NRL Tackle: Storm create a brand of rugby league never been seen before
Our writers reveal what caught their eye — good and bad — in Round 16, including a premiership favourite that isn’t all fancy tries and wild celebrations.
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Our team of experts run their eyes over the Round 13 NRL action.
Like: It’s easy to blame the new rules for the blowout scores this weekend — and for the most part that’d be a fair gripe — but sometimes we have to appreciate the skills of the good teams. The Storm have adapted to the new rules and played a brand of rugby league never seen before. They can hurt you from anywhere on the field with long kicks early in the count or silky set plays close to the line, and it’s little surprise they are breaking records every week. Their ability to pick apart defensive systems is unprecedented and is why they are shortening by the minute to defend their title.
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Dislike: Daniel Suluka-Fifita has made a name for himself this year, but sadly, it’s for all the wrong reasons. There’s nothing wrong with a young kid coming on and trying to lift his team with a big hit, but you’ve got to play within the rules. The Roosters forward was sent to the sin bin earlier in the year when he punched Jai Arrow, and he found himself off for 10 more minutes when he collected Cameron Munster late and high on Thursday. His reaction was comical, and the only surprising thing was that he wasn’t sent off. He has plenty of talent, but he needs to let his footy do the talking.
Fox Sports key stats: Melbourne is the first team in premiership history to score 40-plus points in 10 games in a season. Just the fourth time in the State of Origin era the Roosters have trailed by 30 at half time.
Player of the year points: 3 Nicho Hynes, 2 Dale Finucane, 1 Cameron Munster
- Martin Gabor
Like: Ben Hunt wears a lot of cheap shots. He’s on big, big money, so people say the Dragons overpaid even though plenty of other clubs would have offered him the same deal. He cops it about the 2015 grand final still, because people don’t forget those things. But Hunt is better than many give him credit for and he’s a true competitor, a real winner in the way he plays and leads, and he’s put together maybe the most complete season of his career in 2021. The Dragons were poor in this game, occasionally flirting with being awful, and until their late flurry it was Hunt who kept them alive, it was Hunt who looked dangerous and it was Hunt who stopped the Warriors running away with a game they should have easily taken. Corey Norman might have hit the crucial point, but he wouldn’t have had the chance if Hunt hadn’t carried his team through a very dark hour.
Dislike: It’s hard not to feel sorry for Chad Townsend. A Cronulla boy to the end, he did not want to leave his beloved Sharks for North Queensland in the first place, let alone early. But that’s how the chips have fallen and Townsend, a consummate professional, has tried to make the best of it. When he was injured early in this match he battled on, knowing the Warriors had nobody on the bench who could cover for him. But his judgment was a little off, as typified by his shot at field goal when the Warriors were up by eight, and he was clearly hampered by the injury and a lack of cohesion with his new teammates. The 30-year old will be better with his next start, but this was a rough return to Warriors’ colours.
Fox Sports key stats: The Dragons have won all eight games this season scoring more than 18 points and lost all eight scoring 18 or less. Four straight golden point games without a win for the Warriors (one draw, three losses). Their last golden point win was in 2016.
Player of the year points: 3 Ben Hunt, 2 Paul Vaughan, 1 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
- Nick Campton
Like: Penrith are lauded for their flash and pointscoring abilities, and rightfully so. But their unrelenting physicality and aggression is as much a part of their rise as anything else, and that’s what won the day here. In the final stages the Eels and Panthers settled into a grind and it was who dares wins and who blinks first loses. Despite being in an unfamiliar arm wrestle the Panthers didn’t waver, they stuck to their guns and an excellent kick chase forced the error that led to the winning field goal. The Panthers aren’t all fancy tries and wild celebrations — they’re tough as a cheap steak, hard as a coffin nail, willing to slice you up or brawl in the gutter so long as they end up winning, which is why they’re able to do it so often.
Dislike: Even without Nathan Cleary the Panthers are formidable, but they are not untouchable. With a host of players backing up from Origin and robbed of the raucous home crowd from whom they channel so much energy, they were there to be taken. And the Eels, despite playing tough and hard and refusing to back down, couldn’t do it. Clint Gutherson is an inspirational skipper but his forward pass to Bryce Cartwright was the kind of lapse Parra cannot afford. Mitchell Moses faced a tough kick, but making tough kicks is what good kickers do and Mitchell Moses is a good kicker. This premiership is still a race in two until somebody gives us cause to think otherwise, and Parramatta had the chance to change the dynamic of the competition. A win would not just have proven their credentials to the wider football world, it would have proved it to themselves. Instead, they’re still a shade off the pace and when it comes to chasing Melbourne and Penrith, and a shade may as well be a mile.
