Oscar has pinched Jason’s pen and paper to bring you the NRL Preview Notepad each week in 2024. Here’s everything you need to know heading into NRL Round 4.
Thursday Night Members Preview
The best clubs boast the best managed rosters and with Nathan Cleary sidelined the Penrith Panthers will give promising young half Brad Schneider his club debut on Thursday night.
ICYMI: How Canterbury are using Kikau
Earlier this week I broke down how this improving Bulldogs attack is finding ways to use Viliame Kikau as the catalyst for points a few plays later.
Given how disconnected South Sydney’s new left edge of Cody Walker, Jack Wighton and Alex Johnston were last week, we can assume Canterbury will ask a few questions of them again on Friday.
If NRL Round 3 was any indication, Canterbury will use Kikau to compress the defence down the left tram before searching back down their right edge to test the spaces between Walker, Wighton and Johnston.
The ‘good’ Eels
We’ve covered the good and the bad of the Parramatta Eels at length here at RLWriters.
Dominant when playing direct to generate second-phase play and awkward when trying to go around teams, the Eels have found a nice balance to start the year.
As they’ve done often in recent seasons, Parramatta played some of their best footy against the Penrith Panthers in NRL Round 2 and – not surprisingly – that brand of footy was nice and direct.
It won’t always result in two tries on the highlight reels. Still, Dylan Brown passing through holes that the Eels punched into the defensive line earlier in the set is a best-case example of Parramatta’s direct approach to their attack.
This sequence was even more promising:
Using the genuine ballplaying middles at their disposal, Parramatta move the ball smoothly to stretch the defence here before quickly straightening up to punch a hole on the edge.
A special effort from Brian To’o denies the Eels on this occasion, but the key takeaway is how Parramatta are purposefully moving the defence sideways with a plan to cut back against the grain out wide.
It’s a similar principle to the one that helped Blaize Talagi to his maiden NRL try last week:
And the trend continued in NRL Round 3 for Kelma Tuilagi’s first try in Eels colours:
Mitchel Moses is an enormous loss for Parramatta but they can still play to their strengths without him steering the ship.
There are enough decent ballplayers through their middle to create positive matchups in yardage and generate second-phase play in attack. Their aggressive, direct line-running approach will continue to produce points from there if Brown and Clint Gutherson can pick the right passes on the edges.
Replacing Moses kicking game will be a challenge but the Eels still have the forward pack and the gameplan to remain relevant in this competition.
The AFB Cheat Code
Last week I geeked out over Ryan Papenhuyzen’s perfect pair of tries in the Melbourne Storm’s miracle comeback win over the New Zealand Warriors.
Well, in NRL Round 3 the Wahs responded with real “hold my beer” energy.
Their double-jockey shape for Addin Fonua-Blake is a serious problem for edge defenders right now and the telecast on Saturday gave us rare and brilliant vision of how the Warriors set up for their signature play.
From a penalty in good field position, we can see Johnson instructing his teammates to hit the right edge and then the posts before firing the shot:
A confident nod from Johnson to an off-camera Fonua-Blake confirms the plan, and in the bottom-left of the screen we see the big prop and his fullback getting on the same page here, too.
And so the Warriors fall into shape. As Johnson points them around the field, Mitch Barnett puts some fatigue into Hudson Young and Danny Levi before Harris lays one towards the posts:
The telecast again blesses us with the wide angle here, showing all three key Warriors players eyeballing the target space. They’re already walking into position as Harris finds the black dot to split Canberra’s defensive line down the middle.
Having created the look they wanted, the Warriors now nail the execution. Targetting two tired defenders, Johnson’s tempo dusts the five-man (Levi) and sits the four-man (Young) on his heels:
Feeling the pressure, Ethan Strange does what he’s supposed to do here and follows Young in to check Kurt Capewell’s lead line. Albert Hopoate also plays by the book from the centres and jams in on the jockey – only he picks the wrong one.
With Taine Tuaupiki exactly where he should be as the fullback in a block shape, Hopoate reacts with instinct and doesn’t consider Fonua-Blake who has tucked himself in behind Capewell’s lead decoy. Seeing it too late, Hopoate can only slap at the ball as Johnson picks the right option to beat him on the inside.
Even if the winger and centre make the right read here and jam on both jockeys respectively, at worst Fonua-Blake is getting one-on-one against an outside back just a few metres out.
That or Johnson picks the tunnel ball option for Rocco Berry or somehow finds Dallin Watene-Zelezniak over the top….
Up the Wahs.
Sam McIntyre
It’s been a slow burn across 42 NRL games to date but Sam McIntyre seems to have finally found a role in this North Queensland Cowboys attack.
Having watched him carve up for the Tweed Seagulls in the QRL Hostplus Cup a few years back, it’s nice to see McIntyre carry his middle ballplaying form into the NRL:
As well as being a sound ball carrier, McIntyre is also giving North Queensland a genuine pivot option one-off the ruck. His involvements are freeing up Chad Townsend to pick his moments a little wider in good-ball or position for the fifth tackle kick in yardage.
On current form, it won’t surprise to see McIntyre’s minutes and role increase as the season progresses.
Titans edge defence
After two games played, the Titans left edge of Beau Fermor, Kieran Foran and Brian Kelly have missed 25 tackles between them. The raw numbers are concerning but they don’t necessarily paint the full picture;
Have the Gold Coast been getting their numbers wrong when resetting the line?
Are they folding through the middle and leaving their edges vulnerable?
Or are there some cohesion issues between the current personnel on that left edge?
I want to answer a few of these questions on Saturday.