Workhorse Watch Rd 18
What was I saying last week about the Sea Eagles only averaging 2.4 workhorse tries per game? That stat got blown out of the water against the Panthers with Manly scoring SIX workhorse tries including Lloyd Perrett and Shaun Lane scoring their first workhorse tries of the season. Both players made the Workhorse Team of the Week with Lane accruing 53 involvements and Perrett getting 51. Neither had scored a workhorse try since 2015 and joined teammates Brenton Lawrence, Api Koroisau, Frank Winterstein and Martin Taupau in getting workhorse tries this week.
Martin Taupau had his best workhorse game of the season racking up 45 involvements against the Panthers. Taupau’s workrate in attack is among the best in league as he averages the third most metres per game among forwards with 164 metres per match but his average of 23 tackles a game means he’s generally only 50/50 on getting a workhorse and when he does, he only just gets there; four of his eight workhorse tries have come from either 40 or 41 involvements.
Free Connor Watson!
NRLCEOs were disappointed to see the five-eighth benched prior to kick off after initially being named in the starting side for the Roosters in Friday night’s game. Watson may not be a forward but he is one of several players that were earmarked for promising things at the start of the season especially after scoring 44 points last year but he still hasn’t been given a legitimate shot. It begs the question, ‘which is worse’? Having a player coming off the bench getting sporadic opportunities or one getting none at all? At least if a player like Jai Arrow or Nat Butcher isn’t getting a run you can just cut them, but a player like Watson who is there every week can be frustrating especially during bye affected weeks.
Nate Myles played his first game for Melbourne and came close to a workhorse try with 37 involvements against Parramatta. Myles was a late inclusion in the starting side but despite this, and playing 47 minutes (well up on the 35 minutes he was averaging at Manly) Myles still couldn’t crack it for his first workhorse try of the season.
Workhorse of the Week:
Aiden Tolman. Tolman again takes Workhorse of the Week honours for the third time this season, edging out the Eels’ Nathan Brown. If not for the fact that Brown has dual positioning and Waerea-Hargreaves made more metres than Dale Finucane, we would have seen the exact same front row as last week.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Lloyd Perrett: 42 tackles + 9 hitup = 51
- Jake Friend: 62 tackles + 2 hitups = 65
- Aiden Tolman: 49 tackles + 17 hitups = 66
- Shaun Lane: 41 tackles + 12 hitups = 53
- Slade Griffin: 40 tackles + 10 hitups = 50
- Nathan Brown: 49 tackles + 22 hitups = 65
14. Api Koroisau: 49 tackles + 4 hitups = 53
15. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves: 30 tackles + 20 hitups = 50
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Nelson Asofa-Solomona: 27 tackles + 12 hitups = 39
Tohu Harris: 25 tackles + 14 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
Whilst Nat Butcher is still yet to really get a proper crack in first grade there’s no doubting his workhorse potential. Butcher played just 12 minutes on Friday but had 16 involvements to post the best stats per minute score of the round with 1.33. That beats his work rate in Round 16 (1.09 SPM) and in his NRL debut last year (0.82 SPM).
Daniel Alvaro had arguably the best stats per minute though considering he scored a workhorse try. Alvaro had 44 involvements in just 34 minutes (1.29 SPM) on the way to his seventh workhorse try of the season. His teammate Tim Mannah was also tracking well with 17 involvements before coming off with concussion after just 13 minutes (1.31 SPM). With that being said, Mannah usually has a heavy involvement early, safe in the knowledge that once he goes off after 20 minutes he usually doesn’t come back on until the last 15.
Des Hasler’s search for some form from the Bulldogs has cost NRLCEOs one of the league’s leading workhorses with Michael Lichaa dumped to the bench against Newcastle and only coming on with six minutes remaining. Lichaa (0.33 SPM) only got 5 touches of the ball (and no runs) and only had to make 2 tackles as the final six minutes of the game were the most chaotic as the Bulldogs ran in two tries to win the game. The man who shifted to dummy half, Moses Mbye played the full 80 minutes but only had 35 involvements (0.44 SPM).
Well done to Leilani Latu who scored his first workhorse try of the season with an excellent stats per minute score of 1.02. Latu had 43 involvements in 42 minutes. His minutes were only marginally up on his normal average (37 minutes per game) but his work rate was much higher than the usual 0.70 SPM. The difference was in attack with Latu running the ball twice as much as what he normally does to bring up his first workhorse.
Geoff Adams
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