Workhorse Watch Rd 23
Where are the Workhorses? It’s NRLCEO finals time which means teams need to put their best foot forward, but there were several forwards who were well below their best on the weekend and left their NRLCEO coaches high and dry.
Most notable among players who missed out on workhorse tries were hookers. Issac Luke (12), Jake Granville (8), Mitch Rein (9), Andrew McCullough (20), Robbie Farah (11) and James Segeyaro (12) have 72 workhorse tries between them and yet they all missed out on a workhorse. In fact it wasn’t until old head, Nathan Friend, with 56 tackles and 7 hit ups, that a hooker registered a workhorse try in Round 23. Clutch!
Fun Fact: 4 games down & Nathan Friend is the only hooker to score a WH in Week 1 of @Fantasy_NRLCEO Finals #clutch pic.twitter.com/OqtdXj1sMf
— Geoff Adams (@geoffadams81) August 15, 2015
Other notable workhorses who missed out were George Burgess, Sam Thaiday and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. JWH finished with 39 involvements for the second straight week however he did score one try off a tremendous run to the line and help set up another. When you measure a player on workhorse tries alone, Nigel Plum is not going to feature high on too many lists. But when it comes to what a workhorse is REALLY all about, the departing Plum is the epitome of the word. I’m guessing that at some time during the last couple of weeks, Plum had come to terms with the fact that it was time to retire. However like so many players, he would’ve dreamt of a fairytale send off. For some that would mean a Grand Final or a match winning try. Not Plum though. His fairytale would have been one last game, working his guts out to help his team win, in front of a home crowd. I like to think he pulled Ivan Cleary aside during the week and asked for one last game; a chance to score one last workhorse. And so it was. One of league’s hardest hitters and toughest combatants has called it quits. Nigel Plum, we salute you. That’s five straight double workhorses for Paul Gallen after another huge effort on Monday night. Enjoy it while it lasts folks. Only a halves combination as weak as the Sharks’ would be so void of ideas in attack that it requires Gallen to be involved so often. Sharks fans will be hoping that James Maloney and Chad Townsend can provide greater direction next season and get more players involved. NRLCEOs, not so much.
WORKHORSE OF THE WEEK:
Shaun Fensom. Not only does Fensom take out Workhorse of the Week but his double workhorse against Manly is likely to see him claim Workhorse of the Year. Going into Round 23 he was equal with Simon Mannering but now sits alone as leader on 25 workhorses for the season and short of a disaster, it’s hard to see anyone overtaking him from here.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
8. James Tamou: 38 tackles + 15 hitups = 53
9. Matt Ballin: 46 tackles + 7 hitups = 53
10. Jack Buchanan: 39 tackles + 12 hitups = 51
11. Elijah Taylor: 53 tackles + 8 hitups = 61
12. Shaun Fensom: 42 tackles + 20 hitups = 62
13. Paul Gallen: 33 tackles + 27 hitups = 60
14. Nathan Friend: 56 tackles + 7 hitups = 63
15. Nathan Peats: 53 tackles + 5 hitups = 58
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Issac Luke: 30 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
Jeremy Smith: 26 tackles + 13 hitups = 39
Tyrone Peachey: 26 tackles + 13 hitups = 39
Jeremy Latimore: 25 tackles + 14 hitups = 39
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves: 27 tackles + 12 hitups = 39
Tim Glasby: 30 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE:
As much as there were players who didn’t quite fire in Week 1 of the NRLCEO Finals, there were several who delivered above average returns. Tom Burgess is one such player. Burgess is having his best NRLCEO season yet, but no doubt Hamish Neal will again think he’s being trolled when I mentioned him. It’s not my fault Burgess scored a try/workhorse try double the week after Hamish had been eliminated for the season. Burgess had exactly 40 involvements (0.93 SPM) along with an early try to score his highest tally ever in an NRLCEO game. As a halfback, Jack De Belin makes a helluva workhorse. It’s safe to say the halfback experiment failed dismally on Friday night, if you can call it that. De Belin might have fed the odd scrum but he’s no number 7. The Dragons offered very little in attack and in general play De Belin didn’t kick the ball once. He did however play the full 80 minutes and registered his 16th workhorse of the season with 29 tackles and 16 hit ups (0.56 SPM).
An @Fantasy_NRLCEO Workhorse at half back? Be still, my beating heart #workhorsewatch — Geoff Adams (@geoffadams81) August 14, 2015
Three weeks ago I called for Matt Ballin to run the ball a little bit more as pressure seemed to be mounting on his place at the Manly club. After a quiet performance in Round 21 and just scraping in for a workhorse in Round 22, Ballin had his best game of the season scoring his first double workhorse in over year thanks to 53 involvements (0.66 SPM). Ballin ran for 75 metres against the Raiders, double his normal yardage in order to qualify for the 8 pointer.
Another week, another Tim Glasby shortfall. Poor old Tim finished with 39 involvements again this week (0.81 SPM)to remain NRLCEO’s least effect workhorse. The number of games Glasby has been left stranded with 39 involvements is now up to 4. This draws him level with the one and only Tim Mannah. It’s amazing, despite having 9 workhorse tries, Mannah is still the equal leader for most games with 39 involvements. With just three weeks to go, will Glasby become the new king of the Close but No Cigar Club?
King Timothy II perhaps?
JUST QUICKLY:
A little bit of confusion over the finals format in my private league last week with the default settings having to be changed so that we had the format that we wanted. But since then I’ve been trying to remember if first and second in my league have had Week 1 off in the past or Week 2.
I finished second behind the great Bass Straight Mean Machine which is run by the same guy who administers our league. I can’t help but notice that after our bye week last weekend, this week his kicker, Cameron Smith, is up against the worst defensive team in the comp and my kicker, Corey Parker is up against the best!
Geoff Adams
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