#36 - QLD u19s look SCARY, and what forwards do Manly have coming through

Another huge one covering a variety of topics from the QLD lock killing it in Mal Meninga cup, to the Manly NSW cup forwards worth keeping an eye on. 

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Transcript

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the short ball podcast for another week of Junior Reps Action, New South Wales Cup, Queensland Cup, NRL. Everything to cover on this week's episode. And we'll straight get straight into it with our performances of the week across a number of different grades. We'll start off with our Harold Matthews player of the week. That was Oliver Burton, 205 metres, three line break, assists, two line breaks, one try. He put on an absolute clin against the Bulldogs there. He was very dynamic. He was just at his destructive best when he was running the ball. Out of the back of shape, looked just threatening the whole day there. Josiah Papa, he was the SG ball player of the week for this week. I don't have the full stat sheet, but based on the highlights that I watched back when I was preparing the post, two tries, one line break assist, one assist, one try assist, and one line break. I believe he could have had more line break assists just from memory of watching the game. And maybe another line break. Don't not certain on the line break part, but um line break assists, I definitely thought he had more than one. Um and he also had 160 run meters, but at the time of um collating all that data, I didn't have access to any of the stats really. Um Bishop Neal in Jersey Fleg was the player of the round throughout the whole entirety of the pathways. The Warriors back rower, 17 years old, playing against under 21s. We'll talk about him a little bit later. Um ran for 220 metres, scored a try, had a try assist, three line breaks as well. Um, getting up there in Jersey Flag. He's been lighting it up there, and he will debut in New South Wales Cup this week, which is going to be exciting to see. At just 17 years old, he was the player of the match in the Howard Matthews grand final last year, some of you may remember. Um, so he's definitely one to keep an eye on there. New South Wales Cup, my performance of the round, it was tough to split, um, but I've ended up going with Jet Cleary's performance for the Warriors against the Raiders. Um, he just controlled uh that, you know, he controlled that Warriors team to perfection in that game. You'd look at the lead up to a lot of the tries, he had his hands in it at some point or another. Uh, he had a try, three runs for 61 metres. So every single time he decided to run the ball, it was damaging, didn't run it often, but when he did, it was effective. Um, he had seven tackle breaks, again, alluding to how effective his running game was when he used it. Two line breaks, one line break assist as well. Um, he didn't actually record any try assists, but he didn't really have the last pass or last kick to any tries, but he did do a lot of the lead-up work um for those. So um yeah, he had a really good game there, Jet Cleary um at halfback for the Warriors. Then in Queensland Cup, my performance of the week was Ben Farr, the winner Manley fullback. Um he was at the Warriors as well. Um, so really three plays in a row that have all been involved with the Warriors, either currently or formally. Um, but yeah, Ben Farr, he had two tries, three line breaks, three line break assists, one try assist, 21 runs for 185 meters, eight tackle breaks and two offloads. He absolutely carved up up there. He did a preseason with the Broncos. Um, I believe he's starting to get sorta, sorta towards 23, 24 years old now, maybe, um, Ben Farr. But he's certainly one um, you know, that's been carving up the the reserve grade for um a little while now. And um, yeah, he's just continuing to dominate up a Queensland Cup level, one that probably deserves a chance um you know sooner rather than later. He has had to wait a long time, but um, you know, he's a guy that's um, you know, if you've been watching reserve grade for the last couple of years, you know, some of the Warriors sides that he was in, um, Queensland Cup now that he's I think he's been up there two years, he's a he's a very solid player, Ben Farr. Um, my first game that I'm gonna talk about, and I sort of do start off with talking about a Queensland sort of feature. Last week we were speaking about um we were speaking about uh Tweed Seagulls, Townsville Blackhawks, those teams up there in Malmaninga Cup. The week before that, we're talking about North Devils um and you know the performances that some of those players put in this week. I want to speak about the highlight game of Winner Manly versus Burley Bears, Malmaninga Cup. Um I watched this back on Monday night. Um you know I look through the round and sort of find out a couple of games that are really interesting, go back and watch them. So, you know, when North Devils put 70 on the Sunshine Coast Falcons. I watched that back um when, you know, um another game last week, I forget which one it was. Um that I watched oh, Calvin Harris DeVitas game for winner manly as well. So a couple of winner manly um points coming up of late. Um I watched, you know, just to you know get a gauge of what's going up in Queensland and when games interest me. This game was really, really high quality, and you know, it looked that way on paper. You know, I'm looking at these lineups, and there's a lot of high-quality players that I already know from you know the last couple of years of covering the junior grades, and then you know, full-time score of 24-22, and and Peyton Gifford, who was down here in Sydney playing for the Roosters last year in Howard Matthews, he's up there absolutely killing it for winner Manley at the moment. He scores the game winner in this one. Um, so yeah, we just gotta highlight a few players from that. First one, guy that you know I I've been a big fan of for a while. Last year, I rated him the number one schoolboy in the country. Um, he's under 18s at the moment, playing in that Malmaninga Cup side and age up for the Burley Bears. Scored a match winning try or set up the match winning try, had a line break and passed on to set up the match winning try for Burley and the Malmaninga Cup final, and he did that after being the player of the match in the Cyril Connell Grand Final, which is under 17. So he played two age groups up last year in the Malmaninga Cup grand final and made a game-winning play. That's Tupu Francis. Um, in this game, it wasn't, you know, his um most dominant, best game, whatever. He was very, very good in this game, and you know, he was probably top three on the field. I just really liked his defensive detail and his communication, something that I haven't been able to pick up before because you know, most of the time you pick that stuff up when you're watching a game live at the ground. Um, I certainly pick up a lot of that when I'm going around to different Howard Matthews SG ball, flag, cup. When I'm going to those games live, I definitely pick up a lot more of that, and I