If the beers are cold and the afternoon’s long enough we’d be talking NRL all day, every day until kickoff on Thursday night. With so much to review, let’s break down some of the key actions each week.
Wests gameplan coming together
The Wests Tigers were awful to begin the 2023 NRL regular season.
There was evidence of a gameplan worked on over the summer, but how they implented and executed that gameplan left a lot to be desired. We heard about their intent to ‘use the footy’ with offloads and changes in direction a key element of the Tim Sheens-coached Tigers attack, but it just wasn’t working.
Forced offloads or pushed passes often disrupted the flow within a set and left the Tigers scrambling. Limping their way around the field, Wests failed to build towards positive actions in attack. They weren’t engaging the line before shifting to the edges, and they lacked the personnel in key positions to execute a specific plan with the ball.
Not so in Round 12.
The craft of Api Koroisau repeatedly asked questions of North Queensland’s ruck defence last week. Luke Brooks and Brandon Wakeham played their roles smartly from there, straightening the attack to engage the line before passing Jahream Bula into positive situations on the edge.
They put 11 tries on the Cowboys in this fashion, and I’ve picked out a few below that highlight Wests recent improvements in attack.
Starford To’a’s first is a good example. It’s Bula who comes up with the special offload but we can put this try down to the efforts of Brooks on the ball.
Digging into the Cowboys line with a forward teammate on either hip, Brooks engages Jack Gosiewski as the four-in defender:
Gosiewski is dragged infield thanks to Brooks’ involvement, leaving a yawning gap between himself and Tom Dearden on the edge.
When the pass goes out the back to Bula, Gosiewski works hard to recover but arrives in the tackle a fraction too late to wrap up the ball. Bula is able to get his arm free as a result and Brooks goes on to have his second positive invovlement in this passage.
The front-on angle shows how Brooks again engages a defender – this time Scott Drinkwater – to create space for To’a to score.
Playing with good tempo, Brooks holds the ball out in front as he surveys down the short side:
North Queensland have the numbers to defend Wests here, but Brooks’ drifting run invites Drinkwater to fly off the line and solve things himself. That decision opens up a space back on the inside and Brooks finds it to gift To’a his first of the afternoon.
To’a’s second came quickly afterwards and highlights Bula’s development as a genuine NRL fullback.
From behind the ruck, Koroisau identifies Mitch Dunn filling up down the short side while Jordan McLean sits deep at second marker. Taking one step from half to engage Gosiewski, Koroisau feeds Bula over the ad line down the short side:
Bula’s speed gets him clear of the ruck defenders to engage Dunn at three-man. The support run of To’a on his outside prevents Dearden from turning in to help Dunn here, giving Bula another chance to push through a one-on-one tackle and get his arm free.
Another Bula offload, another Tigers try.
With Koroisau asking so many questions around the ruck while Bula and Brooks threatened out wide, it was only a matter of time before one of those wrap-around plays paid dividends.
We’ve watched the Tigers work on the wrap-around shape right from the start of the NRL regular season. It was clunky to begin with but as cohesion and combinations develop, it’s starting to come together.
The tempo Koroisau plays with here is key.
Darting out from behind the ruck, he follows the pass to Alex Twal at the left post:
Chad Townsend sees what’s unfolding and flies off his line to shut Brooks down in the backline, but Koroisau has other ideas. Slowing on his run to receive the pass from Twal, Koroisau buys himself a fraction of a second to survey the defence.
Fonua Pole is itching to start on his run but times his involvement nicely here. He gives Koroisau space to hold the pass up and invite North Queensland off their line before popping a lovely late short ball to Pole in space.
The Tigers don’t score this try eight weeks ago. It’s a product of cohesion and combinations that are starting to gel, 12 games in.
They certainly don’t score this last try a few weeks ago, either.
The famous outside-inside Melbourne Storm shape has been replicated a few times since the days of Smith, Slater and Cronk.
This is the best it’s looked since then.
It starts with Koroisau’s deception at dummy-half:
Scooping the ball to the open side, Koroisau turns both markers infield. The short side defence switches off for half a second when Koroisau goes left, thinking they’re not needed in this passage.
When Koroisau drops Brooks back towards the ruck, the space between the markers and the left A-defender becomes apparent. Reece Robson suddenly realises what’s unfolding and shoots off his line to make a play, but it’s not a job for one defender.
