NRL MVP Index: Cody Walker registers season-high single-game score
Simply put, Brisbane got less quality football out of their halves than any other team in the competition. But the only place to go from rock bottom is up.
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Nathan Cleary might have missed out on the Dally M Medal but he was the clear MVP of the NRL in 2020.
At an impressive 84.54, the Penrith halfback had the highest NRL MVP Index of any player in the competition following the best year of his career.
Cleary finished almost six points clear of Shaun Johnson (78.91) and James Tedesco (78.18), while Payne Haas (76.79) and AJ Brimson (76.6) rounded out the top five.
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In a season of sustained greatness, the highlight came in the Panthers’ 42-12 win over Manly in Round 12 where Cleary recorded an individual MVP Index of 96.1.
As a result of a mammoth 87 possessions, the 23-year-old scored a try, set up two others, made 17 tackles without a miss, forced a drop-out, kicked a 40/20 and landed seven of his eight goal attempts.
The only negatives to impact his MVP Index was a single error that counted against his discipline score, and the lack of another big attacking stat that could have elevated his performance even more.
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Replicating that game, and such a bumper season, won’t be easy, especially as the Panthers try desperately to avoid a grand final hangover. But Cleary’s halves partner Jarome Luai has no doubt the new Penrith co-captain can do it all again in 2021.
“This is his team. Every game he plays he puts his best foot forward for us,” Luai said.
“You expect that from Nat because he’s such a gun. He’ll do a good job for us every game because he’s one of those guys who competes to the end. He always brings his best game.”
CODY WALKER: ALMOST PERFECT
Five-eighth Cody Walker had an impressive season for South Sydney, highlighted by an amazing run of form to finish the season as the Rabbitohs forced their way into the preliminary finals against eventual premiers Melbourne, doing it without Latrell Mitchell.
And Walker was the catalyst.
There was no greater example of Walker’s red-hot form than his Round 20 performance against the Sydney Roosters, where they embarrassed their bitter rivals 60-8.
Walker was almost perfect as he registered a season-high single-game MVP Index of 98.4.
Two tries, four try assists, 129 run metres, 10 tackle busts and 12 tackles with no misses.
The silky five-eighth was on track for a perfect 100 MVP Index, but he conceded a penalty and had two tackles leading to an offload.
With Mitchell returning from a shocking hamstring injury, Walker’s MVP Index leaves little doubt that South Sydney’s premiership window is wide open for 2021.
MANLY GO BACK FOR THE FUTURE
When Kieran Foran left Manly at the end of 2015, his halves combination with Daly Cherry-Evans was arguably the best in the league.
Six years later he returns after a run blighted by injuries across stints with three different clubs.
But in promising news for Sea Eagles fans, the stats prove that when he stays healthy, Foran is one of the best five-eighths around, producing a top-10 MVP Index of 73.86.
In fact, Cherry-Evans and Foran’s combined MVP Index of 150.35 is the third-highest total of any halves combination in the NRL — and the Kiwi playmaker could help take the Queensland skipper’s play to another level.
“The big winner in Kieran coming back is Daly,” Fox League’s Matty Johns said.
“If you look at DCE’s career he always plays his best with strong playmakers around him.
“Go back to when they won the premiership and on one side he had Kieran, on the other side he had Glenn Stewart. When those players moved on or retired, Manly had to look for Daly to do something outside of his strengths.
“Just for DCE’s headspace, to know he’s got Kieran on the other side of the field will be enormous.”
PUT A SADDLE ON A BRONCO
Season previews of the past are littered with declarations that ‘this is the year we finally see the best of Anthony Milford on a consistent basis’, but Brisbane’s highest-paid player has struggled for consistency ever since his magical debut season with the club in 2015.
Last year Milford’s MVP Index of 68.15 was 36th in the league among halves. The rest of the Broncos playmakers didn’t fare much better.
Young gun Tom Dearden was 27th with an average of 71.14 and Brodie Croft was 44th with 66.26.
Simply put, Brisbane got less quality football out of their halves than any other team in the competition.
But the only place to go from rock bottom is up.
Unlocking Milford’s best football has been a puzzle even supercoach Wayne Bennett couldn’t solve at times, but Kevin Walters might be better placed than most to achieve the improbable. The free-spirited style of his own playing days alongside Allan Langer is a nice blueprint for Milford to follow.
“Brisbane have a culture that Alfie and Kevvie and all the rest of them helped develop and everything I’m hearing from up there is they’re more relaxed with how they’re doing things and that might suit their culture,” Johns said.
“For Milford, it just has to be about bobbing and weaving, popping up where he needs to be. His best football is still run, run, run and run some more.
“Over the last few years, through the lack of them having a really strong playmaker, they needed a bit more from him as an organiser and it forced him away from his best.
“That’s where Croft or Dearden come in — you can have the biggest, strongest pack in the world but it’s like having a car with a V8 engine and no steering wheel. You need to have someone in charge.”
ROOSTERS GO ON THE LAM
Lachlan Lam will get first crack alongside Luke Keary in the halves for the Roosters for Round 1 and the 22-year old will be under pressure from the jump.
For the Roosters to match the production of their premiership rivals Canberra, Penrith, South Sydney and Melbourne, whose halves all had combined MVP Indexes of 146 or more last year, Lam must almost match Keary’s output (his MVP Index of 74.59 was seventh best in the league).
It’s a tall order, but Lam’s showing in the Roosters’ trial against Canberra indicated he might be up to the task — with a sharp running game and good attacking instincts, Lam could quickly become a go-to man for the Tricolours.
“He’s really fast, he’s got great footwork and he’s got a good pass, it all makes him really dangerous in attack,” said Fox League’s Braith Anasta.
“With Keary taking a more dominant role it’ll let Lachie float and pop up wherever he needs to be.
“The dynamic can definitely work and it might bring the best out of Luke again — he’s been the best player at the Roosters over the last few years other than Tedesco and he’s probably the best half in the competition, but at the back end of last year he didn’t quite play his best.
“This could refocus him, rejig him, a new challenge could be good for him because you need challenges. Luke loves a challenge.”
Lam is childhood mates with Victor Radley, who is returning from a serious knee injury, so there will be no shortage of combinations and support for the young half.
FLANAGAN STARTS AGAIN
Lam’s predecessor as Roosters halfback, Kyle Flanagan, shows that piloting the two-time deafening premiers around the park isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Flanagan had his moments in his rocky season at Bondi — his MVP Index of 73.69 was good enough to finish as the 10th-best half, better than the likes of Jarome Luai (73.29), Jack Wighton (73.1) and George Williams 72.91) — but he struggled through the finals and eventually exited the club.
At Canterbury, Flanagan can have more control with a little less pressure. The tradeoff though, is now there’s nobody like Keary or Tedesco to help him out.
Cooper Cronk, who worked alongside Flanagan at the Roosters last year, doesn’t just think Flanagan can become a dominant NRL half — he expects him to be.
“(Bulldogs coach) Trent Barrett, like he did last year for Nathan Cleary, will build a lot of the attack around him, so he’ll be touching the ball a lot, he’ll be an on-ball halfback,” Cronk said.
“But he also has to be a threat himself. That’s something that maybe let him down a bit last year, taking on the line and creating chances for himself.
“He creates for other people, but to be a good halfback in this comp you need to create for yourself and that opens up holes for someone else.
“He’s at the early stages of his career, in four or five years time I expect Kyle Flanagan to be a dominant halfback in this comp.”
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