get to see who, you know, who's allowed talkers in defense, who's you know, holding this defensive line together, which fullbacks are doing that the best, which fullbacks are counting numbers, uh, which defenders are counting numbers, which defenders are you know, getting others to um shuffle across and and make cover plays and all that sort of stuff. For Tupu Francis in this game, the the camera was low, angled right, and you could just see him. There was multiple times he's just controlling his defensive line. Um, you know, he just covered space so well. Um, there was one um particular example that I can pull up now where he you know there was a bit of a scattered ruck, um, a couple of bodies down, he's in an A defender, he's holding tight to stop the um to stop, you know, a try going past him. As soon as that ball goes past him, releases so quickly and allows his outside men time to get across, they shut down the play on the other side, and the whole time he's pointing people to where they need to be, yelling like loud as he can and communicating really well. And you know, those little details are I think are really important for you know a lock forward to have defending through the middle there, and I think it's something that's a really positive trait of his. In this game, though, like in terms of things that you can visually um see, um, you know, in terms of the quality of play that he had, 133 run meters, 39 tackles, he put on a massive 70-minute shift through the middle, scored a try that um went, you know, got them ahead 22-18, probably should have been 24-18, missed kick from pretty much right in front. Um, but then you know, from there, when Balin Noy, and I'll get to him, he makes a line break, puts in a kick in behind for Peyton Gifford. There's one guy that's back there that's able to put hands on Gifford, and that's Tupu Francis, after putting in, you know, I think at this point 62 minutes in the middle, sprints back, gets hands on him, nearly comes up with a tri-saver, just falls short of stopping him before the line, but he put an awesome stint through the middle there, Tupu Francis. And I stand on it, I think he was the best schoolboy in last year's age group. He didn't make the Australian schoolboys side mental in a Queensland side that won the whole thing, pretty much dominated every single game, dominated CCC in the final for the most part. They had two Queenslanders make that Australian schoolboys team. Tupo Francis wasn't one of them, and I think he was probably the best schoolboy in that age group last year. Um more players, Kobe McGarraty. He's a proper footballer, his effort on effort defense. I think he's gonna be one, you know, might not play this year, next year he'll be in origin under 19 gone. Um I'm I'm a really big fan of the work that he puts in both sides of the ball. He he damages with his carries and puts in a lot of work there. Um, but defensively, very, very strong player, um, and his effort areas are very, very high. It's it's right up there. I'm I'm very impressed with him as a footballer. Sort of noticed him last year in Search Connell. He was in Dean Towers' side. So he's gonna be one to watch out of this winner manly team. I spoke about Peyton Gifford, um Balin Noy, he's another one to watch. I'm pretty sure he's in the Queensland under 19's emergency squad as well. He played centre for Winnham in this game. Um he scored the first try, ran a very good line, and then he set up the game winner with his second line break for the game. Um, you know, went through, put that kick inside for Gifford, who ended up going in and scoring to win them the game. So Balin Noy, Coban McGarrity, Peyton Gifford, Tupu Francis follow them out of this game. SG Ball, let's get to it. Um, Elijah Bervay for the Panthers, he has kicked himself four points clear on my player of the year rankings. Obviously, that's not the be-all and end all. That's not you know who determines um the player of the year. But I I think personally, from my watching of this SG Ball competition following every single game, Elijah Burve's been the best player in the competition this year so far. Hayden Watson would be right up there had it not been for the couple of weeks that he missed. Um, but yeah, the Panthers halfback, he he just put in another masterclass again. If he's not in this team, they're you know, they're certainly not four and one. They might be two and three without him. He's put in two performances now that he had to be there for them to win. Um against Canberra, he came up with the match winner, scored two tries there. He scored two tries in this game as well. Um he didn't score the match winner in this one, but he scored in the lead up during the comeback. Um really classy try for his first one as well. Um, you know, where he beat a couple of defenders and then got to the fullback and just left him grasping it air. And then his second try got an offload from Leo Latu, who was really good in this game. I'm so impressed with Leo Latu this year. Um, you know, I sort of tipped him as a guy to have a massive season coming into this year. He trolled enormous. Alright, we'll see where we left off when that light just rudely interrupted. But um, yeah, Leo Latu, I tipped him to have a huge year coming into this season. He trolled really well, been a guy who over the last few years and Howard Matthews I've thought has had a lot of ability, but maybe not used correctly. Yeah, next game, or next talking point that I had here wasn't really from a game, um, just something generally over the weekend. Could we see a Roosters vs Rabbidos matchup in the SG Ball grand final? I really like the prospect of that happening. Um, they're the two best teams in the competition at the moment. The Parramatarials have fallen off. We'll talk about them in a second. Um, you know, they haven't fallen off's harsh. Um, but they're not, you know. Well, fallen off's probably accurate. It's harsh, but it's accurate. Um and yeah, the Rabidos killing it. I've had them as a smokey all year. I think smokey is now a um, you know, it's not the right term to describe them. They are the genuine, full-package premiership ready deal. Um, and the Roosters all year they've just been the number one seed and they continue to do so. Um, they just beat the Raiders, who've been somewhat competitive this year, 56 points to nil. And the Rabidos on the weekend beat the Parramatta Reels 44 points to 10. Now we'll talk about that from a Rabidos perspective first, which is only fair because they've they were the far better team in this game. Um this side has so much strike across the park, and I think they've found the key to it with Isaac Fotsumwala and Taj Alvarez in the halves. Isaac Fotsumwala is killing it at halfback the last two weeks. This week he had an unbelievable game there. Um, I think he got my two points for this game. Taj Alvarez scored a hat-trick. Um, so you just had you know these two guys who, you know, for me it was sort of the the play to have them as your your halves. Isaac Fotsumwala's kicking game's been good. Um, you know, he's created plenty of attacking opportunities. Dane