Fox Sports key stats: Panthers winger Brian To’o cracked 200 metres for the 10th time this season — the next most is Roger Tuivasa-Sheck with seven. The fifth time this season the Eels have been held to 20 points or less. They have lost four of those five games.
Player of the year points: 3 Api Koroisau, 2 Brian To’o, 1 Isaiah Papali’i
- Nick Campton
Like: Everything about Manly. Ridiculously sublime stuff from the Sea Eagles. While Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic rightly get all the plaudits, the form of Lachlan Croker at hooker is going to be pivotal to Manly’s finals charge. The past two seasons have been a struggle at dummy half for Manly. They came into this year again unclear on who would wear the No.9 jersey. But Croker’s form is helping free up their key men. He laid on two tries and should have scored another. While he is far from Manly’s most influential player, he is becoming one of their most important.
Dislike: Abysmal from start to finish from Canterbury. For a clubthat has not had much success in recent years, this was a new low. Pressure won’t mount on coach Trent Barrett but the side has regressed this season under his tutelage. The star power is not there and that’s obvious but Canterbury fans would have wanted to see some improvement — but they have had nothing. Now their best hope is avoiding the wooden spoon but this was one of Canterbury’s worst performances in their history.
Fox Sports key stats: Manly’s biggest ever win, eclipsing 70-7 v Panthers in 1973. The Bulldogs’ third biggest loss all time and heaviest defeat since 1935. Their two bigger losses are the biggest two all time: 91-6 v St George and 87-7 v Easts.
Player of the year points: 3 Daly Cherry-Evans, 2 Tom Trbojevic, 1 Lachlan Croker
- Michael Carayannis
Like: The resilience the Titans showed after David Fafita was sent to the bin for a late shot that might not have even been penalised 12 months ago. Leading 6-0 and in a genuine battle when their best player was marched from the field, the Titans not only held on to their lead but extended it by scoring three tries in seven minutes. A team not renowned for their resilience, the Titans showed the type of grit that is required to become a finals force in a 10 minute blitz that has put them into the top-eight tussle. “It [going down to 12] didn’t help us but we didn’t let it affect us and we’ve been working really hard at things like that, overcoming adversity or changing momentum which we haven’t been able to do well in the past,” coach Justin Holbrook said. “We got it right tonight and handled it well tonight as a team and defended well as a team and we had to. We’ve been guilty of not handling things well and trying to change things ourselves and today we stuck together, and a number of players played as well as they could.” Jamal Fogarty and AJ Brimson led the way by combining to dismantle the Raiders’ paper-thin defence.
Dislike: They were happy enough to endure near freezing conditions and pay for the privilege, but watching their beloved team concede three tries in seven minutes against 12 men proved too much for Raiders fans. In the ultimate insult for a team that boasts some of the NRL’s most loyal followers, Raiders fans began walking out on their team after just 40 minutes of football. And who could blame them? With the mercury plummetting to just four degrees on a cold Canberra night, the Raiders capitulated to concede three tries after Fifita was sin binned. Their defence was atrocious. And whatever Ricky Stuart said at halftime did not help.
Canberra fans continued to walk out after the break as the Raiders went on to miss 47 tackles.
Josh Papalii was the only Raider not to miss a tackle. While rookie Semi Valemei could be forgiven for missing eight, Josh Hodgson (eight), Jarrod Croker, (five) Jack Wighton (five) and Corey Harawira-Naera (five) will struggle to find excuses. We wonder what the score would have been had they been playing the Storm.
Fox Sports key stats: Titans’ equal biggest win (42-4 v Eels in Mudgee in 2013) and equal highest score (44-8 v Cowboys in round three). Canberra’s biggest loss overall since losing 52-12 to the Warriors in 2014.
Player of the year points: 3 Jamal Fogarty 2 AJ Brimson 1 David Fifita
- James Phelps
Like: Yes, Kalyn Ponga deservedly attracted the headlines after a stunning return from injury.
His performance was the equal of Tom Trbojevic’s remarkable comeback for Manly in round six. But let’s take a moment to applaud two lesser profile players in this Newcastle line-up.
