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 plays each week in the NRL.
How the Bulldogs are building their attack
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are 2-and-1 to start the 2023 NRL season following a nervous win over the Wests Tigers in Round 3.
They disappointed to allow Wests back into the game on Sunday but there are positives on both sides of the ball for new coach Cameron Ciraldo to work with, moving forward. They’re not at the level of the defending premiers just yet, but there are shades of the Penrith Panthers in how Ciraldo’s team is working upfield and constructing points in good-ball.
The Bulldogs are getting wonderful service out of their back five to start the season, as evident in the numbers from Round 3.
In Hayze Perham, Jacob Kiraz, Jake Averillo, Paul Alomoti and Josh Addo-Carr, the Bulldogs have five productive ball carriers to work out of their own end. Their back five combined for 953 metres – almost half (49.82%) of their total yardage gain – against the Tigers in Round 3 to consistently get Canterbury’s sets off to a positive start. Two runaway tries through Alomoti and Addo-Carr obviously helped give those numbers a bump, but its fast becoming a trend for the Bulldogs in season 2023 as it has been for Penrith over the last few years. For reference, the Panthers grand final winning side of 2022 made 42.79% of their total yardage through their back five – not a bad yardstick to measure up against.
Using up his outside backs in yardage is a ploy Ciraldo brought with him from Penrith and the results are promising, three games in. With the centres and wingers getting busy in exit sets, Canterbury’s middles are saving themselves for defence to dominate the tackle and win the ruck. No team in the NRL conceded less post-contact metres (363m) than the Bulldogs in Round 3.
The productivity of Canterbury’s back five is not only getting them out of trouble, it’s allowing them to build pressure with their kick chase and defence.
Some nice vision and a simple pass from Averillo allows the Bulldogs to work smarter, not harder, out of the backfield here.
Burton’s half break is backed up by Averillo who steals easy metres around the ruck to get Canterbury into the Tigers half. With Wests retreating, Flanagan chimes in to move the ball to space on the right edge, and all of a sudden the Bulldogs have gone 60+ metres and in position for an attacking bomb.
The quality of Mahoney’s kick is well supported by an enthusiastic kick-chase from Kiraz, trapping the Tigers in a corner on their own 10m line.
This is exactly the kind of pressure-building action we’re used to seeing from the Panthers; an enegertic exit set through the back five, a good fifth tackle kick and a hungry kick chase led by the outside backs. Over the course of 80 minutes, passages like this help Penrith and now Canterbury to a healthy territorial advantage.
The Bulldogs are also triggering scoring actions thanks to the work of their back five earlier in the set.
A good kick return from Perham gets Canterbury to the middle of the field to start this set, before Alomoti kickstarts an attacking raid with a strong carry one-off the ruck.
Alomoti’s quick play-the-ball allows Kiraz to follow suit with a scything run back in behind the ruck. The Tigers are still getting onside by the time Kiraz gets over the ad-line, and he too generates some ruck speed by finding his front and playing the ball quickly.
You could see this one coming from the couch at home.
Mahoney’s involvement here is key. He drags the markers one way before passing back across the ruck to Burton at speed. Poor Joe Ofahengaue doesn’t even realise what’s happening as Burton pours through a hole, cranks off his left foot to beat the fullback and scores a simple yet undefendable try.
When set up in good-ball, Canterbury are still working out the kinks in attack. The Perham-Burton-Flanagan-Mahoney combination is just three games old and we need to give them time to click. The early signs are good though.
Mahoney doesn’t have the craft of Koroisau from dummy-half but he’s picking his moments nicely. He controlled a few attacking sets as he tried to pass forward teammates into spaces around the ruck, and when the points didn’t come he showed great patience to force the drop-out and build pressure.
On the right edge, Flanagan is keeping his role simple and bringing both Jacob Preston and Averillo into the game. Preston in particular has made a barnstorming start to his NRL career to become an instant target for his halfback close to the line.
Flanagan isolated Preston onto Luke Brooks like this a few times in Round 3 and the Bulldogs were unlucky not to get a result.
Preston is still a raw talent – a conventional two-handed pass for Averillo here probably sees Canterbury score their fourth try of the afternoon – but the ability is clearly there. Already 189cm and 100kgs at just 21 years of age, his development throughout the season is worth watching and if he can strike up some combinations on the right edge he will help balance Canterbury nicely in attack.
The Bulldogs best avenue for points though is quite obviously on their left edge.
Burton and Kikau made a shaky start to the season but appear to be working things out, three rounds in. The numbers suggest Kikau is stil easing into his role at the Bulldogs (avg. 12.3 receipts, 82.7 run metres per game) but what the stats dont indicate is the variety of Kikau’s involvements. He and Burton worked interchangably as distributor and support player in Round 3, switching roles to execute a range of actions on Canterbury’s left edge.
Kikau appears to be the target here as the Bulldogs shift wide, inviting Adam Doueihi to shoot off his line and get up in the face of the big backrower.
Some quick hands from Kikau beats the rushing defence though, passing Burton into a three-on-two situation on the edge. Burton cuts back infield in this instance but the value and gravity of Kikau as a distributor was immediate.
One tackle later, the Bulldogs again go left through Perham to Burton in a more conventional ballplaying role.
