NRL 2022: The players, and coach, to watch in first round of finals
Mitchell Moses has been absolutely outstanding this season, but it will all count for nothing if he doesn’t replicate that form under the furnace of finals pressure.
Latrell Mitchell was already South Sydney’s biggest superstar but his complaints about crowd behaviour just brought more attention to him ahead of Sunday’s showdown with the Roosters.
Nathan Cleary has led his club and state to victory, but the Penrith star has his flaws - and the Eels know how to expose them.
Meanwhile Melbourne’s man mountain Nelson Asofa-Solomona must work out how to maintain his menace without earning the ire of the judiciary.
PAUL CRAWLEY breaks down the man who is under the most pressure at every club playing in this weekend’s NRL finals.
Stream every game of every round of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free During Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
WHY ICE MAN IS NO SUPERMAN
It’s easy to label Parramatta’s Mitchell Moses the playmaker under the most pressure heading into Friday night’s opening NRL finals blockbuster.
But don’t be fooled into thinking Penrith’s proven champion Nathan Cleary doesn’t have his own demons when it comes to not always aiming up in the big games.
It seems everyone is expecting Cleary to just march back from his five-match suspension and hit the finals like a bolt of lightning.
But you just have to go back to the State of Origin series this year to know the player often referred to as the ‘Ice Man’ is not always Superman.
Cleary had a shocker in game one, but responded with one of the most dominant halfback performances we’ve ever seen in game two.
But then in game three Cleary had another night to forget and was even accused of going missing in the second half when his team needed him most.
It culminated in that misguided chip kick in the 79th minute that Ben Hunt swallowed and raced away with the match winner to complete Queensland’s shock victory.
There also has been a few other occasions over the course of Cleary’s career where he hasn’t always responded under the big match spotlight.
No one questions Cleary is not a tremendous player, and the clear standout among the halfbacks in the game today.
And there is every chance he will ultimately go down as one of the game’s greatest of all time.
But history has also shown that he is certainly not flawless at this point of his career, and he definitely can be rattled if he is forced to play off the back foot or outside his comfort zone.
ALL OR NOTHING FOR ROBBO’S ROOSTERS
Coaching a club as powerful as the Sydney Roosters comes with huge advantages, but also monstrous expectation.
It just goes with the territory when you have the most powerful club chairman in Nick Politis, a star studded roster that spares no expenses, all the best facilities including a brand new world class stadium, and that’s all matched by a tremendous history of recent success.
And let’s remember at the start of this season the Roosters were the most popular pick to win the comp along with the reigning premiers Penrith.
Yet for all the hype about their recent charge to the finals, the fact remains the Roosters still finished outside the top four.
And it will be a massive under achievement for Trent Robinson and all involved if they crash out in week one.
While the Roosters were impressive winners in the final round against the Rabbitohs, that won’t matter zilch if the tables are turned here and their arch rivals knock them out for the season.
Given Robinson owns three premierships from his nine seasons in charge, his position isn’t under any threat whatsoever regardless of the result on Sunday.
But from a pride perspective, this is when it really comes down to all or nothing.
BIG NELSON NOW A MARKED MAN
The Melbourne Storm would have you believe big Nelson Asofa-Solomona has been unfairly targeted by media bullies in recent weeks.
But the fact is the NRL’s biggest human is also the scariest, and it’s not because the media makes him that way.
It’s because Asofa-Solomona puts the fear of god in opposition teams every week purely because he is so big and plays the game so close to the edge.
But the problem for him now is that he is also a marked man after a spate of nasty incidents this season somehow escaped any bans by the NRL’s match review committee, though certainly not the viewing public.
And while it’s caused massive controversy, it also appears to have put big Nelson in two minds in the Storm’s last round loss to Parramatta, where he wasn’t quite at his menacing worst.
Apart from the late shot on Mitchell Moses that was only questionable, it was Parramatta’s middles Junior Paulo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard who did most of the damage and easily won the battle of the big men.
Though you would assume coach Craig Bellamy will be telling Asofa-Solomona to go all out in this elimination final against the Canberra Raiders and forget about the consequences, knowing there might not be next week.
No one is saying he’s not allowed to try and intimidate.
Big Nelson just needs to make sure he doesn’t cross into illegal territory, otherwise the pressure will be on the match officials to act.
IS MOSES THE MONEY MAN?
A few weeks ago some people at Parramatta were upset that we dared question if Mitchell Moses was worth a $1 million-a-season given he was yet to prove himself on the finals stage.
Well, here’s his chance.
Moses has been absolutely outstanding this season, but it will all count for nothing if he doesn’t replicate that form under the furnace of finals pressure.
There is no doubt the Eels have the team to beat the Panthers because they have done it twice already this season.
But what makes it different here is that the Panthers are the reigning champs who have proven they can handle the pressure of big time matches.
Whereas Parramatta are yet to make it past week two of the play-offs under Brad Arthur, or Moses.
A win here will push them straight through to the preliminary final, although a loss will mean it will be week two sudden death for yet another season.
As is the case with his opposite No 7 Nathan Cleary, so much rides on the performance of the halfback in these finals matches.
They usually either walk away the hero, or the villain.
That’s why they’re paid the big bucks.
ONE-TIME CRONK UNDERSTUDY FINALLY THE MAIN MAN
At the start of this season Scott Drinkwater couldn’t even make the Cowboys’ starting side.
