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.
Melbourne playing to a plan
Jase has already paid tribute to the work of Harry Grant at dummy-half on Sunday afternoon.
He was instrumental in Melbourne’s runaway win over Cronulla in NRL Round 15, terrorising ruck defenders and compressing the defence through the middle to create the spaces out wide.
Thanks to Grant’s influence from behind the play-the-ball, the Storm were able to execute an effective gameplan in attack. There was clear intent from Melbourne to target the spaces around Nicho Hynes* and Matt Moylan on the edges, either isolating them one-on-one in good-ball or testing them in yardage and playing off the back of it.
*This isn’t the first time Hynes has been a target in defence this season. Luke Keary spoke about it way back in Round 7 when the Roosters tested his positioning and decision making in repeat efforts.
In NRL Round 15, that tactic produced five well-worked Melbourne Storm tries.
The first looked like some individual brilliance from Grant, but it started one tackle earlier from a midfield play-the-ball.
Jahrome Hughes is at first-receiver on the left edge while Christian Welch comes off the back fence to get the attention of Briton Nikora at four-man:
The intent of Welch’s run forces Nikora to bite, leaving Hynes in an ugly position one channel wider. Knowing he’s in trouble, Hynes backpedals to buy himself time to make the tackle so Trent Loiero eats up the free metres to win a quick play-the-ball for his team.
The Sharks defensive line is now in tatters.
Just three defenders – including the diminutive Blayke Brailey – cover the space between the tramlines, which is an indicator for Grant to run.
Darting out from behind the ruck, Grant engages the A-defender to isolate Tui Kamikamica onto Brailey under the posts:
Knowing he’s created a favourable matchup, Grant stays in the frame. He wraps around his front rower to receive the offload, scoring a try that began two tackles earlier by targetting the spaces around Hynes in yardage.
The Storm wasted no time going back to the well.
Again from a midfield play-the-ball, Hughes slots into first-receiver while Munster lurks out the back. Hughes gets at Nikora’s inside shoulder this time while Loiero engages Hynes as the three-in defender:
By the time the pass goes to Munster, Hynes is horribly out of position and can’t make a play on the Storm five-eighth.
Munster pours into the available space and has just enough room to poke through the line and flick an offload away to Xavier Coates on the paint.
Two similar set up shapes.
Two perfectly executed tries.
Hughes and Munster combined beautifully in this one. They played to a plan on both sides of the ruck, interchanging between first- and second-receiver to present a variety of shapes to the defence.
Having had some joy around Hynes on the left edge, Melbourne ran in another three second half tries through the spaces around Moylan on the right.
The shape Melbourne present with here is a nightmare for even the best defensive units:
Tom Eisenhuth sits in the pocket and prevents Cameron McInnes (at A-defender) from applying inside pressure to Munster. You can see McInnes pointing at Eisenhuth as Munster skips across his face to engage Teig Wilton.
It’s an unfavourable matchup for Wilton and Moylan knows it. He also knows that Hughes is sweeping out the back where Melbourne have a four-on-three advantage – an advantage that includes the 115kg Nelson Asofa-Solomona.
Left with two difficult decisions, Moylan makes neither and King strolls through untouched.
The influence of Asofa-Solomona spotting up on the edge in NRL Round 15 was palpable. I spoke earlier in the year about Melbourne using him in different areas on the field, and the lead up to Reimis Smith’s try is a perfect example.
Shifting from the left tram-line in good field position, the Storm send big NAS straight at Moylan on the right edge.
That tackle plays out exactly how you’d expect:
Asofa-Solomona swats Moylan aside with ease to pour into the backfield. Ronalda Mulitalo is forced into the tackle as the Sharks scramble, leaving their left edge short for numbers on the following play.
From behind the ruck, Grant identifies the disruption and plays quickly to his halfback on the short side:
An early ball from Hughes gets Smith in a one-on-one situation with Moylan who, defending out of position, can’t make the stop on a much bigger man for the second time in this passage.
Saving his best work for last, Munster played to the same principles as with King’s try to secure the half-century for his team.
It’s Wade Graham as the four-in defender this time and Munster knows he has him for speed.
He fakes twice back inside to hold up the ruck defence before exploding to Graham’s outside shoulder. Moylan is left in no-man’s land with Munster on his inside and Hughes outside him, and he can’t make a play at either man when the offload comes through the line.
Try time.
Few teams in the NRL play to a plan as well as the Melbourne Storm can.
