NRL Repeat Set: Round 4
Everybody was happy to get footy back last week, but Round 4 has truly announced rugby league’s return.
Controversy is back.
The Knights are getting back into finals footy.
The Broncos are going backwards at a rapid rate of knots.
The Tigers, well, they don’t seem to have gone anywhere — that’s the problem.
Here’s the Repeat Set for Round 4.
Non-Controversy Is King
The desperate positivity awarded to officials following the change back to one referee lasted all of one week.
On Friday, an obstruction that ticks the boxes was awarded as such, slammed, and talked about ad nauseam.
On Saturday, a forward pass — that wasn’t forward — became the only halftime talking point of the following game. Replays of the pass were shown during the following game to keep the outrage flowing.
The coverage, and response from a lot of people watching it, flies in the face of the never realistic idea that fans and media would all of a sudden accept poor decisions because there are fewer qualified officials on the field to make them.
Fast-forward to Sunday and a regulation penalty try is labeled “controversial”.
It’s not.
Nevertheless, it occupied the opening halftime segment. The fact a 19-year-old rookie collected the ball in open play, had the vision to identify an opening behind the Raiders defensive line, and the skill to put in a perfect grubber for a teammate went largely ignored.
Some of the loudest referee-bashers of the last decade are trying their hardest to be positive. Even if it’s only to confirm their own biases, it’s been refreshing. However, we’re still spending too long picking holes in the officials and not enough time talking footy.
The Bunker & Forward Passes
It never takes long, but having the Bunker make decisions on forward passes is once again the discussion of the week.
Unless the NRL can use hawk-eye type technology (which they are exploring) to make rulings on whether or not the ball comes out of the hand backwards, the Bunker getting involved on forward passes is a non-starter.
For every fairly obvious wrong decision like Saturday’s, nine others will be 50/50 balls that inspire more outrage than it’s worth.
“Why could Annesley make a decision on this one and not others?”
Because a decision could be made fairly confidently. That’s not the case for most would-be referrals you can imagine being sent up to the Bunker every match. When 50/50 passes have been asked about at his weekly briefings, Annesley has sat on the fence and, rightfully, said the call could go either way. That will become a weekly discussion if this change goes through.
“Why can they review everything else?”
Because they can make decisions on other rulings fairly confidently. Cameras don’t need to be perfectly in-line to make a call on whether or not the ball gets down or if a player loses possession. Even offside calls; they’re clear cut more often than not. Sure, some aren’t conclusive to the point everybody is happy. But not many.
95 per cent of those same people would quickly realise they don’t wont it if the NRL went ahead with the change.
Bad Broncos
The Broncos have lost two of their last five games by 58–0 and 59–0.
The Broncos…
We might expect this out of a handful of NRL clubs, but not this one. They have the player base, the funding and the big names. Yet, we’re seeing this powerhouse club dominated to the point that media were told to go home early on Thursday night — the Broncos weren’t talking.
Outside of Payne Haas — who has been playing at a ridiculous level regardless of the scoreline — there isn’t a player than can avoid blame.
Now they’re getting desperate.
Anthony Seibold is signed through to the end of 2023 but has a performance-based termination clause in his contract. How long until that gets discussed?
Newcastle Knighted
The Knights have been a popular pick to make the Top 8 since Kalyn Ponga and Mitchell Pearce joined the side in 2018. Regular readers — particularly Knights fans — will recall my reluctance to put them anywhere near making the finals in either season. They’ve not had the pack nor the depth to play out a full season and get through to September.
2020 is a different story.
I’m doing it…
The Knights will play finals footy for the first time since 2013. Better yet, lock them into the top six.
Sunday’s win over the Raiders showed us everything we need to know about the Knights and where they’re at in becoming a Top 8 squad.
The forward pack is really rolling up the field. Andrew McCullough looks right at home ordering willing one-out runners from the ruck in hard sets. Previously, David Klemmer was the only reliable option. On Sunday, David Saifiti had 157 running metres, Herman Ese’ese had 148 metres and Jacob Saifiti earned 119 metres off the bench.
Newcastle is averaging 1,880 running metres per game in 2020. They didn’t crack 1,880 metres at all in 2019 and only surpassed that number once in the four consecutive seasons they finished 16th in running metres per game (2016–2019). Finally, the Knights have a middle that can put Pearce and Ponga in positions to dominate.
And boy did the pair dominate on Sunday.
Ponga ran rings around the Raiders edge defence. His speed was enough to get on the outside of George Williams and force Curtis Scott to react here. A simple short-ball put Bradman Best over the line.
Shortly after, he burns Elliot Whitehead on the right edge to skip through the line and score a brilliant solo try.
Then we’ve got to Edrick Lee who will surely be knocking on the door of a State of Origin spot by the end of the year.
Bradman Best? Sign me up. I’m already the owner of Harry Grant and Eli Katoa stocks, but Best is worth another significant investment. He’s big, strong, and the perfect sort of centre for Ponga to create on his favoured left-edge.
This Knights team is the goods.
Typical Tigers
Poor Tigers fans…
They knew it was coming on Sunday night.
Out worked and largely outplayed by a Titans team that hadn’t won an NRL game for 364 days, the Tigers crumbled, just like everybody expected.
This game should have gone one way for the Tigers after running out to a 12–0 lead inside 13 minutes. If not then, the scare of another comeback should have been enough to maintain the 10-point lead that came in the 55th minute.
Dig deep and defend well. Play the percentages. That’s all Wests needed to do against a side that doesn’t know how to win at the moment.
Had the Tigers hung on for the win after Benji Marshall’s field goal, we’d have been talking about a lucky victory, but a victory nonetheless. It didn’t matter how it came, the Tigers needed to win this one. This side is meant to be different. Beating the Titans would tell us more about this outfit than a victory over the Roosters.
Instead, the loss leads us to believe that not enough has changed to write them into the Top 8 as some expected.
Play Of The Round
Rugby league will be better off if Latrell Mitchell can reach his potential as a fullback. For better or worse — mainly worse if you scroll through Facebook comment sections — Mitchell is a polarizing character. He’s also an excellent footballer when he’s switched on.
Following three sub-par performances at fullback to start the season, Mitchell finally flicked the switch. Averaging 23 touches and 9.3 runs per game in the first three rounds, Mitchell finished with 25 touches and 14 runs on Friday night. He increased his involvement off the ball and went searching for action more than we’ve seen all season.
It’s no coincide he threw this pass in the first game he looked somewhat comfortable at the back:
Follow: Rugby League Writers on Twitter
