I always have a particular trend, team, or player in mind to focus on heading into each round of the NRL season. This week, it’s short dropouts and how to defend them.
I already knew what I wanted to cover ahead of Round 2 of the NRL season, and I just needed a name—something to distinguish it from everything else we put together at Rugby League Writers while capturing the feel of the feature.
It’s a short and sharp look at something for the round ahead dropping every Friday morning.
Short…
And that’s what I wanted to cover this week: Short dropouts.
But not in the doom and gloom, “we knew this would happen” sort of way. Everybody is already saying the same thing because we all… never mind.
Instead, I am paying closer attention to how teams are going to respond on the field.
I don’t think there is any rocket science behind it for attacking teams: Get the ball high, land it just after the 10-metre line, and have somebody go up and get it.
Defensively, however, teams want to ensure they maintain their field position and do whatever they can to get possession and earn another chance to attack the line. There is more on the line for the receiving team these days…
Cooper Cronk has already touched on short dropouts with Matty Johns on their podcast earlier in the week:
“Like anything in our game, the best teams will practice it better than the worse teams, and the best teams will become better at getting the ball back.”
Yep, it all makes sense.
“I think it’s going to get ugly. You’re going to have guys going up and batting the ball back, because that’s where all of our players are.”
Enter: Penrith Panthers.
Isaah Yeo is never catching the ball here. He’s trying to get up and above the kicking team to bat the ball back ten metres to his four teammates waiting to dive on it. They have somebody in behind the Melbourne Storm line incase the ball falls that way, too.
The Parramatta Eels took a slightly different approach.
This is the fourth dropout they’ve faced already. Three were short, and all looked similar, with the three forwards on the ten-metre line looking to escort more than catch the ball.
It’s different from Penrith but also makes sense. They’ve put three big bodies on the front line and left the ball to Clint Gutherson, a more natural catcher.
We will soon see what the best approach is and I’d expect most teams to be doing roughly the same as each other by the end of the NRL season. In the next few weeks, though, it will be interesting to see the different approaches teams take and who masterminds the most successful.
Dive into the rest of the weekend with the NRL Round 2 Notepad: Ponga and Pearce-Paul, Raiders attack & Storm defence