Workhorse Watch: Rd 12
After suffering defeat at the hands of the Maroons on Wednesday night, the NSW forwards also lost out where it mattered most for NRLCEOs; backing up at the weekend. Only James Tamou and Andrew Fifita scraped in for workhorse tries with 40 and 41 involvements respectively. Everyone else either fell short or didn’t play due to the bye.
Beau Scott (37), Trent Merrin (36) Boyd Cordner (36) and Ryan Hoffman (32) all missed out in their games. NRLCEOs with Ryan Hoffman have a right to feel particularly disappointed given that’s three weeks in a row they haven’t got anything from the Warriors back rower when you consider the week before Origin he got knocked out in the third minute.
Queensland forwards faired much better with only Sam Thaiday unable to play and Corey Parker and Aiden Guerra the only Maroons in action that missed out. What kind of crazy upside down, day is night, black is white game is it where Adam Blair scores a workhorse and Corey Parker misses out?
Matt Scott had a wow of a game crossing for two tries before also racking up a workhorse try with a season high 54 involvements. As highlighted in the Workhorse Watch a few weeks ago, James Tamou remains king of the Workhorse Lite brigade with another 40 involvement game to secure his seventh workhorse of the season and his fourth by tallying the minimum required.
WORKHORSE OF THE WEEK
Shaun Fensom. That’s back to back honours for the ultimate workhorse. For the second straight week Fensom scored a double workhorse and has now moved into a five way tie for total workhorses for the season. Want to know who’s leading in what category at any given time. Be sure to check out the statistics page on TheBench.com.au.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
8. Matt Scott: 39 tackles + 11 hitups = 53
9. Andrew McCullough: 52 tackles + 10 hitups = 62
10. Jack Stockwell: 39 tackles + 14 hitups = 53
11. Simon Mannering: 48 tackles + 11 hitups = 59
12. Bodene Thompson: 42 tackles + 13 hitups = 55
13. Shaun Fensom: 55 tackles + 15 hitups = 70
14, Jake Friend: 38 tackles + 12 hitups = 50
15. Matt Ballin: 53 tackles + 9 hitups = 62
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
A record haul in the No Cigar Club. We had the most 39s in a round and in one game on Friday. Meanwhile the Dragons vs Sharks game was the first time we’ve had opposing hookers both on 39.
See if you can pick each player in the picture above before checking out the list below:
Danny Wicks: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
Jeremy Latimore: 28 tackles + 11 hitups = 39
Sam McKendry: 28 tackles + 11 hitups = 39
Tim Mannah: 27 tackles + 12 hitups = 39
Lachlan Burr: 30 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
Tim Grant 25 tackles + 14 hitups = 39
James Taumalolo: 21 tackles + 18 hitups = 39
Mitch Rein 37 tackles + 2 hitups = 39
Michael Ennis: 36 tackles + 3 hitups = 39
Jesse Bromwich: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
The 80 minute hooker may have been declared dead but that’s no excuse for not scoring a workhorse try. Daniel Mortimer proved that by racking up 40 involvements in just 40 minutes on Saturday (1.00 SPM). It was Mortimer’s second workhorse for the season but unfortunately unless your league allows for backs to score workhorses, his effort is of no use at all. Under NRLCEO rules, Mortimer is at long odds to get upgraded to hooker status and yet he is the only Gold Coast Titans rake to have scored a workhorse this season. Kierran Moseley, Beau Falloon and Matt Srama have all scored none!
Did you hear that Nathan Friend? You don’t need a full game to score a workhorse. When the diagnosis came in that Thomas Leulauai was out for the season, I like a lot of people assumed that Friend’s stocks would automatically go up. I didn’t anticipate that Siliva Havili would come into contention. Coach Andrew McFadden seems intent on not starting Friend and as a result Friend ended up with 30 involvements in 51 minutes (0.59 SPM) and Havili had 15 in 29 minutes (0.52 SPM). Useless.
Unfortunately, Mortimer is the exception rather than the rule as we’ve seen with Adam Clydsdale. It’s a case of Clydsdale by name, not so much by nature as he scored just his second workhorse try of the season. It was the first time this year that he’s played the full 80 minutes (0.59 SPM). He’s usually restricted to around 40 minutes a game. His only other workhorse this season came in Round 1 when he played 65 minutes.
Still on hookers, and the Brisbane Broncos had a debutant on the weekend in Matt Parcell who finally got the call up having trained with the Broncos all season. Parcell, who normally plys his trade at the Ipswich Jets, had 23 involvements in 27 minutes (0.85 SPM) against Canberra. Parcell was a late inclusion and made an admirable start to his NRL career, not missing a tackle.
JUST QUICKLY
25 seconds isn’t a long time but it’s still more than the time I have for Ricky Stuart. I’ve been unabashed with my criticism on how Stuart conducts himself and whilst the Raiders have put together some strong performances this season, Ricky’s actions over the last two weeks firmly uphold my thoughts on how he goes about his business.
I wrote a few weeks ago that without something to complain about, Ricky would have nothing to say and that’s exactly what we saw on Saturday night. OK, so he was trying to protect himself from getting a fine, but it appears he didn’t even get that right.
Stuart complains about the criticism that comes his way. How his side doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Well the two go hand in hand. He was quick to take credit for some positives performances at his previous club Parramatta, citing his dismissal-by-overhead-projector as key to the turn around. Funny how he hasn’t felt compelled to stick his hand up now that those dismissals have landed Parramatta in bunch of salary cap drama.
You can’t take credit for the positives when you don’t take responsibility for the negatives. Ricky had no one to blame on Saturday so he walked out.
Geoff Adams
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