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Josh Schuster: The Good and The Bad
This feels like a wave we’re going to be riding for a while.
Josh Schuster made his return to the NRL last week after spending Rounds 9-11 on the sidelines due to a leg injury.
Or was it to get his body right? Or to work on certain areas of his game?
We’ll never know.
What we do know is that Schuster is an elite attacking talent.
The skills of a five-eighth in the body of a front rower make Schuster a daunting prospect for edge defenders, particularly with the likes of Tom Trbojevic sweeping out the back around him.
Sure enough, Schuster was directly involved in six of the eight tries Manly put on Canberra in NRL Round 12.
He was also largely responsible for both of Canberra’s scoring actions, as well as another no-try to Elliott Whitehead.
As we’ll see below, there were other factors at play in those moments. Overall though, Schuster’s involvement in many of the points Manly are conceding this year is an undeniable constant.
Let’s start with the good.
Schuster’s ability to straighten the attack is up there with the best halves in the NRL. His sheer size and running threat demands attention from the defence, but it’s the subtleties of his pre-pass movements that consistently bamboozle edge defenders.
Look how Schuster engages the defence before throwing out the back to Trbojevic here:
Canberra are comfortably herding Manly towards the sideline until Schuster straightens off that left foot.
The freeze-frame shows Jamal Fogarty and Matt Timoko planting their feet and pausing to check Schuster and Brad Parker, respectively. They both turn and chase when Trbojevic takes possession, but he’s already got them beat on the outside.
Jordan Rapana makes great first contact but Trbojevic pushes through the one-on-one tackle to plant the ball down millimetres before going into touch. He has Schuster to thank for creating the one-on-one situation with Rapana, and for the millimetres he has to work with in the corner.
Coming back down the left edge with a similar set up later in the game, Schuster again pulled the strings expertly in attack.
Taking the ball deep into the line, Schuster buys himself time to see how the defence reacts:
Timoko and Fogarty are his targets again. He engages Fogarty by straightening on his run and looks to see what Timoko does on the edge.
Perhaps thinking about Trbojevic’s earlier try, Timoko positions himself wide and only has eyes for the Manly fullback. He completely disregards Brad Parker’s tight lead run, leaving a yawning gap between himself and Fogarty in the line.
The front-on angle shows how well Schuster sells this action to Timoko.
Looking out the back and winding up for a long pass, Schuster sits Timoko on his heels before popping a very late short ball to Parker off his hip. You can see Timoko’s hips are turned out as he prepares to shoot on Trbojevic, and he is in no position to make a stop on Parker from this range.
Having conditioned the defence throughout the opening 30 minutes, Schuster saved his best for last.
The Raiders are now expecting Schuster to play short or out the back when Manly come down their left edge. Indeed, the Sea Eagles set up with the exact same shape as they did for Trbojevic and Parker to score earlier, only this time their target is elsewhere.
Watch how Canberra’s middle defence switches off for just a fraction of a second when Schuster takes possession on the edge:
Corey Horsburgh doesn’t appear to be needed in this play and slows on his run across-field.
Fogarty and Timoko do a good job numbering up on Schuster here. Canberra look to have things covered on the edge but are caught napping when Schuster suddenly drops Trbojevic back against the grain.
Samuela Fainu (15) has already run an unders decoy which engages Horsburgh near the posts. Horsburgh hurries to recover his position in the line but can’t close the gap in time when Trbojevic flies onto the ball. Fainu makes sure to not obstruct any defenders as Trbojevic pours into the space back on the inside to score his second.
Three similar set-up shapes.
Three subtle variations.
Three try assist passes.
Josh Schuster, everybody.
If you’ve read from the top though, you know where this is going.
For all his brilliance with the ball in hand, Schuster is a poor defender.
He’s strong once in contact but his decision making and positioning in the line is ugly. He’s a passive defender and rarely does the early work to make affecting a tackle easier when the time comes.
Look at the space Schuster leaves on his inside when Canberra shift right here:
To their credit, Fogarty and Jack Wighton engage the line effectively to prevent Manly from sliding.
Ben Trbojevic – defending on Schuster’s inside – is caught up on the Wighton run and only has eyes for the ball while Whitehead targets his outside shoulder.
Ben has made the first mistake here, but he doesn’t get much help from Schuster who is late into the line and only has eyes for Sebastian Kris out the back.
Schuster finds himself in a similar position to the one Timoko was in for Parker’s try. His hips are turned out and he can’t make a stop on Whitehead when Wighton plays short to his backrower.
Schuster was found out again early in the second half making the same mistake.
He spots Horsburgh at pivot and shoots on Fogarty here, premeditating the pass out the back:
It’s great awareness and vision from Schuster to idenfity what’s unfolding in front of him.
The athleticism and speed to make the play is great too – not many players that big can shoot off the line as quickly as Schuster does here.
He doesn’t make the play though.
Fogarty cranks back on the inside where poor Fainu is left in no-man’s land. A lovely pass through the line hits Whitehead on the chest, and it’s only a superb effort from the Trbojevic brothers that denies Canberra on this occasion.
