Stocks Up

Jason Taumalolo:  There's only one bloke who can get the ball rollin' just like he got the Cowboys rollin' down the field against Brisbane and that's Mr Taumalolo, the Players' Champion. As this game went into extra-time, the numbers are slightly inflated but we can balance out those inflated numbers with the fact that this was a massive Finals game and if you're serving up 20+ carries and over 200 running metres in a Finals game, you deserve some lovin'.

Truth is, that Taumalolo has been doing this pretty much all season long hence he's the Players' Champion. 75 out of 90 minutes is about Taumalolo's standard time on the field, maybe a little more which is understandable given that this is Finals footy and to put Taumalolo's minutes into some context, Mathew Scott played 56 minutes and James Tamou played 54 minutes while Taumalolo's opposite Corey Parker could only manage 64 minutes. In fact, of all the middle forwards in this game which includes Josh McGuire's 73 minutes and Adam Blair's 56 minutes, Taumalolo spent the most time on the field of any middle forward. Keep in mind that Taumalolo isn't merely scooting around, making plenty of tackles and taking the odd hit up like an old school No.13 might do, nah Taumalolo is all power and it's 75 minutes of sheer brutality.

Tauamlolo finished with 23 carries and 251m, only Darius Boyd came close to that with 22 carries and 229m. Lachlan Coote and Kyle Feldt were the only players to come close to Taumalolo's 11 tackle busts as well, they put up 8 each and they're outside backs. 

Taumalolo had 11 tackle busts and the entire Brisbane forward pack had 6, yup.

Taumalolo's main highlight was the run that set up Jonathan Thurston's match-winning try assist for Michael Morgan. Peep where Taumalolo gets the footy to start this run, keep in mind that he's hitting it on the B...

This is about as typical as a Taumalolo carry comes as he sprints in behind the ruck area, picking up metres and dragging a few blokes with him. He also lands flat on his belly #QuickPlayTheBall.

That quick play-the-ball doesn't allow the Broncos to push up too quickly on Thurston, who has time and space to pick out his man - Sam Thaiday in this case - and wave his wand. Also peep the starting point above and where Taumalolo ends up, which looks to be about 15m and that's why he's the best in the business.

Kalyn Ponga: We're gonna do everything we can to make Ponga slide over to the Kiwis, so that means including him in the Kiwi NRL Stocks. To be honest, with a kiwi father and Aussie mother, we can't hate on the lad if he does go down the Aussie route and we can still celebrate his kiwi-ness in the process. 

Ponga made his debut in an epic, a game that will go down in history and he didn't look out of place. There was the run down the left flank that saw him whack multiple Broncos defenders with that left-footed step which is borderline Roger Tuivasa-Sheck quality, however I was more impressed with Ponga's work in carting the footy up and how he dealt with Brisbane's kicking game. Ponga simply looked at home in the NRL in every aspect of his play and there aren't too many outside backs who would take 16 carries into a rugged Broncos forward pack in their NRL debut. He finished with 16 carries and 162m, plus 5 tackle busts, an offload and a line break. 

Jordan Rapana: There isn't a whole lot more I can say about Rapana and that's great because it means that Rapana delivered what he had been doing all season, in a knockout fixture with Finals pressure. Rapana scored a try and took 12 carries for 117 with 4 tackle busts which is a slight dip compared to his ridiculous numbers during the regular season, but he was his usual busy self off the wing and his right-edge combination with Joey Leilua produced a try. Oh and Rapana felt some South Auckland wrath via Sitaleki Akauola.

Joseph Tapine: Like Rapana, Tapine didn't quite produce the same numbers as he has done throughout the season. Tapine did however keep the Raiders rolling forward, dominating the middle of the park when the starting props had a spell. In 41 minutes, Tapine had 11 carries for 94m and 4 tackle busts, basically just doing his job for the team and ensuring that the hard work of the starting props was maintained.

Stocks Down

Jordan Kahu: T'was a tough night for Kahu, who slide into centre with James Roberts scratched and Jonas Pearson coming on to the wing. Kahu only had 7 carries for 51m but most notably, Kahu put up 6 missed tackles and was put well and truly in the shade by Javid Bowen who made metres and offloaded as he wished. 

Alex Glenn: Unlike Kahu, Glenn really made an impact throught the middle of the field and then did a fine job in filling a hole at left centre. Glenn played 63 minutes off the bench, taking 13 carries for 106m with 2 tackle busts, 2 offloads and a line break as he once again added some speed and power to the Broncos middle. Glenn however, also missed 6 tackles which means that between Glenn and Kahu, our Kiwis lads missed 12 tackles and that's a bummer.

Suaia Matagi: Penrith needed their forwards to offer plenty of oomph against a rampant Raiders forward pack and after delivering exactly that for roughly two months, Matagi fell away against the Raiders. He played 26 minutes which isn't a whole lot but that's what he's been doing throughout the back-end of the season, although he only made 46m off 6 carries which is far from the efficiency we had seen previously.

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak: The Panthers had enjoyed immense contributions from Watene-Zelezniak and Josh Mansour, which was still there, just not quite as ruthless as it had been. Watene-Zelezniak only ran for 101m off 12 carries, coming off a game in which he and Mansour both hit the 200m mark. The Panthers forward pack struggled up against Canberra's big boppers and they didn't have the same impact off the wing which had covered over those gaps previously; 12 carries, 101m, 2 tackle busts, 1 line break and a try ain't all that bad though which just shows how high Watene-Zelezniak had set his bar this season.