Unpack a scrum of three talking points before every round of the NRL season. In his feature this week, Oscar breaks down the dominant dummy halves of 2022.
Whether you’re searching for an edge in the workplace tipping comp or just desperate to talk some footy, you’ve found the place. Join me as we unpack the scrum that is the NRL each week.
Centre-Field Scrum – What’s centre frame in the Rugby League lens this week?
After enjoying a love-affair with ballplaying locks over the past two seasons I’ve settled on a shiny new toy for 2022; the subtleties, the scheming and the skills of a playmaking dummy half.
With ruck speeds decreasing and relieving penalties closing the divide between top and bottom this year, we’re not seeing the wipe out score lines of ‘21. Lesser teams aren’t being forced to make eight or nine consecutive tackles in a set until they’re blown through the middle by a rolling ruck attack, touch footy style. And when they finally get the pill, they’ve now got the gas to work up-field or the chance to kick for touch when awarded a penalty in their own half.
So what does this have to do with the dummy half?
When the six-again rule was introduced all the talk was around the Damien Cook-type hookers and how they were going to run riot through the middle. As we now know, that wasn’t the case. Defensive lines compressed when ruck speeds increased and there became less room for running hookers to move, not more.
Instead, it was the ballplaying locks – Isaah Yeo, Cameron Murray, Victor Radley – who dominated. By digging into the line from first receiver, these guys could tighten an already compressed defensive line before quickly shifting to the edge where the spaces were.
We’re going to see these actions work effectively again in 2022 but how teams build towards them is what’s changing.
You can’t rely on a few six-again calls to generate ruck speed anymore. The good teams have had last year’s habits coached out of them and the bad teams will concede relieving penalties to let you up field. Once you get there though, you still need to be able to cave the middle and compress the defence to create scoring opportunities out wide.
Enter your creative dummy halves.
Hookers who can manipulate middle defenders, engage markers and pass their teammates into spaces around the ruck are going to be hugely important in 2022. Harry Grant, Apisai Koroisau and Reed Mahoney are three guys who do this better than most and their club’s ladder position reflects this (I’m getting closer to throwing Cronulla’s Blayke Brailey in there somewhere, too). Highlight reel moments aside, the value of these hookers is measured in the tiny influences they have on a game across 80 minutes. The way they position their body at dummy-half, where their eyes are looking, whether they pass it off the ground or take a step first – these little things are going to separate the good from the bad now more than ever.
For this reason Grant is my pick for best hooker in the game right now. He has wonderful control of the ruck and is blessed with equally effective running and passing games which he uses with perfect variety. He doesn’t just run when there’s a quick play-the-ball; he identifies where the space is and constructs an action best suited to capitalise on it.
Take this action in Round 2 against South Sydney.
Grant uses his speed to beat the ruck defenders and engage Damien Cook and Davvy Moale in the line. He runs just far enough to get them interested without cutting down Jahrome Hughes’ space and the way he holds the ball conceals the pass until the exact moment he releases it. Both Rabbitohs are glued to the ground by Grant’s actions and both make poor contact when he passes Hughes in between them.
Grant didn’t just run here because the markers were retreating late. He also didn’t run just because he saw some space and wanted a crack himself. Grant ran here because he identified an opportunity to get an even quicker play-the-ball on the following play:
Souths are already struggling to keep pace when Grant scoots from half on tackle four. The pressure and disruption he creates in the defensive line is multiplied tenfold when Hughes finds his front and plays the ball quickly on the last. The Rabbitohs compress on reaction and have no chance to position themselves effectively on the line which buys Grant more time to drop a kick in behind and earn another attacking set for his team. The last hooker who played the game this many tackles ahead looked pretty good in a purple #9 jumper, too.
So where does that leave the Damien Cook’s and Tom Starling’s?
