Round 20: It's a Small World After All...

In the collision sport of Rugby League, where size and strength are such important characteristics for almost every player, it seems somewhat counter-intuitive that it is the smaller players who will most likely determine their team’s success (or lack thereof) in a given season but it is well-known across the NRL.

After all, it is relatively easy to get size and strength; these characteristics can be acquired and developed via hard work. But the characteristics of the smaller men in the NRL — their speed, their guile, their playmaking instinct, their “nose” for a possible try-scoring situation — are more often than not much more difficult to come by than size and strength.

Not surprisingly, by extension, there is not much of a difference between the size and strength of most NRL playing rosters, but the “smaller men” characteristics are not so evenly distributed: for the most part, those teams with the more talented smaller men usually succeed, in a given round and over the course of a season.

Round 20 was no exception; below are the smaller men who led their teams to victory over the weekend and/or have played a significant role in their team’s success so far this season.

Manly: Ben Farrar and Kieran Foran.

Some may wonder why Matt Awful’s name is not listed as Manly’s most important smaller man. Basically, it is because Awful is a follower, not a leader. Apart from a game or two every few months, he really only shines when Manly is dominating their opposition. Perhaps his snide surname should be Hayden…?

Anyway, Manly’s recent resurgence has largely coincided with the infusion of some youthful exuberance and speed into the backline in the form of Ben Farrar and Kieran Foran. Manly would have been doing cartwheels when the Cowbores said they were happy to take Michael Bani off their hands in exchange for Ben Farrar. Farrar’s versatility, his speed and ability to find the tryline have given Manly’s backline a boost as they continue to overcome the loss of Brett Stewart.

Meanwhile, Foran’s emergence has given Manly their first real five-eighth since…Cliffy? Or maybe Luke Williamson? Anyway, Manly coach Des Hasler is reluctant to play kids unless absolutely necessary, so you know Foran is a very good player if Hasler is finding room for him in his line-up. These two have helped spark Manly’s run of late and were important in their excellent win over Newcastle. Sure, Newcastle might have been missing several key players, but for Manly to produce such an efficient effort with the ball after their unnecessarily hard win against Cronulla must have been very encouraging for all concerned.

Gold Coast: Preston Campbell

This could easily have been the tackling machine Nathan Friend (who laboured in pain to another amazingly lion-hearted effort against Brisbane) but it is Campbell, at age 48 (a slight exaggeration perhaps…but you know he will still be playing at close to his current level by then), who is most important for the Titans. Even more so than Scott Prince, as the Titans showed earlier in the season when they won several difficult matches without him.

Campbell has great utility value, can tackle some of the biggest men in the game (this is incredible when you remember back to his Penrith days where his defensive nous seemed gone) and has the amazing but quite contradictory parts of his game where he can create a try out of nothing but also play the percentages when it is required. Yes, the Titans have up-and-comer Zillman and veteran Mat Rogers to play Campbell’s usual positions, but neither of those has enjoyed much good form this season, making Campbell’s value to the Titans even greater.

Campbell and his team mates earned a rare half hour off after demolishing Brisbane in the game’s first 50 minutes on Friday night. Rarely have three late tries meant as little as those from the extremely weakened Broncos.

Parramatta: Daniel Mortimer

Parramatta’s incredible form of late — where they produced some brilliant play against the NRL’s best but have been patchy and inconsistent against teams closer to their ladder position — has been largely due to Jarryd Hayne, who has been white-hot in recent months. Not even the heavy workload of the State of Origin series has worn him down (as it has for so many others).

However, following closely behind Hayne has been rookie half Daniel Mortimer. In just a few short games — where his debut in the NRL was apparently fast-tracked due to the Eels’ shortage of halves — it has become quickly apparent that Mortimer is more than good enough to have a long NRL career. With the ball, his sharp playmaking and kicking instincts have surprised opponents and set up a number of important Parramatta tries and his speed and toughness (cliché alert) have reminded many of his Uncle Steve.

In defence, even though he is only relatively slight, he is a confident and solid defender. Perhaps the best compliment about his defence is that you rarely notice it: he is not being brushed off for opposition tries or exploited for his lack of experience.

