NRL 2020: How little men Api Koroisau, Harry Grant are changing rugby league
The real winners from rugby league’s rule changes are not the ruck roaming speedsters like Damien Cook, and the key that set them free is not quite shaped in the manner you might have expected.
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Initially, everyone thought this would be a yarn about Damien Cook running. But it isn’t.
No, this is about Penrith No.9 Api Koroisau — gasp — passing.
About how even when his Panthers forwards start rolling, and rugby league’s second smallest man suddenly arrives at the ruck, with all his footy senses screaming ‘go’, he so often sends it on.
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Wide too, so halfback Nathan Cleary can either find space himself, or another runner to go through.
Which isn’t how we expected this new life for the little men to go, right?
Just as nobody imagined Nambour’s Reed Mahoney to be so crucial in putting Parramatta atop the NRL table.
Or Harry Grant, that breakout Wests Tigers rookie, playing a style that doesn’t so much encourage his halfback, Luke Brooks, to run, as force him boot-up-the-backside style.
Which is why Brooks is also benefiting.
But still not so much as Luke Keary.
The superstar Roosters No.6 whose ongoing rise and rise is due, in no small part, to that energetic ball of ink otherwise known as Jake Friend. A fella who, from the outset, and before most others, has also known this yarn wasn’t never about just running, either.
No, the secret to reviving rugby league’s little man?
Sure, speed plays a role.
But it’s more, too.
Has to be given that when then the NRL famously announced in May it was pushing to eradicate the wrestle and increase fatigue — most notably, via the new six-again rule – everyone looked immediately to speedy No.9s like South Sydney’s Cook.
“But really, it’s about your smarts, your temperament,” says Michael Ennis, that old hooker now more than proving his worth as a Fox Sports analyst.
Importantly, it is about your big men, too.
Which is a tad ironic, right?
After all, when Peter V’landys went and overhauled the game for little fellas, nobody mentioned anything about that old adage still ringing truest.
“But your forwards have to dominate,” says Matthew Johns, Australia’s greatest campaigner for fatigue in footy.
“It’s nothing new of course. But these new rules now accentuate that.”
Yet still, this is a little man story.
Especially now seven rounds into the NRL overhaul, and with opportunities unseen for years giving halves and hookers, as Johns puts it, “the whip hand”.
But as for who is adapting best?
“Api Koroisau,” says Manly great Geoff Toovey, among the greatest little men of the modern era. “He’s shaping as the buy of the year thanks to these rule changes.”
And why?
“Api has understood the interpretations best,” insists Ennis.
“I don’t know if it’s because of his coach, or his instinct, but he understands that when the ruck speeds up now, sides are collapsing and tightening to protect it.
“So while there are definitely more opportunities for a dummy-half to get out and attack, and he does time his runs really well, sides are also trying to counteract that.
“They’re gravitating toward the play the ball, towards protecting those vulnerable big blokes in the middle, which means the space is actually around the edges.
“Out around the three and four defender.”
A truth, Ennis concedes, which is proving difficult for some hookers to grasp.
“Because for so long when a ruck sped up, that was your indicator to go,” he says.
“But when they do take off now, they’re running into a dead end.
“So your side, it actually loses momentum.”
Which is different to what we thought, right?
“Absolutely,” Ennis continues.
“We thought Damien Cook was going to blow everyone apart through the middle.
“And there will be moments in a game for Cook.
“But unfortunately for quicker dummy-halves, sides have spent a lot of time preparing to counter that.
“They realise that if you lose a bloke in the middle to fatigue, or start getting six-again calls against you, then you need to collapse and tighten up to protect the ruck.
“So while speed is a bonus, it’s only a fraction of what you need to benefit now.
“It’s about your intelligence, your patience, about even when your side has momentum, being able to play away from yourself and not feel it necessary to be the headline act.”
Enter Koroisau.
Apart from running for almost 70m per game this year, a career high, the great success of this Panthers rake has been his combinations with both halves, particularly Cleary.
“What Api does for Nathan, he forces him to play straighter,” Johns says.
“Harry Grant has been really good for Luke Brooks for the same reason.
“The knock on Brooksy was that he doesn’t run enough.
“Now with Grant there, he doesn’t really have a choice.”
Indeed, according to Fox Sports Stats, Brooks is currently running for more metres per game than ever before in his career. While on the Dally M leaderboard Grant is equal second, Cleary equal fifth and Koroisau equal ninth.
“Keary is another who has adapted to the rules well,” says Toovey.
“He and Koroisau are excelling around the ruck.”
Elsewhere, Shaun Johnson is revived at Cronulla, Cam McInnes running PBs with St George Illawarra, and Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith, unsurprisingly, also now taking advantage of the new landscape.
“Although the Storm were slower to adapt than I thought they’d be,” Johns concedes.
“But they’re starting to find their stride now.
“Parramatta and Penrith have really jumped up while the Roosters, who were always going to adapt, have been devastating with some of their footy.
“Wests Tigers, too, are a better side, and the Knights.”
When you look at the NRL leaderboard, however, Johns’ statement about big men being key is obvious.
Currently, no NRL side makes better yardage than Parramatta (13,709m). Next up is Penrith (13,077m), followed by the Roosters (12,871) and Newcastle (12,719m).
Importantly, the Eels also create a large chunk of their attacking momentum on the back of second phase play, with their 129 offloads not only a code high, but 35 more than nearest rivals, the Roosters.
“And Reed Mahoney is playing off that,” says Johns.
“Same for Koroisau at Penrith, where the forwards have gone to another level.
“If that Penrith pack were struggling then Api wouldn’t be getting out. Which then means Nathan Cleary isn’t having the impact he is, either.”
Ennis agrees, saying simply: “I’m not one for statistics, but sometimes they really do tell the story.”
Also going unquestioned is the fact these NRL rules changes are everything we hoped for.
“Oh, it’s turned back the clock,” Ennis says.
“Taken so many of these blokes back to those Saturday mornings wherever they grew up, just playing what was in front of them.”
So positive has the move been, Johns reckons there is no longer a need for NRL interchanges to be reduced further.
Or not yet.
“What we have at the moment is working,” he says.
“But as is the way in rugby league, we have to keep ahead of the defence.
“And we have to keep ahead of the coaches.
“Because whether it takes them six months, 12 months, even 18 months, mate, you just know they’re going to catch up eventually.”