SuperCoach NRL 2018: Wilfred Zee’s wrap of the good, bad and ugly from Round 14
A Dragons CTW ‘keeper’ is back with a bang, the Storm avoid an Origin hangover and welcome back Gal. Former SuperCoach NRL champion Wilfred Zee looks at the good, bad and ugly of Round 14.
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FORMER SuperCoach NRL — presented by hipages — champion Wilfred Zee looks at the good, bad and ugly of Round 14.
Bulldogs v Dragons (16 – 18)
The Bulldogs put up the best fight they could, but in the end they just didn’t have enough points in them. The Dragons were off their game but in 2018, they are a much better footy team than the Dragons of the past few years and they managed to grind the win out. It was an intriguing game given the Bulldogs managed to grab a two quick tries in succession to liven up proceedings but there was always a feeling of inevitability about the Dragons’ win.
Let’s look at the good, bad and the ugly in this game.
The Good
Tariq Sims (87)
Sims was arguably one of the unluckier players to miss out on a Blues’ jersey for Game One, as he has been in red-hot form for the whole season. Playing beside Gareth Widdop has helped him with the attacking stats but also the base stats, as he makes more tackles defending Widdop and also gets more ball. He scored 50 points in pure base stats, busted six tackles and scored a try with a line break. If he misses selection for Origin, then he looms as an interesting (but risky) POD play for Round 17 given the players that the Dragons will be missing…
Euan Aitken (79)
Coming off a three-round average of below 40, Aitken’s bright start to the season had dropped off somewhat, but he was back into his hard-working ways, scoring a try with a line break but also getting through 38 points in pure base stats which is higher than some edge backrowers! He also busted four tackles and threw three effective offloads. He is high on the purchase list for plenty of SuperCoaches and it is hard to argue with the call given his base stats in a tough CTW position this year.
The Bad
Aiden Tolman (34)
Plenty of interest in Tolman given he is cheap and could end up with a more prominent role, but he played 47 minutes off the bench and scored a very unimpressive PPM. Unless he bumps that work rate up, he isn’t an option even if he is getting 50-55 minutes.
Renouf Toomaga (15)
Some may have been interested due to Toomaga suddenly being listed to start the game, but their joy was shortlived as he played just 15 minutes before disappearing for the remainder of the game.
The Ugly
No major injuries to note, although Lichaa went off the field for a HIA which he passed and was able to return to the field.
Storm v Broncos (32—16)
This game was a really entertaining arm wrestle before a late flurry of tries from the Storm saw the scoreline blowout from 20-16 with 11 minutes to go.
Let’s look at the good, bad and the ugly in this game.
The Good
Felise Kaufusi (92)
Kaufusi put in a massive effort to play 75 minutes after Origin and got through a lot of work with 57 points in base stats to go along with a try with a line break, two tackle busts and an effective offload. How impressive to go from being almost a rookie last year to becoming one of the best edge backrowers in the NRL, even turning out with a great performance like this after one of the biggest games of the year in Origin.
Cameron Smith (106)
The decision to step down from representative football has reinvigorated Smith. He has been off his game for the opening months but his scores since his big decision — 123 and now 106. Smith scored 50 points in pure base stats, a perfect six goals from as many attempts, a last-touch assist and one tackle bust.
The Bad
Josh Addo-Carr (18)
In a case of “looked like a better score on the field”, JAC backed up from Origin with a quieter game. He was ultimately well contained for the most part.
Corey Oates (19)
Speaking of “well contained for the most part”, Oates was quiet as well and hardly put up his hand to demand Origin selection for games two and three. The Broncos needed him to lift with the game on the line and he wasn’t quite able to do it.
The Ugly
Jesse Bromwich (26)
JBrom played just 30 minutes as he went off with a suspected hamstring injury. In post-game comments Bellamy mentioned that it looked fairly serious and he would miss a number of weeks.
Sharks v Tigers (24—16)
The Tigers made life really tough for the Sharks but it took a 15 minute period of dominance from Cronulla to just flick the switch and blitz the Tigers, going from being 2—10 down to suddenly being 18—10 up! From that point on the Tigers were shell-shocked and did well to claw back another try, but in the end the Sharks were good enough to hold out and get the win at home.
Let’s look at the good, bad and the ugly in this game.
The Good
Paul Gallen (121)
The Gal-bot! It’s almost nice to write about him in this section again, as it had been some time. This was vintage Gal — 69 minutes on the field, 71 points in pure base stats (30 in hit-ups, 41 in tackles). Throw in a try with a line break, a try assist with a line break assist and three tackle busts and you’ve got this monster of a score. Those who decided to take a risk on a sub-$480,000 Gallen have cashed in big-time this week!
