The Notepad identifies one key player, stat, trend or talking point for every team, every round of the 2022 NRL season.
Friday
– Cowboys: How Payten is using Leuliua
– Sharks: My man crush is starting again
– Eels: More of this, Mitch.
– Warriors: Ed Kosi might be good?
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Saturday
Roosters
Siosiua Taukeiaho, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Matt Lodge and Lindsay Collins.
That’s a brutal prop rotation.
Collins won’t be available for this one and Lodge is on the reserves list at the time of writing. Although, I expect him to be elevated to the bench by kickoff. With Victor Radley back and likely to be better for the 41 minutes he managed in Round 16, we might finally see the Roosters attack start to click.
The middle is there to lay the platform. From there, Sam Walker, Joseph Manu and James Tedesco – if he backs up from Origin – can get to work with the ball.
The flow of the game didn’t allow Manu to put himself into too many attacking positions in Round 16. Expect a bit more freedom this week, though. While they’ve picked up regular wins throughout the NRL season, the Dragons middle is there to be beaten and Manu plays with the footwork that can cause havoc to a fairly immobile middle defence.
Keeping an eye on the middle is where I’ll start. Hopefully, that translates into some Walker and Manu magic as this halves pairing begins to build. Who knows how long they will be playing beside each other…
Dragons
I’m emotionally invested in Ben Hunt winning the Dally M Medal now.
It’s something I was keen on before State of Origin, but his performance on Wednesday night added to his NRL season overall and he deserves to be leading the race at this point if he isn’t.
He’s primed for the charity point in a Dragons loss. Judges typically give one point to a player on the losing team if they keep it close enough and Hunt will be in the mix every time. He’s likely to pick up three if he plays any big part in a win, too.
Hunt mentioned a few beers after the game on Wednesday night. If the state of Jai Arrow is anything to go by, there’s a good chance Hunt enjoyed quite a few post-match frothies. So, in a Notepad first, I’m looking to see how Hunt handles the brutality of Origin coupled with a hangover in this one.
From a more analytical perspective: Moses Mbye.
He’s played only 14, 15 and 27 minutes since dropping to the bench in Round 15. What is his role in the team? Is he simply there for injury cover?
Sea Eagles
G’day Premium Members,
This little portion is just for you and only in the email version at this stage.
I’ve been meaning to try the video side of things all year but real life has managed to get in the way until now. It was fairly last minute as you’ll be able to tell by the audio and needing to crowbar “Morgan Harper” in there (I somehow called him Alex Davey…It may have been the nerves).
It’s a first crack (and only one take) so I’m keeping it to you members for now. Whether it be a comment, subscription or a reply to this email, let me know what you think – good, bad, keep going, never again. I heard somewhere that it takes 40 episodes before a podcaster (another casualty of real life) really hits their straps. I’m guessing this sort of thing might be the same…
It’s visible as I hit send here but I’ll be surprised if it is that easy given how strict the NRL is with copyright claims. I’ll have been snapped if it doesn’t show up for you but will work on different ways to get it out there if this becomes a regular part of the Notepad.
The written version for those that prefer it:
Kieran Foran is very good.
He’s still one of the best five-eighths in the NRL and has been able to prove as much thanks to a sustained period of fitness.
There won’t be many Foran posters on walls or, for youngsters in 2022, social media accounts and TikTok videos made in his honour. He’s just not that sort of player. Instead, he outsmarts his opponents and gets to the right spots at the right time where he typically takes the right option.
You can put this Jason Saab try down to Foran’s work at the start.
The steps forward and towards the inside shoulder of Jahrome Hughes forces Chris Lewis onto his heels and he can’t make up the ground. Hughes is forced to turn in onto Foran who makes the right pass to Andrew Davey out the back.
It’s so simple, but that first movement from Foran created the overlap and the try.