We don’t need to look any further than Round 3. Starling couldn’t get himself into the game while the Raiders were getting beaten through the middle. He isn’t a guy who will turn a four metre carry into an eight metre one with the timing of his pass or the positioning of his body. He is somewhat reliant on his forward pack earning some momentum first, but as soon as they do – and it doesn’t even have to be much at all – Starling can add to it.
Both markers are in reasonable position here but neither are a chance of catching Starling off the mark. He’s quick enough to burn them and engage the A-defender from a standing start and it’s exactly what he does here. The key to all this is Starling taking the ball into contact. He doesn’t throw a panic pass at the line to an unsuspecting teammate (g’day, Damien Cook) and kill momentum. Instead, he takes the tackle himself – well, he almost does.
Whether he gets that offload away or just plays it quickly, Starling had the Titans shot and it’s exactly how running hookers can be effective in 2022. They mightn’t be helping their forwards generate ruck speed like a Grant or a Koroisau but they can generate that ruck speed themselves with a well timed run.
Round 3 also showed us what happens if you aren’t doing either of these things.
The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles had 28 tackles inside Canterbury’s 20-metre line in the second half but could only find a single rugby league point. We’ll give some credit to a much-improved Bulldogs defence and we can blame the rain for stunting some of Manly’s attack too, but the truth is the Sea Eagles were very underwhelming in attack.
Without threatening around the ruck first, Manly weren’t creating any of the spaces out wide that Tom Trbojevic danced through for fun in 2021. And on the rare occasion that they did disrupt Canterbury’s defensive line, they failed to capitalise on it.
Martin Taupau takes a very pedestrian route to the defensive line here before sparking to life and darting across field. It’s all a little messy but he does engage four Bulldogs defenders and he does find his front quickly. Karl Lawton identifies the quick play-the-ball and scoots from dummy-half but it’s the wrong option with Canterbury players still getting into position on the edges.
By the time Manly do get the ball that way, it’s on the back of a very slow carry from Sean Keppie and the Bulldogs have all the time in the world to defend accordingly.
Manly’s lack of creativity around the ruck is hurting them in 2022. They swept around teams in exit sets last year by winning a quick play-the-ball on one edge and using their speed to go down the far touchline. Without Josh Schuster, in particular, right now the Sea Eagles are looking for other wins to generate some momentum and we witnessed that first-hand in Round 3.
Regular readers will know I’ve been a Lachlan Croker fan for a while now but you need more from your hooker than good service and a truckload of tackles in 2022. Dummy halves who aren’t reliant on their pack eating metres are a cut above the rest at the moment and it will be interesting to see how teams adjust to this in the coming weeks.
Head Noise – What’s living rent free in my head this week?
Nothing rattles footy fans (and players) more than when the head noise kicks in. To avoid this as best we can, I’m writing down anything ringing around my head each week and hopefully we can figure a few things out along the way.
– Reimis Smith
– AJ Brimson icing three-on-two’s
– Brad Schneider
– Cameron Munster
– Aaron Schoupp shutting down Tom Trbojevic
– Connor Tracey’s try-saver
Reimis Smith – Regular readers probably got sick of me banging out about Reimis last year. He was my boy in 2021 and he finished the year as a key cog in Melbourne’s backline and as one of the best defensive centres in the game. He was at it again in Round 3, shutting down just about every backline shift Parramatta threw his way when the match was in the balance.
AJ Brimson icing three-on-two’s – Fullbacks can make a career out of nailing these actions – just ask Darius Boyd. Brimson seems to have brought that aspect of his game into the five-eighth position this year and it’s making for a very dangerous Titans’ left edge in 2022. Watching Jayden Campbell slot into the #6 role with Brimson sweeping around like a fullback only complements this further.
Brad Schneider – The 21-year-old, three-game rookie halfback had the most run metres by a Raider at halftime against the Titans last week. This probably says more about Canberra’s pack but I’m focusing on what this says about Schneider. I loved what I saw from him in the trials and I’m loving what he’s doing in the NRL.
