Workhorse Watch: Rd 1
NRLCEO would like to welcome back the most popular blog of 2014 – the Workhorse Watch. Each week Geoff Adams crawls the stats to find you the most relevant numbers to help you get ahead.
The season kicked off on Thursday night with Souths putting the cleaners through Brisbane. On the workhorse front the Broncos were quick out of the gate with four of their starting forwards on track at half time for a workhorse try with Corey Parker and Alex Glenn only a few involvements off the pace. Things slowed down considerably in the second half with Andrew McCullough (57/2) and Sam Thaiday (31/13) the only players from either side to register a workhorse try. Wayne Bennett made fair use of his bench which impacted the productivity of the Broncos starting pack. Brisbane’s bench forwards averaged the same amount of game time as the starting front rowers with the coach stating after the match how he thought his predecessor underutilised his bench players. However Bennett immediately highlighted the period when those players came on as the time when the match slipped away.
Bennett doesn’t owe fantasy football players anything when it comes to how much game time he gives his charges; however he does owe it to himself to field a side that will give him the best chance of winning. Leaving Corey Parker on the bench for 20 minutes is understandable considering the Logan Brothers junior is now up to game number 300, but to then have him fill in at dummy half for 20 minutes kind of nullifies what he’s brought to the field in his previous 299 outings. How the supercoach rejigs things for next week remains to be seen but he did flag that Matt Gillett would probably see himself back in the run on side for Round 2 which is the case.
Don’t panic if your gun workhorse recruit failed to fire last week.
The top 100 players from 2014 included 45 forwards and close to half of those players (21) failed to score a workhorse in the opening round.
Josh McGuire, Joseph Paulo and George Burgess all finished with 15+ workhorse tries in 2014 but none of them nabbed one in Round 1 of that year. Paulo, along with Josh Jackson, Jamie Buhrer, Tariq Sims, and Aiden Guerra all started off the bench in Round 1 last year, didn’t get workhorse tries but still went onto to be among the top 100 players for the season.
With all the talk about the demise of the 80 minute hooker it’s interesting to note that in Round 1 playing 80 minutes was no guarantee of a workhorse try anyway. Of the 6 hookers who did play the 80 minutes, only 3 of them, Cameron Smith, Matt Ballin and Mitch Rein scored workhorse tries. Michael Ennis, James Segeyaro and Issac Luke all missed out.
Meanwhile anyone thinking Matt McIlwrick would be a handy pick up in the absence of Jake Friend were sorely disappointed with the former Raider not even playing half the game. Whilst I’m not confident, NRLCEOs can perhaps take some solace in the fact not every game is going to be a cakewalk for the Roosters like the one in Townsville and there may be more work for him in future games.
Gratuitous plug time. If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to check out the trailer mash up I cut called NRLCEO Draft Day: The Movie. It was good fun to make.
WORKHORSE OF THE WEEK:
Nate Myles. There was nothing impressive about Titans side at the beginning of the year including their forward pack. Coming into the year the Titans were one of the worst teams for workhorse tries in the comp. Enter the QCCC. Without a host of their go to forwards all of a sudden the responsibility (and workload) for players like Myles became immense. 71 involvements in 70 minutes is huge!
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Nate Myles: 56 tackles + 15 hitups = 71
- Andrew McCullough: 57 tackles + 2 hitups = 59
- Jesse Bromwich: 37 tackles + 13 hitups = 50
- Simon Mannering: 52 tackles + 9 hitups = 61
- Shaun Fensom: 45 tackles + 14 hitups = 59
- Elijah Taylor: 52 tackles + 5 hitups = 57
- Iosia Soliola: 36 tackles + 16 hitups = 55
- Cameron Smith: 47 tackles + 7 hitups = 54
Special mention to Aidan Guerra, Mitch Rein and Paul Gallen who all had more involvements than Jesse Bromwich but missed out on team honours this week because of their positions.
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Only one player in the club to start the year, Ryan James. Is he the new Tim Mannah?
Ryan James: 26 tackles + 13 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
For this who are new to the Workhorse Watch, Stats Per Minute (SPM) is my sort of scientific breakdown of players’ work rate.
TACKLES + HIT UPS = INVOLVEMENTS
INVOLVEMENTS / MINUTES = SPM
There were some impressive numbers coming out of Newcastle on the weekend with Chris Houston and Jack Stockwell both scoring workhorse tries off the bench. Houston had 43 involvements in just 34 minutes for a 1.26 SPM. Amazing! Jack Stockwell had 45 involvements in 30 minutes for a 1.15 SPM
In the same game, Sam Lisone made a fantastic debut also scoring a workhorse off the bench. 41 involvements in 38 minutes for a 1.08 SPM is sensational in your first game at the top level. Workhorse front rowers at the Warriors are few and far between and after being compared to James Graham prior to his first grade debut, his first effort showed that comparison may not be too far off the mark.
Tinirau Arona won’t be on too many NRLCEO hit lists at the moment but the Sharks backrower did have 18 involvements in 17 minutes on Sunday night (1.08SPM). Arona enjoyed a great season last year with so many backrower injured but has been relegated to bit player for the Sharks now that they’re back. Give it time though. It won’t be long before injury or the rep season strikes and Arona will become a valuable mid year pick up.
JUST QUICKLY:
I applaud TV stations for trying to be innovative with their coverage but the halftime interviews as the players head to to the sheds adds absolutely nothing. Players are spent and just want a break so why are sideline commentators asking inane questions on the run? All it does is create an opportunity for someone to accidentally drop an F-bomb on national TV.
Meanwhile the questions being asked in the pre-recorded interviews before games also leave a lot to be desired. On Friday night Yvonne Sampson asked Anthony Watmough why Parramatta fans should cheer him after years of booing him. Erm…how about because he plays for Parramatta now? Rugby league is tribal, but not that tribal. We hate players who get away with things on the field unless they’re getting away with things for our team.
Geoff Adams
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