Workhorse Watch Week 18
The Workhorse Watch wishes Liam Fulton all the best as he departs the NRL rather than play on at the risk of his health. As I wrote a fortnight ago, I applaud Fulton for making the tough decision that was no doubt made with a long term view.
Fulton’s departure also highlights the stack of injuries to so many workhorses at the moment. And that doesn’t include players like Corey Parker, Andrew McCullough and Adam Cuthbertson who were named to play on the weekend.
Careful analysis shows that between 10 of the most prominent forwards who were on the sideline going into Round 18, there are most likely 50 workhorse tries that have gone begging. Based on each player’s workhorse try strike rate and number of games missed through injury so far this season. Andrew Fifita, Glenn Stewart and Nathan Peats lead a group of very handy forwards who have missed out on a lot of points. Fifita was a late inclusion on Sunday and wasted no time getting back amongst it. Lee Mossop’s numbers are a little skewed given he limped off so early in his third game. Not including a tentative start in his first match, Mossop looked like a week in, week out workhorse prospect, so it’s probably fair to say a lot more than just 5 have gone begging.
Based on workhorse strike rate this year, the fore mentioned Fulton doesn’t make this list only because his ratio of workhorse tries to games played has really suffered due to the number of times he’s been taken off midway through a match with concussion. Trent Merrin who got injured in Origin 3 is also not on the list yet as he technically hasn’t missed a game yet, but with 11 workhorse tries in 14 matches his injury is also a blow for NRLCEOs.
WORKHORSE OF THE WEEK:
Robbie Farah:
Farah didn’t top the involvement list this week but he was the only player to register a double workhorse try. Shaun Fensom had 68 involvements but fell short 13 metres and James Graham was one involvement off. It was a big week for front rowers with Aaron Woods unable to squeeze into the team due to a higher involvement from Josh McGuire, Andrew Fifita and James Graham.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK (Round 18)
8. James Graham: 42 tackles + 17 hitups = 59
9. Robbie Farah: 47 tackles + 10 hitups = 57
10. Josh McGuire: 40 tackles + 16 hitups = 56
11. Corey Parker: 43 tackles + 12 hitups = 55
12. Paul Gallen: 29 tackles + 21 hitups = 50
13. Shaun Fensom: 51 tackles + 17 hitups =68
14. Andrew McCullough: 50 tackles + 2 hit ups = 52
15. Andrew Fifita: 33 tackles + 18 hitups = 51
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Like Luke Burgess a couple of weeks ago, one of this week’s members can wear his membership as a badge of honour. Perhaps the Moneyball boys need to rev up the Coal Train a bit more this week to get him across the line next week.
Dave Taylor: 31 tackles + 8 hitups = 39
Adam Docker: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
Josh Papalii: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
Curtis Sironen: 29 tackles + 10 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
It terms of Stats per Minute, it was a strong game from Lloyd Perrett on the weekend. The younger brother of Sam made his debut in Round 15 against the Raiders and had 12 involvements in 15 minutes (0.80SPM). On the weekend he had the highest Stats per Minute of any player with 26 involvements in 22 minutes (1.18SPM). With Origin out of the way he’s probably not workhorse material right now, but it’s certainly worth noting.
As I mentioned previously, it was a big week for front rowers and that extended to stats per minute as well with Kade Snowden (1.10SPM), Andrew Fifita (1.09SPM) and Aaron Woods (0.94SPM) all racking up their workhorse tries in quick time.
Finally a special mention to Jordan McLean: The Storm forward had his most productive game on the weekend with 34 involvements in 33 minutes (1.03SPM). Like Perrett, now is probably not the best time to be making your mark and a low scoring game like we saw between the Melbourne and the Bulldogs might have accentuated where these guys are at but once again, it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Geoff Adams
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