Jason and Oscar are linking up to combine Repeat Set and Take the Two to recap an exciting Week 1 of the NRL Finals.
Here’s your Repeat Set for Week 1 of the 2021 NRL season:
- How Melbourne handled Trbojevic (again)
- Rabbitohs beat Panthers at their own game
- There’s always next season for…
- 7th – Newcastle Knights
- 8th – Gold Coast Titans
- Play(s) of the Round
- Sydney Roosters: James Tedesco
- Newcastle Knights: Kalyn Ponga
How Melbourne handled Trbojevic (again)
There was some debate over how well the Melbourne Storm handled Tom Trbojevic when the two teams last met in Round 21. The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles fullback still handed out two try assists in that loss while plenty pointed to refereeing-related incidents as the reason for defeat more than Melbourne’s defensive structure. However, Week 1 of the finals left no doubt that Craig Bellamy’s plan to limit Trbojevic’s influence is a winner with the Storm keeping him quiet for the full 80 minutes.
Trbojevic averages 36.7 touches per game this season but finished with only 20 on Friday night. The man himself admitted that he didn’t involve himself in the game enough. However, when he did, Melbourne’s defensive scheme had him covered.
We’re going over a little bit of old ground here. I talked about Melbourne’s defence after their Round 21 win but they’ve since perfected it and it is the primary reason – along with their excellent attack – behind Friday night’s result.
They showed their hand in the very first set of the game.
Manly looked to complete what is their usual exit set from the kickoff: Two or three charges through the middle before a swing to the left edge through the Trbojevic brothers. Most teams know it is coming, but Melbourne defended the first shift well and it set the table for the match.
The right edge starts to shuffle backwards as soon as Trbojevic takes possession out the back. George Jennings barely in the shot by the time Jahrome Hughes catches up to make a tackle on Trbojevic.
The Storm built their lead and added a few dark arts to the ruck to slow things down in the middle as the Sea Eagles tried to work out of their own end. Relying on their wide shifts more than ever given the slow play through the middle, Trbojevic and company couldn’t find a way around the defensive line. Again, as Trbojevic took the ball a little bit wider this time, Hughes and Reimis Smith gave him the space forward while running him into a teammate and forcing him to take the tackle.
Manly didn’t have a lot of success across their 19 tackles inside the Melbourne 20-metre line either.
Line speed defending the goal line is hardly a strategy unique to the Storm, but you can see how committed they are to the game plan when they’re still getting off their line at speed while leading 18-0. Once the ball moves past the middle of the field, Hughes is up and in the face of Kieran Foran. Melbourne then overloads the short side where Trbojevic is parked and forces Manly into a settler.
The set ends with a Manly try. Daly Cherry-Evans hung one up for Jason Saab to collect in the corner. However, Craig Bellamy will cop that so long as the defence completes their job in the build-up.
Melbourne’s defensive strategy and commitment to it across the match culminated in a try-saver just as the Sea Eagles started to give themselves a chance to think about a comeback.
Brad Parker runs an interesting line in behind Josh Schuster but the defence doesn’t bite. Their bite comes once Trbojevic takes possession. Smith is a little bit indecisive but is saved by Hughes and Jennings tracking back as they have done all game. Jennings, in particular, tracks back at speed, giving Trbojevic the metres while allowing Smith to catch up. As Smith makes a desperate legs tackle, Jennings is able to move out to Reuben Garrick who isn’t presented with the space he normally would be on these shifts.
Most teams have jammed in on Trbojevic when Jennings and company started to track backwards. Trbojevic’s hands are good enough to get the ball wide more often than not leaving Garrick with acres of space to make his move. He’d typically only have the fullback to beat, and that fullback is on his bike getting across the field and often beaten on the inside. Here, the Storm have cut down Garrick’s space on the edge, pushed him towards the sideline, and Papenhuyzen has been given the time to set himself defensively.
No team has been able to control Trbojevic quite like the Storm this year. He is playing out one of the best individual seasons in NRL history, but has struggled for success against Melbourne’s defensive scheme.
Has Bellamy provided the rest of the competition with a blueprint moving forward?
Des Hasler and the Sea Eagles will make adjustments. Dropping a few players underneath and using Trbojevic as an inside option (we saw this a couple of times in Week 1) are the sort of actions likely to be introduced for their match against the Sea Eagles. After expecting to see a few adjustments on Friday night, Manly was under the pump early and perhaps moved away from a more varied game plan in the search of points. It’s going to be interesting to see how they approach their time with the ball this week.
Rabbitohs beat Panthers at their own game
Against a trend of high-scoring wins posted during the regular season, South Sydney beat Penrith at their own game on Saturday night.
