Storm vs Roosters

Storm

Jahrome Hughes, Jsse Bromwich, Kenny Bromwich, Brandon Smith, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Albert Vete.

Roosters

Joseph Manu, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Siosiua Taukeiaho, Poasa Fa'mausili, Sitili Tupouniua.

Doc's Word

Poasa Fa'amausili returns to the Roosters forward pack from his stint with Aotearoa Warriors and the timing is perfect for Fa'amausili and the Roosters as the middle forward returns having been among the Warriors best players in recent weeks. Fa'amausili would have otherwise been chillin' and waiting for an opportunity, instead he got plenty of game time with the Warriors and is simmering, ready to contribute to the Roosters ... by playing the Storm again!

The Chooks are likely to need all the oomph through the middle that they can gather as this is a typically epic encounter between two of the best clubs in the NRL. I'll point out Jesse Bromwich as a player to watch out for as I reckon the Roosters duo of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Siosiua Taukeiaho are among, if not the best middle pairing and many folks will be looking to the Storm bench where Brandon Smith and Nelson Asofa-Solomona will be eager weapons for the Storm.

Bromwich though, creeps slightly under the radar while doing a super steady job for the Storm in leading their forward pack. This season Bromwich is averaging 134.06m per game and while that's not his best (2014 and 2015 saw him average over 150m), this is the best in recent years; Bromwich averaged below 130m in each of the three seasons prior to 2020.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy is a nifty operator, like Roosters Trent Robinson and this is evident in how Bellamy used his middle forwards in the big win over the Warriors last week. Bromwich was only required for 44mins and didn't need to do much as Dale Finucane, Brandon Smith, Tino Faasuamaleaui and Nelson Asofa-Solomona all played more minutes than Bromwich. Expect that to change this week.

Raiders vs Dragons

Raiders

Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Bailey Simonsson, Iosia Soliola, Jospeh Tapine, Siliva Havili.

Dragons

Nada

Doc's Word

Interesting clash here as Canberra Raiders have lost three of their last four games and come up against a Dragons team they should beat, but could also slip up. Joseph Tapine returns to the Raiders team and is set to play through the middle in place of Corey Horsburgh, after Tapine was primarily used as an edge forward earlier in the season. Now Hudson Young has Tapine's edge spot and I'm eager to see Tapine play through the middle where his mobility and aggression may flip the Raiders fortunes around.

Eels vs Cowboys

Eels

Dylan Brown, Marata Niukore, Brad Takairangi.

Cowboys

Esan Marsters, Jason Taumalolo, Peter Hola.

Doc's Word

This game is all about Dylan Brown and how he takes on greater responsibility in Mitchell Moses' absence. Brown's only 20-years-old and already looks settled as an NRL half, so the general idea of him leading the Eels around the park is going to be rather intriguing when pondering his Aotearoa Kiwis potential.

As far as nitty-gritty Eels stuff goes though, the only notable aspect of footy where Moses is more dominant is the kicking game; Moses is 3rd in the NRL with 90 kicks and Brown is 35th with 23 kicks. In tackle busts, Brown is 16th and Moses isn't in the NRL's top-50. In linebreaks, Brown is 26th and Moses isn't in the top-50 and in total receipts of the footy, Brown has 337 touches vs Moses' 333 touches.

All of that tells me that Brown is perfectly aligned with his opportunity as he has already established a nice play-making balance with Moses - Moses isn't the super dominant half. The Eels will have to absorb the loss of Moses' kicks and this is the area of Brown's game that could be under the microscope, otherwise I'm looking forward to Brown enjoying more freedom and leading the Eels.

Titans vs Sharks

Titans

Moeaki Fotuaika, Kevin Proctor, Sam Lisone, Erin Clark.

Sharks

Sione Katoa, Bryson Goodwin, Shaun Johnson, Briton Nikora, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Siosifa Talakai.

Doc's Word

While everyone was tripping about the Brisbane Broncos after their loss to Gold Coast Titans, I was fizzing after another epic performance from Titans forward Moeaki Fotuaika. None of the Broncos middle forwards averaged 10m/run, heck no Broncos forward avearged 10m/run and Fotuaika not only out-performed the sexier Broncos forward pack, he out-performed Origin forward Jai Arrow as well. Here are Fotuaika's stats vs Arrows stats from the win over Broncos...

Moeaki Fotuaika: 52mins, 15 runs for 154m @ 10.26m/run, 4 tackle busts, 2 offloads, 30 tackles @ 90.9%.

Jai Arrow: 52mins, 17 runs for 120m @ 7.05m/run, 3 tackle busts, 2 offloads, 25 tackles @ 89.3%. Moeaki Fotuaika is already a legend. 105/10 (townsend - 104/19)

I'm enjoying the work of Shaun Johnson at the moment for Cronulla Sharks and the Sharks are slowly sussing some things out, winning three of their last four. Part of this involves a more robust forward pack and former Junior Kiwi Siosifa Talakai has found a spot on the Sharks bench alongside Toby Rudolf, Braden Hamlin-Uele and Royce Hunt; all of whom are mobile, powerful and rip in. Talakai was especially funky vs Sea Eagles with 12 runs for 127m @ 10.58m/run, along with a hefty 4.25 post-contact-metres per run.

