Kiwi-NRL Encyclopedia: NRLW + NRL Grand Final Previews
Broncos vs Roosters
Kiwi Ferns internationals Raecene McGregor and Nita Maynard will line up for the Broncos and Roosters respectively - McGregor in the halves and Maynard at hooker - although no player in NRLW has been as dynamic as Broncos forward Amber Hall. Playing with Richmond Roses in Auckland when not on NRLW duties, Hall appears to be the only player who traveled across the ditch from Aotearoa for NRLW other than the five Warriors wahine.
The Broncos are chasing their third championship in a row and they are the only team who have won the NRLW championship so far. Their first campaign saw them lean on the Kiwi Ferns such as Teuila Fotu-Moala, Maitua Feterika, Kimiora Nati and Ngatokotoru Arakua, then McGregor and Hall came in for the second championship and Hall has been excessively dominant in her two games this year as the Broncos roll on undefeated.
Hall is ranked 7th in Post Contact Metres and Hall is the only player in the top-10 for PCM who has played just two games. That means that if we slide over to average PCM per game, Hall is 1st with 51.2pcm per game and the next best is Dragons forward Elsie Albert who averages 46.6pcm per game - Hall is the only player in the entire NRLW averaging 50+ PCM per game.
Same with offloads as Hall averages 3 offloads per game, while the next best is fellow Bronco Chelsea Lenarduzzi on 2.7 offloads per game. Hall is 6th in average tackle busts per game on 4 and most of the players ranked ahead of her are backs, further putting into context how dominant Hall has been in NRLW thus far. The funky note is that Hall didn't play in the Broncos most recent game and that was against the Roosters, which the Broncos won 24-16 and now the Broncos bring in the best forward of NRLW 2020 for the final.
Panthers vs Storm
All my Penrith Panthers thoughts revolve around Northland's James Fisher-Harris, who has hit a completely nek level in an NRL season that saw the style switch up after the lockdown. Fisher-Harris was top-five in runs, run metres and PCM throughout the season and after averaging less than 100m per game in his first three years of NRL footy, then stepping up to 130m per game last year, Fisher-Harris took that up to 180m per game this season with 755 tackles @ 91.5 percent efficiency.
Imagine being 24-years-old, with 109 NRL games already stacked away, averaging 180m per game and making plenty of tackles @ 91.5 percent efficiency. That's rather bonkers and Fisher-Harris took his nek level form straight into Finals footy...
Finals game tahi vs Roosters: 56mins, 14 runs for 123m @ 8.78m/run, 58pcm @ 4.14pcm/run, 40 tackles @ 88.9 percent.
Finals game rua vs Rabbitohs: 55mins, 18 runs for 197m @ 10.94m/run, 80pcm @ 4.44pcm/run, 1 tb, 1 offload, 36 tackles @ 90 percent.
Here's how Fisher-Harris performed back in round six vs Storm - the only Panthers vs Storm game of the regular season...
56mins, 14 runs for 150m @ 10.71m/run, 48pcm @ 3.42pcm/run, 2 offloads, 33 tackles @ 94.3 percent.
There's been a splash of lovely Fisher-Harris content throughout the year and with the retirement of Adam Blair, Fisher-Harris is low key taking over as Northland's finest.
As for Melbourne Storm, where do we begin?
Jahrome Hughes has settled into the Storm's halfback role this season, playing 18 games this season and all of these games have been at halfback. This move from fullback, or plugging a hole everywhere to strictly playing fullback has seen Hughes shine in typical halfback style as his kicking game has been as funky as his running game. Hughes has 15 try assists this season, almost one per game and he grabbed a couple in the win over Raiders from direct running, as well as kicking to Suliasi Vunivalu.
In the two Finals games played, Hughes has 2 forced drop-outs, 2 try assists, 5 tackle busts and 1 offload. That variety is super nice when you're sliding that into the Storm's play-making mix that also includes standard Cameron Smith business, Cameron Munster and Ryan Papenhuyzen; hence the Storm have scored 30+ points in both Finals games (apparently the toughest games of the year).
In both Finals games, Hughes has shared the footy with Munster evenly and that's a great sign of Hughes' value among more high profile stars. The Eels game saw Hughes grab 49 touches to Munster's 52 touches, with both having 5 kicks each and then the Raiders game had Hughes with 37 touches vs Munster's 36 touches, along with 9 kicks for Hughes and 5 kicks for Munster.
The toughest thing for Hughes in this game will be tackling Viliame Kikau who will line up on the same edge as the Harbour City Eagles junior (Wellington). Hughes has made 352 tackles @ 85.1 percent this season and we can't slide back to see what happened earlier in the season as Hughes missed the game vs Panthers. The Storm lost that game and that's a good little bonus for Hughes hype as his 18 games have come with 17 wins.