In a year where Penrith have dominated through the middle and built pressure in attack through the boot of their halfback, they had no answers to a South Sydney side who did exactly that on Saturday night. Playing behind a dominant forward pack, Adam Reynolds consistently took the right options in attack while his teammates defended their line with a desperation we hadn’t yet seen in 2021.
In the second half Penrith spent almost nine minutes inside Souths’ 20m line but couldn’t turn the field position into points. A combination of good line speed and an effective sliding defensive system cut off Penrith’s time with the ball and continually herded them towards the sidelines.
Souths’ right edge is up in the face of Jarome Luai and Viliame Kikau here, giving the big Fijian no time to wind up or release the pass. Penrith get the ball back and immediately swing it to the far edge to Charlie Staines, but no less than four Rabbitohs are there in cover. We’ve seen Staines score in these actions by cranking back infield off the right foot but South Sydney have it covered and manage to wrap Stephen Crichton up near the posts.
Penrith are just denied on both edges in this play and with Souths under enormous pressure Nathan Cleary sets up to come back to the left.
Again Souths’ line speed is good as they push up on Cleary, but as he drifts across-field with that trademark tempo-changing run the overlap appears. Luai gets the ball with a three-on-two situation but Jaxon Paulo and Campbell Graham don’t panic. Instead of jamming in as we so often see, Paulo keeps tracking outwards and trusts Graham to do his job on the inside. Luai throws long to Brian To’o who heads for the corner but Paulo has it covered which forces To’o back infield – and into the cover defence of Graham and Reynolds.
In just two tackles the Panthers searched from the left edge, over to the right, and back to the left again only to find multiple Rabbitohs turning up in defence. We haven’t seen Souths defend with this kind of intensity all season, just as we haven’t seen Penrith repeatedly fail to score in actions like these throughout 2021. They have consistently been one of the better attacking teams this season but had no answers to the pressure South Sydney managed to apply with their defence – something we are again more used to seeing from the Panthers themselves.
Penrith’s elite defensive systems often frustrate teams into mistakes or poor decisions just as the Rabbitohs did on this occasion. If Luai had his time over again he might’ve gone through the hands instead of throwing long to To’o here which allowed the defence to slide quickly. He also mightn’t have done it on tackle zero. We don’t often see Penrith get these moments wrong, while in contrast the Rabbitohs executed two tries themselves in similar actions.
With their try line defended, Souths went to work through the middle. Tom Burgess (212 meters, 80m in post-contact) in particular was enormous off the bench and did what James Fisher-Harris has done for Penrith all year – steamrolled his team upfield and laid a platform for Cleary to work his magic. On Saturday it was Reynolds’ turn.
In the lead up to Jaxson Paulo’s match winning try, the Rabbitohs tried this one on without success.
The key here is Tevita Pangai Jr flying out of the line very early to cut off Reynolds’ time.
It prevents Reynolds from taking a few steps with the ball to link with his forward runners (Burgess and Keaon Koloamatangi in this instance) and forces him to simply catch-and-pass out the back to Cody Walker instead. Penrith are allowed to slide in defence as a result and by the time Blake Taafe takes possession Matt Burton is there to wrap him up.
It takes Reynolds just one tackle to adjust accordingly.
From a similar field position, Damien Cook takes a few steps out of half this time before firing a long pass to Reynolds who is positioned a little wider from the ruck – two adjustments to the previous play that immediately give Reynolds more room to ballplay. Holding the ball out in front, Reynolds motions to drop Burgess and Koloamatangi under this time before creating the overlap for Taafe and then Paulo in the corner.
Clutch.
Cleary has been pulling apart defensive lines like this all season. He reacts to how the defence is moving and regularly designs actions to expose those movements. And while Reynolds mightn’t be the ball runner Cleary is, he is just as crafty when it comes to breaking down the opposition defence.
This was all class from the veteran halfback and from there he closed the game out with his boot. The drop-out Reynolds forced with 10 to go when Crichton was up in the line, yet another action we’ve seen Cleary use to great effect this season and another example of South Sydney beating Penrith at their own game in this one.
It’s only the second match Souths have won all season while scoring less than 20 points, and although it wasn’t perfect, the timing of it to earn a week off before the prelims is an invaluable reward. Glory Glory.
There’s Always Next Season For…
7th – Knights
In a season where the Knights have struggled to create repeatable scoring actions in attack, Sunday’s game serves as an apt summation of their form this year. Going down 28-20 against Parramatta in a see-sawing contest, the Knights had their chances in attack but couldn’t convert their opportunities consistently enough.