Campo’s Corner: Shaun Johnson and Curtis Sironen highlight five surprise packets of the 2020 NRL season
From a player Michael Maguire might lock in a dungeon and dare Craig Bellamy to come get him to a Kiwi playmaker in the best form of his career, the NRL hasn’t been short of a revelation or two.
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We are a third of the way through the 2020 season - I thought we’d never make it, but somehow, someway we did. I’m so proud of you all.
The COVID-19 layoff and the new rules have meant it’s hard to draw grand, sweeping conclusions from such an abbreviated year, but Campo’s Corner is going to do it anyway.
Here’s five players who have surprised with their efforts thus far in 2020.
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1) Shaun Johnson
When his team is struggling, Shaun Johnson is a tremendously easy target because he makes everything look incredibly, ludicrously simple.
The Kiwi playmaker attracted criticism from some quarters during Cronulla’s struggles, but that was wide of the mark because Johnson is playing some of the best football of his career, albeit in a fashion we would not typically associate with the 29-year old.
For so long the wrap was that he should run the ball every single time he touched it, because any time Shaun Johnson was doing something that wasn’t running the ball it was time wasted.
There have been few more exhilarating players in the modern game, and Johnson’s quick feet and open-field running were breathtaking.
“Were” is the operative word here — Johnson can absolutely still hit the gas when he needs to, but he’s aged into a different part of his career.
His best asset may well now be his ability to create chances for others, and his man of the match display against Manly was proof of how he’s grown as a creator.
Johnson currently leads the league in try assists but has not made a line break all season, a state of affairs which was once unthinkable.
It’s not surprising that he’s playing well, but rather how he is doing it. Benji Marshall underwent a similar transition, albeit at a later stage in his career and Johnson is by no means an old man at 29, he’s just doing it a different way to how he did it before.
And if he decides he wants to start breaking ankles and dodging raindrops again, who are we to deny him?
2) Harry Grant
How did we all miss the jump on Harry Grant?
Seriously, how? How did we ever think he was going to be anything other than excellent? What is wrong with us?
A good recruitment rule to live by is don’t sign the players the Storm don’t want but be sure to sign the players they do want.
Given Melbourne were so keen to keep Grant they’d throw him out on loan for a year, even though they already have Brandon Smith as Cameron Smith’s heir apparent, we should have known this was coming. They hid Grant away in the Queensland Cup, which they use better than any team in the league, and hoped we wouldn’t notice.
Grant is four games into his Tigers career and he looks like he’s been in the NRL for a decade. His rise is indicative of so many of the things Melbourne do well with their recruitment, retention and development, but they might have done too good a job.
At this rate, Michael Maguire might lock Grant in a dungeon underneath Concord Oval, fortify the place and dare Craig Bellamy to come get him.
3) Reece Robson
There has been a lot of talk about Robson in recent seasons, and were the Dragons not well stocked at hooker they certainly would have fought harder to keep him.
As it stands, North Queensland are the beneficiaries, and even though the Cowboys have been patchy through 2020, the good form of Robson has never wavered.
Jake Granville has never quite been able to recapture the form of 2015 and Paul Green was right to replace him with Robson when he did.
It was a move that was likely always coming, but Robson’s form off the bench made the future arrive early. Given North Queensland’s powerful forward pack, having a sharp hooker who can take advantage of the momentum they generate is crucial and Robson is just the man for the job.
Despite starting just three of the seven games of the season, Robson is third among hookers for run metres, third in line breaks and fourth in tackle busts. Similar in style to Grant, Robson’s ceiling is just as high.
4) Curtis Sironen
Sirro the younger has been in first grade for nine years. Nine! Where does the time go?
Solid enough at the Tigers, Sironen never quite lived up to the hype of his junior years, but since joining Manly, he’s become one of the more underrated backrowers in the competition.
He enjoyed a fine season last year, and was sorely missed when he was injured before the finals, but he’s improved again in 2020.
It took some time, but Sironen has really found a home at the Sea Eagles.
5) Moses Mbye
I’m a real fan of the way Michael Maguire uses Moses Mbye at left centre.
The Tigers skipper has mercifully been given a full-time position when he was skirting dangerously close to the Tyrone Peachey Zone, a grim and terrible place where everyone can play heaps of different positions but nobody can really say where they’re best suited.
Mbye looks to have regained a yard of pace and has been effective as a runner, but he has serious ball-playing chops from his days in the halves and Maguire has been getting creative in getting the most out of his skipper.
Occasionally, the Tigers change things up when they attack down their left side and have Mbye act as the sweep runner while fullback Adam Doueihi slots in at left centre — see Robert Jennings’ try against the Cowboys as an example.
It’s a fun variation that keeps the opposition guessing and gets the most out of Mbye’s talents.
GOLDEN HOMBRE
In these troubled times we must take comfort in the things close to our hearts.
For some, it is family and friends, and the feeling of community. For me, it is front rowers taking shots at goal, or putting in ill-advised chip kicks or perhaps throwing totally adventurous, almost foolhardy cut out passes.
The Golden Hombre is the only thing left to believe in anymore, and Campo’s Corner will hand it out each and every week to the big man moment of the round. Big Man Season lives forever in our hearts.
Not the best week for the burly lads, but it was nice to see Sam Lisone get over for the Titans in their win over the Broncos.
Lisone took 77 NRL games to score his first try, now he’s got four in his last 28.
Watch out Ken Irvine, Sam Lisone is on the march.
Originally published as Campo’s Corner: Shaun Johnson and Curtis Sironen highlight five surprise packets of the 2020 NRL season