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 8 NRL Review:
– How the Cowboys turned it around in defence
– There’s always next week for… Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
– SuperCoach Shout-outs
– NRL Play of the Round
How the Cowboys turned it around in defence
It’s taken 12 months longer than we first thought, but Todd Payten’s influence at the North Queensland Cowboys cannot be denied following a 35-4 win over the Parramatta Eels in Round 8.
Jase and I both picked up a few Todd Payten stocks when he took the Cowboys head coaching gig last year. We thought 2021 would be a turning of the corner but as we know now, it would take a little longer than that.
As per our 2021 Season Review, the Cowboys conceded an average 31.2 points per game last season – the most by any team in the competition. A lack of consistency in North Queensland’s backline contributed to the Cowboys allowing 121 line breaks in 25 games last year while not a single regular outside back finished the season with a tackle efficiency above 80%.
The spine was also an area of concern when Payten arrived and continued to be the case throughout the 2021 season. North Queensland trialled 10 different halves pairings across 2020-21 while Scott Drinkwater, Valentine Holmes, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Ben Hampton all shared the fullback role during that period.
Fast-forward to Round 8, 2022 and Chad Townsend, Tom Dearden and Reece Robson have played all eight games to begin the season while Drinkwater now has four consecutive games at fullback following Tabuai-Fidow’s injury in Round 4. The combination of Townsend and Dearden has been particularly impressive while Drinkwater has provided the attacking brilliance he’s always been capable of.
But rather than break down Kyle Feldt’s hattrick heroics or the rush of Cowboys’ tries that came late in the game, I want to highlight the defensive efforts that lead to those points being scored.
North Queensland have now kept four teams to just one try this season. From siren to siren and sideline to sideline the Cowboys defensive unit never stops moving as they track the ball across the park. We need to give some credit to Valentine Holmes and Peta Hiku for the decisions they’re making on the edges – an area of particular concern for the Cowboys in previous seasons – but their job is being made so much easier by the work of their teammates from the inside.
This defensive involvement from Holmes and Murray Taulagi midway through the first half is a good example:
Looking to trap Parramatta in their own end, Holmes and Taulagi come flying out of the line as the Eels look for an early shift. Holmes doesn’t get to Mitch Moses in time to wrap up the ball but the pressure he applies throws Moses’ pass just off the mark which gives Murray Taulagi time to force the error when he hits Will Penisini. We aren’t used to seeing North Queensland’s edges work in sync like this but the collective effort can be attributed to just more than Holmes and Taulagi.
Take note of the line speed from the Cowboys here. Jason Taumalolo, Tom Gilbert and Tom Dearden all work hard off their line to cut down Junior Paulo’s space at pivot, applying pressure to Parramatta’s ballplayers from the inside. Their early efforts nullify Paulo’s tip-on option which allows Holmes and Taulagi to make an educated guess that the ball is coming out the back. Freed up by their inside men, Holmes and Taulagi jam together and get a result for their team.
It happened on the other side of the field, too.
This time it’s Jeremiah Nanai’s efforts at 4-defender to stay up in the line and pressure Jakob Arthur that releases his outside men. Nanai’s work from the inside allows Townsend and Hiku to crowd big Shaun Lane as the lead option, forcing the pass out the back to Dylan Brown who cops a special from a jamming Feldt. It looks like an individual effort from Feldt but he is only afforded the freedom to make that play thanks to the work of his teammates on the inside.
Having shut down one backline shift, the Cowboys would then repeat that effort on the very next tackle.
A three pass shift and an offload gets Parramatta quickly over to the right edge through Clint Gutherson. Big Heilum Luki at 4-defender starts retreating when the Eels go into contact but watch how quickly he reacts when the offload comes. Luki bounces off his line as Gutherson collects the offload and he herds the fullback towards the sideline with his early efforts. Those first few steps is enough to release Dearden outside him and when Will Penisini finds some space one pass wider, Dearden is in position to drag him down and make a tackle that North Queensland’s halves simply were not making last year.