Their preparation and attention to detail is legendary, and they’ve got the cattle in Grant, Munster and Hughes to execute a gameplan effectively.
To put 54 rugby league points on the scoreboard suggests that Cronulla were poor across the park, but in reality those points were the product of a ruthlessly efficient gameplan in attack. Melbourne found a weakness or two in Cronulla’s line and exploited them from start to finish.
It’s easy to forget that they lost 45-20 against North Queensland this time last week.
They’ve endured an inconsistent start to the regular season but performances like this are never far away for Craig Bellamy’s Melbourne Storm.
Always Next Week For…
… the South Sydney Rabbitohs
Full credit to St George Illawarra who turned up ready to play in NRL Round 15.
Their forward pack in particular really stood up to make the most of a winnable game on Saturday afternoon.
It’s no coincidence that the Dragons pack had one of its better performances with Blake Lawrie back in the side. He mightn’t light up the stats sheet every week but he gets through a mountain of work and was the guy to end Souths unlikely comeback in the dying seconds.
Knowing South Sydney have opened up the right edge for an early shift, Lawrie flies off the line and ends up making the game-winning tackle on Siliva Havili. That’s a big effort from a prop at the end of his stint and just one game back from injury.
For the Rabbitohs, it’s easy to find excuses in this one but Jason Demetriou’s comments in the post-match sums it up best.
“We’ve got a defensive process that we know and we’re just not living that at the moment.”
“There’s a bit of fatigue in us. We get a bye now, come back fresh… I’m not worried about it, but the bye’s come at a good time that’s for sure.”
The Rabbitohs have had endured a difficult start to the 2023 regular season. Their opening draw ranked amoungst the toughest in the NRL and they’ve been without key players every other week.
To be conceding roughly 14 points per game a month ago was a supreme effort, but in the last four weeks that number has exploded to 33.25.
South Sydney have been looking for a rest for a while now, and they get it next week.
NRL Round 15 Shout-Outs
Reuben Garrick
Named out of position and on Manly’s quieter edge, there were fears that Garrick might go wasted in the centres in NRL Round 15.
Those fears disappeared right around the time Garrick produced this specialist centre move to put Jason Saab away for his second.
The in-and-away and that back-handed flick pass are purpose built for the centre position. Euan Aitken isn’t the quickest across the ground but he’s seen enough in his 170 NRL games to handle his opposite man one-on-one more often than not.
It’s only one game so we won’t get ahead of ourselves just yet, but the early signs suggest this could end up a more permanent move for Garrick and the Sea Eagles.
Shaun Johnson
This is the best pass I’ve seen in the 2023 NRL season so far.
It’s everything Shaun Johnson is good at.
The speed to get over the ad-line, the sleight-of-hand to engage a specific defender (sorry Elliott Whitehead) and the pass execution to throw a bullet across the face of two Raiders and onto Luke Metcalf’s chest.
It’s SJ’s world in ‘23 and we’re just living in it.
Credit must go to Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad for his involvement here too. He’s still developing his passing game, but that angled run from first-receiver engages the defence and creates the opportunity for Johnson to throw the final pass.
Kodi Nikorima
Shaun Johnson’s assist for Luke Metcalf might’ve been the best pass I’ve seen this year, but this one from Kodi Nikorima was right up there too.
We saw a few playmakers have success with this cut-out pass on the edge in NRL Round 15.
Reece Walsh found Selwyn Cobbo with a beauty against the Knights, and then Newcastle fired right back when Jackson Hastings skipped Kalyn Ponga in the backline to put Dane Gagai and Dom Young into space. Lachlan Ilias threw a similar pass in the lead up to Richie Kennar’s try against the Dragons, too.
Just like with the fake-block shape we’re seeing more of lately, the best attacking teams in the NRL are those who present variety on traditional or expected shapes.
The closeness of the 2023 competition is forcing teams to try something a little different this year, and it’s making for great viewing and even better content.
Keep an eye out for a fake-block feature in the coming weeks.
Karl Oloapu
I had my very own “holy shit” moment on Monday afternoon when the 18 year old five-eighth produced his first highlight reel moment in the NRL:
That is, quite frankly, outrageous.
Oloapu leaves no less than five Eels defenders in his wake in this passage, eventually linking with Matt Burton to score the Bulldogs first points.
Canterbury are struggling right now under the weight of injuries and inexperience. The signs of a brighter future are there to see, though.
Stay patient, Doggies fans. It’s coming.