Workhorse Watch – Round 8
A losing round of footy can feel very long, especially when a round goes from Wednesday to Sunday and you’re already out of the match by Wednesday night.
Such was the case when the two only undefeated teams in my league; my mighty Rams and Hamish Neal’s Mavericks from Mannering Park went head to head. Tragically it was all over for my Rams by the end of ANZAC Day with seven players providing a return of just nine points (including a kicker) while the Mavs had it in the bag with all of their players yet to take the field. The Mavs obliterated my poor blokes and that’s despite them not being able to find room in the side for Herman Ese’ese. In past years the Mavs’ pack was atrocious and would never be in a position to leave out a guy who now has six workhorse tries in eight games.
It’s been a huge start to the year for Ese’ese who last year had just three workhorse tries for the entire year.
A mammoth effort by Martin Taupau has seen the Sea Eagles enforcer score his first ever double workhorse try and take Workhorse of the Week honours. Taupau also ran for 229 metres to earn his first double metre eater of the season. How many NRLCEOs benefited from this remains to be seen though as Taupau only had two workhorse tries in the opening seven weeks and in the last month had registered total involvements that included two 38s and a 39. Frustrating!
It was a big weekend for the Papalii boys with both Josh and Isaiah scoring their first workhorse tries of 2018. For Isaiah it was his first ever as he made 29 tackles and 14 runs in the Warriors’ pummeling at the hands of Melbourne. Isaiah was the only Warriors forward to make over 100 metres and didn’t miss any tackles in the 50-10 massacre. Isaac Luke and Joseph Vuna were the only other Warriors who didn’t miss tackles but they only played 16 and 20 minutes respectively. Brother Josh notched up his first workhorse try of 2018 with 11 runs and 37 tackles.
Speaking of firsts, Luke Capewell was another player to score his first workhorse try of the season with 59 involvements against the Titans. Not only was Capewell a late inclusion in the side he played the full 80 minutes and was a perfect replacement for Wade Graham. Going into Round 8, Capewell was averaging just 36 minutes per game with back to back games in Rounds 4 and 5 where he only saw 16 minutes in each game.
Workhorse of the Week:
Martin Taupau. As noted above, Taupau was enormous for Manly posting the biggest numbers of his career. His metres gained was his highest since Round 23, 2016.
WORKHORSE PACK OF THE WEEK
- Daniel Alvaro: 46 tackles + 15 hitups = 61
- Mitch Rein: 49 tackles + 6 hitups = 55
- Martin Taupau: 41 tackles + 22 hitups = 63
- Luke Capewell: 44 tackles + 15 hitups = 59
- Ryan James: 50 tackles + 9 hitups = 58
- Jake Trbojevic: 43 tackles + 18 hitups = 61
- Angus Crichton: 38 tackles + 20 hitups = 58
- Matt Eisenhuth 48 tackles + 10 hitups = 58
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
James Graham: 28 tackles + 11 hitups = 39
Issac Liu: 34 tackles + 5 hitups = 39
STATS PER MINUTE
He’s back! After his devastating injury in last year’s Grand Final, Shaun Fensom made his return to the NRL and while he didn’t get a workhorse try, his workrate, as usual, was top notch. Fensom had 32 involvements in as many minutes (1.00 SPM) as the Cowboys were handed their sixth loss of the season, going down to Fensom’s old team.
Last week we highlighted the fortunes of Scott Sorensen who came agonisingly close to a workhorse try on debut. It was more bad news this week as once again he came super close, this time with 38. His workrate lifted slightly as he only played 72 minutes (0.53 SPM) but alas not enough to get a four pointer.
Are we seeing a new contender for King of the Close but No Cigar Club?
Speaking of which, Tim Mannah also finished with 38 this week but he did it in 42 minutes (0.91 SPM).
Josh McGuire’s great run this season has come to an end with the versatile forward missing out on a workhorse try for the first time this season after going down with an ankle injury. McGuire is averaging 45 involvements in 63.6 minutes per game this season (0.71 SPM) which is slightly down on last year (0.79 SPM) but almost as effective. McGuire was filling in for the injured Andrew McCullough who fortunately may be back by as soon as this week providing a major boost for NRLCEOs.
He’s been threatening for a couple of weeks with scores of 36 and 38 and on Friday Jack Gosiewski registered his first ever workhorse try. Gosiewski played the full 80 minutes for the third week in a row and had 37 tackles and 8 runs (0.56 SPM). Unfortunately Gosiewski also missed 5 tackles which followed the 6 he missed last week against Parramatta. Coach Trent Barrett might have been willing to let the errors in the Eels game slide but he can ill afford to have a back rower missing that many tackles on a regular basis with Manly now on a four game losing streak.
Geoff Adams
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