With what looks reasonably close to a strongest 17 available, the Sharks feel better suited to the post-pando NRL and this is all relevant to Johnson as he'll do much better with a powerful forward pack.

As I've barked about on Twitter, Johnson is 1st in try assists for the entire NRL and he grabbed a couple in the big win over a weakened Sea Eagles team. Johnson threaded a grubber for Sione Katoa to score - a grubber that curled left to right beautifully - which started with Johnson at second receiver. What I like here is Johnson's eyes are up and as the first pass is thrown, Johnson is assessing the Sea Eagles defensive line. This is on the third tackle as well, so no one's legit expecting a kick, but with Johnson scoping the landscape he picked his moment...

Johnson also served up a nutty ol' pass for Bryson Goodwin to score. This pass goes directly to Goodwin on the wing and Goodwin isn't even in this shot, yet Johnson's eyes are up again and all the options (Talakai cutting in, Wade Graham short-ball, Chad Townsend out the back and Josh Dugan already on the outside of Manly winger Tevita Funa) draw the defence in, then Johnson skips them all to hit Goodwin in space...

Johnson didn't get a try assist here, but he had a juicy tap-on for Townsend to set up Katoa. Most notable in these last two plays is the Johnson/Townsend combo as they're connected on the left edge for Goodwin's try even though Townsend doesn't get the footy, then they link up again down the right edge...

Johnson's also defending reasonably well. Having missed 10 tackles this season, Johnson is behind the likes of Mitchell Pearce, Ash Taylor, Jarome Luai, Mitchell Moss, Scott Drinkwater, Kodi Nikorima, Blake Green, Anthony Milford; all of whom have 16+ missed tackles. Johnson misses one tackle per 10.5 tackles made, while Townsend misses one tackle per 5.47 tackles made.

Warriors vs Broncos

Warriors

All but Blake Green, Jamayne Taunoa-Brown, Wayde Egan, Jack Hetherington, Karl Lawton, Josh Curran.

Broncos

Jamayne Isaako, Issac Luke, Alex Glenn.

Doc's Word

Plenty of Australians in the Warriors line up for those who always want more Aussies in the Warriors. Three of the four players on the bench are Aussies with Jack Hetherington a fresh loan player from Penrith Panthers and they come up against a Broncos side with three #KiwiNRL players; Warriors have more Aussies than Broncos have kiwis.

Tigers vs Panthers

Tigers

Josh Aloiai, Elijah Taylor, Michael Chee-Kam, Benji Marshall, Russell Packer.

Panthers

Dean Whare, James Fisher-Harris, Zane Tetevano, Moses Leota.

Doc's Word

I'm low key interested in Elijah Taylor's performances, especially if he can stay on the field as he's always injured and made his first post-pando appearance last weekend in the win over Bulldogs. Taylor isn't required to plug a hole at dummy half anymore now that Harry Grant is flexing all over the starting role, playing 80mins rather easily and hopefully this enables Taylor to settle into a middle-forward role. Not overly fast, nor powerful, I'm interested in what Taylor offers the Tigers at the moment and usually for Taylor that involves plenty of dirty work along with distribution.

Check out these James Fisher-Harris NRL rankings...

All Runs: 6th.

Run Metres: 7th.

Post Contact Metres: 5th.

Offloads: 13th.

Tackles: 20th.

Support Plays: 39th.

Decoy Runs: 2nd.

Northland's Fisher-Harris has quickly emerged as one of the more important middle forwards in the NRL and I reckon he's perfecty suited to the current style of play. His workload is immense; imagine being a busy tackler who gets through all that work running the footy and is also involved as a decoy runner more often than not. That's Fisher-Harris always contributing in some way and his Panthers are looking good as a result.

Sea Eagles vs Knights

Sea Eagles

Danny Levi, Martin Taupau, Taniela Paseka.

Knights

Herman Ese'ese.

Doc's Word

Herman Ese'ese continues to impress under new coach Adam O'Brien, despite losing to the Cowboys last week; 35mins, 17 runs for 153m @ 9m/run and 18 tackles @ 94.7%.

Bulldogs vs Rabbitohs

Bulldogs

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Reimis Smith, Kieran Foran, Jeremy Marshall-King, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Renouf To'omaga, Ofahiki Ogden, Sione Katoa.

Rabbitohs

Nada.

Doc's Word

Aiden Tolman's return last week bumped Renouf To'omaga back to the bench, where he is named again this week. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak gets another crack at fullback via an injury to Will Hopopate and the arrival of English forward Luke Thompson could make things interesting for the likes of To'omaga and Ofahiki Ogden as they've got a forward who is eager to make his mark on the NRL competing for top-17 minutes.

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Peace and love.