Esan Marsters (89)
What a SuperCoach performance from Marsters! No major attacking stats, but still hitting 89 points! Check out this stat line — 35 points from 21 runs, 14 points in tackles with zero misses, four tackle busts, four effective offloads and four goals from as many attempts. That’s quite an effort, young Esan! If he keeps that goalkicking for the season, he’s certainly going to figure as a top five, if not even top four, CTW option.
The Bad
Luke Brooks (15)
Brooks has been in great form but he was unable to impose himself on this game and it somewhat explains why they lost. It’s hard for him to adjust to suddenly having a new five-eighth beside him though, one that plays very differently to Benji.
Josh Reynolds (20)
Speaking of that new five-eighth, this was Reynolds’ first full 80-minute hitout in the halves, and it showed. It’ll take a bit of time for the new halves pairing to click if Benji is out for any length of time.
The Ugly
Luke Lewis (23)
Played just 19 minutes and looked dangerous, before a head knock forced him from the field for a HIA which he failed. Bukuya took over on his edge for the majority of the game.
Eels v Cowboys (20—14)
In a game befitting the standard you might expect from teams ranked 14th and 16th on the ladder, the Eels were able to prevail over the Cowboys in a game that might be described as “sloppy” at best. I mean, a combined 35 errors and 14 penalties in 80 minutes of footy is a shocking rate of stoppages, and explains the lower scores in this game generally. The less said about this game, the better.
Let’s look at the good, the bad and the ugly from this game.
The Good
George Jennings (79)
What a cheapie Gennings has turned out to be. Providing us with valuable Round 13 points as a bonus, he has made almost $200,000 before this week. Throw in this week’s 82, and he is well on his way to over $400,000 and counting. His work rate is fantastic for a rookie winger, as evidenced by his 33 points in pure base stats, and he was able to add a try with a line break, an effective offload and a massive 10 tackle busts to his total as well. If he can maintain those kinds of numbers in base and base attack, well, he’s a CTW keeper!
Jarryd Hayne (82)
Is Hayne back? Who cares for now, as I couldn’t really consider him until he shows that this is anything more than a flash in the pan. Sure, he’s got obvious attacking upside, but he is older, more injury-prone and has legal issues hanging over his head. Two tries (including yet another magical aerial take), a line break and four tackle busts make for nice reading, but it is his 30 points in pure base stats that make him somewhat interesting.
The Bad
Cameron King (13)
If I’m Cam King, I’m worried about my spot as a starting hooker in the NRL, as Brad Arthur chose to keep first-game rookie Reed Mahoney on the field with the game on the line — even as he was blowing and clearly tired. King just struggles to control the middle of the field and provide good service to the forwards, and it coincided with Mahoney’s injection that the Eels forwards started to get a roll on.
Josh Hoffman (15)
Showcased the opposite of being hardworking, as he was barely sighted for most of the game.
The Ugly
No major injuries to note.
Knights v Roosters (16—18)
This was a surprisingly tight game, as the Knights really showed some fight and forced the Roosters to earn the win. A late try to Ponga brought the score within two points but in the end it was too little, too late for the Knights as the Roosters were able to hang on. The Knights showed some real good signs and they could really figure in finals contention once they get Mitchell Pearce back soon.
Let’s look at the good, the bad and the ugly from this game.
The Good
Blake Ferguson (93)
Fergo has been so consistent all year, especially with his high work rate out of his own end. Sure, he makes some dumb mistakes, including accidentally running into his own teammate as he is taking a kick return and trying to make precious metres off your own 10 metre line, but hey, no harm done, right? Fergo scored two tries, broke the line twice, busted seven tackles and got through 32 points in pure base stats. Strong yet again from Fergo, and with his ownership at 10 per cent he is still in POD territory.
Sione Mata’utia (89)
He has copped plenty of criticism in recent years but it’s easy to forget just how young he is after debuting at NRL level and playing for Australia at 18 years of age. He scored a try, assisted another, broke the line twice, busted five tackles and scored 36 points in pure base stats — most of that from the 27 tackles (and one miss) he made. He’s not really an option, though, for SuperCoach purposes.
The Bad
Cooper Cronk (15)
The ultimate system halfback, he really appears to be struggling to fit in with the Roosters’ preference for unstructured, ad lib football. Cronk flapping his arms around in frustration while the Roosters kept offloading another three times after the ref signalled a fresh set of six (following a touch from a Knights player), was a perfect example of his struggles.
