Crawley Files: Rating the seven best form streaks from a fullback heading into an NRL finals series

It’s uncanny how often a fullback catching fire late in the season ignites a team’s charge to the playoffs. But of all the great runs, who has the best of all time? See Paul Crawley’s rankings.

Fullback form streaks: Who did it best?

Is Kalyn Ponga’s run of form heading into the NRL finals the equal of Jarryd Hayne in 2009? Is Reece Walsh up with Ben Barba of 2012? Will anyone ever match the Turbo charged effort of Tom Trbojevic in 2021? Can the James Tedesco of today emulate the Teddy of 2019?

It’s uncanny how often a fullback catching fire late in the season ignites a team’s charge to the playoffs.

With the help of Fox Sports Stats, Paul Crawley ranks the seven best form streaks from a fullback coming into an NRL finals series – and where three of the fullback finalists this year, Ponga, Walsh and Tedesco – rank on the list.

It also includes Brett Stewart in 2008 when the Sea Eagles absolutely smashed the Storm in the grand final.

# Note, these rankings relate to the run of form leading up to the end of the regular season, not over the entire season.

WHEN WILL RABBITOHS FACE UP TO NO 1 PROBLEM?

South Sydney missing the playoffs is the biggest season failure of the NRL era.

And the talk now that one way to fix what went wrong is by moving Latrell Mitchell to the centres is absolute nonsense.

If that happens and Jack Wighton plays fullback the Rabbitohs will have completely lost the plot.

Wighton will be 31 next season, and he hasn’t played fullback for the Raiders for years. He was also bought to play centre.

If he ends up at fullback, what does that say about their recruitment policy – especially on the back of the decision to offer Wighton a multi-year deal while Adam Reynolds was forced out because they only wanted to give him a year-to-year guarantee?

Furthermore, when Wayne Bennett initially moved Mitchell to fullback there were a lot of very high profile experts who questioned the move.

Yet it was a raging success, with Mitchell proving himself as the most destructive attacking force in the game until the wheels fell off this year.

It’s no coincidence that happened at about the same time Sam Burgess’s concerns that the players were not meeting certain standards were exposed.

Pushing Burgess out the door won’t fix the problem.

Neither will moving Mitchell to the centres.

Latrell Mitchell is far too good to be playing centre, writes Paul Crawley. Picture: Getty

FAN LOCKOUT A FINALS FARCE

The NRL has shot itself in the foot again by allowing the Sharks/Roosters final to go ahead on a construction site at Cronulla’s PointsBet Stadium.

Playing a finals match at a ground with a capacity of 13,000 is madness when there is more than $1 billion worth of state-of-the-art stadiums throughout Sydney not being used.

Surely the NRL should have got together with the Sharks well before the top eight was finalised and told them who was boss here.

The end result is as many as 25,000 fans will be locked out.

While the NRL maintains any team who qualifies for a home final should keep their advantage, can you imagine the AFL playing a final at a ground with a 13,000 capacity?

LUAI’S DILEMMA: MORE MONEY OR MORE PREMIERSHIPS?

The Penrith Panthers should cut up a season highlights package of former Panther now Bulldog Matt Burton and give it to Jarome Luai.

With talk the back-to-back premiers won’t be able to offer their star five-eighth more than $800,000-a-season because of salary cap constraints, there is no doubt Luai could command $1 million plus if he goes to market for season 2025.

But at what cost does a player put the chance of winning more premierships ahead of the extra dollars at a struggling club like the Bulldogs, Tigers or Dragons?

Burton took the pay day when he left the Panthers to be part of the Bulldogs rebuild and get the chance to play five-eighth.

You can only wonder if there are any regrets.

Jarome Luai faces a tough decision ... chase cash or premierships? Picture: Getty

TEDDY SILENCES LOYALTY DEBATE

The best argument to show how much James Tedesco was struggling early in the season and especially during the State of Origin period is to compare his form back then to how he is playing now.

The difference is absolutely chalk and cheese.

I was one of many who questioned if Tedesco should have been dropped during the Origin series.

But to his credit Tedesco has certainly fought back and ended any debate as to whether he deserves to stay on as Kangaroos captain for the end of season Tests.

That’s regardless of the form of Kalyn Ponga and Reece Walsh.

While Mal Meninga has shown his loyalty throughout and declared Tedesco a selection certainty, it’s even better that Tedesco is playing good enough to justify his selection.

While he was at risk of being picked on loyalty, the strength and desire he showed to carry Lachlan Ilias on his back and keep his arm off the ground to stretch over for a wonderful try against Souths highlighted again why Tedesco can be such a threat in this finals series.