6, though.
Play of the Round
This New Zealand Warriors squad just keeps turning up. With the bounce of the ball going against them for much of the opening 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon, they continued to bounce back themselves to eventually score one of the most Warriors tries you’ll ever see.
You could hear “now THAT is classic Warriors” reverberate around Auckland as the Bunker dissected nine passes, two kicks and a diving putdown in traffic.
Graham Anselsey’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 a game, we want to offer a summary of Graham Annesley’s weekly reviews that doesn’t deliberately mislead or misuse quotes to generate further controversy.
Now that we've seen the captain’s challenge in action for 17 rounds, Annesley wanted to show some numbers on how many challenges have been overturned.
And when teams are challenging decisions.
Reluctantly diving into the world of forward passes again, Annesley presented a few angles of Cameron Smith's pass to Tino Fa'asuamaleaui on Friday night. "It's certainly a flat pass."
Annesley also fired a small shot at those calling it blatantly and "metres forward".
Plenty thought Ryan Papenhuyzen released the ball before being bundled into touch in the same game. He did not: "The touch judge has come up with the right decision there."
On the Jazz Tevaga sin-bin: "The Bunker gave advice to the referee that there was a striking action involved by Jazz Tevaga."
"Does that warrant 10 minutes in the sin-bin? In my opinion, that incident probably does not warrant 10 minutes in the sin-bin."
Most importantly, Annesley wanted to highlight that Tevaga forced the officials into making a decision. Had he not engaged in the mele, he wouldn't have been any chance at being sent to the bin.
"The best way that we could have avoided this if Jazz doesn't do what he did.”
Appropriately, he said much of the same in regards to Chad Townsend's shot on Kalyn Ponga.
The Bunker won't stop intervening on incidents of foul play.
The main takeaway from the Tevaga/Townsend incidents: "I just find it a little bit hard to accept that the referees can be singled out for blame when they're only responding to the actions of players."
"Referees shouldn't have to make decisions around foul play."
Don't expect forward pass technology any time soon.
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 & Instagram
Jason Oliver on Twitter & Facebook
Oscar Pannifex on Twitter