Check in with the Repeat Set every week to recap the latest round of NRL action. This week we’re breaking down Canberra’s two tries in three minutes, the signs of Kalyn Ponga’s potential at five-eighth, and highlighting the career-best form of Kotoni Staggs.
Breaking down Canberra’s two tries in three minutes
The Canberra Raiders have won five games in a row.
It feels like a relatively quiet winning streak as they climb from 16th on the NRL ladder after Round 5 to 7th heading into Round 12.
Their 26-18 win over the Parramatta Eels is the most impressive of the lot, for mine. Beating the Brisbane Broncos in Round 6 is the bigger scalp, but their performance this week is one that suggests this recent run of results is no fluke.
Canberra dominated possession and yardage. Regardless of their prior results, to hold 55% possession, spend 27:22 minutes with the ball in hand, and finish up on top of the Eels in running metres is an impressive return. The Raiders managed only two line breaks to Parramatta’s five but looked the more comfortable team on both sides of the ball throughout.
We could point to a number of different positives, but I particularly like how the Raiders managed to exploit one of Clint Gutherson’s strengths.
Gutherson is a workhorse fullback. In defence, he makes a special effort to track across the field and you’ll struggle to find a fullback who ends up in the right position at the right time defensively more than Gutherson. However, it can come at a cost as the Raiders must have established during the week.
You can see Gutherson flying across the line in the play leading up to Hudson Young’s try.
Lined up roughly behind the play-the-ball and relying on his speed and effort to get across the field, Gutherson premeditates the Raiders shift wide before Jamal Fogarty turns the ball back in.
Back behind the ruck and with Fogarty – the likely 5th tackle recipient in good ball – to his left, Gutherson motions to follow him.
Bang goes Tom Starling.
Without being on the field or in the preview meeting we’re guessing whether or not this sort of thing is planned ahead of time or a product of ‘eyes up footy’. But based on how quickly Tom Starling jumps out and puts boot to ball without even shaping to pass, and with Hudson Young ready and waiting to pounce without missing a beat, it certainly looks like a play the Raiders had drawn up for this week.
They took a similar approach to scoring on the very next set, too.
You can see Gutherson behind the ruck organising the numbers. As the last man peels out of the tackle and is sent to the right edge, Gutherson motions to the left to put six players on each side. He’s not in the line, but seeing the Raiders stacked on that side, Gutherson is on his bike the second Starling fires a pass that way.
Again, we can’t be 100% sure that the action is planned but it appears to be.
Jamal Fogarty takes possession and holds the ball out in front, but never even looks at his outside men. There isn’t the slightest movement to pass wide. Instead, he takes a couple of steps forward to stop the slide of the defence, finds a hole in the line, and rolls one through for Seb Kris to collect.
There is a history of these tries. The Penrith Panthers scored a beauty in Week 1 of the NRL Finals last year.
The Raiders are on fire at the moment. They’ve saved a poor start to the season and expectations are changing. While the 17 players on the field are doing their part and playing good footy, the finer details coming from the coaching staff are proving pivotal.
Against a hobbled Tom Trbojevic and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles next week, I’ll be keeping an eye out for similar actions in Round 12.
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Edwards’ evolving role
Like Gutherson above, Dylan Edwards is a workhorse fullback.
He’s not the most skilful with the ball, but he returns it fast to start the Penrith Panthers’ yardage sets well, pushes up in support throughout the set, and has organised the best defence in the NRL for the last three seasons.
No longer underrated, everybody knows what Edwards does well and how it impacts the Panthers plan overall.
He’s having and impact more than he ever has before to average a career-high 40.2 touches per game.
Dylan Edwards Touches per Game
2023: 40.2
2022: 36.2
2021: 32.3
2020: 34.3
2019: 32
I’m going to keep a closer eye on where he’s touching the ball and how often he is featuring in their good ball attack in the coming weeks. I suspect he’s seeing more of it close to the line as a pivot than we’re accustomed to seeing.
When you think of elite ball-playing fullbacks you think of Latrell Mitchell’s quick hands, Tom Trbojevic’s long pass or Reece Walsh’s ability to make the right read at incredible speed. Edwards doesn’t stack up and I think it has prompted a slight change to how he is used in good ball.