Perham’s involvement gets Burton at Doueihi’s outside shoulder and with players in support on his outside. The pass goes out the back to Kikau who again produces some lovely soft hands to tip the ball on to Addo-Carr on the wing. The Tigers rush to sheppard Addo-Carr towards the sideline but The Foxx cuts back infield and almost creates points when he offloads to Flanagan in support.
Flanagan’s involvement here deserves recognition. He has no right to be in position to support Addo-Carr here, but his eagerness to be involved sees him follow the ball throughout this play and become an option back on the inside. Flanagan knows there is space back out to the right but he doesn’t throw the speculator and instead resets at the posts on tackle four.
The Bulldogs have now hit Wests right edge twice in three tackles and have another two up their sleeve. They only needed one.
Flanagan’s play-the-ball splits the Tigers defence down the middle, leaving five defenders to cover seven Bulldogs players on the left-hand side of the field. Those five defenders are under pressure and fatigue having just made repeat defensive efforts, and they all work sideways off their line when Mahoney shifts it left again to Burton and Kikau.
The width of the pass from Mahoney and Burton compounds the issue for the Tigers as Kikau finds himself in space and with early ball. Presented with a sliding defensive line, Kikau bangs off his left foot and pops a pass back around the corner to Perham in support, icing an extremely well constructed try that began five tackles earlier.
Kikau’s threat as a ball runner is beginning to open up spaces for Burton to run it himself, too.
Adam Douiehi and John Bateman only have eyes for Kikau when Canterbury spread it here. Both defenders have turned out which invites Burton to hit the gas towards Bateman’s inside shoulder. Only a poor pass from Max King bombs another Bulldogs try in this action, but its something we’ll see more of in 2023 given Burton’s strength as a ball runner.
All in all, its promising signs for Ciraldo in his debut season as an NRL head coach. He has the Bulldogs playing out a simple yet effective gameplan as they work upfield, and in good-ball they are building towards a well balanced and varied attacking system. Mahoney is dictating terms from dummy-half, Flanagan is making some valuable contributions on the right edge and the Burton / Kikau combination is picking teams apart on the left.
We’ll keep our expectations measured until we see Canterbury win the grind against a more resilient opponent. They beat a poor Melbourne Storm outfit in Round 2 and made light work of the Tigers in Round 3, but neither opposition applied or absorbed pressure like the Cowboys, Eels or Rabbitohs will do in the coming weeks.
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There’s Always Next Week For…
… the South Sydney Rabbitohs
The Sydney Roosters played out some of the better footy we’ve seen from them in 2023 to register a 20-18 win over the Rabbitohs on Friday night, but it could have very easily gone the other way. South Sydney fumbled their way to 47% possession, a 62% completion rate, 15 errors, five penalties and four six-again infringements in Round 3 but still managed to win the yardage battle, force more drop-outs and make seven linebreaks to the Roosters four.
Some excellent last-line defence from James Tedesco (and some poor pass selection from the Rabbitohs) saw South Sydney leave two or three certain tries out there in this one. They also conceded a contentious try midway through the second half that could’ve been disallowed for an obstruction.
Rather than looking for excuses though, Jason Demetriou can focus on the positives. Barring Brandon Smith’s soft try, the Rabbitohs goal-line defence was superb to repel Easts on both edges with some textbook up-and-out defence. Check out the excellent work The Rugby League Eye Test has done in breaking down some of these numbers.
As South Sydney slowly welcome players back from injury – particularly in their middle forward rotation – there is plenty for Demetriou to build on.
NRL Round 3 Shout-Outs
Lets Gone – The NZ Warriors are showing genuine signs of improvement under new coach Andrew Webster to start the 2023 NRL season 2-and-1, including an emphatic Round 3 win over the North Queensland Cowboys. Webster has his squad playing to their strengths and the Cowboys simply had no answer on Saturday afternoon.
Shaun Johnson isn’t lighting up the highlights reel with his running game but he is orchestrating a cohesive and effective attack behind a winning forward pack. His involvements close to the ruck are creating spaces out wide and his kicking game has been much improved in the last fortnight. The Warriors are on the up in 2023.
Jonah Pezet – He mightn’t have got the win in his NRL debut, but Storm halfback Jonah Pezet looks a genuine talent on his Round 3 form. Has electric footwork and speed which he used to score a solo try early in the match, but it’s his timing and ballplaying skills that stood out for me. He was busy in yardage to pass Melbourne’s forwards across the park and did a fine job straightening their attack in good ball. He looked very comfortable in an on-the-ball role considering it was his first taste of first-grade. A player of the future.
What’s the matter, Parramatta? – The Eels are 0-and-3 to start the 2023 NRL season but it’s not panic stations just yet. They bombed a few certain tries against the Sea Eagles on Thursday night and conceded two completely against the run of play to gift Manly the win – errors or mistakes that we can’t expect Parramatta to make very often. They’ve shown enough in three losses to still be a force this season but need to start notching a few wins in the coming weeks.
Resilient Raiders – It’s still difficult to see what Canberra are working towards in attack but in Round 3 it didn’t matter. Their effort on both sides of the ball rattled a disappointing Sharks outfit on Sunday afternoon to register their first win of the NRL season, and a deserving one at that. The Raiders don’t seem to have much of a plan in good-ball but found 24 points out there in this one by injecting fatigue and pressure into the defensive line and then crashing through it on the following play. How (or if) the Raiders attacking systems develop over the next month before Xavier Savage returns will be an interesting storyline to follow.