Kiwi NRL Stocks Round 14
Stocks Up
Jordan Rapana: His Canberra Raiders got touched up, got reminded of their place in the NRL realm by the Brisbane Broncos but Rapana definitely didn't take his foot off the gas. Rapana and his right-centre partner Joey Leiluea were once again Canberra's best players with Rapana taking 18 carries which was the most of any outside back in this game, giving him 156m, a try assist, 7 tackle busts and 2 offloads.
Ava Seumanufagai: Coming off the bench against a rugged Rabbitohs forward pack, Seumanufagai was back at his best after sliding in form over the past few weeks as he got through a highly efficient shift of 31 minutes where he had 12 runs for 111m with an offload. For some context, starting Tigers prop Sauaso Sue played 42 minutes and had 11 runs for 93m or Sam Burgess had 26 minutes before coming off injured and only had 5 runs for 32m. Seumanufagai is one of those players who sits in the middle of being a workhorse and an impact player as he offers both and that sort of middle presence is huge for the Tigers.
Issac Luke: With Manu Vatuvei coming off injured and Nathaniel Roache coming on to the wing, Luke played the full 80 minutes and rolled through his best performance of the season against a weak Knights side #Bully. Luke had 111 touches of the footy and we always judge Luck on how often he runs the footy and how effective he runs the footy so 9 runs for 101m is an emphatic display, throw in 2 try assists, a tackle bust, an offload and 2 line breaks ... all in his 200th game.
Simon Mannering: Don't sleep on the Warriors playing well while Luke and Simon Mannering are playing their best footy of the season through the middle. Mannering played 80 minutes and didn't have to do as much work defensively but was still busy with 41 tackles without a miss, along with 14 carries for 94m, 3 tackle busts and an offload. That 'bit of everything' package that Mannering offers is interesting and he still did some ball-playing as we've come to expect, passing 8 times off his 22 touches.
David Fusitua: 4 bangers!
Konrad Hurrell: He got on the field, playing centre for Gold Coast against Parramatta and regardless of what happened, Koni got game time.
Manu Ma'u: If Ma'u is consistently one of Parramatta's best when they are losing, it goes without saying that he's going to be impressive when the Eels get a win. Ma'u didn't quite reach 80 minutes (73mins) but he got through his standard production with the most metres of any forward from either team with 14 carries for 121m along with 2 offloads.
Storm Kiwi Gang: Another extremely slick showing from Melbourne's Kiwi gang and there's certainly no coincidence here that the Storm's kiwis are in great form and the Storm are looking somewhat unbeatable.
Tohu Harris: 80mins, 14 carries, 137m, 15 tackles, 1 offload.
Jesse Bromwich: 49mins, 14 carries, 122m, 25 tackles.
Kevin Proctor: 74mins, 17 carries, 167m, 2 tackle busts, 30 tackles, 1 offload, 1 line break.
Kenny Bromwich: 58mins, 10 carries, 72m, 34 tackles.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona: 35mins, 8 carries, 106m, 18 tackles, 1 offload.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves: In a losing side, JWH played the whole game and while he wasn't overly dominant with 132m off 17 carries, the fact that JWH has slotted straight back into this Roosters side and is undoubtedly the leader of at least their forward pack, let alone the team is impressive. Keep an eye on JWH as he has been a consistent force for the Chooks since his return and he'll keep leading by example.
Curtis Rona: I reckon it's safe to say that Rona is back to where he finished off last season, he just took a while to get there this season. Rona scored what is now known as a 'Rona-Try' but was also super busy off his wing with 14 carries for 187m, a try assist, tackle bust, offload and 3 line breaks.
Jason Taumalolo: Up against the benchmark in the No.13 jersey, Taumalolo got through his regular production and went to war with Paul Gallen. I've got this a draw between Taumalolo and Gallen if we ignore the result of this game as Gallen got through more tackles (40 vs 16) and more carries/metres (20/170m vs 16/165m) but Gallen played 20 more minutes than Taumalolo. Taumalolo had 3 tackle busts vs 1 from Gallen and Gallen had more offloads ... ah, so Gallen might have sealed a narrow win but this is a clear example of Taumalolo's ability as he still influenced that game, against an OG like Gallen.
Taumalolo had the most carries, metres, tackle busts and offloads of any Cowboys player.
Stocks Down
Iosia Soliola: Not sure what was doing here as Soliola was clearly fired up to face Brisbane and he led the way for Canberra with engery and aggression but only got 29 minutes. Soliola's value to Canberra is clear and maybe this was a planned move from Ricky Stuart, don't expect Soliola do play less than 30 minutes again this season though as he's a crucial veteran in a young pack.
Joseph Tapine: One of Canberra's young forwards is Joe Tapine and he's been on fire coming off the bench this season but as Brisbane's forwards ran rampant through the middle, Tapine's effectiveness vanished. He got great minutes (46mins) but only had 5 carries for 35m which is a big drop in his production.
Agnatius Paasi: There's room for Paasi to slide up into Stocks Up as he only played 63 minutes and had 12 carries for 117m, but that came with 2 errors which is the same number of errors as the entire Eels forward pack along with 3 missed tackles.
Sio Siua Taukeiaho: A dip in Taukeiaho's production as the Roosters struggled to do anything against Melbourne. He played good minutes (63mins) but couldn't quite roll through the same blockbusting ruthlessness with his carries as he averaged 8.4m with each carry and no tackle busts. No tackle busts is strange for Taukeiaho as he's been churning through those with ease.