Stocks Up

Sosaia Feki: Cronulla's outside backs aren't the biggest, nor are they the busiest as they rely more on Andrew Fifita's 19 carries, Matt Prior's 16 carries, Paul Gallen's 19 carries, Wade Graham's 15 carries and Luke Lewis' 13 carries. However, when Cronulla's outside backs get the footy coming out of their own end, they use their speed to attack the ruck area and this is where Feki shone.

Feki took the least carries of Cronulla's outside backs, but his 7 carries were the most efficient as he was the only outside back to stay close to averaging 10m per-carry with 3 tackle busts and a slick try in the corner. That's all Cronulla need from Feki and it's great to see the former Junior Warrior make his way to an NRL Grand Final, especially as he's played his entire Cronulla career on the wing after being a centre with the Jnr Warriors.

Jesse Bromwich: You've got to feel sorry for kiwi sports fans, who don't watch the work of Jesse Bromwich closely. This bloke is the must-watch Kiwis player in the NRL as he consistently shows why he's the best prop in the world and he was at it again against a Canberra forward pack who had steam-rolled Penrith the week before. Bromwich wasn't having none of that though and worked his way through 21 carries for 185m with a tackle bust, playing 69 minutes.

Those 69 minutes were the most of any middle forward in this game and almost double what Melbourne's other starting prop (the super impressive) Jordan McLean played (38 mins) and a scratch under double the minutes of Canberra's Shannon Boyd. Bromwich is the best because he's always making metres, he's got all the skills and rarely makes a mistake but he is also extremely durable. This is a bloke who's rarely injured and consistently churns out plenty of minutes in the middle against the NRL's aggressive giants.

Tohu Harris: The Storm have been able to call on Harris without fail or argument down their left edge this season while also enjoying his work cutting back into the middle of the field. Harris has been low key phenomenal for Melbourne, playing 10 consecutive games in which he has taken at least 10 carries for over 100m and he was at it again against Canberra with 139m off 16 carries along with 3 tackle busts and 3 offloads as well.

Jordan Rapana: Canberra's winger had to bow out of the 2016 NRL season in style and with 149m off 15 carries, 7 tackle busts and a couple of line breaks, Rapana did exactly that. This brings an end to a massive season for Rapana; finishing 2nd in tackle busts, 5th in run metres, 1st equal in tries and he was one of six NRL players to play 27 games this season.

Stocks Down

Kalyn Ponga: After a hugely impressive NRL debut against Brisbane, Ponga was far less effective against Cronulla and wasn't afforded the same time or space by a rugged Sharks side. Cronulla would have noted the threat posed by Ponga's running game, more notably his footwork which enables him - as a smaller NRL winger - to get between defenders and land on his belly etc. The Sharks ensured that Ponga always encountered three or four defenders and that restricted him to just 62m off 8 carries, while the errors from the Cowboys restricted his opportunities as well; Ponga never got the footy from an early shift or on the back of a quick play-the-ball. 

With Ponga, we need to remember that he's not really a winger. He's a gun footy player so he can play wing, however he's more of a fullback or a half and Ponga was put in the shade by specialist wingers Valentine Holmes and Sosaia Feki who know exactly how to get their team out of trouble with tough carries.

Jason Taumalolo: It's no coincidence that the Cowboys lost and Taumalolo only hovered around the 100m mark, along with James Tamou and Matt Scott. Taumalolo was emphatic through the middle against Brisbane and then went missing against the Sharks which must be extremely disappointing. Obviously without this middle-trio making big metres, the Cowboys were always going to struggle but the Cowboys really missed Taumalolo's carries in-behind the ruck area where he makes metres, gets a quick play-the-ball and would have made the likes of Andrew Fifita do far more defensive work.