If the beers are cold and the afternoon’s long enough, we’d be talking footy all day, every day until kickoff on Thursday night. With so much to review, let’s break down some of the key players and actions throughout each week in the NRL.
– Breaking down Jock Madden’s first-grade audition
– There’s always next week for… South Sydney Rabbitohs
– SuperCoach Shoutouts
– Play of the Round: North Queensland Cowboys
Breaking down Jock Madden’s first-grade audition
Just last week I dedicated my preview feature to the influence of Jackson Hastings in a lock-forward role on the Wests Tigers attack. He was getting busy early in sets through the middle of the field and creating scoring opportunities for his teammates – namely halves Luke Brooks and Adam Doueihi – out wide a few plays later.
In Round 20 though it was rookie halfback Jock Madden who found himself capitalising on the good work of Hastings around the ruck. Madden finished with one try, two linebreak assists and multiple try involvements in Wests’ 32-18 win over the Broncos, and his breakout game comes at an interesting time for Wests given recent injuries to Hastings and Brooks (and the ongoing conjecture around the latter’s future at the club).
Rather than lean into that soap opera, let’s look instead at how Madden helped win the game for the Tigers on Saturday and how a Madden-Doueihi halves pairing might work long-term.
With Hastings directing through the middle and Doueihi roaming as he pleased, Madden bunkered down on the left-hand side of the field. From there, Madden had two key roles in Round 20; scan for opportunities down the short side and kick well in good ball.
He nailed both of them.
An exit penalty gifted Wests free passage into Brisbane’s half and Madden immediately got busy on the ball. He notices Jordan Riki is caught up at marker and Pat Carrigan is slow to peel from the tackle here, and so he heads straight at Carrigan filling in down the short side. Madden probably doesn’t dig quite deep enough into the line here but at the very least he gets Kelma Tuilagi one-on-one with Kotoni Staggs on the edge to chew up a few extra metres.
The Tigers quickly move the ball back in-field on tackle two, with Madden and Hastings linking up to get Doueihi at the sliding defence on the open side.
It might end up becoming a little predictable, but shifting it for Doueihi to challenge the line himself is a repeatable and effective action for Wests given his threat as a running five-eighth. On this occasion, Brisbane handle the shift comfortably enough but have now conceded 20+ metres in two plays to find themselves in the red-zone on tackle three. Their defensive line looks reasonably organised at this point until a double-shot through Hastings and Madden back down the left edge catches them short.
Hastings slots in at pivot and drifts across field before passing James Tamou into Jordan Riki in the line. Riki’s involvement in the tackle here means the Broncos’ right edge is stripped of its usual personnel for the second time in this set, and again Madden identifies it and calls for the ball.
Billy Walters has filled in for Riki down the short side while Tesi Niu and Adam Reynolds make up the numbers closer to the ruck – three of Brisbane’s smallest players defending together – which is a sign for Madden to run.
He takes possession on the ad-line and with a little left foot jink Madden straightens on his run which achieves two things; 1) it brings big Tuilagi onto the ball and 2) it forces Reynolds and Walters to plant their feet in preparation for the short pass. The subtleties of Madden’s ballplaying and the size mismatch of Tuilagi against Reynolds and Walters invites Staggs to then turn in, creating the overlap out wide for Brent Naden to score.
Having found some success through Tuilagi down that left edge, the Tigers smartly went looking there again when Madden scored himself just shy of halftime.
Again there’s Hastings tightening things up from pivot with Tamou pushing up on his outside. This time though Hastings plays out the back to Madden who gets himself on the outside of Kurt Capewell courtesy of Tamou’s decoy to engage Reynolds in the line. Staggs makes a bad read to shoot on Daine Laurie sweeping out the back and that error leaves Reynolds with an arms tackle to bring down a charging Tuilagi – good luck.
The ballplaying from Madden in these two scoring actions was nice but more encouraging is the vision.
Madden’s ability to identify opportunities down the short side like Carrigan’s slow peel or punish poor movements like Staggs’ in the line is evidence of a natural ballplayer – not a quality we’ve often afforded Brooks throughout his 189 NRL game career. Brooks can throw the long pass on the end of a shift and is a strong runner of the ball himself, but playing at the line and manipulating defenders is something that will never come easy to him.
Madden also looked very comfortable putting ball to boot late in the count, with his short attacking kicks creating multiple scoring opportunities for the Tigers on Saturday.
The placement isn’t perfect here but it’s pretty bloody good. Madden is clearly aiming to get Tuilagi against Reynolds with this cross-field kick but it comes down one channel wider and just a few metres out from the line for Asu Kepaoa, who leaps above Staggs to bat the ball back. Kepaoa’s mid-air offload finds Laurie in support and two clean passes later should’ve seen Naden score in the corner, only for the Tigers winger to run himself into touch.
Sticking to the plan, Madden launched a similarly placed kick early in the second half which produced a result when Starford To’a scored in the 45th minute.
This time the target is Madden’s halves partner Doueihi. The attacking bomb comes down smack-bang on Reynolds’ head and the little halfback is buried under Doueihi’s desperate attempt to get to the ball. Doueihi’s effort earns a result when Wests bat the ball back, and three passes later it’s Doueihi again who takes possession – having reloaded back onside when Kepaoa regathered the footy – to sum things up and find To’a in space on the right edge.
