Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Grit & Grind With Morgan Harper
A few weeks ago Ngaruawahia junior Morgan Harper was stuck in a niggly spot with Manly Sea Eagles and that tricky patch of adversity has seen Harper raise his mana as he settles back into starting centre mahi. While it's easy to highlight Harper's performance against Cronulla Sharks in round seven, Harper wasn't at his best in the opening stanza of the season and a struggling centre tells the story of a struggling NRL team.
Sea Eagles enjoyed three consecutive wins with Harper at centre early in the seasons and the two games prior to missing out saw Harper score tries with 2 tackle busts and 1 missed tackle in either game. Harper missed out for round six and was then chucked back in for a tough assignment against a sizzling Sharks outfit at the time. Then Harper missed out again for the following round before 18th-man selection in a big round 10 loss to Broncos.
Harper played seven of the first 10 games with a 4-3 record. Since then Harper has played four consecutive games as player availability has fallen in favour of the Waikato product and there has been a clear shift in his mahi.
First seven games: 2 tries, two games with 30+ PCM, three games with 90+ running metres.
Last four games: 1 try, 2 try assists, four games with 30+ PCM, three games with 90+ running metres.
The easiest issue to highlight was Harper's defence. Folks are quick to whip up a frenzy about the defensive mahi of centres and this overlooks how difficult defending is at centre, let alone how outside back defence starts with middle forwards. Don't blame the centre when the forward pack isn't slowing down their opposition, thus providing opposition play-makers/backs with time and space. Peta Hiku is another example of this as he isn't a fabulous defender, but he's doing his job in one of the best defensive teams.
While Cowboys and Panthers are the only teams who have conceded less than 200 points this season, Sea Eagles have conceded 296 - 2 points more than they have scored. Cowboys are good defensively and that makes Hiku's job much easier, Sea Eagles are mediocre at defence and Harper deals with the niggly mahi.
Better Harper footy revolves around his impact as a runner, then his distribution. Along with minimal Post Contact Metres in his first seven games, Harper's only 100+ metre performance of that phase was round tahi. Harper has two games with 100+ metres in his last four games and he is consistently racking up PCM. Harper didn't have a try assist in his first seven games and now he has two in his last four games.
These wrinkles provide stronger insights into Harper's play. Harper averaged 129m/game in his first season with Sea Eagles, then 100m/game last season and he now sits at 89m/game this season. This season's average is lower due to how Harper started the season and his last four games are aligned with his previous campaigns.
How Harper progresses through the winter slog will depend on the general Sea Eagles vibe. When Sea Eagles are rolling forward they can provide better service to Harper and his 8 tries/5 try assists/10 linebreaks from last season reflect that. Harper needs to stay busy as well and this is a battle that every NRL centre is working through as they balance the need to hold shape (sitting out wide) and ripping into aggressive runs around the ruck.
At the very least, Harper continues to grind and his recent mahi is encouraging. While Harper is unlikely to crack Aotearoa Kiwis centre contention (Joseph Manu, Peta Hiku, Matthew Timoko, Patrick Herbert etc) for the upcoming Test, this patch of adversity should set Harper up to add himself to that mixer soon enough.
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Peace and love.