The last time we checked in with Naufahu Whyte for a Kiwi-NRL Spotlight was after he churned out 68 minutes vs Raiders and while his mahi dipped for Roosters soon after round 12, the Bay Roskill junior was back near his best in the loss to Panthers last week. Now Whyte is named to start in the middle for Roosters for their NRL Finals game against Sea Eagles and he has a fabulous opportunity to stamp his mark on finals footy

In the loss to Panthers last week, Whyte played 37mins off the bench and despite playing less minutes than Lindsay Collins, Nat Butcher, Terrell May and Spencer Leniu, Whyte had more runs and more metres than all of them.

Whyte vs Panthers: 14 runs - 136m @ 9.7m/run, 4 tackle breaks, 31 tackles @ 100%

The only Roosters with more run metres than Whyte against Panthers were James Tedesco and Daniel Tupou, which was also Whyte's most productive outing of the season. This was his first game with 130+ run metres of the season, as well as his first game with over 70 post contact metres. Whyte has made 30+ tackles in three other games this season but this was his first game of the season with 20+ tackles and no missed tackles.

It's tricky to get a gauge of the Roosters forward pack under coach Trent Robinson as the roles are always tweaked. Whyte played the first eight games as a bench forward, then he had five consecutive starts (one at prop, four at lock), then a bench appearance and a game as starting prop, before four more games coming off the bench. Whyte was the starting lock in the final game of the regular season and then slid back to the bench vs Panthers.

Not only has Whyte shuffled between starting and bench mahi, his game time has been fluid throughout the season. Whyte played less than 40mins in his first nine games before 68mins vs Raiders, followed by 54mins in the next game. Whyte dropped below 40mins for the next six games and his last four games have alternated between these markers: 43mins, 39mins, 46mins, 37mins.

Roosters played Sea Eagles twice this year with a loss and a win. Whyte had 23mins in the loss and 21mins in the win, coming off the bench for both games. Whyte was efficient in both games vs Sea Eagles...

Round two loss: 6 runs - 70m @ 11.6m/run, 1 linebreak, 5 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 12 tackles @ 85.7%
Round 21 win: 5 runs - 50m @ 10m/run, 4 tackle breaks, 17 tackles @ 89.4%

Whyte earned an Aotearoa Kiwis call up last year after playing eight games and now he's rolled through 21 games this season. His two linebreaks this year are the first of his career and after three offloads last year, Whyte has registered 15 offloads this season. Despite tackling below 90% in the two games vs Sea Eagles this season, Whyte has a career-best 94.3% tackling which is his second season in a row over 94% tackling.

Last season Whyte averaged 90m/game and now he's averaging 81m/game, which is connected to the variety of game time he's had this year. In his 21 games, Whyte has seven with 100+ run metres and three of them are in his last four games. Sea Eagles have dominated opposition forward packs in recent weeks and Roosters will deploy a starting prop combo of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves/Lindsay Collins, which could give Whyte more opportunities to showcase his agility through the middle.

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