Recap the latest round of NRL action with the Repeat Set: Talking points, highlights, lowlights and the Play of the Round.
Here’s your Repeat Set for Round 10 of the 2022 NRL season:
- Payten is, in fact, the coach we expected him to be
- Reynolds: How good?
- It was a round to remember for… Sydney Roosters
- It was a round to forget for… New Zealand Warriors
- I can’t stop thinking about…
- Play of the Round: Oatsey flying
Payten is, in fact, the coach we expected him to be
The North Queensland Cowboys are a legitimately good football side.
Forget about the fact they haven’t beaten the Penrith Panthers or Melbourne Storm. You don’t need to beat either of them – or stay particularly close to them – to be considered good. Right now, the Cowboys are sitting at 3rd on the NRL ladder and there is a strong argument for them truly being the third-best team in the competition right now.
This is a very well-coached team. Some started to doubt Todd Payten following a disappointing 2021 NRL season. The Cowboys ended up with the worst defence in the competition and their attack relied far too heavily on Scott Drinkwater to create points. One preseason later and the Cowboys concede only 12.5 points per game – the second-fewest in the NRL. In attack, Drinkwater didn’t even start the season and the Cowboys have scored in a variety of ways with and without him in the squad.
A lot of it comes down to the clear changes Payten has made to the side.
Plenty of those changes were questioned to start the year. The form of the Cowboys in 2021 had a lot of people questioning their confidence in Payten after his hugely successful stint as head coach of the Warriors in 2020. But through ten rounds and with the Cowboys humming, it looks as though Payten is the top tier coach many expected him to be when he arrived in North Queensland.
Dearden > Drinkwater
“The decision to go with Tommy is basically based on defensive abilities. Both of them attacked really well, but I just thought Tommy defended stronger. That’s the reason why he’s in the team.” – Todd Payten
Payten made the unpopular decision of leaving Drinkwater out of the side in favour of Tom Dearden to start the 2022 NRL season. He may have fallen into Drinkwater becoming the first-choice fullback following an injury to Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, but his initial decision for Round 1 has proven to be a masterstroke.
Dearden is the latest example of why it is important to give young halves time to develop before giving up on them. Still only 21-years-old, the Broncos threw Dearden in the deep end and asked him to swim before he was ready. Growing impatient and moving him on, the Cowboys are now benefiting.
Chad Townsend is a perfect partner for Dearden. The youngster is capable of playing the on-ball role and moving the team around the field but is thriving out wider where he is able to use what is still an underrated running game. He has great footwork and this try assist from Round 3 is a prime example of that along with the footy IQ and ability to execute under pressure.
Payten’s faith in Dearden has translated into career-best form and this kid will only get better as the season goes on.
Drinkwater at the back
Maybe this was the plan all along?
Drinkwater’s defensive issues when defending in the line are crippling if you’re a side trying to compete for a spot towards the top of the NRL ladder. He offers enough in attack to not be a net-negative every week, but Drinkwater’s moments of brilliance with the ball were often cancelled out by lapses in defence last season. Now hidden at the back and simply being asked to chime in with the ball where and when he can, Drinkwater is a consistent positive on this side.
He has scored four tries and handed out six try assists already this season. He still has those moments in defence. Kodi Nikorima’s try earlier in the year was a reminder about why he is playing the position he is right now. However, Drinkwater is producing a lot more moments like these this season:
That pass is ridiculous and not a fluke either. The Cowboys trained the defence throughout the first half and the second Drinkwater saw Hayze Perham take a step forward and threaten to jam in off his left wing, the pass floated over the top and into the long reach of Kyle Feldt.
There has always been a very good football player in Drinkwater. It hasn’t ever needed much to get productive plays out of him. The challenge has been to put him in positive positions and develop him into a more consistent player overall. It remains to be seen how Payten uses him and Tabuai-Fidow throughout the rest of the year, but he’s created a massive headache for himself.