Rather than playing out the back of shape in the second or third layer of a shift, Edwards appears to be taking the ball more as a first receiver. Where he’d have previously taken a pass out the back of a block on the edge, he’s throwing that pass to Nathan Cleary out wider.
Perhaps it’s a long-term change in his role? Perhaps it’s nothing…
It’s something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks, though.
Sydney Roosters brain dump
– There is something wrong with the Roosters this season. I, like many others, had them locked in as premiership contenders but it just isn’t coming together.
– When I think of the Roosters at their best, I’m always imagining a short side raid. Set up by running a big backrower at a half, force the opposition back rower into the tackle and flip one of their forwards, ideally a prop, to the short side A spot. Enter: Luke Keary and James Tedesco.
– Those short side raids aren’t happening.
– Maybe Brandon Smith is better used as a running middle forward instead of a hooker? The Roosters are big and strong through the middle but lack the quick play-the-balls that can trigger the attack.
– Joey Manu should be back in the centres when Sam Walker is fit again. I didn’t mind the move but it isn’t paying off.
– No Roosters forward cracked 100+ running metres in Round 11.
– I’m certainly not out on the Roosters. Calls to sack Trent Robinson already are off the mark. Still, if they struggle against the St. George Illawarra Dragons in Round 12, I might have to rethink their position among possible premiership contenders.
Career-best Kotoni?
Following years of demands, both from him to do more and for the playmakers inside him to simply give him early ball and hope he does something, Kotoni Staggs is quietly playing out the best season of his NRL career.
The Brisbane Broncos are flying and Staggs is a big part of their success, but his form isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
Reece Walsh taking the headlines will have something to do with it.
So too will the NRL form of Campbell Graham as he makes a case for State of Origin selection.
Still, it’s interesting to see how opinions and expectations change for young players as Staggs faced more scrutiny as a young player learning his trade, and less recognition as he develops into truly becoming one of the best centres in the NRL.
It’s not just what he’s doing with the ball either. Per Stats Insider, the Broncos right edge has conceded only 10 of their 38 tries this season (36%). Staggs has improved in the little areas as well. I have more than a couple of notes around his work from marker and the impact it is having on how the Broncos defend a yardage set.
Of all the years Staggs had his name thrown up as an Origin centre, this is the season he’s best prepared to feature. It looks as though it will take injuries or suspensions for him to get a look, but he wouldn’t look out of place in the Origin arena this year.
This is Ponga at five-eighth
Kalyn Ponga has struggled to stay on the field this season.
When he has been out there, he’s struggled to feature positively playing in a new position.
However, with an extra week to work things out as a five-eighth and against the worst defensive team in the NRL, Ponga showed everybody what he’s capable of while playing in the front line.
One of the benefits of having Ponga at five-eighth is to have him on the ball more often. He can be involved multiple times in a set and finds himself with his hands on the ball in dangerous actions all the way up the field.
His solo effort on Sunday paints the picture to perfection.
Instead of taking a tough carry to help drag the Knights out of yardage earlier in the set, Ponga is in a position to make the most of a strong Bradman Best run. With the push through the tackle, Best leaves a player on the ground and a three-on-three situation down the short side.
Ponga now has Iszac Fa’asuamaleaui in front of him filling in at short side A in a right-edge defence that had allowed 18 tries through it heading into Round 11 (2nd-most in the NRL).
Beating him for speed and using Lachlan Fitzgibbon to hold up the centre, Ponga skips through the line, sells Jayden Campbell a dummy, and scores a superb solo try.
The sort he wasn’t likely to score in that situation had he been wearing the #1 jersey.
Ponga popped up in good spots close to the line as well. Jackson Hastings did a good job as middle service to present Ponga with three-on-three situations in good ball. That doesn’t sound so appealing to most, but when you’re Ponga and can beat the three-in defender for speed more often than not, those three-on-three’s quickly become three-on-two and points in the corner.
Sure, it’s only one game. Ponga himself was saying all of the right things to Brett Keeble at NRL.com after the match:
“I need to back it up and be consistent, and that’s something I need to do for the rest of the year, and probably something that I haven’t done for a couple of years now, so it’s just one performance.
“I’m still learning the position of six, I’m still learning and that was probably only my second full game there, and I know this is going to be a learning process.
It’s a very positive sign, though.
Hopefully, he can back it up in the coming weeks and provides us with a little bit more vision to break down.
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