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Heilum Luki and the improving Cowboys
The North Queensland Cowboys have won two on the trot after a disappointing start to the 2023 NRL regular season.
Their efforts areas were lacking across the opening few months but they seem to have turned a corner following an upset win over the Sydney Roosters in Round 10. That change in form has coincided with the return of Heilum Luki in a big minute role, and the Cowboys are looking all the better for it.
North Queensland are an effort based team.
Guys like Reece Robson and Reuben Cotter personify their gameplan; compete on everything up and down the park and slowly earn the right to score points. Tom Dearden, Scott Drinkwater and Valentine Holmes will always be attacking threats, but they rely on the lead up work from their teammates to create scoring opportunities later in the set.
Luki does a little bit of both.
With 192 metres from 14 hit-ups last week against the Dragons, Luki repeatedly put the Cowboys on his back and carried them downfield. His 52 post-contact metres was the most by any player on the field last week and he was a reliable contributor without the ball too (21 tackles, 0 misses).
Luki then backed up his efforts in yardage to have a leading role in three or four scoring actions as the Cowboys ran away with a 42-22 win.
His unders line on an edge is up there with the best in the NRL:
Jack Bird and Talatau Amone present a sound defensive line here but Luki times and angles his run to perfection. Splitting both defenders, Luki punches through the hole to get an arm free and offload to Dearden in support.
The wide angle shows the disruption Luki’s involvement puts into St George’s defensive line on the following tackle:
Jaydn Su’a is up off his line quickly here, recognising the threat on the open side of the field. Just three Dragons players are outside him to defend the space between the posts and the corner – too much space for a guy like Drinkwater.
Capitalising on the work of his backrower, Drinkwater beats the rushing defence to skip through the line and gift Jack Gosiewski the easiest four-pointer of his NRL career.
If Luki doesn’t pierce the line on the previous tackle, Drinkwater doesn’t get his opportunity to run here. It’s the first example from last week of Luki’s influence on the Cowboys attack, and the hits kept coming.
One of North Queensland’s short-comings this year has been their inability to build towards scoring actions. Their positive moments in attack have played out in isolation and they’ve struggled to capitalise on momentum generated earlier in a set.
Not so last week:
A brilliant yardage carry from Holmes is backed up by an opportunistic scoot from Robson on the following tackle:
With the momentum of consecutive quick play-the-balls, North Queensland have the Dragons scrambling.
Cotter almost butchers it when he darts from half on the next play, but the ball eventually gets to Luki on an edge who turns a half-chance into points:
How often last season would Jeremiah Nanai come up with a special play like this to ice a positive set for the Cowboys? He was consistently put in a position to impact games thanks to the work of his teammates in the lead up, and in Round 11 it was Luki filling a similar role.
Luki saved his best work for last though.
The top tier edge forwards in the NRL base their game on line running. It looks simple when a Viliame Kikau or Briton Nikora flies onto a short ball and pours through a gap, but getting the timing and angles right is an artform.
The best line running edge forwards are those that can change the angle of their run before taking possession and isolate defenders in the line. Jase highlighted Keaon Koloamatangi’s pre-line movements earlier in the season and in Round 11 Luki produced something similar.
As the Cowboys search down their right edge in good-ball, Luki lines up on Max Feagai’s inside shoulder:
Feagai comes off his line to bring the bigger man down and is well positioned to make good first contact until Luki bounces off his left foot as the pass travels through the air.
He hasn’t even taken possession by the time he beats the Feagai tackle, catching the ball on the outside shoulder and slipping through the line to score.
That slip line is one of the more difficult actions in an edge forward’s toolkit. The timing of the movement has to be precise and it relies on good service from the halfback too. Throw them together and you’ve got an action that is very difficult to defend.
With news releasing today that Luciano Leilua is free to return to the NRL, North Queensland all of a sudden have a logjam on the edges. Nanai is due back from suspension in Round 14 and it will be interesting to see how Todd Payten assembles his backrow, moving forward.
Leilua and Nanai need to be in the side somewhere, but Luki has played himself into a starting role given his ability to both generate momentum in a set and capitalise on it in good-ball.
Head Noise – What’s living rent free in my head this week?
Coen Hess on the kick chase: At 190cm and 114kgs, Hess has no right to be competing for kicks in the air like this:
Despite that, he’s consistently one of the first Cowboys in the frame when the ball goes skyward. He regularly plays for the bat-back and got a few results with this action last week against the Dragons.
Hess was moved to the edge out of neccesity to begin the season but is an out-and-out middle at this stage in his NRL career. His effort areas are sound and he brings a point-of-difference to the middle with actions like this.
The Cowboys are a much better side with Hess in the front-row rotation.
Payne Haas ballplaying: Haas’s continual development as the best prop-forward in the NRL is a joy to watch.
He’s added an offload in 2023 to help Brisbane to the best yardage game in the NRL and now he’s filling a distributing role through the middle of the field.
Watch how the defence reacts when Haas digs into the line here:
Three Storm defenders are put on their heels as Haas straightens the attack, while Jahrome Hughes second guesses himself on the edge. That indecision allows Ezra Mam to get on the outside of his man and dribble a grubber kick into space behind the line.
If that kick is a touch heavier, Jesse Arthars strolls through to score. I’m keep an eye out for this shape in my Round 12 Percentage Play, below.
Billy Smith: 15 runs, 118 metres, one linebreak, two linebreak assists, seven tackle busts, three offloads.
And this:
The Roosters have invested in Smith for a while now and it’s finally paying dividends. He’s a genuine centre with a high workrate and more attacking upside than we’ve perhaps given him credit for.
Here’s to hoping he can stay on the field.
Penrith’s right-edge defence: The Panthers comfortably enjoy the best defence in the NRL heading into Round 12, but their 52% of tries conceded on the right-edge is a little surprising per StatsInsider.
Only the Sea Eagles’ left edge (55%) has conceded a larger portion of total tries this season, competition wide. The defensive efforts of Kelma Tuilagi and Josh Schuster are largely responsible for that number, but it’s a little more difficult to place the blame on a particular player in the Panthers lineup.
I’m keeping my eye on Zac Hosking in defence this week. He’s enjoyed a superb start to his NRL career as a Panther but is he part of the reason for Penrith’s (relatively) leaky right edge?
RLW Percentage Play – NRL Round 11
While RLW content is the kind of gear you’re likely to discuss over a schooner at the pub, our premium subscribers see it for what it can really be – an edge. Not every action we notice eventuates in a winning bet slip, but with enough work we can at the very least take an educated guess – an informed punt, if you will – at where the value is each week in the NRL.
Brisbane Broncos v Penrith Panthers (Thursday)