Dylan Napa (13)
He just can’t stop getting sin-binned! After a solid, albeit uninspiring game for Queensland, Napa wasn’t able to fire a shot against the young and struggling Knights pack, as he was easily outplayed by Ese’ese. The Roosters need much, much more from him if they are going to be relevant at the end of the year.
The Ugly
Jamie Buhrer (7)
A suspected torn ACL ended Buhrer’s game, and with the season also likely to be a write-off it is no sure thing as to whether Buhrer runs out again. The best of luck to him in his recovery. This saw extended minutes for Barnett, and also Guerra.
Sea Eagles v Warriors (14—34)
The Sea Eagles seem to enjoy taking their home games to stadiums more favourable to their opposition, with the latest offering being to play the Warriors in New Zealand — Christchurch, to be specific. Surprisingly, the Warriors have a losing record when playing in New Zealand (though not at Mount Smart Stadium) but that wasn’t an issue this week as they worked over a depleted Sea Eagles line-up. It was a big win for the Warriors, as they start rolling through this Origin/representative period where they usually bank a few wins for the back end of the year. Potentially they could all but lock up a finals berth if they win the next few games … the Sea Eagles, not so much. Perhaps the less said, the better!
The Good
David Fusitu’a (105)
Some astute SuperCoaches might have noticed a bit of a trend lately with “The Fus” — particularly, his scores with and without SJ in the team. I won’t spoil too much of it, but just go check out his average with and without Johnson. He ran riot this week, scoring a hat trick, setting up another try, breaking the line twice, busting three tackles and scoring 16 points in pure base stats. Yeah the work rate is lower than ideal but when he’s such a dynamic tryscorer, sometimes you just have to go along with the ride.
Tohu Harris (94)
Another member of “Team SJ”, you could also have a look at the difference in Tohu’s scores with and without Johnson (although you should probably remove his injury-affected score as well). Thankfully his break-even was 70, so he won’t skyrocket in price, and with another score of 70 dropping out of his rolling average he isn’t going to absurdly expensive in coming weeks if you can’t grab him next week. Still, he looks like a genuine top 17 player each time he steps on the park with SJ beside him, and 63 points in pure base stats is the reason why. Gets plenty of ball to make plenty of runs (15 of them in fact, a great number for an edge backrower) and also gets plenty of traffic in defence as teams run at SJ to try tire him out. He scored a try, with a line break and busted four tackles this week.
The Bad
Gerard Beale (19)
As always, low involvement and also bombed an easy try to the Fus with a forward pass. Coaches love him for some reason but while he “does a job” for 90 per cent of the time, that 10 per cent is where he bombs a try, or makes the one critical error which lets in a try, and so on.
Trent Hodkinson (23)
Missed too many tackles and he is showing more and more that he is a liability in defence — his chronic knee issues have hindered his lateral movement and it’s no wonder the right edge took advantage of him defending on the left side for the Sea Eagles.
The Ugly
Api Koroisau (40)
Played just 14 minutes before a suspected broken foot forced him from the field. The Sea Eagles dropped Lewis Brown from their final team and, as such, they had Matt Wright, the outside back-turned-bench-hooker, playing at No.9 for 66 minutes of the game. No wonder they lost.
Titans v Rabbitohs (16—18)
This game ended up much tighter than expected, with the multiple changes to the Rabbitohs line-up ultimately having a bigger impact on their team cohesion than expected. Having said that, the amount of stoppages highlighted by poor play from both teams was mind-boggling — a total of 30 errors combined plus 16 penalties and two sin-bins (shoutout to Keegan Hipgrave!) meant there were plenty of stoppages.
Let’s look at the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
Ryan James (139)
Is there a more dynamic front-rower than Ryan James when he gets into that try-scoring mood? He has a real ability to find a four-pointer and he displayed that this week as he crossed for two tries, both with line breaks, as well as throwing four offloads (two effective), busting seven tackles and getting through 65 points in pure base stats in his 80 minutes on the field — a huge game necessitated by injuries to bench forwards King and Fotuiaka. I had my eye on him for Round 17 coverage but he is surely first or second drop if any forwards in the Blues team get injured and miss game three. It’s a tough decision because he looms as a must-trade next week given this monster score …
Robbie Farah (64)
Farah showed yet again that he is easily the best back-up hooker in the NRL right now — I mean, how many clubs can replace the current Blues hooker with a former Blues hooker in a bye round and the round following Origin! He again played the full 80 minutes, scoring 49 points in pure base stats but then adding on a last-touch assist, a line break, two tackle busts and a held-up-in-goal tackle. With such a great back-up, you’d wonder if Cook gets a breather in Round 18 too …
The Bad
Keegan Hipgrave (7)
He played 61 minutes officially, although if you take out his two sin-bins he was probably going to play the full 80 minutes. This performance was so bad I almost made a new category for him. But … Hipgrave has -31 — yes, that’s NEGATIVE THIRTY-ONE — points from three missed tackles, three penalties conceded, three errors and two sin bins. That’s a mighty effort from him … probably not his proudest moment. Oh, I almost forgot — one chair kick too!