Mortimer and his team-mates’ defence was given a solid examination by the Bulldogs on Saturday night and passed with flying colours. However, it must be said that the Bulldogs’ examination paper, while quite lengthy, was one of the easier ones they’ve handed out this year (although the old women supervisors were their usual annoying selves, finding a number of trivial infractions against the Parramatta students and that Jamal Idris’ question late in the first half was actually legitimate….ok I’ve tortured this metaphor enough)

Penrith: Michael Jennings…and many others

Despite a number of injuries to experienced leaders of their team, Penrith has continued to win games: they have probably overtaken Newcastle as the dark horse for premiership success (if some of these injured stars can return in coming weeks).

Why have they been faring quite well still? Their smaller men, underrated by many, are some of the best in the NRL. Michael Jennings has returned from Origin and is dominating the NRL. Most importantly for Penrith, his speed and acceleration have seen his try-scoring tally explode in recent weeks, while Penrith have won their last 7 games when Jennings has played.

However, players such as Jarrod Sammut, Paul Aiton, Michael Gordon and Luke Walsh have all made their mark this season. Sammut’s quite incredible range of skills (some of which are not necessarily useful on an NRL field — such as his spinning a rugby league ball on his index finger basketball-style for a solid 10 seconds in the pre-game warm-up on Saturday night — but are still amazing all the same) mean he is a threat to win a game for Penrith at any time. Equally, his confidence means he can make a game-turning mistake, but coach Matthew Elliott has realised letting him play creates the best environment for his talents to shine. One can only hope Penrith keeps Sammut at full-back when Lachlan Coote returns from injury.

Aiton’s improved play from dummy half and Gordon’s solid play (which really only became obvious during his long period with injury) and very reliable goal-kicking have also become vital for Penrith, but their season moved in the right direction when they signed halfback Luke Walsh from Newcastle. Penrith had been crying out for a halfback since Gower left and Wallace was given away to Brisbane and Walsh’s maturity beyond his years and playmaking nous have made him a perfect addition to a talented but rudderless team.

However, they were somewhat lucky to come away from Townsville with two points on Saturday night. Clearly the Cowbores still had Origin hangover, but were also missing Payne and O’Donnell once again. Feral Thurston probably needs a good break (although without the Stilnox and Red Bulls this time)…but most of the second half saw the Cowbores with a lead and attacking Penrith’s line.

But Penrith largely held true and found their way down the field quite easily where their vim and vigour was simply too much for the Cowbores. Jennings snapped up any try-scoring opportunity that came his way, Sammut’s bravery sealed the win while Gordon….basically broke the rules to score his try. However, the video referee didn’t think so and Penrith emerged with an important win.

Melbourne: Billy Slater

While his State of Origin club mates have all been in need of a week (or more) on the sidelines of late, Slater has continued to turn up for work every game and actually do more than his normal workload. In their game against Parramatta on Monday night (when Smith and Finch were both absent), Slater spent a fair amount of time at dummy half and five-eighth as well as his normal fullback position and rarely looked fatigued despite this heavier workload. Whereas anything not involving running was something of a difficult task for Slater in years gone by, he is now almost a fairly good playmaker and more than capable dummy half replacement after many years of working on his game.

Slater once again rose to the week-in week-out challenge of NRL Rugby League on Saturday night as Cronulla tried to make it back-to-back wins in Melbourne and a quite intriguing game took place. Slater set up Melbourne’s first try, but Cronulla was next to score — well into the second half. This was despite a fairly significant in-game injury toll, including Trent Barrett twice knocking himself out on Brett White. It was hard to tell what was more amazing: the fact that these two players came together in such a way twice or that White knocked someone out without having team-mates holding his opponent’s arms.

While Cronulla lost several players, they had much good attacking ball and the Storm was missing a number of key players after their tough game against Parramatta. For Melbourne’s makeshift defence to concede just one try while the game was up for grabs was quite the achievement…although Cronulla could quite rightly argue that their attack may have been somewhat more capable without so many injuries. Either way, it was a well-deserved runaway win for Melbourne, but Cronulla was certainly very brave.

