“Heads In!” Round 7
Unpacking the scrum each week in the NRL
Six rounds into the competition and the Queensland clubs are in crisis, while the chase is on for one of the hottest young signatures in our game.
Whether you’re searching for an edge in the workplace tipping comp, or just desperate to talk some footy, you’ve found the place. Join me as we unpack the scrum that is the NRL each week.
Centre-Field Scrum
What’s centre-frame in the Rugby League lens this week?
Sibling Rivalry
I spoke last week about the high-stakes game of recruitment and retention in the NRL today, and the mounting speculation around the Brisbane Broncos’ David Fifita this week is just another example.
Approaching their Saturday night clash with ‘little-brother’ the Gold Coast Titans, this contract drama could not have come at a worse time for the Brisbane based club.
The initial reaction from the Broncos would be to move heaven and earth to keep Fifita.
They are struggling for form and confidence on the field, while off-field the club’s culture and management is being questioned more with every disappointing loss.
“Theres no good reason other than poor management that they are where they are.” Ben Ikin, NRL360
To lose what many have touted as the next superstar forward of our game would be a massive blow for the club and its fanbase, who have always expected success from their one-town-team.
But considering Brisbane’s current situation, is splashing all their cash on a 20-year old boom back rower really good business?
This is only discussion, and I won’t presume for a moment to have the rugby league IQ or experience to make informed decisions or suggestions at an NRL level.
If the Broncos spend the money to keep Fifita, it is reasonable to assume that Tom Dearden will be the club’s long term halves option.
Anthony Milford’s exorbitant contract expires at the end of 2021, and that cap space will presumably be filled by Fifita’s handsome upgrade, meaning ‘Milf is let go and Dearden steps up.
Stay with me…
That means from the 2021 season onwards, the Broncos’ spine will presumably be fullback Tesi Niu (19), halves Dearden (19) and Brodie Croft (22) and hooker Jake Turpin (23).
Outside that, Brisbane’s big name and big contract players will include Fifita (20), Payne Haas (20) and Kotoni Staggs (22).
This all at a club that is desperately lacking a core group of seasoned NRL veterans — leaders who have been through the highs and lows of our game and can help develop these young superstars.
So how is a roster so heavily weighted with raw talent and potential going to solve the dire issues of inexperience and youth that have been excuses for the Broncos this year?
I’m not so sure.
Conversely, the Gold Coast Titans would — if successful in their bid — welcome Fifita as their franchise player and begin to build the team around him, much like Newcastle did with Kalyn Ponga.
Sponsors, fans and most importantly other players would be enticed to the Titans by Fifita’s presence. Along with Justin Holbrook and Mal Meninga, Fifita could be a part of an exciting rebranding of the Gold Coast club.
That’s how I’d sell it, anyway.
No matter where he ends up, there is no questioning David Fifita’s influence and potential — both on- and off the field — as a marquee player of our game.
The sibling rivalry between Brisbane and the Gold Coast has always been played on with good humour by the Broncos, because they were always comfortably the ‘big brother’. But things aren’t so certain in Red Hill anymore, and the brotherly conflict between the neighbouring clubs could escalate further still, starting this Saturday night.
Right Scrum-Line
Who is feeling the pressure this week?
Crisis in QLD
Aside from Fifita, all the talk north of the Tweed this week has been around the struggling form of the NRL’s three Queensland based clubs — after 18 games of footy, the Gold Coast Titans, Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys have just five wins between them.
For the Cowboys, new signings Valentine Holmes and Scott Drinkwater hit the ground running and had plenty — including me — believing in good things in the North. But the ‘Cows have come to a spluttering halt as we approach Roumd 7.
Injuries to Jordan Maclean, Jason Taumalolo and Holmes haven’t helped, while new combinations around Drinkwater and Jake Clifford in the halves, and Reece Robson’s promotion to first choice hooker, will no doubt take some time to gel.
But after six rounds, the Cowboys have conceded 149 points (avg 24.8pts/game), to be the third worst defensive team in the comp behind the struggling Broncos and Bulldogs.
This is even more alarming when you consider the Cowboys are yet to play a Top-8 side this year.
Last week’s 36–20 defeat to Wests Tigers was a sobering reality check, as the Cowboys were swept off the park by a Tigers outfit that has struggled for fluidity in attack this season.
But they’ve never looked more comfortable last Saturday night, running in six first half tries against a paper-thin Cowboys defence before putting the queue in the rack for the second half.
Whether defending on their line or sliding against backline shifts, the Cowboys looked lost and disorganised — particularly around the three- and four-defenders (usually halves and second rowers).
In this passage, Coen Hess charges so far blindly out of the line that you’d be forgiven for thinking Drinkwater was filling in at fullback:
And when the Tigers look to shift wide, Francis Molo is lazy at A-defender and the Cowboys are found short on the edge:
Wests have the overlap and go through the hands where Justin O’Neill is caught in no-mans-land, his wing partner Connelly Lemuelu still retreating on the flank.
All of this inside the first ten minutes.
Paul Green was re-endorsed this week as the club’s Head Coach, with CEO Jeff Reibel suggesting “now’s the time for commitment, now’s the time for working together.”
Green will be hoping these philosophies begin to show in his team’s defensive efforts in the coming weeks, as the Cowboys face a run of six top-8 sides in a row.
Left Scrum-Line
My left-field thought on the NRL this week
Lock’d and Loaded
The importance of the lock-forward position in the NRL has increased tenfold since the rules changes introduced over the COVID-19 break.
We’ve already looked at the impact Victor Radley has had at the Roosters this year since being incorporated as a primary playmaker into the tri-colour’s offensive structures.
So too has Jake Trbojevic at Manly, and Tohu Harris for New Zealand (when he’s picked there) added a point-of-difference to their team’s attacking shapes through the middle of the field.
While there is still room in our game for bruising big men in the #13 jersey — just look at Jason Taumalolo putting the Cowboys on his back every week — it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a more mobile, ball-playing option in the middle third.
For the Penrith Panthers, some of their good form this year must be attributed to the work of Isaah Yeo since moving to the lock-forward position this season.
Through six years at Penrith playing primarily as an edge-back rower, Yeo built a reputation around the club as a hard working, no frills second-rower, who could also fill in at centre or in the middle at a pinch.
Nothing flashy, nothing brilliant — just a consistent, reliable utility forward.
But since transitioning to lock this year, Yeo has brought a mix of footwork, ball-playing and a tireless engine to the Panther’s middle third, and is statistically one of the form locks of the comp.
Yeo is averaging 151 meters (more than double his career average so far) and 46.5 tackles per game, with only three misses over six games this season.
Beside colossus front-rower James Fisher-Harris and the dynamic running games of Villiame Kikau and Moses Leota, the subtle efforts of Yeo through the middle third has given Penrith one of the most balanced forward packs in the competition.
He goes up against Cam Murray and South Sydney on Thursday night in what might be his toughest one-on-one assignment yet.
Round 7, begin!
After a heartbreaking week for Warriors fans, things don’t look to get much easier as they face a Melbourne Storm outfit looking to bounce back from last week’s loss to Penrith.
Elsewhere, the Raiders will try to make it back into the winners circle against competition heavyweights Parramatta on Saturday. Despite the Eels starting the season undefeated, it was last week’s loss to the Sydney Roosters that has Jason NRL believing the hype more than anything.
Goodluck to your teams, your tips and your punts!
Glory Glory.
