Kiwi-NRL Finals Week Toru Review
There were never going to be winners or losers in the two Kiwi-NRL finals games over the weekend as high quality and quantity Kiwi-NRL teams Melbourne Storm and Manly Sea Eagles fell short against two teams who offer more specific fairytale yarns in Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs. This ensures that we won't have big Kiwi-NRL numbers in the Grand Fina, but Aotearoa will be able to saviour Benji Marshall playing in another GF and Northcote Tigers junior Jaxson Paulo showing Kiwi-NRL depth while all of Northland will rally behind James Fisher-Harris and his Panthers.
Storm saved their worst game of the year for their loss to Panthers. 69 percent completions from a Storm team is bonkers, then we have Kiwis contender Reimis Smith making 4 errors along with 2 errors from Jahrome Hughes and an error from Kenny Bromwich among 16 total errors for Storm. Brandon Smith played 15 minutes before he was ruled out for the game and everything kinda fell apart for Storm in a hearty encounter.
All the Kiwi-NRL lads were valiant in defeat. Jahrome Hughes looked like he had just fought Dan Hooker by the end of the game and his 16 runs for 199m gave Hughes the most run metres of all Storm players. Jesse and Kenny Bromwich were rugged in their mahi, making a combined 73 tackles. With Christian Welch only playing 8mins before being ruled out, Jesse had to up his mahi and Nelson Asofa-Solomona wound up playing 43mins with 18 runs, 143m @ 7.94m/run, 7 tackle busts, 5 offloads and 25 tackles @ 92.6%.
That is a beautiful stat line from Asofa-Solomona and reflects his standing as mandatory Kiwis selection. I still get giddy about Asofa-Solomona playing consistent Kiwis footy alongside Fisher-Harris (and many others), which currently feels more like a fantasy because we just want to see Aotearoa Kiwis play a game. Fisher-Harris played 37mins which is well below his normal production and was battling what seemed to be a knee injury that left him busted after a long chase in pursuit of Hughes.
This leaves me eager to see Fisher-Harris named and then play the GF. This is a bloke who stands head and shoulders above other NRL forwards, so there is every chance that Hokianga's finest battles through the injury to play in the GF. Common footy sense suggests that Panthers will need Fisher-Harris against that Rabbitohs forward pack.
Benji Marshall played 29mins off the bench for Rabbitohs, grabbing a try assist. I'll get more into the GF buzz around Marshall and Paulo for the preview. For now ponder how Marshall's yarn is immense with the fairytale factor and the funk in how coach Wayne Bennett uses Marshall as an extra play-maker. Coach Bennett basically put Marshall into a unique role that no other NRL team has genuinely used.
Which brought this Sea Eagles rollercoaster to an end. Like Storm, Sea Eagles have a solid Kiwi-NRL crew who would have bolstered the GF. Having tracked Sea Eagles business closely throughout the finals and seeing them fall short vs Storm then Rabbitohs, there was clearly a vibe of Sea Eagles being good but not quite good enough. Just as all the Sea Eagles Kiwi-NRL troops played low key roles in Sea Eagles success, they also managed to not hit the high water mark of the Rabbitohs.
Morgan Harper was sub-par and this fell in alignment with the flow of finals footy. Harper had 4 missed tackles and 57 run metres vs Storm, then 2 missed tackles and 103m vs Roosters. Against the Rabbitohs, Harper had 3 missed tackles and 58m. That's the rollercoaster we've been on for three weeks.
Kieran Foran didn't register a kick and that takes away from the balance Sea Eagles required to win tough footy games. Daly Cherry-Evans had 13 kicks, as well as 50 touches to Foran's 32 and neither was overly busy running the footy.
Josh Aloiai and Martin Taupau couldn't snare command of the middle either. None of this is specific to the Rabbitohs loss as it's all similar to the Storm loss in the first finals game. Sea Eagles couldn't quite back their impressive performances up and while Taupau is apparently set to leave Sea Eagles, I'm curious to see how Harper and Aloiai develop with another summer under Des Hasler's guidance.
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