Wayne Bennett has spoken in the past about backing his players to make the play – but only if they make it. If you’re going to break from your systems and be the hero, you better shut things down. Otherwise, you’re only making things harder for the players around you.
Unfortunately for Schuster, he too often ends up doing the latter.
When he’s not flying out and attempting the big shot, Schuster is frequently seen being passive in the defensive line.
This try to Ata Mariota is one that should never have been scored:
Ben Condon comes up with a woeful effort on Mariota here but it’s Schuster’s lack of line speed that leaves a chink in the defence. Skipping away from Condon, Mariota only has an arms tackle to beat when he straightens into the space.
If Schuster had done the early work, he’s up next to Condon and presenting a solid defensive line to Mariota here. Instead, he’s passive off his line and is left with a much more difficult tackle to make.
In Schuster’s defence (pun intended), he had three different backrowers beside him in each of these negative actions. As I said at the topm there are other factors at play in these examples but Schuster himself is the constant.
Manly fans must be prepared to take the good with the bad when it comes to Schuster.
His NRL development is still a work in progress but thankfully for Schuster, it’s a simple task. If he can improve his defence, he’ll immediately become one of the more influential halves in the competition.
Just 39 games into his NRL career, Schuster already knows what works for him. That’s more than what most rookie halves can say about their game.
The challenge now is to fix what doesn’t.
Head Noise – What’s living rent free in my head this week?
Gold Coast shambles
The scoreboard reads 20-18. Advantage Canterbury.
The clock reads 78:46. Again, advantage Canterbury.
The Gold Coast Titans have 80+ metres to travel and one possession left to win the game, and Justin Holbrook decides now is the time to pull David Fifita from the field…
I beg your pardon?
On the broadcast, it looked like Fifita said something of that effect to the Titans on-field trainer.
Erin Clark was left raising his arms on the sidelines as Fifita disregarded the substitution and stayed on the park. Four tackles later he dragged Gold Coast into position for a two-point field goal, winning a quick play-the-ball for Tannah Boyd to take the shot.
As Jase covered earlier in the week, the ball instead went to Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and the Titans let another two competition points slip.
Justin Holbrook knows a lot more about footy than me. Still, you have to question his decision making in this key moment from Round 12.
There isn’t another backrower in the NRL you’d want on the field more than Fifita with the game on the line. He’s playing out a career year in season 2023 but the Titans are still struggling for control and direction in the big moments.
Perhaps it’s got something to do with the directives from the coach’s box?
Melbourne magic
Even as a ‘Phins Up’ guy, I couldn’t help but applaud the Melbourne Storm when Cameron Munster scored midway through the first half.
With Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow caught up in the previous tackle, Jahrome Hughes and Munster knew exactly what was needed in the moment. An early grubber into the in-goal on the left edge caught The Dolphins with nobody at home and Melbourne took an eight-point lead that they would hold through to fulltime.
Harry Grant played his part perfectly too. Those few steps out of dummy-half held up Tabuai-Fidow for an extra half-second and helped Munster win the race to the ball.
Actions like this are why Melbourne’s attacking trio are considered the best in the NRL.
Starford To’a
He’s been given a shout-out just about everywhere else, but I’m jumping on board.
- 14 runs for 230 run metres
- 5 linebreaks
- 12 tackle busts
- 2 tries, 1 assist
All against Queensland Origin centre Valentine Holmes.
Starford To’a has been building towards a performance like this for a few weeks now.
He’s always had potential – even in his time at Newcastle – but has changed positions in poor teams too often to truly find his feet in first-grade. Seemingly locking down that right centre position at the Tigers, here’s to hoping we see numbers like this more regularly from To’a in the NRL.
Blake Taaffe
It’s been a while since we’ve seen him in the top grade, but Taaffe gets his chance at fullback this week with Latrell Mitchell on Origin duty.
On potential, Taaffe can hold the position for another few weeks and give Mitchell a rest over the Representative period. He’s got a good pair of hands and is a better running game than he’s shown at NRL level, to date.
With Damien Cook, Cody Walker and Lachlan Ilias doing most of the heavy lifting, Taaffe profiles well as a guy to throw the last pass out the back of shape.
It’s up to Taaffe how long he spends in first-grade over the next two months.
RLW Percentage Play – NRL Round 13
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.
South Sydney Rabbitohs v Canberra Raiders (Saturday)
I’m over in Papua New Guinea this weekend with the PNG Hunters so this will be an abridged version of our Percentage Play for Round 13.
The Rabbitohs are missing a host of key players coming into Saturday night’s game but so are the Raiders. The absence of Hudson Young and Elliott Whitehead in particular spells danger for a Canberra edge defence that has struggled at times this season.
Corey Horsburgh and Corey Harawira-Naera are their replacements in the backrow this weekend and it’s Harawira-Naera I’m focussing on. His decision making and repeat efforts in defence to begin the year were so poor that Ricky Stuart was moving him between middle and edge in between games, before eventually moving him to reserve grade.
Assuming he lines up on the left edge as he did to begin the season, the Rabbitohs right edge will have him circled as a target.
RLW Percentage Play Round 13
Michael Chee Kam anytime try scorer @ $6.75 (Sportsbet)
Campbell Graham anytime try scorer @ $2.90 (bet365)