Jennings is getting good ball off of him, Dean Tao is getting good ball off both Alvarez and Fotsumuala. Uh it's just all these things are coming together nicely for them. Phil Lavicjaho and Cody Hill are having unreal seasons through the middle. Phil Lavacchiho has probably been the form front rower in flag, uh in in ball, sorry, not flag. Um, you know, you've obviously got Charleston Torore who's been really good for the Roosters. Um, Christian Tapel Moores has been good for Magpies, you know, the last couple of weeks. But yeah, Phil Lavacchiho throughout the whole year has probably been right up to the right up the tippity top. If he's not first, he's certainly top three. Um and you know, I spoke about Cody Hill last week, he needing to be in the New South Wales 19 side. So this is a team that just has all the right components to it, and the fact that this Fortumuala at halfback has really worked for him. I I think they're gonna be a proper premiership threat. Um more so um, you know, to that point, they're they've moved, you know, Isaac Fortumailer to half back and Alvarez since Alvarez has been back, Alvarez has been six, Fortuneweiler at seven, they were having they had Bailey Gray and Forty Mila in the hub. So before that since since that move has been made, they just beat the Eels, who have been the top team in the comp, or you know, top two team in the comp so far this season. They just beat them 44 to 10 in one of the most clinical displays we've seen this season, and then the week before that they beat Manley 38 points to six. And and just you know from that sample size, they've put on 82 points and conceded 16. It's it is dominant to the level of what the Roosters have done. I want to see them over the last couple of weeks. I think they got a pretty soft draw home, um, and you know they've really powered through the first couple of weeks. I think they are they still unbeaten, the Rabbidos. They might stay unbeaten if they are. Yeah, they are both teams. Roosters, Rabidos, Storm are all undefeated in this competition this year. Storm have got the Panthers next. That's a big test. Panthers who are four and one, their only loss came up against the Roosters. Six wins, zero losses for all three of those teams. That's going to be awesome. I will talk about the Storm a little bit later as well. Um, but their biggest test comes up against the Panthers this week, but they've been clinical all year. Paramount has fallen down to six, three wins, one draw, one loss. They need to get their act together in the last three rounds. Um, but I'll talk about them in a second as well. Um, for the Rabbitos, Dane Jennings, he scored another freakish try on the weekend. To be completely honest with you, I watched that try when I, you know, when I was doing my rewatches, I think I think that was on that game Saturday night or Sunday night. Um, you know, it was you know late, late in the day, one of the days on the weekend. When I watched that try for the first time, I just thought of went, yeah, standard. Like I was like, oh yeah, that's that's a good try. It wasn't didn't particularly blow me away from the standards that Dane Jennings has set for himself in terms of highlight reel plays. He's got the best highlights real in junior rugby league, Dane Jennings. I've been saying that for a while. The work that he was doing at Central Coast, he should have a statue out of the front of there for the work that he put in in the schoolboys um competition there. He was really just untouchable on his day coming through the grades. What I've really been impressed with Dane Jennings this season, I think it's been his best year in South Colours, and I think it's been his best year in South Colours because every single week he has been really, really good for them. Carrying the ball, you know, creating attack and defensively, all those things. He he's been really it's clear that he's worked on his game a lot. This time last year, a couple weeks, month, month or so later, but last year, SG ball season, they versed Parramatta at Redfern in a preliminary final. Dame Jennings had a stinker that day. He probably would have had three or four errors defensively, wasn't great. Probably, you know, one of the worst games I'd seen him play. And I go, well, you know, you you take the good with the bad with this guy, and the Rabbidos generally, they you know, they played shocking that day. It's not particularly his fault. He was trying his heart out that day. He had a couple of runs that were unreal, but he just had so many errors, um, and it was just a really you know inconsistent and poor performance generally versus the Eels on the weekend at Redfern Oval, you know, same team, team that's you know was arguably going better, or if not equal to last year's Eels side. You know, a lot of guys from that Eels side are now just a year older. A lot of the key players, Cameron Bamblett's still there, Lincoln Fletcher's still there, all a year older, Ryder Talungi's still there, you know. He dominated his opposite matchup. Nathan Howlett is no scrub defensively. He marked up Louie Lee last year in the SG Ball grand final and did a really good job there. He then beats, you know, some very, very poor efforts. Um, I thought defensively from some of the Paramount middles. Um, and then you know he breaks into the backfield. Cameron Bamblett, an Australian schoolboy fullback, is coming across. Again, pretty poor defense, if you ask me, close to the sideline, 10 to 15 metres out against a guy who, you know, it's no secret how strong Dane Jennings is and and his ability to come up with highlight plays. I just don't see the need to go high on him from that position, slap the slap the arm down, or just try and take the legs, trust one of your cover of tackles to come across if he does try and get that offload away. But with how close you were starting to get to the sideline, it's probably just make the tackle at that point, goes high, gets palmed off. But moral of the story really is that Dane Jennings this year has evolved his game to another level, and I think it culminated. You know, last week he was my player of the week in SG ball. This week he comes back to Redfern Oval against a team that he had probably one of his worst games against last season in the preliminary final, and he carves them up with one of the tries of the year. And a try that, you know, I looked at it and went, Yeah, Dane Dane Jennings. Uh South Sydney Rabbitos posted their um posted that try and said, Is this the craziest try you've ever seen? I don't know if I'd rank it in the top three Dane Dane Jennings tries I've ever seen. This kid's so exciting from a highlights real perspective, and everything else has just come together this year. He'll play cup before the end of the year, in my opinion. I think he's at that level. Um and you never know with South Sydney's injury curse, could find himself in first grade at some point. Um, I don't think he will. I think he probably, you know, next season is he's gonna be a great prospect for South's first grade side, I think. Um my next note started off with Eels Bin. Um so