Captains Call: Round 19
Welcome to week 19 of Captains Call.
Another week gone, another week closer to finals.
Why can’t we ever have a weekend of NRL without controversy? Because it makes for great topic of conversation.
Throughout the last round there was an abundance of controversial calls. Now that the NRL has decided to be a bit more lenient on the offside penalties, we have a bit more free flowing football, but why are there still so many howlers that get missed or even worse, get called? How can we trust the Bunker if they can’t even get it right?
It’s a frustration that is constantly brewing in the NRL and the try awarded to O’Sullivan from the Roosters was a perfect example. Everyone at the ground, everyone watching at home and even the player himself knew it wasn’t a try, yet the bunker still found a way to award it only for the referees boss to come out two days later and say they got it wrong.
There was also a few in the Melbourne and Manly game. So is it a case of the higher ranked clubs getting the favourable calls? I would like to see a stat on that. We don’t want the bunker to rule on anything they feel like during the game as there would be no need for referees, how ever we can’t have howlers missed in game play that could potentially change the result of a game. Bring on the Captains Challenge!
Enough of that rant for another week, let’s review the five from last week and yes, it was dismal.
- Taumalolo – 2 (ME) ❌
- Whitehead – 4 ✅
- Friend – 3 ❌
- French – 3 ❌
- Macdonald – 0 ❌
Macdonald had his quietest game of the year, six runs for 60 meters, that’s 100 less than Nightingale. Taumalolo and the Cowboys forwards got beaten easily in the middle of the park by the Raiders and that resulted in Taumalolo only getting a Metre Eater, just. Friend missed out on a workhorse by a couple of involvements but did get a try assist and line break assist. French also picked up a try assist and a line break. Best of the week was Whitehead with an easy workhorse, nothing special but its eight points.
In this weeks preview ill be taking a different approach, I’ll preview players from a certain position. This week is the hookers and while the likes of Lichaa (Average 4 points with 11 workhorse), Granville (Average 4 with 13 workhorse), Luke (Average 4, 9 workhorse, 4 try) and Friend (Average 3 with 12 workhorse) are all decent options, the best of the lot are as follows.
Damien Cook
Cook is averaging nine points a game this season with 24 workhorses, seven try assists and nine line breaks. He is almost 50 points above the next best player in NRLCEO. If you have him, Captain him for the rest of the year if you haven’t been already.
Cameron McInnes
McInnes is averaging six points a game with 16 workhorses and seven try assists. He is on track to equal his score of 120 points from last season. Another very solid player who has the ability to punch out very high scores.
Robbie Farah
Back playing 80 and back at Tigers, it has rejuvenated Farah. In four games this year (two for Souths, two for Tigers) he has averaged 10 points and accumulated six workhorses’ and five try assists. He has double workhorsed both games for the Tigers and I expect that trend to continue.
Cameron Smith
100 years old and still going strong. Smiths consistency over the last six rounds has been fantastic, averaging a touch over eight points with eight workhorses’, three try assists and six line break assists. The choice not to play Origin this year has helped his points towards the back end of the season which bodes well for those who own him.
Josh Hodgson
He’s back from injury and he hasn’t skipped a beat. Having played only four games so far, he averages six points a game with two workhorses, four try assists and four line break assists. Seems to be getting better each week. He generally won’t get the doubles that other hookers may get but his attacking stats are generally always up there.
Andrew McCullough
Mr Consistent will do what he always does. As long as he’s not getting sin-binned for throwing a few punches, he averages six points a game with 15 workhorses and five line break assists. If the Broncos are to keep their spot in the eight, it will be this man who has to play a big role in making sure that happens.
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Adam Hewat
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