NRL Repeat Set: Round 6
Recap the latest round of NRL action with the Repeat Set.
Round 6 was hyped up as a biggie and lived up to it for the most part.
We learned a lot about the Knights, Eels and Cowboys off the field. The Warriors offered some insight into how their club is run off the field too…
Let’s get straight into it.
Here’s the Repeat Set for Round 6:
Warriors Rant
The Warriors sacked Stephen Kearney over the weekend. He was six games into a three-year extension…
We could spend a month arguing over whether or not sacking him is the right move or not. Under the circumstances and the support he appears to have from the playing group in these circumstances, I’m leaning towards it being at least poorly timed if not the wrong decision entirely. Nonetheless, Kearney’s sacking highlights a lot of what is wrong at the club, and within a lot of NRL front offices in general.
Focus on the process, not the result.
Kearney’s sacking is the result. Good or bad? We don’t know yet.
The response from the players suggests it has the potential to be an absolute disaster in the short-term for team morale and trust in the front office, but we don’t know that for certain just yet either.
What we do know is that the process continues to be poor.
It was only last February — coming off a finals appearance, finishing two competition points off 1st and setting a club record for wins in Australia throughout the 2018 season — that the Warriors signed Kearney through to the end of 2022. He’d displayed promising signs in his first two seasons and the makeup of the squad was coming along nicely.
Kearney laid some foundations in 2017 to teach players to respect the football through high-percentage plays. That translated into their first finals appearance since 2011 a year later. A promising result in Kearney’s second season in-charge.
Bang, a three-year extension with nobody bidding against them.
Over the following summer, Cameron George blew any chance of re-signing Shaun Johnson on a club-friendly deal before the two could get to the negotiating table. Just like that, Kearney lost his premier half. The expectations for Kearney didn’t change, though.
The 2019 season was a write-off. Starting without a replacement for Johnson in the halves, the club threw money at Kodi Nikorima to join, and while playing relatively well now, never looked comfortable in his first season.
The disappointing 2019 season gave Kearney 5–6 rounds to save his job in 2020. You’d think the circumstances the club finds themselves in now would force a rethink to that idea — apparently not.
Kearney is the biggest loser of poor decisions (Johnson, maybe even his own extension) and the unwavering desperation to stick to poor process (5–6 week ultimatum). The players feel like losers, too. Interim coach Todd Payten conceded the players are distraught and couldn’t rule out some packing up and flying back to New Zealand.
Who could have seen that coming?
Kearney has made his mistakes. So too have those above him. Only one man lost his job this week.
The process is poor whether you agree with the result or not.
Perhaps Kearney isn’t the right man for the job? Regular readers and followers know I’ve had my questions over team selections throughout his tenure. But rather than forcing him to save his job while the team deals with issues no other ever has, maybe the assurance of 2021 and using 2020 for what it should be, a rebuilding year, would put the club in a better position?
- Avoid appointing a 12th and probably 13th head coach in 21 years.
- Save the money while it’s tight and with the football department cap set to drop.
- Develop young players in 2020 with the vision of being better positioned to compete in 2021.
Develop the consistency the club hasn’t had since making the 2011 Grand Final which, and it’s not a coincidence, was the final year of Ivan Cleary’s six-year tenure — the longest in the club’s history — in which they made the finals four times.
Nobody expects anything out of the Warriors this season; it’s a gimmie. Instead, Kearney has been dumped and the team is in disarray.
We’re left with the tired old “we need to make tough decisions” gear. We’ve heard it all before. It seems as though the toughest decision the club could make is to stick with one through to the end.
Knights At It Again
After checking out David Klemmer’s offload numbers in the buildup to Round 6, it’s time to fawn all over the improvements Daniel Saifiti has made in his yardage game.
Outstanding for his try, 217 running metres and six tackle breaks on Thursday night, the performance caps off an impressive start to the season.
After averaging just 94.23 metres per game in 2019, the 24-year-old is getting up the field for 171.62 metres in 2020. He’s a lot more destructive in those runs, too. Saifiti broke 13 tackles throughout his 21 games in 2019. He’s thrown off 16 would-be defenders already this season.
Saifiti’s improvements with the ball in hand have allowed Klemmer to be more expansive. Between them, they’re averaging 343 running metres, 4.4 tackle breaks and 3.6 offloads per game. They’re getting the Knights up the field better than they have done in years, and so far, it’s translated into a 4–1 start for 2nd on the NRL ladder through six rounds.
