Koni Files: Chapter Four
Amongst all the craziness of Hayne Mania, our man Konrad Hurrell's game against his former club kinda got caught up in all the hype. This definitely wasn't a bad thing though as it would have been worse for Koni if Sunday's game between the Titans and Warriors was all about him, instead Koni was a sideshow to Jarryd Hayne's return to the NRL.
And that probably sums up Koni's performance as he took a dip in his production from the previous three weeks but he certainly wasn't bad, also scoring a try as well. Koni's hands let him down on three occasions which is a bummer and something he's gotta suss out quick as the Titans are chasing a Finals spot, meaning they don't need Koni making the most errors of any player from either team in a game. There were only a couple of missed tackles though, the same as Josh Hoffman and Solomone Kata so Koni was hardly a liability in defence and Koni kept churning out those 'effort plays' that have been a constant in his game since joining the Titans - the same plays that he apparently sucked at with the Warriors.
I'm wondering if it was a ploy from Neil Henry to subdue Koni a wee bit in this game as he had almost half as many carries/metres than he had in the three previous games.
This wasn't have been a bad move from Henry as we saw how excited Koni got when he scored his try - it felt as though Koni was fizzing, frothing etc for this game which probably led to those three errors in 12 touches as he would have been eager to push the footy and make an impression. If Koni was taking 16 carries instead of the 9 he took against the Warriors, I'd bet on Koni making twice as many errors simply because he was fairly excited.
Koni had 9 carries and 92m, which is still an excellent return for a centre; still averaging over 10m per-carry. Sure, Solomone Kata had a field-day but a lot of Kata's work came further in-field and he wasn't exactly targeting Koni as Kata was popping up everywhere in search of the footy. Koni still averaged 10m per-carry, but this was well below his last three games...
vs Dragons: 15 carries/174m.
vs Eels: 16 carries/192m.
vs Sharks: 16 carries/192m.
He wasn't a stand out performer for the Titans as he had been, however he didn't get the amount of ball he had done and to be honest, the Titans as a team were below their best so Koni's work reflected that of his team's.
This week, Koni and the Titans face Wests Tigers in a crucial fringe top-8 clash for both teams. The Tigers are coming off the back of a win over the Cowboys and Koni will likely line up against Tim Simona, who plays left centre for the Tigers although the Tigers offer some funk here as well. Jordan Rankin often drifts into dummy half with the Tigers playing without Robbie Farah, which pushes Simona out to the wing and Chris Lawrence tends to drift out wider. The Tigers tend no to attack down their far left flank too often when Rankin is playing in the middle on attack, so it'll be interesting to see who and how often Koni is tackling.
If it's Simona, then Koni will have to be on-point as Simona's quick feet could put Koni on skates.
The flipside of that is that Simona will obviously have a tough game trying to stop Koni and I'd suggest that this is a horrible match up for Simona thanks to the body shapes of the two. As we know, Koni is a nugget and his shorter frame allows him to play with more power which should be favourable against the taller Simona, who won't have lined up against a power-centre like Koni often this season.
I'm taking Koni all-day in this match up and I'm taking a far better performance from Koni and the Titans as well. The Tigers forwards got up over the Cowboys forwards thanks to their enthusiasm and power, so expect to see Koni taking many short-ball runs near the ruck to dent the Tigers and get them on the back-foot. Last week we didn't see as many of these sorts of runs from Koni and this should be staple in each set this week.
Also expect Koni to work well in combination with the Titans' tokos Leivaha Pulu and Agnatius Paasi, both of whom were also relatively quiet last week. Paasi and Pulu played less minutes than usual and Koni took less carries than usual, so I suspect we'll see Henry give all three a healthy dose of action this week as the Titans will need to blow the Tigers away through the middle.
And then we've got Jarryd Hayne playing in the halves; hands up if you wanna see Hayne combine with Koni ... a lot? Me, me, me.
Any time Hayne gets the footy on the right edge, look for Koni and get ready for some Hayne x Koni footy brilliance.
Or for Koni to run the decoy line.