Whether you’re searching for an edge in the workplace tipping comp or just desperate to talk some footy, you’ve found the place. Join Oscar Pannifex as he unpacks the scrum each week in the NRL.
Tuesday Night Footy
Melbourne Storm v New Zealand Warriors Preview
The Warriors are one of my favourite teams in the NRL to watch in season 2023. Their defensive resilience is keeping them in more games than not and is also allowing them to exhibit their surplus of attacking talent across the park. They’ve got a very Melbourne-like feel about them this season – they compete well in yardage, kick effectively through Shaun Johnson and defend their errors better than most in the competition.
How they absorb pressure against a bolstered Melbourne Storm outfit on Tuesday night will be the tale of the tape.
Melbourne were dominated in every facet of the game by Manly in Round 7. We can expect a response from them on Tuesday, particularly with Nelson Asofa-Solomona back in the pack and Nick Meaney and Cameron Munster returning at fullback and five-eighth, respectively.
It feels like this will be a real defensive grind. Both sides are capable of wracking up the points with some momentum but Craig Bellamy and Andrew Webster won’t be planning for a shoot-out. Whichever team can embrace the grind and win the ruck should come out on top, with Johnson or Munster providing the winning touches from there.
I’m tipping Storm in a close one but this game could be anything.
Bulldogs at sixes and sevens
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs mixed things up in NRL Round 8 with Matt Burton playing at halfback and Kyle Flanagan wearing the No.6 jumper. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a struggling club make this change in an attempt to kick-start their attack, but it hasn’t always produced positive results.
Against the Cronulla Sharks on Saturday night, it did… sort of. We saw enough from this new-look halves pairing for Cameron Ciraldo to persist with it in the short term, as Burton played a distributing role through the middle while Flanagan and Hayze Perham got more involved as ballplayers on the edges.
If nothing else, the positional switch seemed to trigger a shift in attacking mentality.
Instead of Burton being the go-to creative option, it was Flanagan and Perham who were free to survey the defence and pick their moments in attack. They had some early joy targetting the spaces around Matt Moylan and Siosifa Talakai on the right edge, finding metres in yardage and points in good-ball.
Identifying Moylan and Talakai were compressing the defence in yardage, Perham took advantage of the speed mismatch out wide to send Jake Averillo downfield in an early exit set:
In good ball, Flanagan and Perham played to the same principle to set up Braidon Burns’ opening try.
A good carry from Max King – and a woeful defensive effort from Cronulla – helped to trigger the scoring action:
Braden Hamlin-Uele is so passive in the line here that Teig Wilton is unwillingly dragged into the King tackle. Wilton ends up around the legs and is slow to peel, leaving the Sharks horribly short down the blind side on the following play.
Flanagan plays his role smartly here. Corey Waddell supporting off his hip invites Talakai to stay tight with Moylan in the defensive line, and the big centre can’t recover quickly enough when the pass goes out the back. Good hands from Perham and Averillo finishes things off from there.
The Bulldogs next shot in attack didn’t result in points, but it was well constructed and highlights the potential of their new-look halves combination.
Take notice of how the defence reacts when Burton plays on the ball at first receiver here:
His threat as a runner sits the Sharks on their heels as he straightens the attack. Wilton in particular sits very deep in the line, hedging his bets incase Burton bangs off his right foot. That indecision leaves a pocket of space for Flanagan when he receives the pass from his halfback, and Flanagan uses that space to dribble a lovely grubber in behind the line.
Moylan – who has a habit of shooting off his line to apply defensive pressure – is no chance of covering this kick. Talakai is at long odds to get there too as a bigger body not suited to turning and chasing. Flanagan intentionally targets the space in behind both Sharks defenders and nearly comes up with an assist for Averillo. Only a desperate cover tackle from Ronaldo Mulitalo denies the Bulldogs on this occasion.
Slotting Burton in at pivot continued to pay dividends when Declan Casey scored his second NRL try just before the break.
Again the Sharks defence is passive when Burton straightens the attack from first-receiver:
Burton’s involvement allows Flanagan to get on the outside of Wilton and isolate Jayden Okunbor one-on-one with Moylan on the edge. Okunbor’s timing is a little off here but he still wins the tackle to invite panic into Cronulla’s defensive line.
On the following tackle, Reed Mahoney almost capitalises on that panic to pass Ryan Sutton into half a hole beside the ruck:
A good tackle denies Sutton here, but with six Sharks defenders tied up around the ball there is space out wide on the following tackle. Burton makes the most of Sutton’s quick play-the-ball to almost crash over himself on the left edge.
