Monday Morning Dummy Half: Kiwi-NRL Eels (And Storm Involvements)
North Queensland Cowboys aren't exactly fun to follow in the NRL this season, which is compounded by their recent dip in status from top-notch Kiwi-NRL recruiters to the Kiwi-NRL Cowboys exodus. Having highlighted that the Cowboys are one of the better NRL clubs in spreading their scouting network far and wide across Aotearoa to snare Tukimihia Simpkins (Rotorua), Griffin Neame (Greymouth), Wiremu Greig (Northland) and a deep cut like Zinzaan Martin (Christchurch); a lot has change in a short amount of time.
The off-season saw Simpkins make a very late move to Wests Tigers, while Greig shifted down from Townsville to join Parramatta Eels during the week. News came through last week that Greig had signed with the Eels and it wasn't clear when Greig would actually link up with the Eels, resulting in a rather funky NSW Cup game yesterday as the Tigers (Western Suburbs Magpies) and Eels battled it out in reserve grade.
Usually, I wouldn't dive too deep into reserve grade footy. There were too many Kiwi-NRL wrinkles in this game to gloss over though as the Eels had Nate Roache coming off the bench to play 44 minutes, while NZ Warriors players Hayze Perham and Tom Ale were also on the Eels bench. The Warriors bit is due to Queensland's covid stuff and they were able to loan out squad members to other reserve grade teams; Kane Evans and Pride Petterson-Robati featured for Newcastle. The Magpies team had Simpkins, along with Kelma Tuilagi as the leading Kiwi-NRL prospects. Chuck in Christchurch's Joseph Taipari and the funk continues.
The Cowboys already have a reputation for not keeping their best players and this includes Kiwi-NRL lads like Brandon Smith and Braden Hamlin-Uele. These recent developments are weird because the Cowboys did a fine job to snap up Simpkins while he was at Rotorua Boys High School and had numerous NRL clubs and Super Rugby teams chasing him. The Cowboys brought Greig across from Northland and both were embedded in the Cowboys system.
Simpkins and Greig left the Cowboys in a hurry. Tigers and Aotearoa Kiwis coach Michael Maguire has made a point of signing kiwi players from other clubs (Tuilagi from Storm, Taipari from Eels) and Simpkins was part of a player swap in January. Greig left the Cowboys swiftly and days after that news broke, he was lining up for the Eels where he was one of the best forwards in yesterday's game; 55mins, 10 runs for 105m.
Griffin Neame is the only notable Kiwi-NRL prospect left in the Cowboys squad. This is strange because the Simpkins and Greig departures came after Todd Payten arrived as coach, which makes you wonder why Payten green-lighted these moves with the Cowboys not being very good. The Cowboys taking a dip in their Kiwi-NRL funk, Parramatta Eels are on the rise as a notable Kiwi-NRL club.
I expect Greig to crack NRL footy this year with the Eels, while Roache is playing foot first and foremost as well as putting up some nifty numbers. Here's Roache's two games this season off the bench...
vs Newtown: 58mins, 1 try, 7 runs for 76m @ 10.85m/run, 37 tackles @ 100%.
vs Magpies: 44mins, 4 runs for 68m @ 17m/run, 25 takles @ 89%.
For the NRL Eels, the craziest thing to start this season is Marata Niukore starting all three of his games at centre. Niukore has a try, a try assist, a linebreak, 12 tackle busts and 3 offloads in these three games. Most importantly, having previously played as an edge or middle forward, Niukore has blown away his average run metres per game...
2018: 72m/game.
2019: 87m/game.
2020: 111m/game.
2021: 143m/game.
Dylan Brown is in his pocket, creeping under the radar. Much of the halves-work is done by Mitchell Moses and there is plenty of creativity across the Eels team. Brown is enjoying a minor bump in his work though as his touches per game and kicking metres per game are both the highest they have been in his third season.
2019: 40.6 touches/58.83 kicking metres.
2020: 48.5 touches/109.91 kicking metres.
2021: 49 touches/180.60 kicking metres.
As for Isaiah Papali'i, he is playing the best footy of his career as a middle and edge forward. Given that Niukore has started all three games at centre, Papali'i has kinda taken Niukore's minutes in the forward pack and he's morphed from an under-sized/in-between forward at the Warriors to a ruthless mofo at the Eels.
Papali'i never averaged more than 80m/game with the Warriors, now he's averaging 145m/game. In four games, Papali'i has missed 4 tackles and hasn't missed a tackle in his last two games. Papali'i also has 12 tackle busts in four games, which is almost half as many as he had in his best seasons with the Warriors (26 tb). However you want to slice it, all these Kiwi-NRL Eels are improving and now I'm eager to see how Roache and Greig develop.
Quick little focus on Melbourne Storm's Kiwi-NRL involvements.
Throughout my time writing about NRL footy, Storm players aren't the big stat lads. The Kiwi-NRL juice for the Storm is in what the players do to lead to points and while the buzz was all around Ryan Papenhuyzen, the Storm's kiwis were heavily involved in these points. Here’s a Nelson Asofa-Solomona carry, starting behind the 30m line, making big metres, quick play the ball, try down the left edge…
Asofa-Solomona sucks in three defenders, then offloads as he’s going to ground for a Papenhuyzen try…
And another big Asofa-Solomona run and another late offload. Brandon Smith snapped up the offload, passed to Jahrome Hughes and then a Papenhuyzen try…
Jesse Bromwich’s turn as he sucks in defenders and offloads for a Cameron Munster try…
