NRL 2021: Big boppers didn’t just survive rule changes, they thrived
Rugby league’s monsters have had the last laugh on those who wanted to run them out of the game, the biggest of them all reveals how.
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Junior Paulo, you may recall, was supposed to be ruined by this year’s revamped NRL landscape.
Or as he puts it, “forced into extinction”.
Faster game again, they warned him. With fewer breaks. All of it designed so the little men, late in each half, could get at boppers like Paulo, who just happens to be rugby league’s heaviest man.
But guess what? Paulo hasn’t gone the way of ankle boots and cardboard corner posts. No, instead, the Parramatta prop has thrived.
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He has not only won an Origin series for NSW and maintained his place as one of the NRL’s most damaging big men but thrown more offloads this year than any forward not named Tevita Pangai Junior — Penrith newest recruit who, coincidentally, he faces this Saturday night.
Some showdown.
Despite groaning the scales at a combined 240kg, Paulo and Pangai are two of the great X-factors in this greatest of western Sydney semi-finals.
Think Hulk Hogan versus Andre The Giant at WrestleMania III – if both stars also boasted an aerial game.
According to the Fox Sports Lab, Pangai leads the offload count among NRL forwards, with 51. Yet close behind, and closing, is Paulo, whose 46 distributions are the highest in a Parramatta side whose ability to use second phase play is also the best of any playoff team.
“It’s not a stat I go chasing,” the powerhouse Eel insists, explaining how his side’s success comes off the back of a power game that, no secret, attacks opposing sides right through their middle.
“So my job is to run hard first. Then any offloads can come off the back of that.”
With Paulo playing so strongly this year, you could argue for his place among other Dally M Prop of the Year finalists such as Payne Haas, Christian Welch, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, James Fisher-Harris and Daniel Saifiti.
Saifiti this week won Newcastle’s Player of the Year award — at 121kg.
Just as NSW Origin star Haas is also among the game’s heaviest at 117kg, and best.
So when it comes to the, ahem, big story of NRL semi-final week?
It has to be those boppers still dominating despite an overhauled NRL rules system which – like bringing the ropes in for a Twenty20 game – was specifically designed to help one style of athlete to the detriment of another.
After moving to one referee as part sweeping changes in 2020, then doubling down with Six Again alterations this year, it is the elite big men like Paulo who have actually thrived.
Sure, smaller forwards such as Cam Murray and Victor Radley have seen their value skyrocket
But big men with genuine footy skills — and just as importantly, footy smarts — are also relishing the opportunity to have the Steeden in play for longer periods.
So as for the secret?
“At the start of this year, there was plenty of chat about a guy like me becoming extinct,” Paulo concedes. “So personally, my focus has been on adapting, on being able to get into that set-for-set grind.
“Early on, our staff also put a heap of focus into the rule changes and how we were going to train for them. And we’ve had to … with anyone who hasn’t adapted left behind.”
But not Junior.
For proof, look no further than Parramatta in week one of the playoffs against Newcastle.
When Paulo and fellow prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard, who weighs 115kg, starred thanks to coach Brad Arthur’s game plan of playing through the middle, which also allows his middles to play.
Across halfway this Saturday night, Pangai Jnr is a 117kg weapon. Same as Manly boasts Taniela Paseka (120k), South Sydney has Tom Burgess (120kg) and Melbourne owns a host of heavyweights led by Nelson Asofa-Solomona (115kg).
“So talk about big boys season,” Paulo laughs.
Listed on the Eels website at 123kg, this hulking Samoan wrecking ball is not only the biggest man anywhere in the NRL playoffs, but the heaviest of any forward who has played three or more games this year.
It makes him what mathematicians might call an outlier. That, and one of the game’s great stories.
Remembering that this is the same fella who, more than once at Canberra, was sprayed, and dropped, by coach Ricky Stuart for a body that at times topped 130kg.
A footballer not simply too heavy, they said, but potentially a talent lost.
Yet in a testament to what has now been several years of dedication, commitment and endless sweat sessions – which begin with a daily 4am wake-up call – Paulo now exists as one of those rarest of big men who, despite carrying more kilos than any rival, still boasts incredible footwork and the softest of hands.
You know, like those playmakers who are supposed to be targeting him.
Apart from his diligent work with the Eels performance staff, the 27-year-old also spent much of this pre-season working closely with Justin Fitzgerald, one of Australia’s top boxing coaches, to prepare for a February fight night where he KO’d Neville Costigan.
“Which has really set up my year up,” Paulo says. “Physically this is the fittest I’ve ever entered a season and it’s now filtered all the way through.”
The father of three is also a proud ambassador for the PCYC, which not only sees him working closely with youngsters in western Sydney, but has him speaking out about a concerning issue.
Specifically, Paulo wants you to know how, with Covid having closed PCYC centres right around the state, the organisation is currently haemorrhaging cash – well in excess of $100,000 each week – because no one can use them.
Despite acting as something of a heartbeat for 65 NSW communities, the PCYC is funded for almost 90 per cent of its operations through club activities, fundraisers and contestable grants.