Canterbury have now gone close to scoring in three consecutive tackles. Burton is out of play on the last but Perham identifies an opportunity down the short side and sums things up nicely with a cut-out pass to Casey on the paint.
And just like that, the Bulldogs pulled shape on both edges, moving Cronulla across the park and asking questions of the defence on consecutive tackles. Importantly, all four Bulldogs spine players had positive involvements in this set, chiming in and owning their moments to score one of the better constructed tries we saw in the NRL last week.
It’s interesting to note that Burton had one of his best running games while playing halfback in this one. His 98 running metres in Round 8 is his third-best haul of the season, and comfortably his best if you discount the long-range tries he scored in Rounds 3 and 6.
By playing on the ball at first-receiver, Burton had ample opportunities to challenge the line on the back of some ruck speed, eventually slicing through to put Waddell over in the second half.
We usually associate running halves with the five-eighth position, but Burton’s involvements at halfback in Round 8 went against that trend. He was invited into the game when slotting in at pivot, and whether by design or nature it also saw Flanagan and Perham get more involved in the attack, out wide.
They didn’t get the two points this week, but the potential of Ciraldo’s new-look halves pairing is there to see. Playing behind a depleted and beaten forward pack didn’t help their chances in Round 8, but it’s a move that could pay dividends when Canterbury welcome back some troops to their forward rotation.
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Always Next Week For…
… the Penrith Panthers
The South Sydney Rabbitohs flipped the script in Round 8 to score a last-minute, match-winning try against the Penrith Panthers. It’s too often been the other way around for Souths fans in recent years, but on the weekend the Bunnies finally got one back.
They won’t go looking for excuses, but Penrith had a few in this one. A late injury to Sunia Turuva caused a reshuffle in the backline, with Jaeman Salmon defending at right centre with the game on the line and Stephen Crichton shuffled to the left wing.
With the Rabbitohs playing predominantly down their left edge at Salmon and Brian To’o in the dying stages, hindsight would suggest that moving Crichton wasn’t the play. Alex Johnston was able to expose that unfamiliar defensive combination to get an offload away for Cody Walker, and Isaiah Tass scored the winner from there.
It was a big confidence booster for the Rabbitohs but the Panthers won’t spend too long licking their wounds after this one.
“It’s not a catastrophic loss for the Panthers. They were beaten by a very good team tonight. However, it perhaps acts as an example of how far they’ve dropped back to the pack. The 2022 Panthers don’t lose this one from 18-10 in front with seven minutes to play.” – NRL Round 8 Team Scores & Grades
NRL Round 8 Shout-Outs
Ezra Mam – The Brisbane Broncos had a plan to run the ball on the last against Parramatta on Friday night. Adam Reynolds shaped to kick a few times before popping a pass back inside to either Reece Walsh or Ezra Mam, trying to target over-chasing or tiring middle defenders.
One of these actions produced the best flick-pass I can remember seeing in the NRL.
Breaking through the line with some footwork, Mam has less than a second to release the pass before Clint Gutherson gets to him. With a glance back on his inside, Mam finds his target and somehow flicks an offload off his right hip which lands in Reynolds’ lap.
The pass is so good that Mam doesn’t even bother watching his skipper score the try. He’s already celebrating with Walsh as Reynolds dives over to ice one of the silkiest tries we saw in NRL Round 8.
Kalyn Ponga – A return to the NRL this week for Ponga came with a slew of media scrutiny and expectation. As Cooper Cronk detailed after the match, Ponga’s involvements sparked a number of promising attacking actions for Newcastle as they mounted an unlikely late comeback.
The way he finished off a right-edge movement for Dominic Young to score was particularly pleasing for Knights fans.
The catch, straighten and pass here looks simple enough, but how often do we see attacking fullbacks get this wrong?
Playing at five-eighth but frequently roaming over to the right edge, Ponga looked comfortable in his comeback game and how his role evolves in the coming weeks is worth keeping an eye on.
Scott Drinkwater – Two linebreaks, two try assists, 245 running metres… and 47 receipts.
It’s the most Drinkwater has touched the ball this NRL season and the Cowboys looked better for it in attack. They aren’t winning every moment of the contest like they did in 2022, but Drinkwater’s involvements in Round 8 helped North Queensland win just enough of them. Where and when Drinkwater takes possession in the next few weeks is something to follow as the Cowboys work their way into the season.