Wests Tigers: Tim Moltzen and Shannon Gallant.

The Tigers’ season has turned around since Tim Moltzen was shifted to halfback (his correct position), John Morris was shifted from five-eighth to utility off the bench (mostly lock…also his correct position) and Shannon Gallant was given another chance in the fullback role (which is his…you guessed it…correct position). It only took Tim Sheens 16 rounds to realise the error of his team selection ways (or 68 rounds in the case of John Morris): this guy is somehow the Australian coach? Amazing…

Anyway, better late than never I suppose, but encouragingly for the Tigers, their thrashing of Canberra on Sunday featured defence. Do not adjust your sets; the Tigers won a game on the back of tackling hard and disrupting another team’s attack.

After getting to a 6-nil lead after Moltzen stepped through a sizeable gap, the Tigers’ defence (with one contribution from the video referee) held Canberra out repeatedly over the next few minutes. As yet another set of Canberra tackles looked set to fail, a desperate Dugan offload was intercepted by Moltzen and returned 90 metres for a 12-nil lead. The game was basically won at this point.

Gallant helped extend the lead when he took an offload from Todd Payten and zoomed down the sideline before kicking inside for Morris. There’s every chance of the Tigers’ recent good form being another late-season tease before a legitimate team (which will probably be Parramatta in Round 24) ends their season, but there is no doubt the Tigers are fun to watch when they play well. This just might see the Tigers extend Sheens’ contract once again — ensuring entertaining mediocrity for another few seasons.

St George Illawarra: Jamie Soward

First place on the ladder (four points clear). Everyone back from injury. A well-timed bye after the end of Origin. The best defence in the NRL. Their opponents had the worst attack in the NRL. A clear and sunny day forecast (so as the inferior opponents couldn’t rely on the conditions to even up the contest). Yep, everything seemed perfect for the Dragons on Sunday when they took on New Zealand. Perhaps a little too perfect; the Dragons have a tendency over many years of playing poorly when they should register a crushing win.

It turned out that not everything was perfect for the Dragons: Jeremy Smith was a late scratching in his efforts to come back from a very long injury layoff while Matt Cooper also missed the game, but it barely mattered. The game proceeded almost exactly as coach Wayne Bennett would have wanted (and very similar to their win over the Tigers a month ago): early points for a strong lead and then tackling and defensive practice. The pathetic Warriors attack tried hard, but was lucky to reach 4 points, while Jamie Soward again led his team to a comfortable win.

Soward’s emergence as a dominating, confident playmaker has perhaps been the story of the season so far. Under the excellent coaching of Bennett, Soward has become a leader. His decision-making is first-rate, his execution of plays is flawless, his all-round kicking game (long kicks, short kicks, bombs, field goals and goal-kicking) is perhaps the best in the game…but his blinding speed always seems to be worth a try or two as well. You’d have to imagine he will cool off at some point in the weeks ahead, but the Dragons are deserved favourites to win the premiership this season with Soward running the team.

Souths: Jamie Simpson

Last night saw Souths beat their third straight sub-par opponent…although you can only beat the teams you’re drawn to play, right? Despite the 20-point win, it was a scratchy overall effort in a game where, apart from a few bursts of intensity, little great play was seen. Perhaps Souths got a little bit bored…hard to blame them really, but the degree of difficulty of their opponents is set to increase markedly in coming weeks. This should provide a welcome challenge and give them a good idea of where they’re at.

Another strange characteristic of Souths’ recent run has been that it has not coincided with any stellar play from most of their smaller men. Luke, Sandow, Merritt and Wing have all shown glimpses and will most likely have to lift in coming weeks, but their play has not been spectacular. Instead, Souths’ best smaller man recently has been winger Jamie Simpson, whose inspired charges and surprising speed have been a catalyst. He is somewhat unsteady under the high ball though…this could be considered a metaphor for Souths as a whole: capable of brilliance but also very likely to be brought undone by simple mistakes.

Some of them are difficult to spot, but keep an eye on the smaller men over the next few months. Chances are the team celebrating on the last Sunday of the season will have several very good ones. Or maybe a team will fluke premiership success with someone like Shane Perry in a key position….? See you next week.

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