Workhorse Watch Rd 4
The response to last week’s investigation has been fantastic. Plenty of people have been sharing their views and whether you agree with me or not, it’s great that there’s a discussion. However, when listening to people who support the League Live approach to stat keeping I’m not hearing much more than “bigger is better”. Stats providers readily admit that the game is open to interpretation and I am yet to see how astronomical numbers make the game better. And to those who have accused me of being an NRLCEO puppet made to defend the scoring system in place, I say this; there are no strings on me! The Workhorse Watcher cannot be bought! And even if I could, the asking price would be well beyond what NRLCEO have in their coffers.
Going into Good Friday, Matt Scott had recorded involvements of 33, 35 and 37 in the opening three rounds so naturally he was on track to notch up 39 against the Broncos right? Scott had 37 involvements at full time and then made two tackles in Brisbane’s opening set of golden point. Scott then took a run in the following set but passed it to Ethan Lowe before the line so was still sitting on 39 when Michael Morgan threw a forward pass to Kyle Feldt close to the tryline. Had the ball been good that would’ve been the end of the game as well as the likelihood of Scott getting a four pointer. The pass was called back and the Broncos worked it up the other end of the field with Scott tackling Adam Blair to get his 40th involvement. Scott picked up an extra involvement upon later review but missed the one that mattered after being side stepped by Josh McGuire in the closing seconds of the game. McGuire’s charge toward the Cowboy’s 30 metre line put Anthony Milford in position to kick the match winning field goal from 40 metres out.
It’s rocks or diamonds at the moment for NRLCEOs with Zeb Taia with the Titans back rower scoring a try/workhorse try combo or nothing. Taia opened the season with a try and a workhorse but failed to score in Rounds 2 and 3. Against the Raiders, the former Knight had exactly 40 involvements along with a try in the 74th minute after running off a nice pass from Luke Douglas. Ryan James also scored a try/workhorse try in that game to continue what has been a super start to the season. James is averaging 6.5 points a game this year including 3 tries and 2 workhorse tries. In the two games he missed a workhorse he still had 37 and 36 involvements.
NRLCEOs with Jake Friend would’ve got stuck into the Easter eggs on Sunday morning after waking up to the disappointment of finding the Roosters captain without a double workhorse to his name. Friend had his best running game of the season and at full time was down for 77 metres. Upon revision that number was downgraded to 65 leaving Friend short of the metrage required by a hooker to score a double workhorse even though he still had the required 50 plus involvements.
Four weeks into the season and a number of forwards who were among last year’s top 100 points scorers are yet to score a workhorse try in 2016. A number of big names are on the sideline however players including Issac Luke, Nathan Friend, Luke Douglas, Josh Hodgson and Alex Glenn have all played the majority of games but are yet to chalk up a 40+ game. The explanation for Luke, Friend and Douglas is pretty simple. Their minutes have been slashed this season. Douglas in particular has gone from averaging 53 minutes a game to just 24. Hodgson and Glenn meanwhile remain enigmas, they’ve each played every minute of their side’s games but haven’t quite got there.
Workhorse of the Week:
Josh McGuire: McGuire’s charge to set up the Milford field goal was one of 16 the front rower had to go along with 47 tackles! McGuire also ran 160 metres to grab a Metre Eater as well.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Josh McGuire: 47 tackles + 16 hitups = 63
- Mitch Rein: 43 tackles + 10 hitups = 53
- Jake Trbojevic: 45 tackles + 12 hitups = 57
- Ethan Lowe: 37 tackles + 15 hitups = 52
- Manu Ma’u: 37 tackles + 15 hitups = 52
- Jack De Belin: 48 tackles + 11 hitups = 59
- Aaron Woods: 30 tackles + 25 hitups = 55
- Dale Finucane 38 tackles + 14 hitups = 52
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Paul Vaughan: 26 tackles + 13 hitups = 39
Sia Soliola: 30 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
Tohu Harris: 20 tackles + 19 hitups = 39
Kyle Turner: 310 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
Rory Kostjasyn: 34 tackles + 5 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
As mentioned by myself and Marcho on the Tantasy podcast last week, Nathan Brown and Chris Grevsmuhl were the ones to step up in the absence of Sam Burgess to record their first workhorse tries of the season. In Brown’s case, it was the first of his career. Brown had 50 involvements in 71 minutes (0.70 SPM) and Grevsmuhl had 41 in 55 (0.75 SPM). Brown retains his place at lock this week despite the return of Sam Burgess.
Trent Barrett never played under Brian Smith but it seems he’s been taking a night course at the Brian Smith School of Coaching for the last fortnight. For two straight weeks the Manly pack named on Tuesday has looked nothing like the one that runs out on the weekend. While this is due to playing consecutive Monday nights, it plays havoc with people’s NRLCEO teams. This week, anyone who had Blake Leary was the big winner with the former Cowboy having 43 involvements in 62 minutes (0.66 SPM). Mind you, if Blake Leary forms a crucial part of your back row, it’s probably the first big win you’ve had in awhile.
One of the graduates of the Brian Smith School of Coaching is Tigers coach Jason Taylor but not even Smith could come up with a tactic as crazy as running with three hookers in your team. Taylor opted to leave Manaia Cherrington on the bench for 72 minutes before finally bringing him on and taking Robbie Farah off. What a great tactic, take your most experienced play maker off when you’re still in with a chance to steal a win. Cherrington’s only involvements were 5 tackles (0.62 SPM) however Farah was able to get 57 minutes of game time and had 43 involvements (0.75 SPM).
He has no background as a workhorse whatsoever but Pauli Pauli is playing with a pretty good work rate this season. This year Pauli has an SPM of 0.89. Unfortunately it’s a pretty crowded back row at Newcastle so at the moment he’s averaging just 30 minutes a game. I’m not saying you should rush out and get him but his Stats Per Minute is way up on 2015 (0.59 SPM) and 2014 (0.51 SPM).
JUST QUICKLY:
“Why can’t the touch judge make a call, he’s right there” “Are his eyes painted on?” “Why do we even have touchies?” These are some of the comments I’ve heard over the years, be they from commentators, fans on social media or the bar fly down at my local.
And yet when the touch judges do make a call we berate them for it and ask how can they possibly tell when the camera angle can’t. It was not a good weekend for the officials but if the touch judge in the Canberra vs Gold Coast game says he saw the ball grounded then we have to accept that. Besides, the Raiders lost that game the moment Frank-Paul Nuuausala lost the plot.
Geoff Adams
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- 2018 Workhorse Watch Awards - September 3, 2018
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