Workhorse Watch – Round 24
We made it! Grand Final week!
And thankfully yours truly is among those preparing for a decider this weekend. The Castle Hill Rams will take on the the Republic of Central Lavington Snuffmonkeys after putting the league’s defending champions, the Bass Straight Mean Machine, to the sword with a comprehensive 67-34 win thanks largely to six of the team’s eight forwards getting workhorse tries. The two players to miss out were Emre Guler and Andrew McCullough and while McCullough’s injury is not ideal, a ready made replacement in Manase Fainu sits waiting in the wings after scoring his fifth workhorse try of the season (in eight games) after getting 42 involvements against the Tigers.
The Snuffs meanwhile earned their passage thanks to a 55-46 come from behind win over minor premiers, the Mannering Park Mavericks. The Snuffs had five workhorse tries within their ranks scored by Daniel Saifiti (try/workhorse try double) Cam McInnes (65 involvements), Tim Glasby (48 involvements), Tohu Harris (42 involvements) and Aidan Guerra (46 involvements) whose contribution was stifled by a sin-binning. The Snuffs will be relieved though at the news that Rhyse Martin will play after coming off injured midway through Sunday’s game against the Dragons. His absence didn’t cost the Snuffmonkeys victory but they’ll need all the workhorse muscle they can muster against the Rams.
The Mavericks, like a lot of NRLCEO teams now out of the 2018 will be left to wonder what might have been with a number of their big names failing to fire. Herman Ese’se (16 WHT), Aaron Woods (14 WHT) and Lachlan Fitzgibbon (10 WHT) are all players in double digits this season, but they each fell shy of the 40 mark when it mattered most; although Fitzgibbon was as a result of injury. One can’t help but feel that the writing was on the wall for the Mavs when they left Jason Taumalolo out of the team by accident. The Mavs’ forward pack has been rubbish for many years but Taumalolo has always been the one shining light. Sure it’s NRLCEO, but not having him on the fantasy field clearly had an impact on the other players!
Workhorse of the Week:
A few weeks ago I put the call out asking where all the front rowers were at in terms of accumulating high involvements after needing to go well down the list of total involvements to find some props to include in the Team of the Week. This week we got two double workhorse efforts from props with Tolman also getting a career high 254 metres.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Aiden Tolman: 40 tackles + 22 hitups = 62
- Nathan Peats: 42 tackles + 10 hitups = 52
- Leeson Ah Mau: 50 tackles + 13 hitups = 63
- Matt Eisenhuth 54 tackles + 8 hitups = 62
- Tyson Frizell: 47 tackles + 10 hitups = 57
- Jake Trbojevic: 43 tackles + 13 hitups = 56
. - Jake Friend: 71 tackles + 4 hitups = 75
- Cameron McInnes: 60 tackles + 5 hitups = 65
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Josh McGuire: 28 tackles + 11 hitups = 39
Tevita Pangai Jr: 24 tackles + 15 hitups = 39
Josh Jackson: 32 tackles + 7 hitups = 39
George Burgess: 31 tackles + 8 hitups = 39
Issac Luke: 28 tackles + 11 hitups = 39
Reed Mahoney: 32 tackles + 7 hitups = 39
Matt Prior: 27 tackles + 12 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
Jake Friend got through a stack of work tallying a season high 71 tackles against the Broncos. Unfortunately he only had 4 runs (0.94 SPM) resulting in 27 metres meaning he missed out on a double workhorse try. Friend leads the league in tackles made (1066) but ranks 10th for total metres run by hookers this season and 16th for average metres run. With that being said, his meterage is the best it’s been since 2015 but there are still nine double workhorse tries that have gone begging this season because while the involvements were there, the metres were not.
Much higher on the metrage list is Cameron McInnes who ranks third for metres run and fourth for average metres among hookers this season. Against the Bulldogs he had 65 involvements in just 57 minutes for a huge SPM of 1.14. Despite suffering a concussion in that game, he has been named to play the Knights and there appears to be no indication that he won’t play other than the fact Reece Robson has been named on the Dragons’ extended bench.
It was a busy day for the Dragons on Sunday as the Bulldogs ran riot. All up there were eight workhorse tries scored by the Red V lead by Leeson Ah Mau who scored his first ever double workhorse try with 50 tackles and 13 runs (1.13 SPM) to go with 150 metres, and Luciano Leilua (56 involvements) who scored his third consecutive workhorse try (0.70 SPM). Even Jeremy Latimore (1.08 SPM) got in on the action scoring his first workhorse try of the season and his first since Round 2 of 2016.
JUST QUICKLY:
Good luck to the Castle Hill Rams’ namesake, the Woden Valley Rams who play Tuggeranong in the Grand Final of the Canberra Raiders Cup this weekend. Lead by prodigal son Lincoln Withers, playing one last season for his junior club before hanging up the boots, the Rams will be aiming to win their first premiership since 1996.
And be sure to check in next week for the fourth annual Workhorse Watch Awards aka ‘The Workies’.
Geoff Adams
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- 2018 Workhorse Watch Awards - September 3, 2018
- Workhorse Watch – Round 24 - August 29, 2018
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