Hooker Jayden Brailey has been the Knights’ most consistent performer this season, putting in through the good times and bad. And in Jake Clifford, Newcastle has a composed head at No.6 and the perfect foil for halfback Mitchell Pearce. It’s no surprise the Novocastrians’ most complete performance of the season came on the back of the Ponga-Clifford-Pearce-Brailey spine operating for the first time
Dislike: Cowboys coach Todd Payten is in self-isolation after coming in close contact with a Covid case in Townsville and might want to stay there after watching his side struggle from minute 1-80. Payten texted through his halftime talk to the North Queensland dressing-room but it clearly didn’t hit the mark. We guess a series of angry-face emojis just don’t have the same impact as an old-fashioned spray. Like many teams in this competition, North Queensland seem to think tackling is an optional extra. They’ve conceded 134 points in their last four games and, just as worryingly, their on-the-road performances are starting to resemble the bad old days. The Cows are easy meat at the moment.
Fox Sports key stats: Newcastle’s biggest win over the Cowboys — their previous biggest was 36 points on two occasions. Three straight losses for the Cowboys — they have been outscored 114-42 in those games.
Player of the year points: 3 Kalyn Ponga 2 Jake Clifford 1 Jayden Brailey
- Adam Lucius
Ohhh Kalyn Ponga, it’s good to have you back 🥰#TelstraPremiership#NRLKnightsCowboyspic.twitter.com/b3a8LFz4WD
— NRL (@NRL) July 3, 2021
Like: Brisbane monster Payne Haas is just getting better with each game. He’s known for his massive motor, barnstorming runs and ability to break tackles but the Blues representative has started to add a new dimension to his game — his pass. Haas pulled off a superb ball to Ethan Bullemor in the second half to put the Broncos forward over the tryline and gift Brisbane a crucial six-point lead. He didn’t stop there though — running for 197 metres from 18 carries, with two tackle busts and two offloads. Even in the dying seconds when Cronulla fullback William Kennedy came close to scoring, Haas ran 80 metres to bat a grubber kick over the dead ball line in an ultimate show of desperation to hold onto an eight-point lead. “Payne, the form that he is in, just brings a lot of energy, class and quality,” Walters said after the match. “It’s those things that footy teams need. He (and Kotoni) did their roles perfectly. Especially in the 80th minute, with Haas showing up to knock the ball dead — it was typical of Payne.”
Dislike: The manner in which the referees handled Jesse Ramien’s first-half no-try.
It was described as “an absolute circus” by the Fox League commentary team after Ramien was first awarded the try by the on-field referee, then it was sent to the Bunker to review, to which it was then ruled a “knock on”. Fans were left scratching their head about the decision, asking why it was not simply ruled a “forward pass”. The NRL Bunker has long stood by the fact they can not rule on a forward pass but on Sunday afternoon managed to find a way around that to overturn a blatant forward pass in the lead up to the try. Even Fox League commentator Cooper Cronk described it as “the best cover up I’ve seen in a long, long time”. The on-field referee and sideline officials should have picked up the forward pass long before it was awarded a try.
Player of the year points: 3 Payne Haas 2 Kotoni Staggs 1 Tesi Niu
- Chris Honnery
Like: The race for the Ken Irvine medal is hotter than it’s ever been as we approach the business end of the season. Rabbitohs winger Alex Johnston grabbed two more tries to join Josh Addo-Carr at the top on 19, but the Sea Eagles’ back three are breathing down their necks as they rack up points for fun. We could see a player score 30 tries this season as blowouts become the norm, so let’s sit back and enjoy because history is about to be made.
Dislike: The final score masked what was another unacceptable offering by the Wests Tigers. To trail 26-0 at half-time at home just two weeks after they were down 40-0 at the break isn’t good enough. They’ve conceded 104 points in their past two games and are only ahead of the Broncos and Bulldogs on the ladder. The fans demand better but very little seems to be changing at the club. The Tigers are just lucky there were no fans at Leichhardt Oval because they would have been booed off at half-time for the second time this year.
Player of the year points: 3 Cody Walker 2 Cameron Murray 1 Campbell Graham
- Martin Gabor
PREDICTED DALLY M LEADERBOARD (votes are behind closed doors)
Nathan Cleary 24
Tom Trbojevic 20
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck 18
Daly Cherry-Evans, Cody Walker 17
James Fisher-Harris, Ben Hunt 16
William Kennedy 15
Latrell Mitchell* 14
James Tedesco, Reed Mahoney, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Clint Gutherson, Mitch Moses 12
Adam Doueihi, Jahrome Hughes 11
Scott Drinkwater, Daniel Saifiti, Benji Marshall, Daine Laurie 10
Originally published as NRL Tackle: Storm create a brand of rugby league never been seen before
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