Recap the latest round of the 2023 NRL season with the Repeat Set as we break down some of the best plays from the weekend.
Broncos producing from outside the 20
We’re not afforded many high-quality stats as NRL fans. For whatever reason, most worth really keeping track of aren’t available for public consumption leaving us with a few basics that require a level of context that isn’t always applied.
Tackle efficiency might tell us how good or bad a player sticks to a tackle, but you’ve got to be in position to make one to miss it so the awful misses aren’t considered at all.
Completion rates can be important and can generally tell us something about a game. However, there isn’t a lot of point completing at 85% if those sets are ending without firing a shot in attack.
Tackles inside the opposition 20-metre line are the latest trendy number thanks to a sponsorship of the stat on the NRL’s major broadcaster. They’re another that requires a lot more thought beyond the number, though.
Let’s take a quick look at the teams in the competition for tackles inside the opposition’s 20-metre line per game after Round 23.
Most notable is the fact the premiership favourites averaging 26 points per game (2nd-most in the NRL) average the most tackles inside the opposition’s 20-metre line while the Wests Tigers, the worst attacking team in the competition, is second.
For the Penrith Panthers, they’re a side that dominates in yardage and turns bodies back underneath, patiently waiting for the defence to crack. We consider them a finely tuned and organised attack. Meanwhile, the Tigers play side-to-side and don’t do enough to compress the middle. They struggle with the ball in hand and it doesn’t seem to matter how many chances they create for themselves near the opposition’s goal line.
Tackles inside the opposition’s 20-metre line doesn’t necessarily make for a great attack. Still, I was surprised to see the Brisbane Broncos rank 15th in the NRL with only 25.3 tackles per game.
It soon became obvious why…
The Broncos dominated with the ball against the North Queensland Cowboys on Saturday afternoon and a lot of their best work came far beyond the 20-metre line. They generate ruck speed around halfway and use their speed on the edges to move up the field. If the shift doesn’t turn into points on that tackle, the break up the field is often enough to scramble the defence and produce points later in the set.
I’ve plucked out two but if you ignore Selwyn Cobbo’s intercept try just before full time, all four other Broncos tries stem from an action closer to halfway than it does the opposition line.
The Broncos do a great job of using their best players in sequence. Here, Payne Haas takes a wide pass and generates a quick play-the-ball down the edge by running at Tom Dearden. With the defence pulled to one side, Pat Carrigan provides perfect service through the middle of the field before Reece Walsh stresses and stretches the line down the left edge.
While the points don’t come on the end of this particular shift, it’s where the defensive line starts to struggle. Whenever you can get the backrower inside the posts, you’re doing a good job of manipulating the defence and creating holes on the edge.
Displaying an encouraging level of patience, Ezra Mam drops Brendan Piakura back at Luciano Leilua and Dearden. We’ve seen a lot of teams in the past turn one shift into another and it doesn’t often translate into a consistent attack. Defensive lines will slide all day if they can.
It might look to be a wasted play to some. However, by engaging these two particular defenders, leaving Dearden on the ground and out of the play, the Broncos force the Cowboys to flip players down to the short side.
As the space opens up through the middle, Billy Walters takes it to go close himself before Jock Madden and the left edge make the most of their numbers advantage to run it in on the last tackle.
It’s a try constructed across a full set made up of two or three half-chances, but one that features only two tackles inside the opposition’s 20-metre line.
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The next example follows a similar pattern. With the outside backs getting the set started in yardage, the Broncos look to the edges around halfway. Semi Valemei does a good job of jamming on Piakura but it isn’t enough to stop the Broncos from doing what they want from this area of the field.
As Piakura works towards the spot the Broncos want to play from, you can see Walsh swing into action. He knows what is coming and while he doesn’t touch the ball, his presence has an impact. Dearden backtracks to buy his outside men time but they don’t follow him in, instead they stay up in the line in preparation for a sweeping Walsh as Carrigan flies through the gap.
Once again, the Broncos do their most dangous work around halfway. They don’t even need to be close to the Cowboys line to find points.
Brisbane can score from all over the field and seem to only be getting better. The way Keenan Palasia accalerated into the line and provided perfect service to Madden out the back is like nothing I’ve ever seen from the 26-year-old. They did all of this in a Queensland derby against a decent Cowboys defence without Adam Reynolds, too.
The Penrith Panthers are deserving favourites to win the 2023 NRL premiership, but an attack like that of the Broncos can upset even the historically great defences on its day.
As for the now-popular tackles inside the opposition 20 stat, it’s still one I put some value in but the Broncos expose the number as just another one that isn’t entirely useful in isolation.
Quick note
Like everybody else it seems, I’m drugged up on panadol and cold & flu tablets at the moment. I’m eating throat lozenges for lunch so excuse the quick review this week.
With the extra time to lay back and watch games, I’ll hopefully be able to make it up in the Notepad on Thursday.