that's about What I'm feeling about this side at the moment. But nah, they got a soft run home. They should win the next three games. I think to be completely fair to them, although if you're talking about winning a comp, maybe not something that's worth being fair about. But Jackson Coiner, Sam Polly both went down in that Steelers game. They were up 24-12 when Polly went off, and they were up 6-0 when Koiner went off. And Coiner's been, you know, probably their best player all year through the middle. From that point, you know, Steelers go on to draw that game, and then this week they have no coiner, they have no poly, and they just got carved up through the middle. So yeah, I think that's played a huge role. I think it's played this week the 44-10 score line. That's not something that Jackson Coiner and Sam Polly can fix as good as they are. Um I thought some of their key players had really, really poor performances. Um, and I think you know, these last three weeks, they need to play 70 minutes of their best footy through the next three weeks, dismantle the sides, get some confidence back up, and for me, I need to see them play that 70 minutes because last year they had similar issues as well. They just have 15 to 20 minute periods that they just take off. They did it this year, start of the season as well. Sharks, you know, that 40 to 16 win looked really impressive at the time. It's not aging all that well. Storm put 50 on them on the weekend, and in the first half an hour, it was a really tight game. Parramatta took the first half off, second half blew them away, put it put together a 10 out of 10 second half, but that first half was pretty lackluster. Um, you know, against Baumain Tigers, similar sort of story, blew them away in the second half, had the first half off. Last year, they had that similar issue. They got to the grand final, and what happens? They're up 26 to 18, should win the game, switch off, and the Roosers finish off stronger than them. Um, so yeah, I think they need to get that together if they want to win the competition because that's the standard that I have for this Paramount side, and a lot of people have been telling me Paramount will win it, Paramount will win it. They got the best team, they're doing this, they're doing that. That was true for the first three rounds, but got beat by Steelers and they were listless against the Rabbidoes. Rabido's clearly are the better team than them right now. Um, so they've got to improve 34 points, and you know, Jackson Coyner and Sam Polly coming back into the side, if they come back into the side, um will certainly help them. Um but actually let me have a look at the team list and see if either of them were named. Um I keep forgetting to that the team lists are actually a thing by the time I record these games, uh, record these podcasts. Um so in yeah, we've got nah neither of them are back yet. Um so they're still running a similar forward pack to last week. Is there anybody from last week's team that's been dropped? Nope. Um, not based on the teamless yet, anyway. Um but yeah, they've got Warriors, Central Coast, and um Bulldogs on the run home. I expect them to probably be winning all three of those games. Uh and then yeah, we'll see how they go from there. But at the moment, they're probably they could be even as low as my fifth seed to win the comp at the moment, fourth seed, probably. Um, I need to see great improvement out of them from what they've dished up the last two weeks. And I sort of started to mention it last week. Um, yeah, they've they've fallen off a cliff in terms of being the premiership heavyweight. Roosters, they're there. Probably rabbido's are right up there as well. Storms hunting around that part. I need to see them play a really top opposition. Um, you know, Panthers there and thereabouts. Elijah Burve's been unreal this year. He could take them all the way. Um, you know, that right edge as a whole, Ford pack's been good. Um, they're, you know, parameter, probably around where the Panthers are, maybe even below them. Um in terms of you know what they've dished up so far this year. Um Storm, they continue to be clinical. They've got a great matchup against the Panthers loading this week. Um let's go have a look at the team list for that while I'm here. Um, that's at H. E. Laybutt over at Blacktown Workers. Um just looking at this team list. Cedric Pete Tefole is playing nine. Owen Knowles has been moved to six. I don't hate that, to be completely honest. Um, and Cruz Death is back on the interchange bench, which I like as well. He's able to create uh points there. Hunter Bell out, Nathaniel Tolu out. Uh Nathaniel Tolu played Fleg last week, didn't he? Um let me have a look back at last week's team list. Yeah, I think Tolu played Fleg. Yeah, they ch they made that change last week as well, sorry. Um because I seen Nathaniel Tolu went up to play Fleg. Um but yeah, really interesting matchup loading there. No changes from the Storm. Um they usually post their official team list a little bit later in the week. That goes up on their Instagram. Um about you know, midweek or whatever. Um, but yeah, this is going to be a really interesting contest between those two sides. Storm, they beat the sharks 50 points to six. Um, you know, usual suspects, Hayden Watson was really good. Liddamu was really good out in the centres. Um Latrell Cords, he's been good on the wing. Um, you know, Max Tokoval was really good in this game uh as well. Um he had a lot of really nice contributions. The outside backs all scored doubles except for Matthew Coretti. So Zeph uh Zefaniah Farmuina, Joseph Lidadamy, Latrell Cords all scored doubles um on the weekend. Uh I thought their bench was really good in this game. Came on the field, Elijah Po Ching, um Jaden Matatomua, he scored a try. Elijah Po Ching, I thought was really good. Um in this one, he brought a lot of impact off the bench. Isaiah Savia up front, he was very good as well. Um, he was in my team of the week in the front row, he just damaging best in that first 20 minutes, really laid the platform, controlled the middle. So, yeah, this storm side with their halves on fire. Hayden Watson's been, you know, one of the premier plays in this competition. I think they're gonna be one of the teams to beat here. Talking point I had from SG Ball was just the Large Brothers carving up again. Um, Honatoni Large was uh enormous in this contest against the Magpies. They won 44 to 26. Him and his halves partner, uh Bo Alexander were very good. Uh Lang on tries, uh on a Tony scored one. Yeah, he scored one late. Um, he had a couple of line breaks as well. Don't have any stats in front of me at the moment, so I can't really suggest anything there. Bo Alexander, I thought, was enormous in the seven jersey in this game. Um and Ashton Large just out of dummy half him and on Atoni Lingy up again. Um you know, Ashton Large's running gamers, so elite at the moment. Um always has been defensively. He's a really strong defender. Um, so yeah, those two were very good again as Manley carved up the Magpies. Um 44 to 26. Magpies, you know, not the worst