As a result, both PCYC officials – and Paulo — are launching an emergency appeal, asking the people of NSW to give and ensure those currently padlocked doors don’t stay closed once Covid restrictions ease.
“Because the work being done by the PCYC, it’s so important,” the Eels prop says. “Especially in times like these.
“I know even right now they’re supplying 150 meals every Wednesday to families that are doing it tough. So I think it’s important, as communities, we also give back to them.
“After all, we’re all in this together.”
But this Saturday night? Um, no.
Instead, it will be Paulo versus Pangai Junior.
That, and Fisher-Harris versus Campbell-Gillard. Throw in too Panther Moses Leota and kamikaze Eels middle Nathan Brown.
“Because you know the old cliche,” Paulo cackles. “It’s your forwards who win big games – the backs just determine by how many.”
RCG AND THE REJECTS READY TO ROCK PANTHERS
Reagan Campbell-Gillard is still being paid by Penrith to play footy. Or more simply, to play footy anywhere but with them.
Which must be at least a little weird, right?
Especially given this powerhouse Parramatta prop – a fella all tough carries, jarring defence, even the strongest of moustache games – is now looking to go and upset those same Panthers in an NRL blockbuster on Saturday night.
So c’mon Reg, how does it feel getting cash from the club you’re trying to finish?
“Ah, it’s just part of my deal,” he says, swatting off the question like, say, one of those bright orange bump pads. “And I’m definitely not the only bloke getting paid by his old club.”
Which is true, of course.
But still, this is Parramatta versus Penrith. Battle of the Ugg Boot Cup.
With RCG not only a former Panther, or current employee, but as recently as last October, standing accused by no less than NSW No. 7 Nathan Cleary of having “pissed off” his old teammates.
Specifically, Cleary said, the Panthers were upset with comments RCG made after leaving the club. Most notably, the incredibly honest evaluation that he stopped trying after being dropped to reserves by coach Ivan Cleary.
So as for the two having since cleared things up?
“Nah, no comment,” Reg says, bumping us off again. “While I’m playing against my old team this weekend – and some old mates as well – it really is just another game for me.”
Really?
“I know this will sound strange,” he continues, “but I don’t even look at Penrith like they’re my old team anymore. I don’t get caught up in the emotion of that.
“Definitely last year, playing them for the first time was strange. But both parties have moved on. They’ve moved on, I’ve moved on.”
Hasn’t he what?
Only two years after being shown the door at Panthers, RCG is now proving to be something of the Eels spirit animal.
The leader of a pack he jokingly calls ‘The Rejects’.
Which isn’t far wrong.
Take, say, Eels backrower Bryce Cartwright, who was completely friendless as recently as September. Same deal Isaiah Papali’i, who after being unable to get a run with the Warriors last winter is now in every conversation for NRL Buy of the Year.
Shaun Lane?
He humped a swag through three NRL clubs before joining the Eels in 2019.
Just as Junior Paulo was dubbed a risk when hauled home from Canberra and Nathan Brown, he was picked up from South Sydney for pocket change, given his reputation back then as the code’s biggest grub.
All this too before we get to Eels No. 9 Ray Stone, that tattooed Wests Tigers reject also doubling as the side’s third-string hooker come Saturday night.
“And one of the toughest blokes I’ve ever played alongside,” Campbell-Gillard says.
Better, he fits the narrative.
“Yeah, we’re the rejects,” RCG continues. “The guys nobody else wanted.
“But this forward pack we have here, the combinations, it’s something I’ve never had in my career before. It’s such a skilful and powerful group of guys.”
So as for the key to rugby league’s misfit pack?
“Brad,” he says, referencing coach Brad Arthur. “Exactly what he does for you, I can’t explain it. You’d really have to come in and experience things for yourself.
“Because you really do know it when you’re here.”
Then, after a short pause, he continues: “It’s the players, too.
“This is a high energy team with no dull moments.
“And when you’re in an environment where you feel comfortable, where you’re enjoying things, it’s really easy to go out and play good, simple footy.”
So as for what Campbell-Gillard makes of recent headlines suggesting Arthur’s future at the Eels is under pressure, especially if they bow out against the Panthers this weekend?
“You don’t like to see it, obviously,” he says. “But Brad’s a big boy. He can look after himself. And like I said earlier, I’ve only got the highest praise for him.”
After being sidelined since Round 20 with a troublesome groin issue, Campbell-Gillard made an outstanding return last weekend against Newcastle, with both he and Paulo particularly strong up front.
So while this may be just another game come Saturday night, surely the Eels enforcer will have something saved up for Isaah Yeo, that Panthers No. 13 who doubles as his great mate?
“Mate, he refuses to even make eye contact on the field,” Campbell-Gillard laughs of his old Panthers roomie. “Dunno why.
“After a game he just says he isn’t allowed. Well, it’s not that he isn’t allowed, but he doesn’t want to start laughing or anything like that.
“So even when I try to give him a smirk, I get nothing. I have to wait until after the game.”
So no reminiscing?
“Mate, I’ve been at Parramatta two years now,” the prop says simply. “This is my home.”
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