Workhorse Watch Rd 14
How good is Nuffy Lotto?
What’s Nuffy Lotto you ask?
You might call it something else but it’s when going into the start of a round, you have to decided who to include in your side. The key word there is include. I’m not talking about one of your six team leagues where every side has an abundance of riches, racks up 100 points a week and NRLCEOs have to decide who to exclude.
I’m talking about 12 team comps, where each team has 25 man rosters, and you’re at that time of year where injuries are impacting you but you have no choice but to hold on to those injured players because you’ll need them if they can make it back for the finals. It leaves you chasing nuffies, blokes that are likely to do SFA but you have to grab anyway. It can leave people cursing that you got in ahead of them in the Waiver Wire even though the player who you nabbed is unlikely to do much at all. The player in question is Zac Santo, a guy who’s played one game in three years, but if he’s going to play, it might as well be for me. Meanwhile, the guy who has Jack Wighton and who top scored last weekend is asking if I really need him? The question is do you sir?
But wait, what’s this? Some late changes on Thursday night? Another nuffy, Greg Eden, has come into the Broncos side. Now what do I do? Meanwhile Luke Bateman has been relegated to the bench. What does this mean? Is he going to get enough minutes? Should I play Ryan Hoffman (again, nuffy) instead? So many decisions, which nuffy has the best chance of scoring? In the end I go with Eden and Bateman. Not that it really matters with none of them scoring a single point. That is Nuffy Lotto! Meanwhile my opponent fields Kurt Mann who scores nine points against me, FFS!
I honestly don’t know how Greg Bird is coping at the moment, what with so much travel and all. Once you take away the office staff that book the flights, the team managers that arrange the check ins, transfers and meals, the physios on hand to give him a rubdown whenever he needs it and teammates to keep him company, he is completely on his own as he tours the country for 32 out of 33 days. I’m not having a go at Bird, he’s not the one making a point of it, but I am having a go at the media outlets that are making more of it than it actually is. Lots of athletes, and ordinary Australians for that matter, spend loads of time on the road for work, with a lot less support and for a lot less money. That’s part and parcel of being a professional athlete, particularly if you play sport in a one team town.
How where you live can affect your NRLCEO chances:
Speaking of one-team towns, does where you live have an impact on who you recruit? Quality players and those who play for your favourite team are usually the first points of reference when it comes to anyone’s NRLCEO recruitment radar, but once those players are gone, are you more likely to recruit players playing from the team most local to you, even if you don’t support them? I noticed it when I lived in Cairns a few years ago when all of a sudden I had a number of Cowboys players. Now living in Wollongong, I have somehow ended up with three out of the five players in the Dragons’ backline (I know, #CRISIS right?).
Elsewhere in our league, the Gold Coast Shufflers boast five Titans players despite owner Mick Sullivan being a longtime Raiders fan and down at Mannering Park (a suburb an hour south of Newcastle), the Mavericks boast three Knights players even though owner Hamish Neal is a passionate Sharks man. The only player in our comp with more Newcastle players is the last placed Snuffmonkeys. Three teams is too small of a sample size but I feel there is some validity to the idea that when you’re scrounging around for players, those that dominate the back page of your local paper are more likely to be at the forefront of your mind. Depending on how good your local team is, that could be having a massive impact on your NRLCEO chances. I’d be interested to hear other people’s thoughts.
Workhorse of the Week:
Paul Gallen: The NSW captain was the only player in Round 14 to register a double workhorse try, his second this season. Incidentally, the week he scored his only other double workhorse (Round 8) was the week he picked up Workhorse of the Week too.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Jared Waerea-Hargreaves: 41 tackles + 16 hitups = 57
- Jake Friend: 53 tackles + 1 hitups = 54
- Jake Trbojevic: 43 tackles + 13 hitups = 56
- Elliot Whitehead: 47 tackles + 8 hitups = 55
- Trent Merrin: 40 tackles + 17 hitups = 57
- Paul Gallen: 41 tackles + 20 hitups = 61
- Ethan Lowe: 43 tackles + 12 hitups = 55
- Ryan James: 44 tackles + 11 hitups = 55
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Joseph Tapine: 34 tackles + 5 hitups = 39
Matt Parcell: 33 tackles + 6 hitups = 39
Gavin Cooper: 32 tackles + 7 hitups = 39
Kenny Bromwich: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
It’s been a long time between drinks for Travis Waddell fans with the Broncos hooker scoring his first workhorse try since Round 1, 2014. After following Wayne Bennett from Newcastle to Brisbane, Waddell has been forced to bide his time with Andrew McCullough only now missing games for the first time since Waddell arrived at the club. The Proserpine junior had 40 tackles and 2 runs in 78 minutes (0.53 SPM) to go with a line break.
Felise Kaufusi finds himself in the starting side this week for Melbourne with Kenny Bromwich moving from second row to hooker in the absence of Cameron Smith. Kaufusi has scored one workhorse try this year (Round 4) when he played 52 minutes off the bench against Cronulla. If he can rack up similar minutes this week, he’s every chance to score a workhorse. Kaufusi averages 26.7 minutes per game and has an SPM of 0.67. Bromwich meanwhile had 39 involvements in 58 minutes against the Roosters last week (0.67 SPM).
Mitchell Frei also came close to a workhorse on the weekend with 38 involvements in the same game. Frei had 38 involvements in just 35 minutes and in a team that had 35 missed tackles, the rookie missed just 1. The Albany Creek junior normally averages 22.8 minutes a game so while he may not be getting the minutes, he certainly has the work rate (0.96 SPM).
The last time the Workhorse Watch took a look at Rabbitohs prop Nathan Brown, we were very excited about what we saw. Mind you that was back in Round 5. Since then, he’s languished in No Cigar territory and recently he’s begun to earn the reputation of being a dirty player. The question is, would you still have him in your team? Is there a moral line that you dare not cross when it comes to recruitment or do take whatever you can get? The truth is, while I don’t condone Brown’s actions, the consensus is he was one of the only Bunnies forwards having a dig on the weekend. Brown has been floating around the 37-39 involvement mark for the last month and if you’re prepared to have a grub in your team he could be a reasonable acquisition for your bench, especially given his dual positional status.
Geoff Adams
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