Recap the latest round of NRL action with the Repeat Set: Talking points, highlights, lowlights and the Play of the Round.
Here’s your Repeat Set for Round 23 of the 2021 NRL season:
- The most Broncos v Warriors game ever
- Coach of the Year Chat
- A round to remember for…South Sydney Rabbitohs
- A round to forget for…Wests Tigers
- Play of the Round: Sydney Roosters
- Graham Annesley’s Briefing Summary
The most Broncos v Warriors game ever
“This isn’t a great advertisement for rugby league” is one of many messages to have popped up on my phone throughout the Brisbane Broncos 24-22 win over the New Zealand Warriors. It’s hard to argue against with 22 errors and over 80 missed or ineffective tackles plaguing what was a back and forth affair.
Still, for the long-suffering rugby league fan that appreciates the chaos only rugby league can bring, it was one of the better games of the round.
Mind-boggling decisions from players and officials. Kickoffs out on the full only to be followed by a kick that missed touch on the ensuing penalty. Young players showing their age before offering a vision into the future with a moment of brilliance. These two teams have a habit of producing entertaining football even if it isn’t pretty.
But amongst all of the weird and wacky moments two below-average teams can produce in a close head-to-head encounter, there was a lot to like from both sides. Enough for the regular Repeat Set feature, ‘Things I Liked’, to be dedicated to this game alone.
Payne Haas
- 62 minutes
- 204 running metres
- 6 tackle breaks
- 33 tackles
- 1 huge effort to pressure Walsh on the field goal attempt
Freak.
Haas wasted no time in asserting his dominance and one carry, in particular, highlights how tough he is to handle.
His footwork allows him to skip past a rushing Josh Curran who knows he needs to get out on Hass as quickly as possible. Next is the show of strength as he brushes away Bayley Sironen with relative ease before running out of the Jazz Tevaga legs tackle. His speed gets him through the line and into the backfield where only a lack of support stops the Broncos from opening the scoring.
People his size shouldn’t be doing these things this quickly.
Chanel Harris-Tavita
If I had $1 for every time I’ve heard “I don’t know what people see in Harris-Tavita” I’d have purchased the club myself by now.
Perhaps it is because he isn’t the player he was hyped up to be coming through the grades. After all, the first thing most fans will have seen of him was a freakish scorpion kick while playing for the Junior Kiwis.
Harris-Tavita isn’t that sort of player – he’s better. The 22-year-old plays beyond his years and is already displaying the traits of becoming a very good five-eighth and partner for Shaun Johnson in 2022. He’s mature, patient, and prepared to action the game plan he has been given.
Josh Curran’s try in the 48th minute doesn’t happen without Harris-Tavita’s work in the build-up. Harris-Tavita charges at the line and catches Alex Glenn committing to the backdoor pass which allows Bunty Afoa to make half a break on a late overs line. That’s enough to destabilize the defensive line and Wayde Egan repeats the action from dummy half for Curran to crash over.
Later, it’s a nice tempo change to hold up the sliding defence that provides Peta Hiku with the space to do Piku things. You can see Harris-Tavita barking orders as the ball is played. He first holds it up and shapes to Jack Murchie. The second isn’t perfect with Jamayne Taunoa-Brown slightly ahead on his run. Still, Harris-Tavita uses him to turn Alex Glenn in. Chad Townsend is on the outside of his man by the time Harris-Tavita releases the pass which creates the width on the outside.
Neither play is flashy. They certainly don’t resemble the scorpion kick levels of skill and x-factor so many seem to demand from Harris-Tavita. But both are integral to try scoring actions and will become even more valuable as his partnership with Reece Walsh develops.
Milford Magic
The tricks aren’t coming off quite as often as they have done in the past, but Anthony Milford found a few in his hat on Sunday afternoon.
This is Milford at his best. After tipping Thomas Flegler onto the ball he sees the Warriors short on the long side and sweeps around the back of Albert Kelly. You can see him pointing Jordan Riki into the gap between Euan Aitken and Chanel Harris-Tavita.
Addin Fonua-Blake creeps in at B defender which forces Aitken onto Kelly. Harris-Tavita jams in on Riki as a result and Peta Hiku is forced into making a snap decision. The Warriors centre very nearly shuts the play down but Milford’s inside step as he takes possession provides him with the time and space to throw an absolute peach of a pass to Xavier Coates in the corner.
Beautiful.