Eels Justify Premiership Hype
The Eels hype-train has been traveling faster than the speed of light to start the 2020 NRL season. With so many fans and media members desperate to appoint a new favourite that isn’t the Roosters, the Eels have been talked up as though they’re morals.
In reality, the Eels were poor in beating the Bulldogs in Round 1, played awful Titans and Broncos teams in Round 2 and 3, were lucky to beat the Sea Eagles in Round 4, and needed three tries in five minutes to win in Round 5. That, as a form guide, isn’t worthy of the premiership hype they received.
Strangely, it’s their first loss of the season that begins to justify Parramatta fans looking at Grand Final tickets.
Outstanding through the middle of the field and willing to get into the grind against a side that never stops, the Eels forced the best out of the Roosters. The sense of inevitability that the Roosters would flick a switch and run away with it wasn’t there for the most part. While the Roosters did pull away late, the reasons why are fixable; Nathan Brown’s high-shot and Michael Jennings’ professional foul could both be avoided.
There isn’t a massive gap anywhere across the field. The halves are finally developing some cohesion, the back-three is one of the best in the NRL, and the middle can crash and bash their way up the field or play with a little more ball-playing and finesse — whatever is needed. Parramatta did it all against the best in the business on Saturday night.
The Eels starting 5–0 presented as a premiership contending platform, but it’s the first mark in the L column that has really laid the foundations.
Cowboys In Trouble
The 36–20 final score flattered the Cowboys on Saturday night.
Much to Michael Maguire’s annoyance, the Tigers packed their 34–0 lead up at halftime and went home. While a few tries in the second half gave life to the idea of a comeback, the Cowboys were never close.
They’ve now lost three on the bounce with a terrible six-week schedule ahead.
No Michael Morgan since Round 2 hasn’t helped. Missing Jason Taumalolo for a game and Valentine Holmes and Jordan McLean in Round 6 didn’t help either. But injuries only get you so far as a regular excuse.
Just look at the Knights in Round 3 who lost Mitchell Pearce and Connor Watson inside four minutes before managing a 14–14 draw against the Panthers.
Or the Sea Eagles this week. Already without Moses Suli and Marty Taupau, Dylan Walker, Brad Parker and Tom Trbojevic all went down during a game in which Manly beat the 2019 Grand Finalist Canberra.
It all reflects poorly on Paul Green.
Green will be lucky to last the month if he can’t turn things around soon
There aren’t many high-quality coaches available at the moment — if any. With the Warriors already in the market and dipping their toes into a shallow pool, it may see other clubs pull the trigger on under-fire coaches.
Good luck, Greeny.
Sin-Bins
Shock: Following a week of talking up the sin-bin to counter teams manipulating the new rules in exactly the way many others knew they would weeks ago, we saw a few questionable sin-bins in Round 6.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of overusing the sin-bin. We watch the game for entertainment, and having the best players on the field as much as possible is more entertaining. So too is a close game.
The Knights really got stuck into the Broncos following Jamayne Issako’s dodgy binning on Thursday night.
Adam Reynolds ran straight through the hole Kodi Nikorima would have been filling had he not been sent packing for a flop on Friday.
While the binning’s of Briton Nikora and Brandon Wakehap for repeated infringements were consistent within that game on Sunday, the same can’t be said for the seven prior.
Like many others, OscarPannifex had a few questions about the renewed focus on sin-bins before the round started:
“With even more pressure on the whistle-blower this year now they are doing it solo, it is a massive call for Annesley to publicly threaten the sin-bin for players who “push the limits” this week.
The onus is now on the referees to interpret Annesley’s instructions on the field this week, just as they were left to interpret the new rules on the run three rounds ago…”
It’s been talked about a few times before, but a five-minute or change-of-possession sin-bin might be the next reactionary rule-change to counter the inevitable issues of the first reactionary rule change.
Either adjustment to the sin-bin could work wonders if introduced, but again, like Kearney and the Warriors, look at the process, not the result.
Play Of The Round
Nothing has me falling further in love with rugby league more than elite dummy half play. This week, it’s Apisai Koroisau that had me head over heels.
Working up the field in the left channel, James Fisher-Harris’ involvement allows Viliame Kikau to take the ball a little wider and split Brenko Lee and Ryley Jacks.
Felise Kaufusi fills in at A on the short-side, but with Koroisau getting out of dummy half and engaging Jacks, it’s a simple three on two with Jarome Luai throwing a perfect ball to Josh Mansour on the wing.
It’s Koroisau’s double-pump that really sets it up. Jacks is slowly getting across to make up the numbers, but Koroisau sucks him back in.
Love it.