Cotter In The Middle
Reuben Cotter is 180cm and 95kg. He’s not meant to be doing this as a prop:
62.2 Minutes
131.7 Running metres
2.0 Tackle breaks
37.7 Tackles
1.0 Missed Tackle
It doesn’t make any sense, but Cotter has been outstanding since making the move to prop in Round 5. He plays above his size and doesn’t take a single backwards step throughout the 62.2 minutes he’s averaging as a starting prop per game.
Cotter’s energy and work rate is incredible. He entered Round 10 up at 9th in total supports with 67 in seven games. Some of the names around him for context: Dylan Edwards – 61 in nine games, Luke Keary – 60 in nine games, Ryan Papenhuyzen – 67 in nine games.
He’s small so running it straight at big bodies isn’t going to work out well for him. However, hanging off the shoulder of a teammate and being isolated onto single defenders or presented with half a gap to target has translated into 131.7 running metres per game. Naturally, it was a little effort around the ball that acted as the catalyst to the first try of his NRL career.
Payten has taken an injury-prone hooker and turned him into one of the most effective middle forwards in the NRL.
Taumalolo
As it turns out, breaking your hand twice in a season isn’t great for production. The 2021 NRL season isn’t one Jason Taumalolo will remember fondly but he has bounced back to his best to start 2022.
He’s not averaging the running metres he has done in the past. Averaging 196 metres per game between 2017 and 2020, Taumalolo is averaging just 161 metres per game this season. However, he presents as a more dangerous weapon in attack as his passing game develops.
It’s something we’ve seen develop rather quickly over the last 12 months. There were signs of a passing game last year but the overall clunkiness of the Cowboys attack removed opportunities for Taumalolo to release the ball.
On this occasion here in 2021, Shane Wright isn’t pushing up close enough to the ball and the opportunity goes begging.
A year later, and also against the Broncos interestingly enough, Taumalolo nails it. Griffin Neame runs the right line, Dearden is in shape out the back to drag Adam Reynolds out, and Taumalolo throws a beauty. It isn’t just a tip on either. He’s shaped to go long and played short to absolutely bamboozle the defence.
Taumalolo became the best forward in the world by carting the ball up and leaving defenders on the ground in chalk. But as the game changes around him, Payten has adjusted to ensure the 28-year-old remains as one of the top players at the position. Rather than running him into the ground and playing him monster minutes, Payten is looking for quality over quantity. The quality won’t always show in the running metre numbers like it has done in the past.
We’re only scratching the service of Taumalolo in this role. It’s one that he will take some time to work into given the decisions he is now being asked to make as opposed to focusing squarely on using his size and strength to dominate games. If the first ten rounds of the 2022 NRL season are anything to go by, we may not have seen the best of Taumalolo just yet.
Defence
The Cowboys conceded an NRL-high 31.6 points per game last season.
Regardless of how dangerous they could be with the ball, it was all for nothing with how many points they allowed the opposition to score every week. Payten circled defence as the focus over the summer and it now shows in the 12.5 points conceded per game – the sixth-lowest mark in NRL history. After failing to keep a single team to fewer than 18 points last season, they’ve managed to achieve the feat eight times already in 2022.
Defence wins premierships. In fact, the 2015 Cowboys are the only team to win the premiership with a defence ranked outside the top three since 2005. Currently ranked 2nd in the NRL, the Cowboys are where they need to be.
There doesn’t appear to be anything too intricate to how the Cowboys defend. The line speed applies constant pressure and they’re especially strong through the centre-third. Per Fox Sports Lab, only the Panthers and Storm concede fewer running metres through the middle. They work hard from the inside and force the opposition wide where the Cowboys scramble in cover. Oscar highlighted a handful of defensive efforts throughout their win over the Eels in Round 8:
“Hess is quick off his line to pressure Arthur when he takes possession. He’s a daunting prospect charging at a halfback and he cuts down Arthur’s time to make a decision with the ball. We’re used to seeing big forwards like Hess hit and hold ballplayers once the pass is released in actions like this but when the ball goes outside him, Hess pushes off Arthur to keep his place in the line despite not looking like he’ll be needed in this play. When Moses suddenly drops Isaiah Papali’i back underneath, Hess is in position to help Reece Robson in the tackle and finds himself at marker a good 15 metres from where he started to begin this play.”
