State of Origin has begun to make it’s impact on the NRL, with only four games over the weekend which still managed to produce some entertaining action. The Roar‘s NRL MVP though, saw few changes this weekend.
Many of the players who were able to poll votes from our blogging team this week were newbies to the leaderboard, or players with a lot of catching up to do.
Incredibly, we are now up to 131 players who have polled a vote this season showing the wealth of talent right across the league, but more importantly – that any given team can win a match on any given day.
So, who have our bloggers got this week?
Brisbane Broncos 18 defeated by Wests Tigers 19
Blogged by: Riley Pettigrew
3: Chris Lawrence – Had a dominant performance skippering the Tigers, playing the whole 80 minutes with 138 metres from 14 hit-ups and 30 tackles.
2: Jayden Su’a – On debut and filling some big shoes of Origin players, he led the tackle count for the Broncos with 45 and ran for almost 100 metres.
1: Elijah Taylor – Taylor has played two games for the Tigers and featured in this segment twice. Scored a try, broke the line once and looked threatening whenever he was near the ball, as well as making 48 tackles.
St George Illawarra Dragons 14 defeated by North Queensland Cowboys 10
Blogged by: John Coomer
3: Jason Nightingale – Was superb filling in for Josh Dugan at fullback, and it could become a long time role now with Dugan ruled out for a month. Did his job on both ends of the ground, scoring a try and adding 150 metres while showing great safety under the high ball.
2: Jason Taumalolo – He is just about the hardest player in the competition to stop, and proved that again with a game high 209 metres, stepping up in the absence of Origin forwards.
1: Gareth Widdop – Started to get his combination clicking with Benji Marshall, and the dragons backline looked sharper for it. Widdop had a hand in a few tries and maintained a strong kicking game.
Canberra Raiders 32 defeat Canterbury Bulldogs 20
Blogged by: Scott Pryde
3: Joseph Tapine – Had a monster impact off the bench for the Raiders and turned out to be the difference in the second half. Made 114 powerful metres from just 10 runs and scored a pair of tries.
2: Josh Reynolds – Controlled the Bulldogs well during the first half, showing a good mix of creativity, explosiveness and conservative play with his kicking game. Couldn’t get the Bulldogs to the win but had a hand in a few tries.
1: Greg Eastwood – Was the Bulldogs best forward by quite a stretch, but they simply ran out of legs at the end of the game. Eastwood had 205 metres in his 80 minutes, adding plenty of offloads and danger to the Canberra defensive line.
Newcastle Knights 18 defeated by Parramatta Eels 20
Blogged by: Joshua Thomas
3: Semi Radradra – Added a try for the Eels, but did so much more with 15 huge runs for 211 metres and a couple of line-breaks.
2: Nathan Ross – Like Radradra, Ross was dangerous with the ball making 210 metres from 15 runs, with two line-breaks, a try and a generally solid game.
1: Bevan French – Called into the Eels team at the last minute and he didn’t disappoint, scoring a try, always throwing his hand up for a run and adding a line break.
1. Anthony Milford (Brisbane Broncos) – 17 votes
=2. Josh Hodgson (Canberra Raiders) – 15 votes
=2. Johnathan Thurston (North Queensland Cowboys) – 15 votes
4. Josh Reynolds (Canterbury Bulldogs) – 14 votes
=5. Ben Barba (Cronulla Sharks) – 13 votes
=5. Jason Taumalolo (North Queensland Cowboys) – 13 votes
=7. Corey Norman (Parramatta Eels) – 12 votes
=7. Cameron Smith (Melboourne Storm) – 12 votes
=9. James Tedesco (Wests Tigers) – 11 votes
=9. Josh Dugan (St George Illawarra Dragons) – 11 votes
=9. Andrew Fifita (Cronulla Sharks) – 11 votes
=9. Jamie Soward (Penrith Panthers) – 11 votes
So, the only players in our top 10 who poled votes this weekend were Josh Reynolds and Jason Taumalolo. Both players move up, with Reynolds taking on outright fourth.
They weren’t close enough to trouble Anthony Milford though, who continues to hold a two vote lead.
With Josh Dugan injured for anywhere between four and six weeks, he will more than likely drop out of the race to be crowned MVP in a hurry.
Next week, there are seven games and State of Origin. Under the official Dally M rules, a player may poll votes from Origin if his team played the week before hand.
The Roar will run our system exactly the same way – meaning that if any player from the teams that played this weekend (Broncos, Tigers, Dragons, Cowboys, Raiders, Bulldogs, Knights, Eels) scores points on Wednesday Night, they will be added to the total count. (And yes, that means some players may appear twice).
Don’t forget to catch live coverage of the State of Origin series and every NRL game right here on The Roar.
Until next week!
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde
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