Now he has well and truly found his home at fullback after recently knocking back an offer from Wayne Bennett’s Dolphin and signing a rich $3 million extension that will keep him in Townsville until at least the end of 2027.
And here is Drinkwater’s chance to repay the Cowboys in their return to the finals arena after a 15th placed finish last year.
It’s been this season’s most incredible comeback story for the team most tipped as the wooden spoon favourites.
Drinkwater has always been an outstanding talent ever since he wore the No 7 Australian Schoolboys jumper with Nathan Cleary in the No 6.
From there the Storm signed him with a view of him becoming Cooper Cronk’s long-term replacement.
But it’s only been this year that Drinkwater has finally found the consistency to match his breathtaking talent.
It’s the reason he has become the Cowboys’ most important player.
So when the game is on the line the Cowboys need Drinkwater to step up. Only the special players can do that. We’re about to find out if Drinkwater is really one of those.
IT’S UP TO NICHO TO SHOW SHARKS ARE REAL DEAL
Nicho Hynes is now known as coolest dude in the NRL. On and off the field.
The Cronulla halfback just never appears to lose his nerve.
But will that composure stand up under finals pressure when everyone is looking for the player in his first year as a fulltime No 7 to show why the team that finished second on the ladder are the real deal?
Hardly anyone still thinks Cronulla is any hope of winning the title, the knock on them being that they benefited from an easy draw.
But here’s their chance to jam it down everyone’s throats.
To do that they need Hynes to maintain the form he has shown all year, which has him right up alongside Ben Hunt to take out the Dally M Medal.
In a season where there has been some outstanding buys, it is hard to go past the man wearing the Cronulla No 7 jumper as the best of them all.
At the start of the season there were a lot of people questioning if Hynes had it in him to make it as a top shelf playmaker.
He’s certainly answered the critics so far, but this is next level.
ROCKS OR DIAMONDS FOR YOUNG RAIDER?
The youngest and most inexperienced fullback in the finals series is known for his blistering speed, as well as the occasional blooper.
But while Xavier Savage has been taking it in his stride all season after being thrown in ahead of his time, taking on the Melbourne Storm in sudden death will be by far his toughest assignment yet.
Craig Bellamy will have pinned a target on the 20-year-old this week, knowing if the Storm can rattle Savage early it could really cause panic among the Raiders.
There is not a team in the comp that can identify a weakness in the opposition better than Melbourne.
But the flip side of that is the Raiders are also a team that plays with freedom like none of the other finalists, and young Savage is the epitome of that spirit.
LATRELL PUTS EVEN BIGGER TARGET ON HIMSELF
Latrell Mitchell is one of the great entertainers of the modern game, and plenty love him for it.
But right now the Rabbitohs’ superstar has put himself in serious danger of becoming an even bigger target.
And if Mitchell is not extremely careful that hole he keeps digging could well swallow him up when he runs out for this encore grudge match against the Roosters on Sunday.
Latrell has again put himself in the spotlight with some really confusing and contradictory statements after he spoke out about the boos he copped from the Roosters faithful last week.
Mitchell spoke about the Adam Goodes situation and how the constant booing drove him out of the game.
He did also point out that his situation is different to the racial vilification that forced former Sydney Swans star into retirement.
Then in the next breath Latrell made out it didn’t bother him, and it wouldn’t drive him into retirement like it did Goodes.
There’s no suggestion the treatment Mitchell received from Roosters fans was racially motivated.
But what we can be clear on is that it has obviously bothered Latrell, otherwise he wouldn’t be talking about it.
That is why it now makes it a serious concern for the Rabbitohs heading into a game where their entire season is riding on the result.
This will be Mitchell’s first ever finals game since joining the Rabbitohs.
All year the fear has been that Latrell’s emotions could bring him crashing down if he didn’t learn from what happened last year — where he was rubbed out of the finals series after smashing Joey Manu’s face with an illegal tackle.
But the last thing Souths need now is Latrell’s mind on other things, and not just doing his job for the team.
What someone at Souths should point out to Latrell is the reason Roosters fans were giving it to him last week perhaps had more to do with the Manu tackle than anything else.
They could throw in the fact Mitchell is also a former two-time premiership-winning Sydney Rooster who left to join their mortal enemy.
And who rubs it in every time he kisses the Souths badge or spikes the ball in celebration after scoring a try against his old team.
Does Latrell need reminding it was only two weeks ago that he was also calling on other NRL players to come out of their shells and be more like him to sell the game, and “get an arrogance about them”.
But now he’s calling for quiet from the fans when it doesn’t suit him.
Does anyone really expect the Roosters supporters to go any easier this week because Latrell is clearly being distracted by the outside noise?
What no one can deny is opposition fans have the right to boo whoever they like as soon as they pay their money to walk through the gate at any sporting venue across the globe.
Especially when an opposition player talks himself up as much as Latrell does.
You get the feeling this could go one of two ways on Sunday. Latrell will either be the hero, or all this self-inflicted hype and drama will explode in his face.
More Coverage
The Better Half: Ricky Stuart’s wife reveals his weirdest superstition
Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield sits down with Kaylie Stuart, the wife of Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart, to talk about the rugby league legend’s weirdest superstition and beating him at golf.
Matty Johns reveals bombshell coaching approach from NRL club
Matty Johns’ squillion-dollar TV contract at Fox Sports expires at the end of the footy season. And it just happens to coincide with one NRL club reaching out to gauge his interest in becoming a head coach.