Workhorse Watch – Round 10
Love him or hate him, you can’t help but admire the workhorse traits of Andrew Fifita. The Sharks forward came within two metres of the first ever triple workhorse try as he finished with 52 tackles and 18 hits ups for a total metres run of 168 metres.
The closest a player has come to scoring a Triple Workhorse Try was Russell Packer in Round 3. And when I say close, I mean he was nowhere near it. Packer had 71 involvements but his 128 metres was still 42 metres short of the yardage required. Fifita now has 11 workhorse tries for the season which is more than he’s been on at the same point of any season in the last five years.
Equally mammoth was Jake Trbojevic on Saturday night. The Manly back rower became just the third player to score a double-double; two tries and a double workhorse try. There is no greater feeling than seeing one of your workhorses get over for an early try knowing that short of injury there is nothing that will stop from getting 40 plus involvements. To then have him cross again before halftime was magical and with 32 involvements and 106 metres by the break, it was hard not to get really excited. Jake Turbo went past the 60 involvement mark with ease and joins Ryan James and Api Koroisau as the only players to achieve the double-double.
You’ll have to excuse me for my dated meme reference but it was all too fitting seeing as though it’s impossible to just look at the achievement of a double-double or even just a double workhorse try and not lament the missed points. Looking at my own team, I saw the double-double and whilst extremely excited, I couldn’t help but think about the 13 metres Jurbo was short of a double metre eater which would have meant an historic triple-double which would have been bigger than massive.
Never mind the fact that my competition doesn’t even have metre eaters!
Max Donnelly says Parramatta might have a culture problem. To me they have a Kenny Edwards problem. This week he’s in court after running away from police for driving without a license. It’s just the latest incident in a long list of stupidity that includes being released from two clubs for disciplinary reasons. Being banned after inciting an under 17s team he was the trainer for to start fights with the opposition. Taking a urine sample test on behalf of Kaysa Pritchard. Getting charged with domestic violence for pouring a drink over his partner during an argument and being the first player sin binned for slapping a player after it was outlawed. Then there’s the host of stupid penalties he gives away on an almost weekly basis. But, he’s alright in NRLCEO books, (for this week at least) after he scored his first workhorse try of the year. Edwards had 41 involvements in what was his first workhorse try since Round 23 last year.
Workhorse of the Week:
A number of forwards scored more points than Fifita but we’re all about the workhorses here and there were none better than Fifita this week. In fact only one performance really beats it when you consider total involvements AND metres gained and that was ‘peak’ James Graham back in 2016 when he had 82 involvements and 180 metres in Rounds 23 of that year.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Andrew Fifita: 52 tackles + 18 hitups = 70
- Mitch Rein: 50 tackles + 6 hitups = 56
- Ryan James: 56 tackles + 12 hitups = 68
- Manu Ma’u: 43 tackles + 15 hitups = 58
- Matt Eisenhuth: 48 tackles + 8 hitups = 56
- Jake Trbojevic: 44 tackles + 19 hitups =63
. - Cameron McInnes: 43 tackles + 7 hitups = 50
- Angus Crichton: 37 tackles + 19 hitups = 56
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Jack Williams: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
Martin Taupau: 30 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
Alex Glenn: 30 tackles + 9 hitups = 39
Chris Lawrence: 26 tackles + 13 hitups = 39
Luke Capewell: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
Cameron Smith: 33 tackles + 6 hitups = 39
Tariq Sims: 22 tackles + 17 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
I don’t know what Channel 9 does to calculate their VB Hard Work Index but it was right on the money on Friday night when, 26 minutes in, it had Daniel Alvaro on 44, daylight second and Aaron Woods third on 28. Alvaro scored his 10th workhorse try of the season with 50 involvements in 40 minutes before coming off with HIA. Alvaro’s Stats Per Minute score of 1.25 was well above any other workhorse scorer. The only player who could match the Parramatta prop was Kurt Mann, and he only played 8 minutes!
After moving to the Warriors in the off season and spending the first two months of the season in reserve grade, Karl Lawton played 25 minutes off the bench in Round 9 (0.60 SPM) before getting 50 minutes against the Roosters on the weekend and earning just the second workhorse try of his career (0.84 SPM).
Following others in previous weeks, Jack Williams was another rookie to come awfully close to a workhorse try on debut when he had 39 involvements against the Raiders on Sunday (0.78 SPM). Williams, a backrower who is not to be confused to with his play making namesake who also plays for the Newtown Jets, has only been averaging 49 minutes per game in reserve grade this season so to step up and play 50 in his first grade debut is pretty impressive.
Speaking of rookies, two that showed promise in their debuts on the weekend were Braden Uele from Cronulla and Renouf Toomaga for the Bulldogs. Both had an SPM of 1.00 in their respective matches with Uele getting 18 involvements and Toomaga 15. Uele received the call up after making 156 metres against the Bears in Round 9 of NSW Cup while Toomaga’s debut was off the back of consecutive 2 try performances. Not bad for a prop.
Geoff Adams
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