Robson gets to Brandon Wakeham on the short side but can’t close the gap between himself and Coen Hess at second marker. With Wakeham and Brooks both playing direct at the line, Hess and Robson are forced to take their man and leave Bula unmarked beside the ruck.
Flying onto the Wakeham pass at speed, Bula pours through the gap created by Koroisau three passes earlier. He sums things up smartly from there to put John Bateman over, untouched.
That is a wonderful rugby league try.
It features all the best qualities of the Tigers attack; Koroisau’s deception from dummy-half, Brooks’ running game and Bula in support.
It’s an isolated action, but a no less promising one. Wests have improved out of sight in the last few weeks and their early season struggles seem to be behind them.
The expansive, pass-happy gameplan is starting to take root after a tough few months of working things out. Instead of chancing an offload and hoping for the best, the Tigers are now working towards specific actions in attack.
Bula’s two offloads for To’a’s tries are good examples – those are offloads he doesn’t get a chance to throw without the work of Koroisau and Brooks in the lead up.
There will be weeks where it all sticks and weeks where it doesn’t. The Tigers are still a team on the up and have more growing pains to work through, yet.
The evidence of genuine growth and improvement is what’s important, though.
This is the sort of footy we expected from a Tim Sheens-coached side featuring Koroisau, Brooks and now Bula. They won’t score 60+ points each week and we shouldn’t expect them to, but it’s wonderful signs for a club that hasn’t been sure of it’s direction for a long time.
Always next week for…
… the South Sydney Rabbitohs
In hindsight, it looked like the Rabbitohs might’ve already had one eye on Origin and Round 13.
In comparison, the Eels turned up for this one and executed an effective gameplan built around Mitch Moses and Dylan Brown in the halves.
Jase has already touched on Brown’s involvements as a running five-eighth in this one. He targetted Lachlan Ilias all night with a variety of shapes down the left edge before running straight past him in the lead up to Bailey Simmonson’s try.
On the other side of the field, the speed of Moses tore the Rabbitohs left-edge defensive unit apart. He skipped to the outside of Cody Walker on three seperate occasions to set up tries for Sean Russell, Bryce Cartwright and Will Penisini.
Given how well South Sydney have defended so far this season, we can put this down to a bad night in the office. They still produced some moments of magic in attack but their defensive intensity was shades off their 2023 form to concede more than double their season average points per game.
We’re better off judging the Rabbitohs on their response in Round 13.
NRL Round 12 Shout-Outs
Isaako try saver on Coates – Jamayne Isaako is one of the more athletically gifted players in the NRL. He’s wonderful on his feet and great in the air, and he needed to be when Xavier Coates went up for an attacking kick early in the contest last week.
Coates wins the battle in the air to come down with the ball, but Isaako shows great awareness and strength to strip Coates before he gets to ground.
A huge play in a big game from a guy who was in Queensland Cup wilderness this time last season.
Karl Oloapu – Wearing his maiden NRL starting jumper in Canterbury’s 20-18 win over the Gold Coast, Oloapu’s involvements in attack were limited but he made his mark in defence.
Giving up the best part of 20kgs on David Fifita, Oloapu made 28 tackles for two misses including a number of bruising shots on the much bigger man.
He also completly ironed out Kieran Foran to shut down a Titans left-edge movement.
Oloapu’s first-grade career is a work in progress but it’s pleasing to see such a diminuative, attacking player perform so well without the ball.
Raiders constructing points – The Canberra Raiders play with one of the more unorthodox attacking systems in the NRL.
That’s not to say they can’t produce repeatable, well-constructed actions with the ball in hand though.
This short-ball from Jamal Fogarty was one of my favourite moments from NRL Round 12.
With Josh Schuster exhibiting a bad habit of shooting out of the line, Fogarty punished him back on the inside. Straightening off his right foot, he finds Elliott Whitehead with a lovely held-up pass through the line that deserved a try.
A spectacular effort from Tom and Jake Trbojevic denied Whitehead on this occasion, but it’s a positive sign for Canberra’s growing attack and a worrying sign for Manly’s defence.
Schuster finished with one try and three assists in this one but was also directly responsible for both Raiders tries and this no-try. He is fast becoming a regular target for opposition attacking shapes on current form.