Workhorse Watch Rd 21
It would have been one of the most bizarre scenes of the 2016 season. Robbie Farah up against Shaun Fensom, at a time generally set aside for kids to be playing sport – 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning in front 10 people and a dog. Instead Farah withdrew with injury leaving Fensom and a fairly handy contingent of players with NRL experience to run out for Mounties. The Tigers had a brilliant first half and led 28-6 at the break. But Fensom led a massive comeback in the second half with the visitors winning 32-28 and Fensom taking Man of the Match honours. Meanwhile Farah vs Fensom on a Saturday morning will have to wait until their kids go head to head in years to come.
Whilst I’m sure Sunday’s games were a thrill for Canberra and Manly fans and those with Raiders outside backs, it didn’t little for the rest of us including those who love the workhorses with the Souths versus Raiders game generating 5 workhorse tries and the Manly versus Newcastle game generating just 4. Angus Crichton scored the first workhorse try of his career, with 41 involvements and now finds himself in the starting side for the Rabbitohs this week. With the horrid Bunnies facing an in form Melbourne, who knows how many tackles he might have to make this week.
Meanwhile a late flurry of tries from Newcastle meant Jake Trbojevic and Pauli Pauli both fell short of a workhorse try by 1one involvement. Pauli played the full game while it was the third time in five weeks that Trbojevic played less than 60 minutes and as a result, third time he’s missed a workhorse try this season. It was better news for Trbojevic’s teammates with Jamie Buhrer racking up his 9th straight workhorse as well as a try early in the game while Marty Taupau scored his first workhorse since Round 9 and got his first ever double metre eater with 215 metres gained.
It was a record week for the Close But No Cigar Club with 10 players finishing on 39 involvements. A further eight players finished two involvements shy of a workhorse. Not even golden point extra time was enough for Ryan Hoffman and James Fisher-Harris to get across the line in the Warriors vs Panthers game. NRLCEOs with Hoffman would have been cursing after he finished on 38 the week before meanwhile Fisher-Harris’ last three games including Saturday’s match have been 39, 37 and 38. So close!
Workhorse of the Week:
James Graham: There were some big scores this weekend from some surprise contenders including Greg Bird and Tariq Sims while Jack De Belin had his highest involvements for a game ever. But they don’t call him King James for nothing with Graham notching up his 8th double workhorse of the season, stretching his lead in the tally of most workhorse tries for the season to 4.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- James Graham: 50 tackles + 17 hitups = 67
- Michael Ennis: 54 tackles + 3 hitups = 57
- Ryan James: 55 tackles + 14 hitups = 69
- Jack De Belin: 50 tackles + 15 hitups = 65
- Tariq Sims: 43 tackles + 18 hitups = 61
- Greg Bird: 35 tackles + 27 hitups = 62
- Simon Mannering: 63 tackles + 14 hitups = 74
- Trent Merrin: 38 tackles + 20 hitups = 58
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Jayden Su’a: 31 tackles + 8 hitups = 39
Josh Hodgson: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
David Klemmer: 25 tackles + 14 hitups = 39
Jake Trbojevic: 23 tackles + 16 hitups = 39
Pauli Pauli: 25 tackles + 14 hitups = 39
Ryan Hoffman: 26 tackles + 13 hitups = 39
James Fisher-Harris: 30 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
Jack Gosiewski: 28 tackles + 11 hitups = 39
Dylan Napa: 21 tackles + 18 hitups = 39
Tim Grant: 22 tackles + 17 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
Leilani Latu scored his first ever workhorse (and it was almost a double) thanks to a huge 58 involvements against the Warriors. Latu normally averages 45 minutes per game but played 61 minutes on Saturday (0.95 SPM) and would have made the Workhorse Team of the Week if not for Ryan James’ mammoth effort on Monday night.
Speaking of Monday night, what about the performance of Greg Bird? Bird scored his first ever double workhorse try and his first ever double metre eater in what was by far his best NRLCEO performance in years. Bird’s 272 metres was more than double what he normally averages which is little wonder considering he played the full 90 minutes. Even if the game didn’t go to golden point, 80 minutes would still have been well above what he normally averages in game time. Interestingly, Bird has played the full game on just three occasions this season, one was at five-eighth against Brisbane and the other two, both at lock, were against Cronulla. Who says players treat games against their old clubs as ‘just another game’?
Is it time to bring back Workhorse Busters? A year or two back I discussed my penchant for identifying an underperforming player only to have them instantly turn their form around. It was the commentator’s curse, only for good. Last week I highlighted the plight of George Burgess and low and behold, he finally cracks it for a workhorse try. Burgess only just got there with 41 involvements but it was the extra 5 minutes of game time that made all the difference as he maintained the same Stat Per Minute work rate of 0.80.
One player who has probably gone under the radar a bit here at the Workhorse Watch is Elliott Whitehead. Whitehead has been sensational this year but because he doesn’t rack up the astronomical numbers that other back rowers do, he sometimes gets overlooked in this column. Whitehead has only missed a workhorse on two occasions this year and even then, he still scored a try in one of those games to make up the difference. On Sunday he scored his highest ever tally (if you count Metre Eaters) with two tries and a workhorse try (0.51 SPM) and his first ever metre eater. Whitehead now has 17 workhorses for the season to go with 5 tries.
Geoff Adams
Latest posts by Geoff Adams (see all)
- 2018 Workhorse Watch Awards - September 3, 2018
- Workhorse Watch – Round 24 - August 29, 2018
- Workhorse Watch – Round 23 - August 22, 2018
