Recap the latest round of NRL action with the Repeat Set: Talking points, highlights, lowlights and the Play of the Round.
A split round in the NRL means we’re splitting Take the Two and Repeat Set in half. A split round also means State of Origin is just around the corner so keep an eye out for our Game 1 preview which is free for all this week.
Here’s Take your Repeat Set for Round 13 of the 2021 NRL season:
- Dufty’s Dragons
- There’s always next week for…Penrith Panthers
- Play of the Round: Melbourne Storm
Dufty’s Dragons
Regular readers know Matthew Dufty isn’t very high up on my list of NRL fullbacks. It was only a month ago that I had him in the third tier of #1’s, and despite not yet being prepared to move Dufty up to Tier 2, I can’t help but wonder what it is the St. George-Illawarra Dragons are thinking right now…
I didn’t disagree with their attempt to sign Nicho Hynes in Dufty’s place for 2022 and beyond. The variation Hynes brings to an attack is something that could really help Ben Hunt and he would give the Dragons an option at five-eighth if they don’t re-sign Corey Norman beyond this season. However, Hynes is headed to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Dragons are back to the drawing board.
Remarkably, and even more so after his outrageous display on Thursday night, Dufty’s name still does not appear on that board. One senior Dragons official didn’t hold back when asked about Dufty’s contract situation following their thrashing of the Brisbane Broncos:
“He was great in attack but let’s be honest, it was like an under 20s game. Matt is a good kid and he is dynamic when the opposition don’t want to tackle him as was the case last night. But the bottom line is that his defence just isn’t up to the standard you want if you are trying to win a premiership. The fact that no other clubs have made him an offer shows that we are not alone in that thinking.”
Dufty defence “isn’t up to the standard you want if you are trying to win a premiership.”
That’s a fair enough assessment.
He was out of position for Brisbane’s first try in Round 13 and offered little resistance when standing in front of TC Robati as the Broncos backrower stormed over for his second. Dufty is repeatedly found out when defending close to the line and the top teams in the NRL often work to positions on the field to expose him. There is no arguing against Dufty’s below-par defence and he’s often a net-negative once you remove his defensive lapses from his attacking stats at the end of 80 minutes.
Dufty’s is great in attack, but, again, it’s fair to say that he was made to look exceptionally good in a match that was “like an under 20s game.”
His first try assist came courtesy of a reserve grade calibre defensive read by Alex Glenn who provided Dufty with a huge hole to skip through before feeding Jack Bird to score.
The Broncos defence for Dufty’s second try assist is an eye-sore. No line speed and no inside pressure give the Dragons a four-on-three advantage and Dufty sends Gerard Beale over the line untouched. He had Mikaele Ravalawa unmarked on the wing if he wanted him too.
Jamayne Isaako’s effort that allowed Dufty to score just before halftime may see him dropped for Round 14 it was that bad.
However, what is the alternative for the Dragons here?
It appears as though they are prepared to roll the dice and run Cody Ramsey at fullback in 2022 if they can’t find a suitable replacement. The Cody Ramsey that has exactly the same issues in defence and yardage as Dufty, but nowhere near the output in attack. Perhaps Zac Lomax is an option, but that hasn’t rated much of a mention so far in these discussions.
I’ve been critical of Dufty in attack and how predictable his long-ball becomes at times. While an outing against this Broncos defence isn’t the sort you base a recruitment decision on, he did pull a few different things out of his bag in Round 13 that should be considered.
The return of Jack de Belin could have a massive impact on Dufty’s influence. Having an extra ball-player in the middle allows Dufty to get a little bit wider and with more room to move. On this one, he does a good job of straightening the attack to give Ramsey free passage to the corner.
Dufty and de Belin are again involved five minutes later. After de Belin engages the line and drags Albert Kelly into the middle, Dufty’s speed is more than enough to get on the outside of his man and engage the two-in defender. It’s a simple short ball to Josh Kerr to score from there.
This one is absolutely down to Ravalawa’s freakish strength and finishing ability more than it is Dufty, but the Dragons fullback still needs to make the pass. Having played short and thrown some doubt into the defensive line, Dufty is able to go back to the tried and tested long-ball which Ravalawa manages to finish.
Clubs can outsmart themselves sometimes and this looks as though it could be one of those occasions for the Dragons.
They’re not in premiership contention. It’s unlikely the Dragons truly compete for a spot in the NRL Grand Final over the next two seasons. However, Dufty’s ability in attack can help them become a consistent finals side, making it an attractive destination for premiership-contending fullbacks in the future. Defensive issues or not, the Dragons, with the list they have available to them right now and currently contracted for 2022, are a better side with Dufty in it.
~ Jason
There’s Always Next Week For…
… the Penrith Panthers.
I’m not sure how many chances I’ll get to put Penrith in this segment, so here we are.
Credit must go to the Tigers for putting together an 80 minute performance on both sides of the ball, but there were plenty of excuses for the Panthers on Friday night. Rather than cop out with the ‘Penrith had eight players missing’ throwaway line, let’s take a look at where it really went wrong for the Panthers in Round 13.
Ivan Cleary said in the post-match that the thing he was “worried about going into the game was cohesion in attack [and] that’s pretty much how it turned out.” Penrith had their fair share of the ball (48%) and actually earnt more play-the-balls in attacking territory than the Tigers (41 to 26) but couldn’t turn those chances into points.
