With Round 1 just around the corner, we’re taking notes on what to keep an eye on throughout the early rounds of the 2021 NRL season.
✍️: Can Joey and Luciano Leilua defend well enough on the same side of the field?
The Wests Tigers added James Roberts to their centre stocks for the 2021. The 27-year-old joins his fourth NRL club in the hopes of reigniting a career that once had ‘long-term State of Origin rep’ written all over it. Instead, he has barely been a chance at cracking the side since his three-game stint in 2018.
He’s a right-side specialist. Holding the ball under his right arm and using a left-foot step to get around his defender before putting on the afterburners, lining up on the right side makes best use of Roberts’ most potent attacking move. But Joey Leilua spent a lot of his time on the right side in 2020. He did so after an awful start to the season defending beside his brother, Luciano.
Now, with Roberts at the club and best-placed on the right side, a return to the left looks in store for Joey.
We haven’t played many games together before last year but we’ve done more on the same side this year. It’s good for us because we know each other’s game a lot and it creates options for us when we attack.
Luciano Leilua – The Daily Telegraph
Thoughts of what the pair could conjure up in attack is enough to make any footy fan giddy. However, having the brothers both defend on the same edge is a somewhat worrying prospect given how much they struggled to start last season. Round 2 against the Knights sticks out as an especially glaring example of why Michael Maguire ended up splitting the pair.
Luciano didn’t cover himself in glory offering up a poor effort on Mitchell Pearce in this one:
He later left a big gap behind the defensive line for Pearce to roll in a grubber after shooting out on the halfback:
Luciano did, however, become one of the best back rowers in the NRL on both sides of the ball by the end of the season.
One of Wests most consistent with the ball in hand and always a threat in attack, Luciano grew into his role as a key player at the club. There is hope that his growth as a regular first-grade starter will aid in a significant improvement when linking up again with Joey. But that improvement comes down to Joey more than it does Luciano.
This try in the same game played out too often in 2020. Joey offers a poor effort without his arms and the attacking player bounces off and over the line:
In fact, it happened against the same opposition later in the season:
Admittedly, defending beside Benji Marshall didn’t make things easy for Joey. The 35-year-old can still throw an excellent cutout pass and create opportunities in attack, but he looked every bit his age in defence last season.
Wests finished up as one of the worst defensive teams in the NRL conceding 25.3 points per game last season. It became the main cause of their finals drought being extended for yet another year. While the Leuliua brothers can excite in attack and the Tigers possess point-scoring talent across the park, cutting down on the points they let through will determine whether or not the drought ends in 2021.
How the Leilua brothers defend on their side of the field along with, most likely, Luke Brooks, will be a major focus throughout the early rounds of the upcoming season.