There is a lot to cover after every round in the NRL. Throughout the 2024 season, this is a place where I’ll cover what is most important, a few little things I liked from the round, something to keep an eye on in the next one, and a try I particularly enjoyed.
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What you’ll get in this NRL Round 10 Review:
- Fit & firing Fifita
- Signs of the good Eels
- That Grant sin bin
- Knights exposing the kick chase
- Yet another scrum try
The Tough Carry: Fit & firing Fifita
Tackle 1 is often the toughest carry of the set. It can make or break it. Here, it’s my biggest talking point from the round that was.
The Sydney Roosters are losing a lot of top-end talent at the end of the 2024 NRL season but will welcome a premier backrower to the squad in 2025.
David Fifita will see out the rest of this year with the Gold Coast Titans before linking up with Trent Robinson and the Roosters.
Fifita is a somewhat polarising player in NRL fan circles. His destructive ability with the ball is unquestioned, but comments about laziness and consistency are never far away.
He has struggled to perform consistently for consecutive weeks throughout his NRL career. Numerous coaches have tried to develop that consistency and impact on the field by bringing him off the bench, but that hasn’t been the case recently.
Fifita has played the full 80 minutes in back-to-back weeks and looked comfortable doing so.
He’s only combined for 231 running metres in those games which is a metric many will point towards as a reason for laziness. But he’s broken 26 tackles in the process.
The more he plays a full game, the more efficient he will get in his movements around the field. We’re starting to see a more mature Fifita on the field, and it shows in the little things.
The Titans found him in yardage on Sunday, repeatedly directing him towards Chad Townsend. The Cowboys half was asked to make 24 tackles, missing eight.
It’s only a simple play and won’t end up in the post-game highlights, but Fifita is finding the ball on the 4th tackle and taking the carry before a kick more often. He wins the contact here and should have left Jeremiah Nanai on the ground had he not played for a penalty.
A strong carry like pushes the defensive line back and reduces the kick pressure, making things a lot easier for his spine players on the last.
Further up the field; the opportunities are endless.
Robinson spoke about the impact Fifita has on a defensive line:
“He obviously has an effect on an opposition in the way he runs and carries the ball… his ability to score a try on his own.”
There is a bit of the Viliame Kikau’s to him in that the Titans will use him on one edge to fire a shot down the other.
Fifita brings players around the ball. He doesn’t get it right here but still attracts three defenders while another two stay up with the tackle defending a potential offload. That third defender or half-second others stay up around the ball has an impact on the spacing around the ruck, and if those spacings are wrong, the opportunities often come out wide.
When constructing actions for the left edge, Fifita manipulates the defence with or without the ball.
They again directed him towards Townsend, who got up off the line straight and remained square until bracing for the tackle. Viliame Vailea outside him, however, is always turned in on Fifita.
If given the chance again, Kieran Foran likely throws it across Fifita’s face. Still, it’s a dangerous action, and if Fifita can get his timing a little bit better on the run and find a quick pass to Brian Kelly, the Titans are in.
If all else fails, as the double drop around the ruck did here, Fifita can simply install himself at dummy half and crash over the line to score.
“The best footy is definitely ahead of him… there’s some really good years there for an NRL player.”
Fifita is far from a finished product. He could improve as a hole-runner and catching on contact; he has a tendency to catch and stop rather than pushing through the line. His play-the-ball speed isn’t always the quickest, either.
Still, he’s no longer the “lazy” player some still consider him to be. If the last two weeks are anything to go by, he’s maturing into a well-rounded 80-minute backrower, and the Roosters have landed him at the perfect time.
Quick play-the-ball: Eels angles & Grant binned
We’re generating momentum through the middle of the article with a couple of quick carries.
That’s the Eels
The Parramatta Eels are lost at the moment.
They’re without their two key playmakers and are struggling for form and consistency as a result.
However, this action had me saying, “That’s the Eels” on Saturday night.
It ends up as a no-try but has the hallmarks of Parramatta at their best.
It starts with a strong Reagan Campbell-Gillard carry in which he threatens to offload. From there, Ethan Sanders swings around from the short side to link up with Dylan Brown, who has a lead runner outside and the option to drop the ball back under.
The Eels are most dangerous when offloading the ball and using angle changes to manipulate the defence. When Mitchell Moses finally returns from injury, there will still be plenty for him to work with.
The Grant Bin
The intention is to keep this weekly review positively footy but I do stray away every so often. Harry Grant being sin-binned on Saturday night is where I must stray.
We must protect the legs of kickers. A couple of incidents this year have confirmed this need. However, in what has become typical NRL fashion, the overcorrection misses the mark.
We saw it with high contact at the 2022 Magic Round. Last year every ugly tackle around the legs was considered a hip drop until it was forgotten. Now it’s the legs of kickers.
Should Grant have been penalised? Perhaps that’s the necessary evil we will need to put up with. To be sent to the bin is a gross overreaction and will only make the game look sillier next week when we inevitably land on the correct interpretation of a penalty for similar incidents.
Setting up for a shot: Knights expose kick chase
Teams play to points with the following tackle in mind. Here, I’m touching on something to watch next week as we try to keep ahead of things happening on the field.
The Newcastle Knights scored a length-of-the-field try to start the second half on Saturday afternoon. It looks like a nice piece of ‘eyes up footy’ from Greg Marzhew on the kick return, but it’s not. It’s scripted and something the Knights have worked on.
Marzhew can throw a no-look pass because he knows Bradman Best will be there. He’s been sneaking down the sideline for at least the last two weeks to give his winger the option to pass. It spreads the kick chase and makes Marzhew’s return a little bit easier at worst.
It’s something I’ll be looking out for across the NRL in Round 11.
Try Time: Yep, another scrum
Sometimes, it’s a piece of magic. Other times, it’s a basic move made to look easy. Whatever it is, all great sets end in points, so we’re doing the same here.
I got nerdy over scrums on Friday, so I was particularly excited to see this try over the weekend.
A perfectly executed play to isolate a particular defender in the line.
The key to its success is Bradman Best’s decoy underneath.
I mentioned on Friday that if a team is going to defend 3/3 regardless of the attacking split, the defenders breaking from the scrum is how they make up the numbers if required.
You can see Isaiah Papali’i tracking towards Jackson Hastings, looking to apply pressure, but he holds up at the sight of Best. That allows Hastings to get at the three-man, putting the speed of David Armstong against the out-of-position John Bateman two-in.
Great footy.