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 19 Review:
- How the Sea Eagles exploited the edges
- More spacing around the ruck stuff
- Sloan in defence
- Fifita’s influence
- One of the silkiest passes you will ever see
The Tough Carry: How the Sea Eagles exploited the edges
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 Manly Warringah Sea Eagles made it look easy at times on Sunday afternoon. They ran through the Newcastle Knights’ defence with relative ease and looked like a team that should be in the Top 8 at the end of the NRL’s regular season.
They’re not going to be presented with two backrowers in the centres very often. It’s an obvious mismatch they needed to exploit, and exploit it they did.
It only took five minutes for the Sea Eagles right edge to pull them to pieces, and it came in a way that set the tone for the rest of the match.
Nathan Brown takes the ball at first receiver at the tip of a diamond shape. He’s able to compress the middle and force the Knights edge into a decision. Thomas Cant is an active defender in the backrow. He works hard from the inside and has great potential as a first grader. However, he makes a fairly backrower-like decision in trying to shut down Tom Trbojevic’s time with the ball from the inside here and his winger doesn’t follow and is caught wrong-footed.
While the backrowers in the centres appealed to the Sea Eagles attack, they still had to create the opportunities. A lot of that creation came through Will Pryce.
The young Englishman isn’t a strong defender. He’s an avenue for momentum and the Sea Eagles made sure to find him whenever they could.
Again it’s Brown and the diamond shape holding up the middle defence and giving Karl Lawton free passage towards Pryce. The Knights half misses the tackle but Tyson Frizell saves him from a linebreak. Still, the Sea Eagles are on the front foot from here.
The Sea Eagles return to the right edge in the same way, quickly moving the ball and keeping the space for Reuben Garrick to apply some footwork on Canr and send Jason Saab down the sideline.
Later it’s Tommy Talau getting at Pryce. While Pryce makes better contact this time, he’s not able to stop Talau in his tracks. Talau is instead able to push through the tackle and promote another quick play-the-ball leaving the Knights with three markers.
Gordon Chan Kum Tong finds Lehi Hopoate one off the ruck, but the Knights are scrambled.
They’re not able to set their line and offer no line speed as the Sea Eagles look to the right edge. A long Trbojevic pass is all it takes to create an overlap on the outside and only a Jackson Hastings ankle tap stops Manly from scoring here.
The Sea Eagles do score, through. Scroll down a little bit further to Try Time to see that finish.
And one more just to make the point. It’s Ethan Bullemor searching for Pryce this time. Manly doesn’t get their timing right and it looks like a poor play, but it’s still enough to scramble the line even as Pryce works hard to get back.
Pryce sprints back to the shortside, but Mat Croker can’t flip to the long side quick enough. Brown is able to quickly get forward and onto Kai Pearce-Paul at four-man. By the time he makes the pass, Hastings, Cant and Marzhew are defending half of the field themselves.
We can overcomplicate it and look for things that aren’t there, but rugby league can be a really simple game sometimes. Still, you have to execute to make the most of your opportunities, and the Sea Eagles did that at an elite level in Round 19.
Quick play-the-ball: Spacings & Defence
We’re generating momentum through the middle of the article with a couple of quick carries.
Spacing around the ruck
I touched on the importance of spacing around the ruck last week. One step out or a late retreat can make all the difference in how a team defends their line on each possession.
We caught another example of how the smallest of details can have a big impact when Braden Hamlin-Uele crashed over on Friday night.
Credit needs to go to Jesse Colquhoun for the carry. He does an excellent job of stepping in between defenders to win the ruck and promote a quick play-the-ball.
The speed at which Colquhoun plays the ball is the difference. He beats the defenders to the line, and the Tigers defence is unable to space out. Ideally, the A defender is a step quicker which would allow B and, in particular, Samuela Fainu at C, to move a step wider.
Instead, Blayke Brailey is able to skip across the face of two defenders to isolate a single defender in the line.
Sloan in defence
Tyrell Sloan’s defence is becoming a problem for Shane Flanagan and the St George Illawarra Dragons. The Brisbane Broncos went close to completing a comeback on Saturday night by targeting the fullback in the line.
His positioning isn’t so much of a problem. Unlike some other fullbacks, he is often there to attempt the tackle. However, his contact is poor, and when he’s been met front-on while defending on the line, those around him don’t have time to help complete the tackle.
Ezra Mam and Blake Mozer ran straight through him on the line. Sloan offered little resistance when Kotoni Staggs scored to close the gap further late in the match.
Sloan is incredible with the ball. He can do wonderful things at speed to cause havoc to defensive lines. However, Flanagan seems to have rebuilt this team on defensive toughness before anything else. The flash and flare comes on the back of it. He might not have time for Sloan’s defensive issues for much longer.
Setting up for a shot: Fifita’s influence
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.
I still don’t know how David Fifita ended up playing this week.
The Parramatta Eels would have been happier to see him in the Queensland Maroons squad than playing for the Gold Coast Titans.
Lorenzo Mulitalo made his NRL debut in this one and the Titans made sure to test him. First with Fifita used as a decoy out the back of a block, and next as a ball player on a block shape.
Fifita is no longer simply a battering ram. The Titans have improved massively in using him more effectively over the last two or three seasons. I’m particularly excited about his potential as a ball player.
His head-to-head clash with Haumole Olakauatu in Round 20 will be must-watch television.
Try Time: Silky
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 covered the build-up to this try up the page. It comes on the back of strength, momentum and speed but finished with one of the silkiest passes you will ever see.
Lehi Hopoate has burst onto the NRL scene this season and looked comfortable wherever he has played. I don’t think we will see him back in reserve grade any time soon.