We don’t often talk about tries from kicks here at RLW but when they’re employed as part of a game-plan it’s a different story. Wests showed clear intent to target Reynolds both in the line and under the high ball, and on three occasions Madden played a leading role in turning that plan into points.
The subtleties of Madden’s involvements – how he holds the ball, his footwork, the timing of the pass – is all evidence of a natural and skilful ballplayer, and with Hastings and Doueihi in the side he was free to pick his moments and play to his strengths.
With Hastings out for the rest of the season, however, Madden’s role will need to expand. He and Doueihi will be asked to do more early in sets as Wests move the ball across the park, which could detract from their attacking involvements later in the count.
Still, the Tigers found a recipe for success in Round 20 with Madden scanning short sides on the left and Doueihi in a roaming role in attack. Tyrone Peachey showed he still has something to offer with some dangerous runs from dummy-half whenever Wests earned a quick play-the-ball and Laurie continued a purple-patch of form with another starring performance on Saturday. There’s a spine combination there for Wests to work on with an eye to 2023 when Hastings returns, leaving the currently-injured Brooks in an awkward position with the offseason approaching.
The frustrating part for Madden is that over the next five games, his first-grade prospects for next year will likely be judged not on potential shown, but on performances produced while Hastings is in the casualty ward. It’s important to remember that Brooks’ own form improved this season with Hastings in the halves beside him, and any evaluation of Madden’s first-grade prospects over the next month must consider how things will look once Hastings returns.
Until then, as a rookie halfback tipping just over 80kgs Madden will continue to be a target in the line, but that will improve with experience and as he builds combinations with the defenders around him. It’s with the ball in hand though that Madden has certainly shown enough across 12 NRL appearances to be worth investing in longer term, and recent news of an ultimatum from Madden’s management could well be the catalyst for change at the Wests Tigers in 2023.
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There’s Always Next Week For…
… the South Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney Rabbitohs let slip an extremely valuable two points on Saturday in their golden point loss to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. A win in Round 20 would’ve sat South Sydney in equal third position and in genuine contention for a top-four finish but instead, the Bunnies find themselves in seventh place and with Easts, Canberra, Manly and St George snapping at their heels.
There are some positives for the Souths faithful to take from that one-point loss, however.
Relative to their form over the last month, South Sydney’s entire spine of Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker, Lachlan Ilias, Damien Cook and Cameron Murray looked far from their best in Round 20. We don’t often see Murray fended away on his own goal line to concede a try, young Ilias had a number of handling errors and I’d put money on Mitchell not missing three field goals in a row ever again in his NRL career.
Encouraging though was Souths’ ability to continually create opportunities to win the match despite key players being off their game. Two role-players in particular – Tevita Tatola and Tom Burgess – were immense again to help the Rabbitohs to 1800+ running metres and constantly into positions to win the game.
Tatola’s barge-over try in the 77th minute was all class and evidence that South Sydney can still score points without Walker or Latrell showing up in the highlight reels. And while the headlines will condemn Burgess for a high tackle that gifted Cronulla the territory required to win the game, rewind the tape and it was a Burgess linebreak from absolutely nothing that got Souths in position for Mitchell’s third miss of the night just one set earlier.
Losing Jed Cartwright to a leg injury mid-game had a significant impact on the result. He’s been a defensive revelation at centre and was profiling as the perfect bench forward to plug a hole out wide in case of injury once Campbell Graham returns to the starting side.
Souths will be sweating on Cartwright’s fitness this week as they put together the final pieces of the puzzle in preparation for finals. Kodi Nikorima is as good a utility option as any but pushing Mitchell out to the centres on Saturday took him out of the game and was a detriment to Souths’ attack.
There’s merit to not leaving Nikorima out there to defend a Jesse Ramien or a Siosifa Talakai (and it’s not every week the opposing centres will be that big) but how South Sydney navigates a mid-game injury in their outside backs might be something coach Jason Demetriou looks at this week with finals approaching.
SuperCoach Shout-outs
We’re keeping an eye on a few players in our rolling SC watchlist as part of my ‘Heads In!’ weekly review, but this segment is reserved for any special mentions from the round that was. You’re clever enough to find the top scorers yourself, so this is for anything I liked, noticed or want to see again.
Joey Manu – CTW & FLB – $878,500 – There were concerns that a leg injury and a return to the centres might hamper Manu’s SC potential but he silenced those doubts with 101 points in Round 20. What’s most encouraging is the roaming role Manu played with against the Dragons – he had 25 receipts in a variety of areas across the park and it all made for more tackle busts, linebreaks and offloads. I’m glad I kept him…
Tevita Tatola – FRF – $539,600 – Tatola has quietly put together a career year for the Bunnies in 2022 and it’s showing up in his SC scores, too. Tatola now has a 3-round-average of 78.7 points, although that does include two tries. He’s unlikely to cross every other week but he’s getting through plenty of work and could be an interesting POD option if you’re happy to take a punt.
