Workhorse Watch Round 13
If you haven’t already, be sure to have a listen to the Tantasy Podcast. The latest edition features a great one on one interview with the head of NRLCEO, Jamie Bradnam. Jamie aka “The Commish” certainly knows his stuff and is certainly more open to ways of improving the competition than that other NRL CEO David Smith who last week said any changes to the Origin period and player welfare would never happen on his watch.
One question that Mark from Tantasy raised during the podcast was the idea of backs getting workhorse tries with the possibility of having a lower workhorse target, possibly worth a smaller amount of points. The Commish was quick to point out that competitions already have a capability to allow backs to score workhorse tries and also said that in his opinion, having a lower target for lesser points would hurt the integrity of 40+ involvements benchmark.
I totally agree. Not only am I happy that my comp doesn’t allow backs to score workhorse tries, I think to introduce a “mini-workhorse” would take the competition even further towards a Supercoach style points system where players get points for every little thing; and that’s not what I want in a fantasy football competition. Also, if you’re going to give backs points if they have say 30 or 35 involvements surely you have to give it to forwards as well. Once again you’re heading towards that Supercoach style system which I don’t like.
With all that said, who are the backs who are actually getting the numbers to be able to score workhorse tries?
Ben Hunt and John Sutton are two players who usually play in the backs but can also play as forwards in NRLCEO so we’ll leave them to one side for the purpose of this exercise. Daly Cherry-Evans is the stand out having scored two workhorse tries this season with Ben Hampton, Albert Kelly, Todd Carney and Adam Reynolds scoring one apiece. As you can see, it’s really not a lot; and outside of these players there have only been 17 occasions all season where backs have fallen into the 35-39 involvement bracket. If NRLCEO did introduce a ‘mini-workhorse’ I’d vote not to have it in my league because once you start awarding points for missing a target you might as well go and play AFL!
WORKHORSE OF THE WEEK:
James Segeyaro: Last week saw some fresh faces crop up as stars of the round and this week even with everyone back and a full round of NRL taking place, we have somewhat of a surprise packet taking Workhorse of the Week honours. Robbie Farah had a higher number of involvements but lacked the metres to gain a double workhorse whilst Segeyaro not only made 51 tackles, 16 runs and 110 metres he also scored a try to boot.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK (Round 13)
8. Sam Burgess: 35 tackles + 23 hitups = 58
9. James Segeyaro: 51 tackles + 16 hitups = 67
10. James Graham: 42 tackles + 18 hitups = 60
11. Josh Jackson: 47 tackles + 14 hitups = 61
12. Ethan Lowe: 47 tackles + 11 hitups = 58
13. Shaun Fensom: 48 tackles + 15 hitups =63
14. Jake Friend: 44 tackles + 11 hit ups = 55
15. Andrew McCullough: 45 tackles + 9 hitups = 54
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Look out Tim Mannah, Jarrad Kennedy is in the No Cigar Club for the second straight week. And speaking of Mannah, guess who got 38? Now he’s one off being one off!
Jarrad Kennedy: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
The biggest news concerning stats per minute this week comes from Parramatta’s signing of Isaac De Gois. If De Gois is still available in your league you should definitely grab him. Whilst he hasn’t scored a workhorse try in two years, his average SPM of 0.69 is solid. It’s only been his lack of game time that has counted against him. If he can maintain that work rate and get at least 60 minutes on the field he’ll become a regular workhorse for the rest of the season.
What’s got Ashton Sims so fired up? The Fijian representative has been outstanding in recent weeks having scored 4 workhorse tries in the last 5 rounds including the last three straight weeks. It’s reasonable to assume that given Origin (Scott and Tamou) and injury (Cooper) that Sims’ sudden jump in numbers comes down to game time. But that only tells part of the story. In the opening 8 rounds of the season (of which Sims played all but the first two) the Cowboys back rower averaged 31.5 minutes per game. In the last 5 games he’s averaged 43.6 minutes per game; so not a huge jump. The key factor has been his Stats per Minute which has risen from 0.65 in the first 8 games to 0.90 in the last 5 matches. The SPM formula can sometimes give insight into who will be the next forward to hit their straps and other times you just have to keep an eye out for who suddenly pulls out their finger.
As further proof of not being able to predict what will happen come the weekend we need look no further than the Dragons last weekend. No I’m not talking about Josh Dugan’s ability to do nothing for 12 weeks then score 3 tries against a team of reserve graders; I’m talking about their hookers.
With the ever reliable Mitch Rein suspended for a week, the mail was Shane Pumipi was to come in as his replacement after debuting the week before with some impressive Stats per Minute. Instead Craig Garvey started the match with Pumipi playing second fiddle once again off the bench. Garvey had 41 involvements in 57 minutes (0.72SPM) whilst Pumipi had 13 involvements in 23 minutes (0.56SPM). Both have been named on an extended bench this week but it’s hard to see them getting much opportunity with Rein returning.
JUST QUICKLY
- Why is the Daily Telegraph trumpeting on about Sydney being the heartland of rugby league just because the top 8 is mostly made up of Sydney teams? Firstly, that’s a terrible gauge to go off and secondly, does it even matter where the heartland is? What the rugby league fraternity should be focused on is that the title of rugby league heartland has only ever been a three horse race – Sydney, Queensland and perhaps the north of England.
- Meanwhile there’s a tournament that starts this week over in Brazil and whilst it may be full of corruption and controversy, is going to dominate world sporting headlines for the coming weeks. Rugby league is stuck with journos at the Telegraph who have already decided that we can’t be bothered with growing the international game and would much rather fight over who’s the king of the sandpit, failing to realise there’s a whole beach we could be playing on. A Brazilian beach at that!
Geoff Adams
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