performance from them. Aaron Payer thought was good. Um Phoenix Godnay Bagda late trials, nice bit of work there. Um, but yeah, they just sort of were never really in the contests, you know. Sort of when Aaron Pay scored that first try, they went level. But um, you know, apart from that, there was a you know, a 10 10 to 20 minute period where uh Manley just was sort of all over him, um, kicked away to a pretty decent lead, um, and they just continued to do so. Magpies, um, I think that uh Javon Lele try in the 50th minute or so, I think that brought it back to about a six-point gap, but like 18 to 4 at half time. Um, and then yeah, it was just yeah, I never really got the feeling that um Manley would get beaten in this game. They're up there, they'll be in the finals, I think. Um if on Antonio Large stays in this side, um, because obviously he could go up to Fleg and New South Wales Cup. I should actually check um to see and make sure that he's still in the side. Um, because like I said earlier, I always seem to forget that team lists are actually an option here. Yeah, he's still in the side, him and Bo Alexander, um, which it is, you know, it's tough to see that um um Lochland Metcalf gone for the season, but yeah, we'll see how we go there. Um Howard Matthews, first talking point in the obvious one. The Knights, their win over the Panthers was very good. Um they dominated this game, really. Um, you know, errors from the Panthers, they weren't at their absolute best. Um, what was their completion rate in this one? 69%, yeah. They're 18 for 26, not great. They got dominated possession-wise 58 to 42. It was just the knights in firm control of this game. Seven line breaks to one is a huge stat. The missed tackles is about the same. In fact, 44 to 40. A lot of these numbers are very similar, but the run meters is big dominance towards the knights, the completion rate, possession, and then line breaks. Like it just going straight through the knight's scramble defense, really good. Um, in this one, to keep a side like the Panthers to ten points, you've got to be on, and they were Ryder Tupo was enormous in this game. Malachi Fave, Eli out wide as well. He was very good for the Newcastle Knights. Uh, Cade Mackay, he was very good. Um who got my three points? Yeah, no, it was Ryder Tupo who got my um three points in this game. He had a had little stinch straight out of the the halftime break, threw a really nice cutout ball to put, I think it was Nate Vinson over. Uh he had a couple of try assists to uh he had a try assist to Malachi 5-8 Eli as well. So um yeah, good from them. They're now six and oh, or they might be five and oh, but they lead the Howard Matthews competition. Um themselves and the Panthers, they were both undefeated going into that contest. Now the Knights are the only undefeated team, which sort of puts into context the fact that we've got three SG ball sides that are undefeated at the moment, and with how strong that competition is. Um Panthers still second, Rabido's Steelers are breathing down their necks at the moment. Um, they're both on five wins and one loss. Panthers obviously um have already had a bye, um, so those other sides do still have a buy to come. Only two more games left, whereas the Panthers have three. Um, so yeah, it's gonna be an interesting finish to the season in Harold Matthews. Um next point was South. They got out of jail against the Parramatta Reels again. Um, like I said last week, winning is a habit, and the Souths have gotten themselves into the habit well and truly. And the Parramatta Eels have gotten into the uh not the habit, but there's a pattern forming of losing games that they should not be losing. Um just very tough, unfortunate losses for the Eels in the last two weeks. Games where they've been the better side uh both times, but just have not been able to close it out. And you know, are you the better side if you're not switched on in that final minute? Probably not. Um you you either put a team away or you're good for the full sixty minutes and win the game. But uh yeah, this one came down to a Benjamin Wright flick pass back inside for Peyton Tutto, uh, who scored in the corner. He had a little bit of a mixed bag in this game. The first 50 minutes, I thought he was the best on ground. I was close to giving my three points, and had I done so, he'd be six points ahead at the moment. Um, but then sort of that last five to ten minutes, he was a little bit um, you know, a little bit iffy, come up with a few don't want to say hero plays, but um, you know, low percentage plays, um, chip and chases that didn't work that led to Parramata getting the field goal. Uh he threw a pretty silly cutout ball at one point. Um he had another play, uh, I think the flick pass, yeah. He made a he made a line break or he was supporting a line break and then um he went to flick pass it back inside. I just thought it was a little bit of a forced rush play, especially when the scores were 10 all. Um so just a couple of those, you know, all or nothing big plays he was going for. Um, but you know, apart from that, he was very good again. And you know, I was saying it in SG ball with Elijah Burbat, he's probably locked up that SG ball player of the year, or you know, he's he's certainly a long way in front. And Peyton Taddell's probably done the same thing in Howard Matthews. I think there's a clear two options um for the player of the year in both of those competitions. Um worth mentioning yet. Hayden Bell was very good for the Parramatorials in this game. Um, I thought he was, you know, probably the best on ground you know over the course of the full game. Charlie Bait up, he was very good for Souse. He looked super dangerous the whole game. Harry Dory had some nice moments, Benjamin Wright right up there. Um Lorima CSCU uh was very good as well. Uh defensively come up with a few really nice stops. Um, him and Diesel Galonta had a really nice running battle going there. Um, so yeah, that was good to watch this game. Um but we'll move on to Balmain versus the Warriors. Now I don't have as many talking points for Howard Matthews, it's sort of um getting a little bit repetitive, but um what I do have here in terms of one of the um games that don't really have too much consequence on the finals, Tigers Warriors, Thomas O'Royan had one of the best games of the week, gave the Tigers a win. Uh if it wasn't for Oliver Burton, Thomas O'Royan probably nearly goes player of the week. Um, you know, he was right up there as one of the best players in Howard Matthews. Um, I think he was on my bench for team of the week, but again, because Oliver Burton was in front of him. Um two tries, had a lot of really classy, just classy touches. I think he laid on the Sioni Mayer try, um, which I have no way of checking at the moment, but just an all-round good win for the the Tigers. The Warriors came to play, split possession, 86 to 84% completion rate, run meters, Warriors actually dominated it, which you know that feels right because Kenny LaFatura uh Kenny Lafatuane was very good in this game through the middle. Tusi Fanalua had his moments