From their opening few sets, it was clear that Tyrone May and Matt Burton were trying to play the same style of footy Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai have for the past 18 months – and it just didn’t work. May slotted into first receiver through the middle and Burton lurked down that left edge, but the ball didn’t move as smoothly across-field as usual – to be expected – and the Tigers slid accordingly.
In Penrith’s first attacking set of the game Mitch Kenny sent four forwards through the middle third before Burton kicked a grubber dead in the in-goal on the last. The Tigers went 90 metres in the following set.
So often we talk about the skill and execution of Penrith and their attacking shapes while the work in the lead up goes unnoticed. With 21 forced drop-outs between them already this year, Cleary and Luai have become elite at building pressure and fatigue in defence systems before pulling the trigger in attack. Running slick set pieces is a lot easier when you’re doing it at exhausted defenders limping off their own try line and Burton’s kick here might’ve been the difference between another highlight moment for Penrith’s left edge and a seven-tackle set for Wests.
Later in the piece, again it was Burton failing to make the most of some good field position.
A typically ferocious carry from James Fisher-Harris in the lead up compressed the Tigers’ defence and had them retreating on their own goal line. Kenny knows it’s time to feed that lethal left edge and shifts it to Burton with shape out wide. It looks good to begin with – Burton holds the ball out in front to keep the defence guessing while Stephen Crichton runs a cracking lead line off Burton’s hip which prevents Wests from sliding out. You’d back Viliame Kikau in with this kind of run up every day of the week as he swoops round the back but Burton’s pass misses the mark and Wests are off the hook.
Penrith (and Canterbury) fans – I’m not ‘Burton-bashing’ here.
He is an exceptional talent and has a long NRL career ahead of him, but in Round 13 and in a new role within the team, Burton didn’t quite measure up. He wasn’t the only one, however. Closer to the ruck, the decision making of Mitch Kenny also let the Panthers down in a few key moments in attack.
Afforded another chance to attack the line late in the first half, Burton and May linked nicely on this occasion to shift the ball across-field and search down the right edge. Fisher-Harris takes the ball into the defence with a forward partner in tow which is more than enough to hold the Tigers’ up as Penrith shift sideways. His work done, Fisher-Harris passes out the back to Kenny who now has Dylan Edwards, Paul Momirovski and Charlie Staines (out of frame) with just a lonely David Nofoaluma to contend with. Instead, Kenny plays short to Scott Sorensen and the Tigers reset.
Perhaps realising the opportunity he had just missed, Kenny jumps into dummy-half and shovels the ball to his fullback on the very next play.
It just wasn’t on.
By the time Edwards gets the ball, Momirovski has already run through as a not-so-convincing decoy and the Tigers have slid to put four defenders between Edwards and the try line. Edward’s rushed grubber kick goes straight into Jacob Liddle’s legs before popping up into his lap and the Tigers go the length just before halftime, turning what could have been six points for Penrith into another six for Wests. We don’t see twelve-point turnarounds like this from the top sides very often because they are so good at converting momentum and field position into points. Kenny needed to count the numbers here and realise Edwards was more than accounted for by Wests’ defence down that short side on the last.
I need to give a shoutout to Jase’s man here after Fisher-Harris turned in an inspired 66 minute performance as stand-in skipper on Friday night. He trucked it up tirelessly through the middle and was Penrith’s most likely forward for most of the match. He was involved in both of the ‘almost moments’ I’ve covered already in this piece and he created another half-opportunity in the second half that his teammates again couldn’t convert into points.
If the Panthers scored here, this game might’ve turned out very different.
A few quick tries early in the second half could have been enough to unsettle the Tigers and give Penrith a sniff. Instead, when Fisher-Harris busts the line and offloads to send the Panthers upfield, Burton jumps into dummy-half and feeds Kikau the ball on the last. The Tigers were scrambling. They couldn’t have had any more than four or five defenders on the open side, and most of those would have been offside. Instead, Burton went left to his backrower and Daine Laurie wrapped Kikau up with a legs tackle to shut it all down.
This is what ‘Penrith missing eight players’ looks like in the flesh. Poor decisions made at the ruck, lines slightly mistimed or passes slightly off the mark are all qualities we have not associated with the Panthers in recent memory because of the continuity and consistency they’ve been afforded to play with. Cleary and Luai have been a reliable constant for Penrith for the best part of two years and it shows in the footy they’ve played. Putting new players in new positions and asking them to do a new job requires time to adjust, and we saw 80 minutes of adjusting from Ivan Cleary’s men on Friday night. I’m expecting a much simpler and smoother approach from them next time around.
~ Oscar
Play of the Round
Brandon Smith is a very good NRL hooker.
He’s not Cameron Smith and he didn’t start 2021 in this sort of form, but Cheese is putting together a nice audition tape for his next contract.
As simple as this Trent Loiero try looks, it’s Smith that made it so easy.
Presented with a penalty 20 metres from the Titans line, Smith sends Tui Kamikamica at the line before hitting Nelson Asofa-Solomona on the second tackle. His skip to the left holds up Sam McIntyre at marker which allows big Nelson to run straight at little Jayden Campbell. While Campbell makes a good enough legs tackle to slow him down, six Titans players are forced to consider the tackle as Asofa-Solomona turns with his arms free and threatening to offload.
Ash Taylor is slow out of the tackle before filling in at A defender on the short side. With a slight dummy to the left before a step to the right which engages Taylor, Smith puts Loiero one-on-one with Brian Kelly (George Jennings is also an option on the wing having created the overlap) and the Titans centre isn’t able to complete the tackle.
Simple.
Effective.
Smith.