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.
Round 7 NRL Review:
– Reyno’s Round 7 Clinic
– There’s always next week for… South Sydney Rabbitohs
– SuperCoach Shout-outs
– NRL Play of the Round
Reyno’s Round 7 Clinic
The clinic Adam Reynolds put on for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs on Friday night was mint.
It finished with a 22-point rush late in the second half but it was the result of an 80-minute game-plan acted out expertly by Reynolds from halfback. Brisbane clearly had a plan to hit the edges and search down the short side and Reynolds was integral to orchestrating and executing this on Friday night.
The post-match commentary made a comment about the role Reynolds is filling for Brisbane at the moment and how it’s a little different to what we saw from him at South Sydney. In Broncos colours we’re seeing more of Reynolds making the final pass in scoring opportunities instead of being the guy setting things up from pivot.
On face value, the commentary was correct. From six games this year and playing in a lesser attacking side, Reynolds already has two tries and seven try assists in 2022. He managed five tries and seven assists from 25 games in a grand final calibre side the year prior.
The stats suggest Reynolds is filling a more creative attacking role for Brisbane in 2022 rather than being the setup guy he was at Souths but the reality is somewhere in between. Reynolds is still the guy calling the shots and directing Brisbane around the park. He’s surveying the defensive line for chinks and designing actions turn half-chances into full ones – just as he did for the Rabbitohs.
A short ball to Kobe Hetherington on his inside early in the game created some pressure in Canterbury’s defensive line and generated ruck speed for Brisbane.
As Hetherington plays the ball, the wide shot shows that Reynolds has swung to the open side where he has an acre of space and seven Broncos teammates to work with. The wide shot also shows just five Bulldogs defenders in front of him to worry about, with a sixth retreating late into the line. Unfortunately for Reynolds and the Broncos, Billy Walters doesn’t count the numbers from dummy-half. He takes advantage of the absent markers to run the ball but he premeditated hitting the short side rather than reacting to how Canterbury set their defence.
Not long afterwards and it was Reynolds again creating opportunities in attack as per his old role at Souths.
A lovely short ball to Te Maire Martin on the right edge again gets Canterbury retreating, but this time they don’t fill up down the short side. Having landed the first strike, Reynolds follows through with the one-two punch and drops an attacking kick in behind the defence down a narrow channel on the edge.
Brisbane don’t get a result this time but the game plan was clear to see, and so was Reynolds’ new role at the Broncos in 2022.
At South Sydney, Reynolds would engage the defence from first-receiver, setting things up for Cody Walker or Latrell Mitchell to execute the scoring play a few passes later. The difference now is that Reynolds is setting things up for himself on the following tackle:
He doesn’t touch the ball here but you can see Reynolds sitting behind Payne Haas and Rhys Kennedy and directing them towards the right scrum-line. He’s in position to capitalise when Kennedy gets a quick play-the-ball on the last and that short attacking kick behind the line pays dividends on the second attempt.
Five minutes later and Reynolds was in the box seat again, making the most of some ruck speed generated by Brisbane’s middle and linking with his strike men out wide:
With genuine support on his inside, off his hip and out the back, Hetherington gets a one-on-one situation and wins it to get an offload away to Corey Paix. It’s impossible to know for sure, but I’m comfortable giving Reynolds most of the credit for Brisbane’s forwards shaping up like this late in the game. Again he doesn’t touch the ball but his influence helps Hetherington to a positive involvement and he’s in the frame when Brisbane breaks the line. With only seconds to react, Reynolds sums things up beautifully on the following tackle with as good a left-to-right pass as you’ll see in 2022. Try time.
Cobbo’s second try just six minutes later was vintage Reynolds.
Again it’s Kennedy bending the line through the middle before Reynolds uses Haas to set him up for an early attacking kick. Dufty is nowhere to be seen as Addo-Carr and Cobbo compete for the bouncing ball, and Cobbo produces one of the all-time putdowns to extend Brisbane’s lead to 12.
Throw in the four defenders he engaged before passing Staggs into space to set up Kennedy’s try, and the sleight of hand he used to put Corey Oates over for a Broncos’ special in the first half and Reynolds had a day out on Friday.
It’s taken them a few weeks and there’s still plenty of improvement to come in Brisbane, but I’m loving the way Reynolds is playing right now.
We haven’t really seen this creative, expansive style of attacking footy from him before but it’s clear Reynolds’ involvements in Round 7 were no fluke. There are the beginnings of a game plan there for the Broncos moving forward and while it’s not ideal to hang everything around one player in attack, Reynolds is clearly Brisbane’s best option right now. Throw in a very promising NRL return from Martin and the ongoing development of Staggs and Cobbo, and you’ve got a side ready to start working its way up the premiership ladder.
How far, and how quickly they can do so are two questions I’m leaving for another day.
There’s Always Next Week For…
… the South Sydney Rabbitohs
Just one week after he helped Wests to their first win of the season, Jackson Hastings was at it again in the Tigers 23-22 win over South Sydney on Friday night.
I take nothing away from Wests in this one – they were superb. Completing 46 from 48 sets and missing just 16 tackles across 80 minutes is a marvellous effort and they thoroughly deserved the two points in Round 7.
Souths, on the other hand, did not.
Losing Hame Sele in the first ten minutes hurt. So did injuries throughout to Tevita Tatola and Jacob Host. What cost Souths most, however, were the silly errors and lapses in concentration that have plagued their every loss so far in 2022.
A tackle gone horribly wrong from Taane Milne saw the Bunnies play a man down for 10 minutes in the first half. Despite handling that period excellently, Souths would go on to make 16 errors, miss 33 tackles and give away six penalties, three ruck infringements and two offside calls in the rest of the match.
The concerning thing for the Rabbitohs is that it was a collective effort in Round 7. Ten South Sydney players had errors on Friday, and 15 of them missed tackles. Across the park the Rabbitohs are making things too difficult for themselves right now and it’s something they need to address quickly.
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.
Selwyn Cobbo – FLB & CTW – $301,900 – It took a little longer than we expected but Cobbo finally crossed the stripe in Round 7. He had a superb game against the Dogs and probably hasn’t been that far away from a performance like this over the last few weeks. His combination with Staggs and Reynolds is slowly coming together and I think he’ll trouble the scoreboard a little more consistently from here on out.
Reuben Garrick – CTW – $625,200 – Continues to develop as one of the more reliable players in the competition. He’s always been an excellent finisher but Garrick’s support play, ballplaying and organisational skills in defence are improving with every game and he’s a crack shot from the tee, too.
