Workhorse Watch – Round 19
So there I am suffering through another Parramatta Eels game on Thursday night (even when they win it can be painful to watch) when I hear one of the most enraging exchanges I’ve heard in commentary all year.
GUS: Andrew, would you sign Jarryd Hayne for your team?
JOEY: Definitely.
GUS: Yeah.
JOEY: For a year.
GUS: Where would you play him?
JOEY: I’d play him centre. Left centre.
GUS: What would you pay him?
JOEY: I’d pay him around $400 (thousand), I don’t know about the break down of the salary cap but he’s shown in the last couple of weeks, when fit, when switched on, what a class player he is. But that’s the key, you go to get him fit. You’ve got to get him switched on. A lot of that responsibility comes down to Jarryd.
What an absolute farce! Is there any other industry where being paid $400,000 dollars to do a job and the expectation of performing the job to the best of your ability are considered separate things and do not go hand in hand? You pay the former to get the latter don’t you?
Not in rugby league you don’t.
You pay a guy like Jarryd Hayne $500,000 (which is a bargain according to Brad Arthur) and then hope that everything will turn out OK. How did we get to this point? I get up for work every day and get paid a fraction of what a guy like Hayne makes but every day I ask myself how can I do my job better today than I did yesterday? Like everyone, you have days where you do better than others, but I’ve never given my boss a reason to think “Jeez, I hope he’s switched on today.”
Then again, Johns, did say $400 with the ‘thousand’ implied – maybe he really did mean he’d only pay $400.
Meanwhile the Titan I wish the Eels had brought back, Nathan Peats, is in fine form, scoring his second double workhorse in three weeks. Peats made 44 tackles and 8 runs against the Knights to take his workhorse tally to 9 (7 of which have been since his return from injury). Such was the form of several hookers this week though, his double workhorse was not enough to get him into the Pack of the Week, with Jazz Tavaga, Cam McInnes and Jake Friend all posting doubles as well.
Speaking of Jake Friend, this NRLCEO has a debt of gratitude to pay to the Roosters rake after all was lost for my Rams early on against competition’s front runners, the Mannering Park Mavericks. Early efforts by the Mavs, including doubles to BJ Leilua and Tevita Pangai Jr left my team reeling. After my kicker Shaun Johnson was held to one miserable goal in the early game, I held little hope of closing the gap with one game remaining. But who needs a messiah when you’ve got a friend like Jake. The Noosa junior scored his first double workhorse try in three years and doubled his try assist and line break assist tally for the season as well. It’s the kind of impact from dummy half Roosters fans have been screaming for all season.
Workhorse of the Week:
Jazz Tevaga played his best ever game on the weekend, scoring a double workhorse try. His 64 involvements eclipses the 56 involvements he accrued to score his first double workhorse try in just his fourth game way back in 2016.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Ryan James: 42 tackles + 16 hitups = 58
- Jazz Tevaga: 52 tackles + 12 hitups = 64
- Sam Burgess: 41 tackles + 17 hitups = 58
- Josh Papalii: 45 tackles + 14 hitups = 59
- Nathan Brown: 37 tackles + 22 hitups = 59
- Felise Kaufusi: 46 tackles + 11 hitups = 57
. - Cameron McInnes: 51 tackles + 10 hitups = 61
- Jake Friend: 47 tackles + 8 hitups = 55
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Joe Ofahengaue: 25 tackles + 14 hitups = 39
Robbie Farah: 37 tackles + 2 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
Last week I saluted a number of quality workhorses who had decided to hang up the boots at the end of the year. One veteran I didn’t mention was John Sutton. Partly because he isn’t actually planning to retire just yet and partly because as a workhorse, he’s a bit of a non-factor. Don’t get me wrong, I like John Sutton, he was a member of the team that won my first ever fantasy football title back in 2007 but he’s just not a workhorse style of player. However on the weekend he scored his sixth workhorse try for the season with 41 involvements in 80 minutes (0.51 SPM). Sutton averages 76.3 minutes per game and hasn’t missed a game this season but has a Stats Per Minute score of 0.49 for the season leaving him stranded in the mid to high 30s on a regular basis.
Tepai Moeroa had a successful week with 49 involvements against the Bulldogs in 73 minutes (0.67 SPM). Moeroa returned to the Eels side last week but only played 29 minutes against the Knights for 21 involvements (0.72 SPM). His suspension broke a pretty decent run having scored four workhorse tries in five weekends between Rounds 9 and 13 and he’ll be an asset that can add a bit of depth to your forward pack during the finals.
It’s hard to say what’s wrong with the Cowboys this year but is Jason Taumalolo really to blame? (as some have tried to online this past week) Taumalolo is no doubt a weapon for the Cowboys that needs to be firing for them to be a threat (or even remotely any good) but he’s averaging 175 metres a game this season resulting in 17 metre eaters (the highest of any forward) and has scored 13 workhorse tries (four more than what he had scored at the same time last year). Taumalolo (0.63 SPM) was the only Cowboys forward to run over 100 metres against the Raiders and with the exception of Jake Granville, the only North Queensland forward to average more than 10 metres per run.
Geoff Adams
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