Workhorse Watch – Round 4
I just want to leave a space here every week for Damien Cook.
Jesus ascending into heaven on Good Friday and Christians have been waiting for the second coming ever since. Cook’s epic year continues with the Rabbitohs rake racking up his fourth straight double workhorse. His 52 involvements against the Bulldogs on Friday put him in elite company – only two other players have scored double workhorse tries in four consecutive weeks. The first was teammate Sam Burgess who did it in 2014. The record though belongs to Paul Gallen who went five straight weeks scoring consecutive double workhorse tries in 2015.
Can Cook break that record?
After four rounds there are now just twelve players that have scored a workhorse tries every week including the aforementioned Cook. The others are hookers Peter Wallace and Jake Friend, back rowers Ryan James, Aiden Guerra, Josh McGuire, Matt Gillett, Matt Eisenhuth, Angus Crichton and Jake Trbojevic while the only props to score a workhorse every week are Andrew Fifita and Daniel Alvaro.
So much for contract years bringing out the best in players. At the beginning of the year I took a slightly different approach to my season preview by highlighting players looking for big years in order to attract big dollars. One of those was Josh Papalii who this week finds himself on an extended Raiders bench and likely to see time in NSW Cup. Coach Ricky Stuart called out his players for a lack of effort last week and clearly he puts Papalii in that category. The Queenslander finished with 24 tackles and 13 runs, didn’t miss any tackles against Manly and although he finished with 136 metres (his best of the season) Stuart is obviously expecting more from him. Papalii is averaging just 112 metres in four games this season which is well down on the 147 metres he averaged in his first four games in 2017.
Godspeed to one of the workhorse greats Aiden Tolman who suffered an ankle injury on Friday and after undergoing surgery on Tuesday now, according to the NRL Physio, has a 8-10 week recovery ahead of him. That opens the door for Adam Elliott who was averaging 30 minutes off the bench prior to last weekend and who has been named as Tolman’s replacement.
Workhorse of the Week:
Only two players scored double workhorse tries this week (Michael Lichaa being the other) with Cook making 44 tackles and 8 runs along with 81 metres to scored his. I can’t wait to see the showdown this week between him and former teammate Cameron McInnes, the two front runners for the number 9 NSW Origin jersey.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Ryan James: 41 tackles + 15 hitups = 56
- Damien Cook: 44 tackles + 8 hitups = 52
- James Graham: 35 tackles + 19 hitups = 54
- Coen Hess: 42 tackles + 17 hitups = 59
- James Fisher-Harris: 51 tackles + 7 hitups = 58
- Sam Burgess: 34 tackles + 17 hitups = 51
- Michael Lichaa: 42 tackles + 8 hitups = 50
- Jake Friend: 53 tackles + 1 hitups = 54
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Matt Prior: 28 tackles + 11 hitups = 39
Kaysa Pritchard: 39 tackles + 0 hitups = 39
Boyd Cordner: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
Russell Packer: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
Ken Edwards: 28 tackles + 11 hitups = 39
Tom Burgess: 24 tackles + 15 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
@wakeupgeoff check Tom Burgess involvements. new No Cigar King?
— Matt Paton (@MattPaton07) April 1, 2018
There appears to be a new claim to the throne of No Cigar King with Tom Burgess scoring back to back entries into the club over the last fortnight. Burgess had 39 involvements in 49 minutes (0.80 SPM) against the Bulldogs after also finishing on 39 against Manly the week before. Burgess’ SPM is identical to what he averaged last year, a season in which he made it into the No Cigar Club twice but had plenty of games where his involvements were in the high 30s. Of his four workhorse tries last season, two of them came with just 41 involvements.
But wait, before the round could end, another contender also made a challenge with Ken Edwards also landing in the Close But No Cigar Club for the second straight week. What’s worse is that Edwards played the full 80 minutes (0.49 SPM) and finished with the same number of involvements as the week before when he only played 53 minutes. And don’t forget Nathan Peats; the Gold Coast hooker went back to back in Rounds 2 and 3 and only narrowly escaped this week scoring his first workhorse for the season with 42 involvements against the Broncos (0.64 SPM). We’ve got a long season to get through before we crown a new No Cigar King, and for some NRLCEOs it will be a very long season.
Cameron Smith’s 10 minutes in the bin proved costly with the Melbourne captain failing to score a workhorse try for the first time since Round 25 last year when he got an early mark in the Storm’s 64-6 rout of the Rabbitohs. Smith finished with 38 involvements in 70 minutes (0.54 SPM). For the record, I’m glad the NRL decided to crack down on infringements. This notion of only penalising certain things is ridiculous and the only thing more ridiculous are columnists and commentators condemning what happened and pretending they’re the voice of the people.
Geoff Adams
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