Josh Schuster is where I’m getting to with this, though. Davey has played well on the edge and is a fine partner for Foran on that side of the field. He’s a better hole-runner than Schuster and prepared to do the less glamorous things that help Foran dominate in the way he does. But Schuster can pop up in this shape and throw that pass better than any backrower in the NRL.
Let’s see it in this one.
Knights
Jayden Brailey can have a huge impact on this Knights attack.
Chris Randall is a fine backup for brief periods of a match or for a handful of consecutive games, but he doesn’t play with the subtleties in attack that Brailey does. Even in his first game back we saw the 26-year-old create opportunities on his own from dummy half.
He kept an eye out for the opposition halves defending on the line and looked to isolate bigger bodies onto them. First, it was Tyson Frizell running an overs line into the gap between Siliva Havili and Cody Walker. Later, Brailey connected with Mitch Barnett to score.
The Knights are 14th in the NRL scoring only 14.7 points per game, but Brailey can trigger an improvement throughout the remainder of the season.
Titans
Tanah Boyd has been named in the halves for this one.
It has been a long time coming, really.
The Titans halves haven’t been able to perform consistently all year and if Justin Holbrook is going to persist with Toby Sexton in the #7 jersey, it makes sense to give Boyd a crack at #6.
Boyd has been a player to watch since his schoolboy days but hasn’t kicked on how many had hoped. A lot of that comes down to where he has played and the opportunities he has been given, though.
He has trained and played mostly as a hooker over the last two years. The transition back out to the halves isn’t as simple as changing his jersey number either. He needs to be given time but Holbrook doesn’t have it if he’s to save his job. So, Boyd needs to have an impact in this game. I’m curious to see how he takes up the opportunity and whether or not he can strike up a partnership with AJ Brimson.
With JoJo Fifita named to make his debut this week, we’ve looked into his reserve grade form and how it might translate into the NRL.
Click HERE for the full article.
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Broncos
Tesi Niu watch continues this week.
Good things in Round 16:
– 1 Try
– 2 Linebreaks
– 3 Linebreak Assists
– 2 Try Assists
– 7 Tackle Breaks
– 171 Running Metres
He pushed up well around the ball and threw a ripper pass in the buildup to Kotoni Staggs’ try.
Not as good:
– 4 Errors
– Pushed over by Moses Suli on his way to the line
– Barely in the frame for Cody Ramsey’s second
Niu is still only 20 years old so we can’t expect the world from him. The talent in attack is certainly evident and something to build on. However, he’s at risk of having the Matt Dufty’s about him if for every positive action there is one or two negatives shortly after. The attacking numbers are great but I’m looking closer at the little things without the ball this week.
Sunday
Tigers
Surely opposing defences know this is coming by now…?
Fa’amanu Brown is becoming known for burrowing over from dummy half. He’s fearless in how he ducks down and leads with his head and doesn’t seem to care who is in front of him. It’s not like he passed a player in position to bring a smaller player into A defender here. That’s Marata Niukore there he’s pushing through…
There is the obvious focus for this one, though.
6. Doueihi
7. Brooks
13. Hastings
Brooks never made it as a halfback. The traditional jobs of a halfback didn’t work for him and he looked a lot better with Hastings in at #7. I’m curious to see how much the attack changes this week. Hastings plays on the ball and can do a lot of that work from the lock position. He’s going to be asked to make a lot more tackles, though. Doueihi I’m not so worried about. He’s a classy player and if he plays well, great. I’ll still be putting it down to rust and his return from injury if not.
The Tigers know their future now. It’s absolutely mental and the most Tigers thing of all things Tigers, but they know it. Will that inspire an uptick?
Panthers
It’s another game where we really don’t learn much about the Panthers.
The key players in the side aren’t available and they’re playing a poor Tigers outfit that tends to see every good thing a team does pushed aside because “it’s only the Tigers.”
Still, and Tigers fans might be the ones more interested, the performance of Charlie Staines could be notable.
