#KiwiNRL Round 20 Notebook
Watch yourselves.
The emergence of Esan Marsters has blown the Aotearoa Kiwis battle for centre spots up and now Joseph Manu is chiming in, after a strong performance for Sydney Roosters in their big win over St George Illawara Dragons. Also in the #KiwiNRL Notebook this week, I put a focus on Jesse Bromwich, there are a few #KiwiNRL all wing combos and the younger bro got a W in the clash of the Marshall.s
Lattrell Mitchell understandably got all the praise after his dominant performance for the Chooks as Mitchell put his opposite Euan Aitken in the shade. Mitchell scored three tries and had a whopping 11 tackle busts, lighting up Aitken and the Roosters left edge. On the right edge though, Manu quietly went about his business in what is becoming a typically classy display that is over-shadowed by the many slick aspects of this hot Roosters team.
Manu wasn't overly busy, only getting the footy 8 times vs Mitchell's 15 touches. Manu was however super efficient with his limited touches as he averaged well over 10m/run with 8runs/89m, via 4 tackle busts and his footwork was on display early as he skipped to the outside of Tim Lafai and grabbed a line break assist via 1 of his 2 offloads.
Having played 18 games this season, Manu is now benefitting from consistency in minutes and has settled into his role at right centre. 18 games is already the most games Manu has played in a season and after swapping between centre and wing for the first half of the season, Manu has now played his last six games at centre; Roosters have won all six of those games.
Now it's a case of Manu making a strong argument for a call up to the Kiwis to tour England later this year. This adds a splash of funk to the remainder of the season as we'll have Manu, Marsters, Dean Whare and the Warriors duo of Peta Hiku and Gerard Beale pushing for selection.
Whare is still the OG and best Kiwis centre. He grabbed a try in the last minute win over Manly Sea Eagles for Penrith Panthers, had 16runs/154m, 2 line breaks, 3 tackle busts and 1 offload.
The Whare x Marsters centre combo is the most likely, but Manu is coming into the equation and the form of the Roosters is only going to help. All three are playing right centre at the moment, confusing matters even further and while Whare and Marsters are both part of slick attacking teams, Manu plays his role in the best defensive team in the NRL.
Marsters averages the most missed tackles of the three (1.8), then Whare and Manu both average 1.6mt/game. Marsters also averages the most errors and penalties against him (1 and 0.6), while Manu and Whare both average 0.2 penalties conceded and Manu's 0.6er/game and Whare's 0.7er/game.
As Marsters averages 2.3 offloads/game, his error count will naturally be higher. Whare averages 0.6o/game and Manu 0.6o/game, putting Marsters' freakish ability into some perspective.
Jesse Bromwich's return from injury has resulted in three wins for Melbourne Storm and three typically awesome performances from Bromwich. An up and down season has impact Bromwich's overall numbers and he doesn't rank highly among middle forwards for most stats, most likely because he's had no consistency or rhythm to his work. In a 44-10 win over Canberra Raiders, we saw exactly what Bromwich can offer and having him in this type of form heading into the Finals gives the Storm a whole new angle.
Playing 47 minutes, Bromwich had 15runs/148m, 44 post contact metres, 2 tackle busts and 5 passes. Nelson Asofa-Solomona was also impressive, but for some context on Bromwich's work in this game, compare Bromwich's stats to Asofa-Solomona, who played similar minutes (46mins) and had a similar number of runs with 14; 14runs/117m, 59pcm, 3 tackle busts, 1 offload, 2 passes.
Asofa-Solomona had a quicker play-the-ball speed (2.99s vs 3.65s), but Bromwich was busier and more effective. Bromwich had more metres and more metres/run, more touches, more passes and made 18 tackles with 1 miss, while Asofa-Solomona had 13 tackles with 3 misses.
All of that only results in me frothing at the prospect of Bromwich and Asofa-Solomona playing in the same Kiwis team together. That needs to happen.
Sosaia Feki was a late call up to Cronulla Sharks in their loss to Brisbane Broncos, giving the Sharks an all #KiwiNRL wing duo of Feki and Sione Katoa. This follows on from Jordan Pereira making his debut last week with Jason Nightingale on the other wing, which was repeated this week; Sharks and Dragons both rolled out all #KiwiNRL wing combos last weekend.
Jeremy Marshall-King's Bulldogs grabbed a win over Wests Tigers and older bro Benji, although Marshall-King played a super low key role. Marshall-King had 28 touches and other than splitting the kicking duties evenly with Lachlan Lewis (8 vs 9), Marshall-King didn't do too much else and only had 28 touches to Lewis' 66 touches.
This game also saw Fa'amanu Brown get 22mins off the bench at hooker and he added some spark, running 3 times out dummy half for 34m. Also coming off the bench was Ofahiki Ogden, with 7runs/78m in just 19mins along with 40pcm and I continue to be impressed by Ogden's performances since making his debut.
Benji Marshall only had 4 kicks, while Luke Brooks had 13 kicks for the Tigers. That's not a good split, even with the other kicking options the Tigers have and like Jeremy, Benji was was over-shadowed by his halves partner as Benji only ran 5 times, Brooks ran 9 times.
Ben Matulino vs Bulldogs: 49mins, 14runs/156m, 48pcm, 2 offloads.
Michael Chee Kam vs Bulldogs: 80mins, 17runs/166m, 59pcm, 1 tackle bust, 1 offload.
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Peace and love 27.