um playing in the back row. Uh so yeah, they they came to play the Warriors, and the Tigers were just that little bit better when it counted. Um, the goal kicking was good. Zach Bacharik, uh Bacharo, Bacaro pro apologies if the pronunciation is wrong there, but um, he comes up with the match winning try after you know being very threatening um throughout the course of the game. Um yeah, you look at all these stats, all the stats lean towards Warriors being better in this game. But the Tigers came up with a win that, and I think it was Thomas O'Royan who was the difference. Um, that little bit of touch of class from him out the back at fullback uh went a long way to them winning this game, the Baumain Tigers. Um, New South Wales Cup, let's move on to that. The Warriors were big, big winners here, 44 points to 12. Their forward pack was unreal in this game. Um, you know, led by Cooper Page Wilson, who was in my team of the week. Um, they also had, as I'm trying to load this game up, um I thought off the bench there was a couple of really good involvements. Rodney Tupolotu Veya and uh Tepa Lalmalilli. They came off the bench and had really good stints. Um, we'll bring up the numbers of some of those props that I've just mentioned. Um Cooper Page Wilson, 14 for 148, 57 post contact. I thought his defence was good as well. He had three offloads. The offloads were the killer thing. Um, he had a couple of nice moments close to the line, getting offloads away and creating a little bit of broken play for the Warriors to play off the back of. Um, what was his defensive numbers? Well, I mean, only 12 tackles made for the one miss. So um, you know, 44 minutes tint wasn't as good as I probably thought. Um, Ronnie Torpellut, 27 minutes played, seven for 71. Um, you know, he was just really impactful with each of his runs off the bench. And Teppelal Malillo, what was his numbers? Six runs for 68 in about 26 minutes. So I thought some of those guys had really good games. And you could see the forward pack dominance with their run meters, 1725 run meters to 1140, just complete and other domination both sides of the ball. Um, Geronimo Doyle was really good in this game. I believe he topped the run meter count. Yes, he did with 197. Um, yeah, he just looked really good returning the football. Uh, he had a couple of nice moments. He didn't really have the huge attacking highlights. Um, that was sort of more saved to the outside backs, but he did have a try assist. Um, it was, you know, Olofi Khan Pereira was two tries, Kalos Potoko uh two tries, Hazen Meller's two tries. Hazen Meller's aerial threat was unreal in this game. Um, you know, Kalas Potoco, he he's been doing some really nice things across Flagged New South Wales Cup over the last um, you know, two seasons. Very good player there. I had him in my uh New Zealand under 19 side when I was doing a um mock side there um two years ago. He was playing up at the Gold Coast. I can't remember what feeder side he was in, he might have been in Tweed Seagulls, so he's coming along really nicely at the moment. Um, is the Warriors center. And I mentioned Jet Cleary's game earlier. Um, all those guys, big watches this season, they've been very good. I thought Owen Paddy was good for the Raiders despite this big loss. Um, I do think he, you know, he scored a try, but that wasn't over what impressed me. His running game was good when he decided to go three runs, 38 there. Um, you know, defensively he got through a shitload of work, 37 tackles. Um he did have a couple of misses, but you know, they were getting dominated through the middle, so you can forgive that from a number nine. Um, you know, his kicking games obviously a big watch as always. Um, but yeah, not too much to sort of um bring up regarding the uh Raiders because I thought it was a little bit of a disappointing performance. Um the next game was the Bears versus the Magpies. The Bears got away with a 26 to 16 win. Um, I didn't watch this game. Um, like I said last week, New South Wales Cup myself and AJ Luke Antonio um from League League scene pod. We have been um splitting you know the workload with New South Wales Cup, um doing our 3-2-1s, Teams of the Week, and all that sort of stuff. Um, but for this contest, Bears won 26-16. Amaran Gudgian um got the three points in this game. Um, he had a try, try assist, 26 runs for 247 meters and zero errors at fullback. Very impressive. Um, Charlie Murray, he got two points. He was uh you know really good in this contest. I actually bring up his stats because I didn't write them down. Um he was through the middle for the Magpies, he's been very good for the Tigers this season. 11 runs, 112 run meters, um, 43 post contact, one line break, two tackle breaks, um, three offloads. Obviously, must have been very dangerous through the middle there, 41 tackles made. Um, you know, fantasy points aren't anything, but he led the fantasy points throughout the whole game with 76. Um, and other notes, Phil Makatoa, um, sorry, was very good as well. Um, he had a try, 12 runs for 108, a line break, a try assist, um, three tackle breaks, and his defensive work, 21 for four misses. But he got the one point in this game. Um, did Phil Makatoa. Um, I'll move on to the next one. One of my games, Dragon Storm, 42 points to 26. This was a uh Big attacking game for both sides. I thought the front rowers for the Dragons really set this game up. That was Jacob Webster and Loco Pacific Tonga through the middle. Enormous. Jacob Webster, both sides of the ball. He had a lot of really high quality work. I think he had about 15 runs for 180 meters, which was huge. Lockho had very similar numbers. They both played, you know, relatively big minutes. Locko played 52, Jacob Webster 63 straight up through the middle. Look at Loco's post-contact meters, 80 from 16 carries. That's an average of five post-contact per carry. And Jacob Webster's got very similar numbers there as well. Defensively, I thought Jacob Webster got through a heap of work on top of that. He got my two points in this game. He got through 37 tackles compared to Lockho's 16 at a better tackle efficiency. That was probably the difference. Errors, I don't think either of them had any errors as well. So yeah, they killed it through the middle, those two. Joseph O'Neal was my player of the match. He scored three tries, so you know, that makes it sound very obvious. But I just thought he was a live wire in attack the whole time. He looked very sharp. He looked like they couldn't really contain him. He had a line break assist and a line break on top of the three tries, which I think one of the tries was him just supporting back off a break that he started. Another one was, I think, off a kick of his forced an error, and he was supporting back through the middle. So yeah, he did a lot of really good quality work in terms of putting points on it, and he had zero errors on top of that. Did Joseph O'Neill? So he was very good. Obviously, a recruit that's come over from the Bulldogs. Um other good performances in this, Taurus Tyrell Sloan. I thought it tacked really well. Um didn't get through