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.
Cowboys variety in attack
It took 14 weeks longer than Todd Payten or North Queensland fans would’ve liked, but we finally saw the good version of the Cowboys take the field in NRL Round 14.
All the hallmarks of last year’s successfull campaign were on display as the Cowboys ambushed the Melbourne Storm on Sunday afternoon.
Their kick chase was superb.
Valentine Holmes on the left and Coen Hess, Heilum Luki and Peta Hiku on the right consistently won the race to the ball to jam Melbourne’s back three as they took possession.
They’re seemingly incidental moments in isolation, but the impact of those efforts became clear throughout the course of the match.
Thanks to their efforts in the kick chase, North Queensland were able to lock-in defensively and win the yardage battle. FoxSports Lab is down so I don’t have access to the territory percentages, but I’d guess that 60% of the game (or more) was played in Melbourne’s half.
With the field position they earned for themselves, Scott Drinkwater, Tom Dearden and Chad Townsend piled on the points with great variety in NRL Round 14.
They threw out the back of shape, threw over the top, dropped players back against the grain or played short and straight at the line.
Faced with so much variation, Melbourne had no answers.
Holmes’ first try is a good example, starting with a Griffin Naeme settler towards the posts.
Naeme engages Eli Katoa in the line and keeps his feet to invite Nelson Asofa-Solomona into the tackle too. Asofa-Solomona is late to peel and can be seen filling in for Katoa down the short side:
Knowing their edge is short for numbers, Jahrome Hughes and Reimis Smith fly off their line on the following tackle.
Tom Dearden is always the target here and Hughes knows it:
He gets to the five-eighth in time but some lovely footwork beats him back on the inside. There’s not much more Hughes could’ve done here, but at the very least he’s slowed down the Cowboys attack.
Smith has followed his halfback in and jams on Luciano Leilua, cutting off Dearden’s short ball option. Again, it’s textbook defence when faced with an overlap down the short side.
Unfortunately, Will Warbrick isn’t on the same page.
He should’ve been up and in with Smith to jam on Scott Drinkwater, but instead he holds his width worrying about the two Cowboys on his outside. In his indecision, Warbrick gives Drinkwater just enough time to receive the pass from Dearden and get in behind the line to link with Holmes out wide.
It was a similar story on the other edge.
Again, Dearden has some joy stepping back inside the jamming defence – this time beating Grant Anderson and Asofa-Solomona to reset near the right post:
Melbourne’s short side is now horribly disjointed.
Asofa-Solomona is defending where Cameron Munster should be and the Cowboys have the speed advantage in a four-on-four situation between the uprights and the corner post.
Identifying the danger, Anderson and Xavier Coates both jam in.
Melbourne’s centre and wing pairing work well in unision this time, but they’re let down by Asofa-Solomona at three-man.The big prop is slow off his line which gives Townsend time to straighten the attack.
Skipping to the outside of Trent Loiero and into the pocket of space left by Asofa-Solomona, Townsend invites Anderson and Coates to jam in. Having created the overlap, Townsend still has time to float a pass over the top for Semi Valemei to complete his hat-trick.
Growing in confidence with the ball in hand, the Cowboys began to attack from further out.
By shifting the ball in yardage, North Queensland invited Melbourne to slide out rather than jam in when defending their edges – just as the Cowboys intended.
A three-pass shift from the right post ends up in the hands of Drinkwater on the left edge.
With room to work with in behind them, Melbourne’s right edge of Hughes, Smith and Warbrick begin to back pedal, herding North Queensland towards the sideline.
They’re forced to stop and consider Leilua’s lead decoy when Drinkwater straightens the attack though, and when the pass goes out the back both Smith and Hughes turn and chase, giving up their inside shoulders:
They’re in no position to make a good stop on Taulagi when Holmes drops him back underneath, and the Cowboys are in again.
Taulagi’s second try came courtesy of a variation on the same yardage shift.
It’s Jamayne Taunoa-Brown at pivot this time, and he doesn’t engage the defence quite like Townsend in the previous action.
As a result, Melbourne’s right edge is released earlier and would’ve had things under control if they’d slid out and herded the Cowboys to the touchline.
Under pressure and fatigue though, and perhaps thinking about Taulagi’s earlier try, Smith decides to jam in:
It’s the wrong option, and a short pass to Holmes punishes the mistake to send Taulagi into the backfield for a double.
To finish with 45 points suggests the Cowboys produced something special in attack to beat the Melbourne Storm in NRL Round 14. In reality, the points came late in the piece on the back of their efforts without the ball – a blueprint that carried North Queensland to a preliminary final last season.
They won all the little contests throughout the game to apply pressure and fatigue to Melbourne’s defence. Some slight variations on some similar shapes – and the positive involvements of their key attacking players – piled on the points from there.
Could this be a turned-the-corner moment for the Cowboys in season 2023?
There’s Always Next Week For…
… the Wests Tigers
When Luke Brooks slotted a field-goal from 30 metres out in the 75th minute, it looked like the Tigers were home.
They executed their field-goal set perfectly – something we havent said about Wests for a long time.
Three carries through the middle compressed Canberra’s defence before some shape on the left edge saw John Bateman work over halfway. Another shift to the right this time sent Starford To’a a further 20 metres downfield and in position for Brooks to have a shot on the last, which he nailed.
All they needed to do from there was hold the footy for two sets and defend another two in yardage.
Instead, David Nofoaluma made a mistake on the short kick-off to hand possession back to Canberra. It was an inexcusable error from one of Wests most experienced players given the context of the game, and we all could feel what was coming next.
Isaiah Papali’i’s conceded penalty for hitting Jamal Fogarty’s legs five tackles later was a tough pill to swallow. It was a desperate and commendable effort, but he got it wrong and Wests paid the price.
The positives for Tim Sheens in the review will be focussed around Wests ability to fight their way back into the game. They played a near-perfect final 10 minutes and deserved to be in front with minutes to go, despite being on the wrong end of a few refereeing howlers.
The scorebord doesn’t suggest so, but this was another step in the right direction for the Tigers in 2023.
NRL Round 14 Shout-Outs
Jayden Sullivan – He’s yet to produce a complete performance but it’s easy to see why Jayden Sullivan is climbing up the pecking order at St George-Illawarra.
He’s got wonderful ballplaying instincts and he had a minor but very important role to play in Mikaele Ravalawa’s first try in Round 14.
Watch his body movement as Sullivan catches and passes down the right edge here:
He’s in possession for less than half-a-second, but he makes that time count.
By straightening off his right foot and turning his body inwards, Sullivan engages both Jarome Luai and Izack Tago in the line. Both Panthers plant their feet to consider the lead runner and that fraction of a second is what Ravalawa needs to go over in the corner.
Any NRL half can catch and pass out the back of shape.
Only the good ones manipulate a defensive line like this.
Kurtis Morrin – He’s still a raw NRL prospect but Kurtis Morrin had some pleasing involvements through the middle of the field for Canterbury on Sunday.
He’s a natural ballplayer and looked ultra comfortable distributing through the middle of the field in yardage sets. He’s got good legspeed and engages defenders with his pace before shovelling the pass along.
The 19 tackles for five misses is a reminder that he’s still a work in progress at NRL level, but Canterbury have a good one on their hands in Morrin in a role they are yet to fill.
Corey Oates – We haven’t seen him since NRL Round 8 but Corey Oates made his return known for the Brisbane Broncos on Saturday night:
- 15 runs
- 237 run metres (46 post-contact)
- 3 linebreaks
- 1 try assist
- 5 tackle busts
- 9 tackles, 1 miss
It’s good to have the big fella back.