The Notepad identifies one key player, stat, trend or talking point for every team, every round of the 2022 NRL season.
Saturday
Raiders
I…
I…don’t have a read on the Raiders.
At all.
One week they look half-decent. The next they’re awful. Errors are a big issue at the moment but it feels as though their problems extend a lot further than just dropping the ball. Dropping the ball and giving up possession to the Storm is a recipe for disaster, though.
A team’s identity is a bit like culture in that good teams are identified as good and have a good culture while bad teams are identified as bad with a bad culture. For the most part, they’re buzzwords. But I’m on the lookout for some Raiders’ identity outside of being a middling team neither good enough to be relevant in the finals nor bad enough to drop towards the bottom of the NRL ladder.
Storm
Boy, oh boy.
This Storm spine is starting to look gooooooood.
Harry Grant, Jahrome Hughes and Ryan Papenhuyzen linked up for my Play of the Round last week:
However, it’s Cameron Munster I’m looking out for most on Saturday.
I really like the potential of this little feign inside to Papenhuyzen with his backrower isolated onto the opposition half.
They didn’t quite get their timing right on this one. It might work better if the backrower gets to the outside shoulder of the defender and tries to push through contact rather than hitting the inside shoulder as more of a decoy, too.
It’s on the watchlist for this week and beyond but I don’t think it will take long for Munster to nail it.
Rabbitohs
It can only be one thing for the Rabbitohs this week: Errors.
They lead the NRL in errors and it seems to be all that is holding them back from kicking on and kicking some of the teams towards the bottom of the ladder aside.
If the Rabbitohs hold the ball – Walker, in particular – they shouldn’t have too many problems breaking through the worst defence in the competition this week.
Dragons
The Dragons have conceded 120 points already this season – the most in the NRL. It wasn’t until Round 7 last year that the Red V leaked their 120th point.
Regardless of the rules, interpretations or the lucky dip focus Peter V’landys demands of the referees every week, defence wins premierships. While the Dragons aren’t in that conversation, they’re removing themselves further from it with how they’re defending at the moment.
They don’t seem to be leakier in one place more than another. Per Stats Insiders Try Location Analysis, the Dragons are conceding tries across the field at a relatively even rate.
If Anthony Griffin is to have this side play themselves into any sort of winning form, it will start on the defensive side of the ball.
Titans
If you didn’t see it on Monday*, I looked into how the Titans are using David Fifita.
There has been a lot of talk about using him better in relation to 2021, but using him in that way again isn’t sustainable if the Titans want to climb the NRL ladder. Instead, they need to use him in different ways. If I’m Justin Holbrook, I’m parking David in front of some Viliame Kikau film this week.
These two clips, in particular.
It’s something I didn’t pick up on until after hitting publish on Monday, but Kikau has five line break assists in only four games this season. Meanwhile, Fifita has four line break assists throughout his 70-game NRL career.
He doesn’t need to become the Nathan Cleary of backrowers and start sending teammates through the line every week, but the threat of a pass will open up opportunities for Fifita to do what he does best – throw single defenders away like paper plates.
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Eels
Wow, Dylan Brown.
He has been superb to start the season. His running game is among the best of any five-eighth in the NRL right now and the Eels are making the most of it.
They’ve played a lot more direct down the edges to start this season. Instead of looking wide early and often as they did throughout the last two or three seasons, they’ve played short to their backrowers or turned them inside. The centres are being dropped off at times, too. They’re exploiting areas closer to the middle and Brown did just that last week.
In the set prior to Brown’s try, Reed Mahoney passed Reagan Campbell-Gillard onto the ball who targeted Jack Gosiewski in the line. The A defender on the short side is sliding as soon as he comes up off his line but Brown takes the ball a little bit too wide to step back in.
On the following set, however, Brown straightens up. He applies an outrageous right-left step on Moses Mbye and skips through the line with relative ease. Again, it was Campbell-Gillard bringing the Dragons backrower into the tackle before the Eels looked left.
Brown running the ball has always been a feature of his game when he’s in form. This is the best he has run the ball, and the best form he has been in throughout his 58-game NRL career.
Sunday
Sharks
This is a magnificent try and so much of why I love watching the Sharks with the ball at the moment. They play with so much speed and get the ball wide before the defence has time to think.
But if we pull out and look from a bit higher; what’s Ronaldo Mulitalo doing here?