as much work as last week, but he looked dangerous. Luke Cesari for the Melbourne Storm. I've written down here finals LeBron performance, which for any um NBA fans, they'll understand that reference. A uh unreal performance and a losing side, three tries, 211 run meters from 16 carries, four line breaks, 10 tackle breaks, two offloads. Yeah, that's that sounds about right. And uh only the one error out on the wing there. So a top performance from Luke Cesari as well. Um, as I move on to the next game, the Jets uh won 38 points to 16. Um I didn't write down the 3-2-1 for this one. This was another one of AJ's games. Um Nephi Peru was at his absolute creative best in this game. I saw some of the highlights. Um, he got the three points in this one. He had a couple of unreal passes to put on tries. Um, Zachary Clark was very good in this game. He made our team of the week. Um, you know, he he he was good in the losing side. Um Michael Gabriel picked up points in this game as well. Um, 14 runs for 159, so he he he was good there. Um Nephi Peru, he had three line break assists, a line break, two try assists in terms of the numbers there. And anything else to watch there, I think the Panthers, did one any Panthers player pick up points? I'm just trying to remember, and I don't think so. Um I think it might have been three jets getting points. Nephi Purry got points, Michael Gabriel got points, not sure who else did. Um Knights beat the Seagulls 46 points at 24. Another one of my games, I can talk about this in depth. Cody Hopwood was enormous in this game through the middle. He's offloading um was brilliant. He got through a lot of work and it was quality work as well. Um he got through 55 minutes, 13 runs for 104 metres, a little bit modest compared to you know other guys' numbers, but in terms of visually, he was very impressive. Um, one line break assist that was to Elijah Celeste, Leo Moana, who I'll talk about. Five tackle breaks in this game as well. I thought his second stinny really changed the momentum a little bit. Um, and his defensive work, 29 tackles uh for only one missed there, um, and zero errors. So he was very strong. He got two points in this game. Tyson Gamble was the three points, he had four try assists in this one and really led the comeback of sorts. I think they were down 24-12, 18-6, they were down as well at one point, and um yeah, he he put in a couple of really nice uh kicks and and and passes out to James Schiller, who scored a hat trick. Um, Elijah Lesser, Leo Moana, to be completely honest, like he's topped the fantasy points, 80 fantasy points, 15 for 157. I thought there was a couple of things there that I was like, eh, um I didn't think he had the best game visually. Um, yeah, two two errors, five missed tackles, but he got through a lot of work, 15 for 157. Um, and he had 41 tackles, but yeah, like I said, there was a couple of little errors and uh and defensive mistakes that um probably cost him picking up any points in this game, despite how dangerous he looked. And he did look dangerous, like there was times I definitely noticed it throughout this game, um, you know, carrying the ball and and bending the lineback and breaking through. I think he had two line breaks, one of them was off um Cody Hopwood's offload, and another one was um for his try. So very dangerous game again from Elijah Sless-Leamawana. Um, but just a couple of things there to work on for him. Um, anything else written down here? Yeah, Joey Walsh, he was solid on a beaten side from about the 25th to the 35th minute. He was probably the best player on the park. Um, had a couple of really nice touches. Um, but then you know, later in the game, when he was chasing points a little bit, he came up with a few mistakes, he threw an intercept for Wilson DeCorsey's um try right on the end as well. There, you know, but a good hit out for him nonetheless. Um, I thought Ezekiel Paulo was very good. He scored the first try with a nice little line run, um, just looked dangerous when he carried the ball. Um, Simeon Learfi was good through the middle. Um, a guy that I liked the look of just visually, Colin Maffoa. He carried the ball really nicely. Um, big body middle forward. He he he looks the right sort of shape for uh you know a middle forward. I think he's a guy that um you know might be coming through, and you know, the Manley Seagull's forward pack has been a lot made of that. I think they've got a couple of guys in this New South Wales Cup side that could go right. Viliami Fafida, he was a little bit quieter this week, but um you know he's another guy to watch there. So like Simeon Lafay, he had 14 runs for 137 in 45 minutes. Um, you know, his defensive work wasn't as good. Um, but you know, 14 tackles to him, it's just not the end of the world. Um, in terms of numbers-wise, um, he had a line break assist as well on top of that. Colin Mafia, what was his numbers? Um, so he played only 27 minutes off the bench, but just visually looked very impressive. Eight runs for 78 with 34 post-contact meters in that time. Um he had a tackle break, um, just one lone tackle break and 10 tackles, zero missed, and zero errors as well. Um, which is you know the good stats that you want to have. Um that's it for Manley. And the last one, Roosters beat the Rabados 30 to 18. Rodwell was steering the ship in this game. Um, he he got the three points. Reese Foley was really good again. Um, he's currently leading the New South Wales Cup NVP ladder that I got going over on Instagram. Um, and Cody Ramsey he got he picked up two points in this game as well, and he was also in the team of the week, um, as was Reese Foley at number six. Um, numbers wise, what did um Cody Ramsey punch out a try? 19 runs for 201, a line break, eight tackle breaks. Yeah, very good game there for Cody Ramsey, and then the two halves um they had uh you know they combined for two line breaks, three line break assists, and three try assists. So um very good performance from the halves. Reese Foley got a double. Tom Rodwell as well, worth mentioning. He uh had a good game, made the team of the week as well. But you know, another one of AJ's games there. Moving on to the NRL debuts rookies to talk about. Um I think Cooper Bay desperately needs more minutes. He shores up that middle for them uh a lot. He only played 20 odd on the weekend uh again. Um, and you know, while he was on the field, Titans led 14-nil, well 12-nil. Two tries came while he was on the field, and then when he came off the field, the top the Dolphins shredded the middle apart. I'm not saying that's exclusively because of him, um, but I thought he had a really good performance again on the weekend, and I think he needs to be a high priority at this club. I don't know why Chris Randall is starting ahead of him, um, to be completely honest, or getting at least as many minutes as he is getting over him. Cooper Bay needs to be playing more than 20 minutes in this side. Um, he could be the rookie of the year if he if he played big minutes and he should. Um Macassini was solid in his season debut, probably didn't um set the world alight, but