Hughes missed more than 4 tackles just once this season (7mt vs Raiders, round 9) and he's done a mighty job for a smaller body, defending in the most targeted spot. The Panthers left edge has been sizzling all season and they'll definitely serve up play involving Jarome Luai, Kikau and Stephen Crichton to isolate Hughes. Defending alongside Hughes on the Storm's right edge will be Felise Kaufusi (92.3 percent tackling) and Brenko Lee (91.6 percent).
Out on the left edge will be Kenny Bromwich, who is a Kiwi-NRL underground king. This is Kenny's eighth season of NRL footy and he's now on a five-year streak of playing 20+ games per season, which only happens at a club like the Storm if you're doing your job to a high degree. Stats don't offer much as far as insights go for the Manurewa Marlins junior other than Kenny making 61 tackles in two Finals games with just a lone missed tackle, or Kenny sprinkling some variety into his work with 3 tries, 5 linebreaks, 4 linebreak assists and 12 offloads this season.
Kenny's an underground king because at his best, he's a focal point of the Storm's attack down their left edge and he doesn't get highlighted for this. There was a clear intent from the Storm last weekend to hit the Raiders right edge - perhaps putting a target on Raiders right centre Jordan Rapana - and this happened early in the game, plus early in the tackle count. In both instances below, they roll out the same set-play that puts Kenny in a last-pass situation and usually that is the fullback or half who is in this position, but the Storm know what Kenny can do and thus put him in beneficial positions...
Through the middle, the Storm have Jesse Bromwich (Manurewa), Nelson Asofa-Solomona (Upper Hutt Tigers) and Brandon Smith (Waiheke Rams). Remember that Smith is the Aotearoa Kiwis hooker, the best dummy half from Aotearoa currently playing and Smith's job for the Storm is an agile middle forward who fizzes with energy.
Last week vs Raiders, Smith was the only Storm forward to average at least 10m/run and on top of such efficiency, Smith has registered 30+ PCM in all but three of his 17 games played this season. That's come with a tackle bust in all but two games and a streak of 2+ tackle busts in his last four games, all of which culminates in a hefty impact off the bench.
Asofa-Solomona has a tackle bust in each of his 19 games played this season, with 2+ tackle busts in each of his last nine games. In that stretch of nine games, Asofa-Solomona is averaging 4.22 tackle busts per game and while Asofa-Solomona hasn't offloaded in the Finals yet, his last nine games have seen him average 1.5 offloads per game. Ponder the efficiency of Smith above and what to expect in his minutes, then combine that with Asofa-Solomona almost guaranteed to have 3+ tackle busts and an offload to go with his 120m per game this season.
Here's Asofa-Solomona's season averages...
Tackle Busts: 3.63 per game.
Offloads: 1.15 per game.
Missed Tackles: 1.15 per game.
Post Contact Metres: 48 per game.
Run Metres: 120 per game.
For Jesse Bromwich, this is his 11th season of NRL footy and his 89 percent win percentage this season is second only to 91 percent in 2017. That's come with Jesse's production up the guts dropping off as this is the first season since 2012 in which Jesse has averaged less than 120m per game and he's currently averaging 114m per game. Jesse also has just 9 tackle busts this season and this is after Jesse had 20+ tackle busts in every season since 2011 and in those nine seasons, Jesse has had 30+ tackle busts seven times.
That could look as Jesse's worst NRL season of his career, although it's his second best season as far as wins go and the Storm are in another Grand Final. This aligns in my mind with thoughts of the All Blacks as I've been pondering how folks bemoan Australia's missed tackles, while I'm trying to suss out what the All Blacks are doing to create the conditions that force missed tackles; Jesse isn't anywhere near the production and efficiency that was a staple of the 2011-2017 period in which he was consistently among, if not the best prop in the world and I'm pondering how that's the case and everything is all good.
I reckon the emergence of Brandon Smith as a middle forward, Tino Fa'asuamaleaui going from playing five games last year to 21 games this year and further development in Asofa-Solomona and Christian Welch has seen the Storm ease the load on one of their leaders in Jesse. Everything I've absorbed out of the Storm has Jesse as a key figure, kaumatua status and I've come to view this as an awesome case of Jesse being able to simply do his role while the Storm put funky forward pieces around the veteran.
Jesse Bromwich hasn't fallen off, he has played 40+ minutes in all but two of his 18 games played this season and perhaps most importantly he is a middle forward tackling at 94.1 percent efficiency. Maybe the plethora of power around him and the Storm shifting the footy more has seen a greater defensive focus as the Storm's wrestling era has coincided with the career of Jesse, which one would assume makes Jesse a guru at tackling, wrestling and controlling the ruck.
However you want to view the elder Bromwich bro, he is second only to Cameron Smith in the Storm's playing group kaumatua ranks and holding that position in the greatest NRL club of the modern era is nice. 11 seasons, nine with 20+ games and in seven of his 11 seasons Jesse has won over 70 percent of those games.
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Peace and love.