Piku
Most clubs have a player like Peta Hiku: a guy that can pull off an incredible play one minute before you slap your face in frustration the next. They produce a cocktail of emotions every time they step onto the field. Some fans can take the good with the bad while others bemoan their regular selection in the side.
This comparison might only be relevant to English Premier League followers, but he’s the Erik Lamela of the Warriors. Lamela, for those that don’t know, scored one of the best goals of the year before being shown a red card later in the match in what could only be described as the most Erik Lamela performance of all time last season.
Fittingly, it was a silky football-like touch that provided us with a Piku moment on Sunday afternoon.
Chad Townsend takes the strange option of hitting the short side with the Broncos defence loaded up for numbers. Still, his pass finds Dallin Watene-Zelezniak with just enough time for the Warriors winger to put it on his foot.
Hiku’s filthy touch helps the ball through two defenders and he wins the race to dot it down.
He capped this game off with a ridiculous offload for Watene-Zelezniak to score which made for the latest instalment on the Hiku offload thread too.
Enjoy, Cowboys fans. And good luck…
Broncos Blueprint
The Broncos haven’t always put it together across the full 80 minutes this season but we’ve caught the odd glimpse of what 2022 could be like with Adam Reynold’s directing traffic.
Brisbane responded to Albert Kelly’s try in the 55th minute with a near-perfect kick return set.
Two one-out hitups off the ruck get them up to the 30-metre line before Payne Haas shrugs off defenders and picks up 20 metres and a quick play-the-ball.
With the defensive line still setting, Danny Levi engages the marker and feeds Anthony Milford who is now running at a flat-footed Josh Curran. Stepping off his left foot at pace and releasing an offload, Herbie Farnworth searches further up the field on the second phase.
Haas strikes fear into 15 NRL defences as he throws a lovely pass to Albert Kelly who explores the right edge. Adding a pass has been something Haas appears to be working on this season. From a technical viewpoint, this looks brilliant.
With the defence still lacking line speed, Milford adds some trickery and shapes to kick. He shovels the ball onto Tesi Niu out the back of a block but his ball goes to the ground and the Warriors are let off the hook.
There is a lot for the Broncos to be encouraged about here, though. This is the blueprint for the rest of their 2021 season and possibly acts as a preview for a much-improved and far more consistent 2022 campaign.
Coach of the Year Chat
I put Trent Robinson 7th in my Coach of the Year rankings after Round 16…
In my defence, the Sydney Roosters had just been thumped 46-0 by the Melbourne Storm and Robinson’s decision to play Joseph Suaalii on the wing backfired spectacularly. I said that it didn’t “feel like his best season” at the time and would like to take it all back.
If not for Craig Bellamy’s Storm inevitably breaking the NRL record for most consecutive wins on his way to yet another Minor Premiership, Robinson would be odds-on to win Coach of the Year. Perhaps he still should be?
The award comes down to how you measure a coach’s performance. Is winning with the best team in the competition better than dragging an injury-ravaged squad, that most expected to fall away into obscurity, into the Top 4?
Robinson has the Roosters within touching distance of a second-chance finals spot despite losing Luke Keary, Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend for most or all of the season. Brett Morris, Lindsay Collins, Sam Verrills, Billy Smith, Adam Keighran, Lachlan Lam and Victor Radley have also missed considerable chunks of the year.
Sam Walker wasn’t meant to play at all this year and he has looked right at home as a key playmaker with the NRL’s 5th-best attack scoring 26.3 points per game. Drew Hutchison has been one of the most surprising players of the season too.
Defensively, only the Panthers, Storm and Eels have conceded fewer than the Roosters’ 19 points per game. Cohesion is a crucial factor of good team defence, but despite moving players in and out of the lineup every week, and what feels like in the middle of every game, their systems keep them from capitulating without the ball.
This group is so well-drilled that losing players to injury during the game doesn’t seem to phase them. Different faces pop up in unfamiliar parts of the field, but the same systems and structures remain. While the Roosters are stacked with talent and still have some handy players running around for them as the injuries pile up, Robinson’s influence is undeniable.
I’ve changed my mind. He’s my Coach of the Year.
A round to remember for…
It was billed as one of the biggest games of the NRL season and Penrith Panthers v South Sydney Rabbitohs produced the goods.
While Nathan Cleary suffocated the Rabbitohs into submission to earn the Panthers their 25-12 win, Wayne Bennett will take a lot of positives out of the 80 minutes.
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