The most pleasing thing for Todd Payten would have been seeing his players maintain these efforts over 80 minutes, and none did this more so than Reuben Cotter. Playing without a spell in Round 8, Cotter took 16 carries for 137 run metres (66 in post-contact), broke three tackles and made an outrageous 56 tackles for zero misses. What the stats don’t show, however, are all the little efforts Cotter made off the ball to support his teammates.
With the clock winding down and Parramatta desperate for points, Reed Mahoney consistently searched down their usually lethal short left edge. In this instance he feeds to Lane at pivot who has Brown in support off his hip and Arthur sweeping out the back. They have the numbers advantage and they’ve got the Cowboys retreating but it’s Cotter’s efforts from A-defender that saves North Queensland here. Realising what’s taking shape outside him, Cotter charges at Lane and pressures the big backrower as he looks to pass. Cotter’s effort allows Townsend to slide out and help Hiku tackle Brown when the pass gets away.
Are you noticing a trend here?
This effort from Coen Hess is a wonderful example of where the Cowboys have improved in 2022. Hess was the unfortunate target of a few RLW pieces last year as we broke down North Queensland’s woeful defensive structures. He was prone to flying out of the line only put pressure on no one but his own teammates by creating the overlap or leaving a hole in the defence.
Not so in 2022.
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.
When you hear commentators talk about players working for each other off the ball, this is what it looks like.
Whether it was an edge defender chasing hard on the end of a backline shift or a middle forward plugging holes around the ruck, there were always multiple Cowboys jerseys in frame when Parramatta sniffed half an opportunity. The pressure they applied from the inside cut down Parramatta’s time with the ball and the unison they moved with out wide negated almost everything the Eels threw at them.
North Queensland have the Knights and Tigers in the next fortnight before facing Melbourne and Penrith in back-to-back games in Rounds 11 & 12. I’m happy to wait until then before really settling on the Cowboys this year but from the evidence we’ve got so far, North Queensland are a finals calibre side in 2022.
There’s Always Next Week For…
… the Cronulla Sharks
We’ve spent the best part of seven weeks talking about how good the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks attack is this year. They’re playing a high-tempo brand of footy that plays right into the running and ball playing strengths of Nicho Hynes, Matt Moylan and William Kennedy and they’re catching teams out on both edges every week.
Every week except Round 8, I should say.
Completing at just 70%, Cronulla shot themselves in the foot one too many times on Friday night. Their usually crisp backline movements were clunky and mistimed and the Sharks started getting frustrated when the points didn’t come. Five errors between Moylan and Hynes sums up the Sharks in Round 8 – they played a similar style to the first seven weeks but the execution just wasn’t there.
Brisbane can take some of the credit for this. The Broncos have been excellent playing at Suncorp in 2022 and this was no exception. Adam Reynolds is proving to be everything the club signed him for while Payne Haas continues to defy belief – playing 54 minutes with a clearly busted AC, Haas still managed 15 carries for 139 metres and 26 tackles for no misses. How he managed to get in the back field and herd a runaway Kennedy into the cover defence five minutes into the game is beyond me.
I also need to give a shoutout to Kotoni Staggs. He added another mint individual try to his highlight reel but Staggs was superb without the ball in Round 8. There was plenty said about his match up with Siosifa Talakai and Staggs won that contest unanimously on Friday night.
The Broncos kicked to Ronaldo Mulitalo all night which forced Talakai to start Cronulla’s sets off against a set defensive line and limited his impact. Every time Talakai ran the ball on second tackle, Staggs was up in his face to drag the big bull down. Defence hasn’t really been as strength of Staggs in the past but he’s been excellent to begin the season and is doing his Origin chances no harm (although I still think Stephen Crichton is the obvious pick).
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.
Herbie Farnworth – CTW – $422,500 – There’s probably better scoring options at the price but you won’t find me disagreeing if you want to bring Farnworth in. Oozes effort in everything he does and can bust a tackle like the best of them. If Brisbane spend as much time trying to feed Farnworth good ball as they did with Kotoni Staggs he’d be an absolute gun.
Isaiah Tass – CTW – $175,400 – Still very raw and had a few rookie errors in his first starting gig but this kid can play. If he can hold that left centre position and if Cody Walker continues building into the season, Tass could be anything.
