Kiwi-NRL Finals Week Rua Review
Two rounds of Kiwi-NRL finals footy tucked away and Morgan Harper's introduction to footy in September is providing a fun journey to follow. Harper and his Manly Sea Eagles comrades were too slick for Sydney Roosters on Firday night, sealing a hearty bounce back win. James Fisher-Harris then oozed mana in his performance for Penrith Panthers vs Parramatta Eels, sending an intriguing Kiwi-NRL Eels crew into the off-season.
Against Melbourne Storm, Harper and Sea Eagles were torched. Roosters didn't offer anything close to the attacking threat of Melbourne and this shapes much of my interest in Harper moving forward as I touched on his mishaps vs Melbourne last week, leading me fascinated as to how Harper moves through his first taste of finals footy. After 3 errors and 4 missed tackles vs Storm, Harper had no errors and 21 tackles @ 91.3 percent vs Roosters along with a try, a try assist and 12 runs for 103m @ 8.58m/run.
Manly were far better as a team and this included all the Kiwi-NRL role players. Kieran Foran was more impactful with fewer touches, while Josh Aloiai and Martin Taupau were fantastic in laying the middle platform. Taupau has made the move to represent Samoa, while Foran is making a decent case for his continued selection in Aotearoa Kiwis squads and while Aloiai has previously represented Samoa, I reckon he will be a Kiwis factor soon enough.
With Foran and Taupau enjoying Manly's resurgence they tick the veterans box. Aloiai spent five years at a ho-hum Wests Tigers and is now enjoying a deep finals run which will get a whole lot more funky for the Glenora Bears junior next week. Speaking of next week - Harper will defend against the famed Rabbitohs left edge and that challenge is far more similar to Storm than Roosters.
Kiwis are stacked with centre depth led by Joseph Manu. Esan Marsters grabbed a few games before his departure from Tigers resulted in him drifting away from regular footy while Harper, Reimis Smith (Storm) and Matthew Timoko (Raiders) are all in contention. They all play right centre in the NRL though and Kiwis coach Michael Maguire plugged the left centre hole in their last international window by shifting Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad to left centre.
I'll suss out this Harper vs Rabbitohs left edge stuff for the preview. Harper had a down week vs Storm and now an upwards swing in defeating Roosters, leading us to a tough Rabbitohs encounter that will hopefully see Harper settle in the middle between extremes.
What was different for James Fisher-Harris this weekend?
Round 24 vs Tigers: 50mins, 35pcm, 12 touches, 38 tackles, 78m.
Round 25 vs Eels: 51mins, 36pcm, 15 touches, 28 tackles, 94m.
Round 26 vs Rabbitohs: 50mins, 23pcm, 12 touches, 32 tackles, 79m
Round 27 vs Eels: 54mins, 28pcm, 14 touches, 48 tackles, 105m.
The only difference there is the 48 tackles made in the grizzly finals outing on Saturday evening. I've been curious about this dip in Fisher-Harris mahi since a minor break leading into the finals and while the tight encounter with Eels didn't see Fisher-Harris return to his mid-season best, this game didn't require such output and was more about the presence of Fisher-Harris in the middle.
48 tackles points to this presence, although it's a mana thing that can't be measured. The reason there is no fluff in this Panthers forward pack is because of Fisher-Harris and going blow for blow with the Eels forward pack isn't easy, except Fisher-Harris makes it his job to lead the grizzly side of the Panthers. Consider that Fisher-Harris played 26 minutes less than Isaac Yeo (80mins) and Fisher-Harris made 48 tackles to Yeo's 39 tackles.
Yeo has a different job through the middle, while Fisher-Harris' job is all about physicality.
This brings an end to 2021 Kiwi-NRL Eels. Marata Niukore and Isaiah Papali'i were again emphatic in their mahi, with Papali'i jacking up 15 runs - 124m @ 8.26m/run and 27 tackles @ 100 percent in just 35mins. These two made the Eels a fun Kiwi-NRL team to watch every week and along with the rest of the Kiwi-NRL Eels, I'm eager to see how they develop into next season.
I'm especially interested in Dylan Brown's next few seasons. Brown ran the ball (15 runs) and took some kicking heat off Mitchell Moses (5 kicks), while ripping into his defence with 35 tackles with Moses making just 10 tackles. Brown did miss 3 tackles and he's only missed 3+ tackles in four games this season, which feels like a product of such a willingness to tackle; Jarome Luai made 26 tackles and Nathan Cleary made 16.
Roosters have immense Kiwi-NRL depth coming up through their ranks and they are my best Kiwi-NRL club, giving them plenty of Kiwi-NRL upside moving forward. For the Eels, my Kiwi-NRL intrigue is all about development. Based on the solid foundations evident in Niukore and Brown along with the rapid progressions of Papali'i and Makahesi Makatoa, there is every reason to believe in higher ceilings for all Kiwi-NRL Eels.
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