Workhorse Watch Rd 10
Isaac De Gois was unable to take advantage of his elevation in the Parramatta hooking ranks after he failed to register any points against the Rabbitohs. De Gois topped his team’s tackle count with 34 but this was well short of the 46 tackles Nathan Peats has been averaging so far this season. Peats’ move to the Gold Coast raises De Gois’ stock but has massive repercussions for those who have persevered with Nathan Friend this year. Many people had high hopes for Friend this season but despite having more points in 2016 compared to this time last year, his output has been inconsistent with 3 workhorse tries in 8 games. It’s worth mentioning however that Friend did score a solid workhorse try against the Roosters and topped the tackle count for the Titans.
Josh Hodgson has been getting plenty of wraps this season but as far as workhorse tries go, he’s never really up there. Going into Round 10 Hodgson had just 2 workhorse tries to his name for 2016 but on the weekend he scored his first double workhorse try of the season thanks to 45 tackles and 8 runs and a total of 83 metres.
Nathan Brown has an unenviable task at Newcastle at the moment after the Knights suffered their biggest home loss in club history. Newcastle are an extremely young and inexperienced side and everyone knows it. That’s why they’ve been kept scoreless three times in the last four game and conceded a whopping 179 points in the process. The Knights face a lot of growing pains at the moment and everyone understand that. So I couldn’t help but laugh when after the game Brown tried to explain it to us anyway when he said “If you dropped four or five really good experienced first-graders in amongst the team out there today in certain positions I’m sure we would have been far more formidable.”
What? Say someone like 176 game veteran Chris Houston who was told to look elsewhere at the end of last season despite still having a year left on his contract. Or 174 game veteran Kade Snowden who, before his sudden retirement, Brown chose not to play, at all, in any grade. But I guess the key phrase is “key positions”. Hard to win a game of footy when your halves combination has a total of 1 NRL game between. On a side note, Houston had 46 tackles and 10 carries against Hull K.R. on the weekend and leads the Widnes Vikings’ tackle count for the season and has also made the most runs and metres of any forward at the club. The bloke still looks 45 though.
Workhorse of the Week:
Sam Burgess: There were four forwards who had more involvements than Burgess in Round 10 but the South Sydney back rower had the metres to help him qualify for a double workhorse try. Burgess has been rarely seen in the Workhorse Pack of the Week this season despite now having nine workhorse tries to his name. His double workhorse was the first of the season and was accompanied by his first ever double metre eater.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Dylan Napa: 50 tackles + 12 hitups = 62
- Josh Hodgson: 45 tackles + 8 hitups = 53
- James Graham: 38 tackles + 19 hitups = 57
- Ryan James: 35 tackles + 22 hitups = 57
- Elliott Whitehead: 55 tackles + 11 hitups = 66
- Sam Burgess: 36 tackles + 24 hitups = 60
- Cameron Smith: 64 tackles + 5 hitups = 69
- Jake Friend: 65 tackles + 0 hitups = 65
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Two weeks in a row for big Nate Myles!
Joey Leilua: 19 tackles + 20 hitups = 39
Zeb Taia: 22 tackles + 17 hitups = 39
Nate Myles: 34 tackles + 5 hitups = 39
Michael Ennis: 32 tackles + 7 hitups = 39
James Tamou: 22 tackles + 17 hitups = 39
Mitchell Pearce: 33 tackles + 6 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
Will Matthews scored his first workhorse try of the season, stepping in for the injured Jack De Belin. Matthews had 53 involvements whilst playing the full 86 minutes (0.62 SPM). Hopefully Matthews can pick up where his teammate left off as De Belin has been a hallmark of consistency this season scoring 9 workhorse tries in 9 games. His injury is tough for NRLCEOs to take and allows the question of the City/Country game’s relevance to come into the spotlight. I’m a big fan of representative footy but Phil Prior brought up an interesting point in his final Moneyball podcast, it’s not the rep team that has to pay for the injured player’s rehabilitation.
Does Workhorse Busters need to make a comeback? A week after identifying Luke Lewis as one of the big disappointments of 2016, the Cronulla backrower had a field day against the Newcastle Knights scoring 2 tries, a workhorse try, a metre eater not to mention a line break and a line break assist. His workhorse try came from 26 tackles and 15 runs and was his first for the season. His SPM of 0.51 wasn’t that much higher than his workrate through during the rest of the season (0.48 SPM) but his minutes were. Lewis played the full 80 minutes compared to the 62.2 he’d been averaging and he made almost twice as many runs as he normally does. Maybe it’s less of the Workhorse Busting and more of playing the Knights that is needed.
Welcome back Elijah Taylor, welcome back. The new face at the Tigers wasted no time getting down to business, topping the tackle count for the match and finishing with 53 involvements in 70 minutes (0.76 SPM). Taylor did also top the missed tackle count with a equal high 4 but given missed tackles don’t count in NRLCEO, who cares!
By all reports Matt Ballin had a great return to the paddock on Saturday afternoon, scoring a try and taking Man of the Match honours against Wyong. Farah was carried off injured in the 23rd minute (0.52 SPM) with real fears over his condition. Reports are that he’s OK but he’s not been named to take on the Knights. Matt Ballin, however, has; albeit off the bench.
Ballin leads a list of a number of high profile workhorses returning to the field this weekend including Nathan Peats who’s been named on the bench for the Titans, Jamie Buhrer who returns for his first game since Round 4 as well as Simon Mannering, Alex Glenn and Andrew McCullough. However chances are none of those players are available in your league so why not turn your attention to Luke Bateman. Bateman scored his first workhorse try last week with 46 involvements against the Dragons in 44 minutes (1.05 SPM) and this week is starting at lock in the absence of the great Shaun Fensom. He’ll be very short term but a good pick up if you’re desperate for a workhorse.
Geoff Adams
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