The defensive numbers are one area we can apply the “they haven’t played the Storm or Panthers” gear. Those two teams will test the Cowboys in ways they haven’t been tested all season. Still, this is a top tier NRL defence and one most teams are struggling to crack every week.
Payten has worked wonders with this group. He’s a very smart coach that comes from the Tim Sheens school of coaching so isn’t short of a crazy idea or two. However, he knows when to ride with what is working and make changes to what is not. It’s a trait not every coach has, but it’s a common feature in the most successful ones.
He had his knockers last season and throughout the start of 2022. Some of those ideas have taken a little while to take shape, but now that it’s all coming together for the Cowboys, they’re quickly becoming one of the best teams in the competition.
I asked if the Cowboys were actually good a couple of weeks ago. That question has been well and truly answered. The question now is how good?
Reynolds: How good?
Was Adam Reynolds underrated all along?
His influence at the South Sydney Rabbitohs was obvious to most. Reynolds is one of the rare halves that is still recognised as elite despite not contributing too many of the traditional counting stats. Still, even the most optimistic Broncos supporter didn’t see this Reynolds turning up to Brisbane.
With 11 try assists coming already this season, he’s on track to smash his previous season-high of 19 try assists way back in 2013.
We can see Reynolds pointing the team around the field from the stands or while sitting on the couch. This young Broncos pack has been screaming out for direction and that is one thing we could be sure Reynolds would provide.
But the creativity and try assists? It’s a little bit of a surprise to see just how influential he is to a Broncos attack that is 8th in the NRL averaging 19.7 points per game. Oscar picked out one of Reynolds’ cross-field kicks to Selwyn Cobbo as his Magic Moment from Round 10. He raises a good point about how the defence is likely to react to this clearly repeatable action within the Broncos game plan in attack:
“The two-pass shift through a Broncos’ forward – usually Payne Haas but in this instance Kobe Hetherington – invites the defence to tighten further, leaving Cobbo unmarked on the paint…The scary thing for defending teams is that if you keep your winger wide to defend this, you’re then inviting Kotoni Staggs to have a crack one-on-one with your centre – no thanks.”
What is the defence meant to do here?
Few wingers are fast enough to be in a position to jam in on a shift and recover to collect a Reynolds kick. If he keeps hanging them up and forcing the defending winger wide, it won’t be long before Staggs starts to score the points ahead of Cobbo.
Reynolds has unlocked an element of the Broncos attack nobody saw coming. And if he isn’t creating for others, he’s doing this:
It’s been great to watch so far this season. Here’s hoping it continues through to the end of Round 25 and beyond.
Rabbitohs v Broncos in Week 1 of the NRL Finals, anybody?
A round to remember for…
The Sydney Roosters are starting to look like the team a lot of people pictured them to be in February and March.
When looking into every team throughout the premiership prediction portion of the NRL season, I imagined a fast-paced Roosters attack piling up points every week while maintaining an elite level cohesive defence.
They’ve impressed enough in defence to concede 16.8 points per game – 4th-fewest in the NRL. However, their attack has rarely produced. Premeditated and uncharacteristically clunky, the well-drilled Roosters attack was nowhere to be seen across the opening eight rounds.
We caught a few glimpses in Round 9 and again throughout their 31-24 win over the Eels in Round 10.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was again fantastic for his 176 running metres. He’s so often the catalyst for a strong Roosters set or quick play-the-ball into an attacking shift. The Roosters have appeared to hit the edges more often over the last fortnight. They played short to the backrowers and looked to attack behind those carries on the short side rather than playing for the long-side shifts and wide passes of the eight rounds prior.
Luke Keary and Sam Walker are learning to play with each other and linking up a lot better right now. They both react to what the defence is doing in front of them but with Keary taking a bit more of an on-ball approach to register a season-high 61 touches in Round 10, the pair didn’t seem to get in each other’s way quite so often.