Anthony Don (6)
The Don … was not good. For someone who doesn’t get that involved overall, to miss two tackles and make three errors when you only carry the ball seven times a game, is almost unforgivable. At his best he’s one of the toughest defensive wingers in the game (he was surprisingly one of the only wingers who could consistently stop Semi Radradra in the last few years).
The Ugly
Max King (3)
He had barely settled in off the bench before a shoulder injury forced him off the field.
Moeaki Fotuaika (1)
Speaking of barely settling in, Fotuaika had barely made it to his position on the field before he copped a head knock while making his solitary tackle, subsequently failing the HIA. As mentioned above, James played massive minutes as did Wallace.
Arrow also played less minutes than usual, possibly due to another shoulder injury but he returned later in the game.
Raiders v Panthers (22—23)
The Raiders settled quickly back into their old ways, and the Panthers just keep winning. The game, yet again, should have been won by the Raiders from the comfortable position they were in. Somehow, they found a way to let the Panthers back into the game. And is there anything more representative of the Raiders’ inability to game manage than Siliva Havili — who quite possibly has never kicked a field goal in his life — attempting a field goal out of dummy half on the third tackle? It may have worked, but it surely wasn’t the right choice at the time! To the Panthers’ credit, they did just enough to go home with the two points, even if they were somewhat fortunate to escape with the win.
Let’s look at the key performers in this game.
The Good
Josh Papalii (95)
Big Papa had a big game backing up from Origin, playing the full 80 minutes. Although, this featured time at lock, on the edge and even right centre, where he popped out a beautiful effective offload for a try assist and line break assist for the Whitehead try. Papalii also broke the line once, busted five tackles and scored 52 points in pure base stats. Since shifting to lock (after his little “break” from first grade), Papalii has settled in with a 66.6 point average not including this week.
Tyrone Peachey (91)
The Peach had his first taste of Origin footy just 48 hours prior, even if it was really only a 10-minute appetiser, so there never really seemed to be any question of him playing this week. He certainly was energetic enough, though, popping up all over the field at the right times in typical Peachey fashion. He scored two tries, broke the line once, busted three tackles, offloaded once effectively and scored 35 points in pure base stats. He is an interesting option because as far as “outside backs” go, he has always been above average in terms of work rate, but will he stay in the centres for the rest of the season? Waqa Blake isn’t far away from a return to first grade.
The Bad
Tyrone Phillips (18)
Phillips highlighted again his low base stats and, with no attacking stats this week, his score as basically what you would expect from him. With his latest high score rolling out of his three-round average, he has peaked for now and you would think he is ripe for the selling after making more than $140,000.
Aidan Sezer (20)
Sezer had to be the man to stand up and take charge in the dying stages, and he didn’t. Someone with a decent kicking game like he does should be doing a lot better in game management with the game on the line like it was.
The Ugly
BJ Leilua (0)
A first-minute head knock, after he made one tackle and missed a tackle, ended his night when he failed the HIA. For BJ owners, unfortunately he took the field so you don’t get an AE! Double ouch! This saw a reshuffle where Whitehead played right centre and Bateman got big minutes as a result.
Viliame Kikau (11)
In dreaded news for plenty of owners, Kikau played just 15 minutes before leaving the field with what is suspected to be an MCL injury, which could see him miss a number of weeks — including the Round 17 bye. Keep an eye on injury news out of the Panthers.
Jordan Rapana (40)
Rapana left the field in the 58th minute after a serious hamstring injury, which is set to keep him out for more than eight weeks. Devastating news for owners, especially those who had him from round one. We saw Ata Hingano, normally a half that is playing bench hooker now, coming on to play on the wing.
It’s worth noting that Kaide Ellis got sin-binned for the second time in his three-game NRL career!
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Originally published as SuperCoach NRL 2018: Wilfred Zee’s wrap of the good, bad and ugly from Round 14
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