you know, did his job you know, in terms of the expectations that the NRL fan base had of him. But you know, he just did his job, got through enough work. He was, you know, getting after it from the centers. Um, so you know, um solid there. Luke Hanson debuting this week, he's one to watch. Um defensively, he he's been really good this year, I've noticed. Um, you know, a little bit on the smaller side, but it does get through a lot of really high quality defensive work. Um, you know, his attack has always been electric, he's sort of got that touch-footy player feel to him, um you know, where he can just create a lot of things. He's got very silky ball playing. Um, and yeah, he runs the ball really well as well. He's sort of quick off the mark there. So um, yeah, Luke Hanson gonna be one to watch there, and Billy Phillips, another rookie that's killing it. He's going to be one to watch over the next couple of years for the Panthers. Um, you know, he he's come through uh the SG ball side with in the same age group as you know, Sanders, um Billy Scott from from a Panthers perspective, Lou Rompateo. I think they were all sort of in that similar sort of age group. Um Billy Phillips was you know always very, very solid through the middle there. Um and he's come through he killed it last year in New South Wales Cup, he's come through the first grade now and is doing some really good things. He's offloading games, but killed the sharks on the weekend. So he's right up there in terms of the leading rookie of the year candidates at the moment is Billy Phillips. Um, other things I wanted to talk about, Queensland under 19s, they look scary this year. Um, I've been concerned over the last 12 months about the fact that the Queensland pathways are looking stacked. Um, and then you look at the guys that are down here, Elijah Burve, Hayden Watson, they're being the top two players in SG Ball this year, David Bryanton, all Queenslanders, Jackson Coyner, Queenslander. Um, the Queensland Pathways, you know, talk about Tupac Francis and uh, you know, some of the other guys up there. Um, Balin Noy, he'd probably be in and around that um selection. Uh, you know, there's a lot of really good players up in Queensland at the moment, a lot of good Queensland players that are coming down and dominating New South Wales comps. Queensland won everything last year in the pathways. It could looks a little bit rough for New South Wales this year. Um, that because that 19 side is going to be very, very good quality. Um, a couple of your questions from Instagram and then I'll wrap it up. Um, question firstly about Apple Twitch's future at para given the one and the harbs are locked up. I I believe I've spoken about this before, but if not, um I'll revisit it. Um I I don't think his future is at power. I think he's gonna be a very exciting player to watch, but I just think the one and the six and that ahead of him are just better footballers. Um you know, he he could be a guy that maybe they do develop in into a seven because he he played seven um first week, and now he's playing fullback this week, and Joe Ash is playing seven, which I found very weird, but anyway. Um but yeah, I think you know he'd be very good for a six-man bench. Um you know, sort of similar to him and Cameron Bamblett are sort of in similar positions at the moment, where um, you know, they could be good for a six-man bench at Para, but I don't think they're gonna jump anybody in their preferred positions. Um Howard Matthews power rankings was the next question that I got. Um, and I'm gonna do a top five for you all, like I used to do last year. Um I decided it wasn't worth a hassle this year, but I'll I'll um I'll list them out for you. Knights in first after they just beat the Panthers. Panthers in second. They would have been first the whole year. Knights would have probably been second for most of the year, they might have been a little bit lower earlier on. Um but it's Knights, Panthers, um, the top two, and I had them as my top two coming into this week. I think Rabidos have well and truly jumped into that third spot, um, and I think the Parramatta Reels are in that fourth spot. Um, they've been playing some really good footy, they've been super unlucky the last two weeks. Um, and then Steelers I'd have in that fifth spot for the moment. Um, just because their game against the West Sub as Magpies was a little bit disappointing. Um, they were good against Parramatta, but Parramatta were probably the better side for 99% of that game. Um, and then last week they were a much improved outfit, um, but they're gonna be a team that is gonna be right there in the finish. Um, Roosters would have been one that were up there, but have fallen right out over the last couple of weeks. Um, the Bulldogs would have been there and thereabouts, but they've fallen right out for me as well. Um, you know, they just got dispatched by the Steelers on the weekend, so I think there is a level between that top five and the rest of them. Jersey Fleg predictions was another one, which isn't really a question, but just the way it's phrased. Um, but anyway, um, I think the Warriors are gonna be very strong in Jersey Fleg this year. I think Jack Thompson, Harry Inch have been doing some unreal things. Um, Bishop Neal, who I spoke about earlier in the podcast, and I forgot to speak about him again. Um, but I'll quickly cover that. He's debuting in New South Wales Cup. I got told earlier in the day that he was going to be named in New South Wales Cup, and I thought, okay, he'd be off the bench and it'd be a good experience for him. Nah, 17 years old starting mental. Anyway, yeah, that Jersey Fleg side been killing it so far this year. 2-0 with a points differential of 50, average winning margin 25, scored 92 points already this year. Um, so yeah, they're gonna be a very tough side to beat. Um, apart from that, I haven't really seen too much of the other contenders. I've seen a little bit of some of the um lesser sides in the comp. Um, Dylan Bretle's back for the storm this week, so that could be huge for them. Um, getting their skipper and their organizing halfback and you know, grand final player of the match back. Um, so that'll be a watch. Um, and tying into the Jersey Fleg chat, I got another question about when is Josiah Key back? And he will be back in April and he'll return in Jersey Fleg. So I think the question was about um whether he'd return in SGP or he will return in Jersey Fleg. So that's um good for the Dragons Um who are currently fourth with two wins, zero losses, 58 points, 428 against. So they're going good. The Dragons, and they're gonna get to add Jaziah Keith, who is a gun. Um, just on the Warriors, Jersey Fleg as well, Jeremiah Lamana's debuting, and for the Knights Jersey Fleg, Curtis Mulheron is debuting. There could be more debuts that I haven't noticed. Um, but those are some of the guys that you need to watch out for in FLEG this week. Um, under 18 players that um are making the jump up there, so that's gonna be good to watch. All right, thanks for listening for another week. Uh, we'll see you on the next one.