Workhorse Watch Rd 11
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, Bateman!
A new hero has emerged with Luke Bateman making 33 tackles and 13 hit ups against the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday. It was a performance Shaun ‘Superman’ Fensom would have been proud of with Bateman having the most involvements for his side and being one of only two Raiders forwards to register to a workhorse try (Whitehead was the other).
Siosiua Taukeiaho’s stocks might have just gone up after Trent Robinson opted to shift Aidan Guerra to the centres and bring Taukeiaho into the starting back row for their game against the Bulldogs. The Tongan and New Zealand international scored his third workhorse try of the season and with Boyd Cordner called up to the NSW team he’ll get a further chance to impress in the coming weeks although that will have to wait because the Roosters have the bye this weekend. As a sweetener to those who have him, you have an extra goal kicking option to get you through Origin now that Jackson Hastings has been dropped.
Taukeiaho would be a handy option for anyone with Corey Parker at the moment. Parker got back among the workhorse numbers against the Cowboys after missing out in Round 10. But what really sucks is his surrendering of the kicking tee to Jordan Kahu as he recovers from a foot injury. Plenty of NRLCEOs will have abandoned the Broncos captain given his kicking woes this season not to mention the fact that State of Origin is upon us; but for some of us it’s not that easy. In a 12 team comp with 25 man squads there aren’t a lot of options on the free list for most of positions in my comp, especially kicker. Right now the 4 first string kickers on the free list are Trent Hodkinson (2 goals last week), Tyrone Roberts (2), Mitchell Moses (0) and Jackson Hastings (Reserves). I’m better off sticking it out with Parker. Thankfully Ashley Taylor booted a couple which helped me out.
How good was Nathan Peats on the weekend? In his first game in Titans’ colours Peats registered his first double workhorse of the season (off the bench mind you) and scored a try as well. It doesn’t bode well for Nathan Friend who got off to a great start but only played 33 minutes. There is nothing better than a brilliant workhorse playing in a nuffy team and whilst I don’t want to go off too early, he is now a hot favourite to take out the Workhorse of the Year crown.
Workhorse of the Week:
Ryan James: James continues to carve out a tremendous season in 2016. James scored his second double workhorse try of the year with 46 tackles and 17 runs which brings him to a total of 10 workhorses so far this season. That equals the number of workhorse tries he scored for the entire year in 2015.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Josh McGuire: 47 tackles + 16 hitups = 63
- Nathan Peats: 43 tackles + 9 hitups = 52
- Danny Wicks: 44 tackles + 15 hitups = 59
- Ryan James: 46 tackles + 17 hitups = 63
- Paul Gallen: 38 tackles + 16 hitups = 54
- Sam Burgess: 41 tackles + 15 hitups = 56
- James Graham: 33 tackles + 24 hitups = 57
- Matt Gillett: 43 tackles + 11 hitups = 54
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Andrew McCullough: 34 tackles + 5 hitups = 39
Ben Matulino: 30 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
Leilani Latu: 26 tackles + 13 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
It had to happen eventually. Russell Packer scored his first workhorse of the year with 37 tackles and 11 runs against the Rabbitohs. Packer has a decent SPM of 0.87 but only averages 38.9 minutes per game. When I nominated Packer as a smokey at the start of the year I thought he might get a bit more time than that but his 53 minutes on the park against the Bunnies was the most he’d played all season and only the second time he’d played more than 50 minutes this year.
Congratulations to Pauli Pauli who scored his first ever workhorse try. It’s taken the former Eel two and half seasons to crack 40 but on Saturday he finally bagged one, just. Pauli had 28 tackles and 13 runs in 73 minutes (0.56 SPM) It was quite a breakthrough when you consider Pauli hasn’t scored a point since Round 16 2014 despite playing 29 games since then.
It was a triumphant return for Jamie Buhrer who topped the tackle count in the Sharks vs Manly AND scored a try. Sure the Sea Eagles lost but 39 tackles and 7 runs was a great return for the Manly backrower and to grab a meat pie was an added bonus. Buhrer played 65 minutes for an SPM of 0.71.
Danny Wicks was just one involvement away from scoring his first ever double workhorse try when he took on Melbourne on Monday night. The Eels front rower ran for 139 metres and had 44 tackles and 15 runs. Wicks’ minutes have been the same this year compared to last year but his workrate has dropped, going from an SPM of 0.84 last season to 0.76 this season. That said, he did make the Workhorse Watch Pack of the Week this week and who thought that would have happened a year and a half ago?
Geoff Adams
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