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In the lead up to State of Origin much has been made of the defensive deficiencies of James Maloney and whether New South Wales are prepared to carry his defence into State of Origin.
The rest of Maloney’s game is not in question as his ability to lead a side around the park, his kicking game and ability to create attacking opportunities for himself and his teammates are first class, but reports suggest NSW coach Brad Fittler is not looking at James Maloney as one of his halves mainly because of his defence.
Let’s have a look at the defence of the halves in the NRL and see how Maloney stacks up.
There have been 38 players who have spent significant time in the halves for their club sides this year (at least four games), and 27 of those players have a tackle effectiveness of between 80 per cent and 89 per cent – that is, they make between 80 per cent and 89 per cent of the tackles they attempt.
For halves, who have big men run at them all game to tire them out, anything over 80 per cent is acceptable and anything over 90 per cent is very good.
So how did the players fare? Let’s start with the good.
There are six players who have a tackle effectiveness of 90 per cent or over. These players are defensive assets to their teams when so many other halves are much lower. They are:
Not far behind this group were Kody Nikorima, Luke Keary and Adam Reynolds, all on 89 per cent.
(AAP Image/Michael Chambers)
Let’s get to the bad. There were five halves with a tackle effectiveness of under 80 per cent.
Mitchel Moses has a tackle effectiveness of 79 per cent, only 1 per cent behind Benji Marshall and Kane Elgey, but Marshall has never been noted for his defence and Elgey was dropped for his. If Moses does get the opportunity to play Origin, you can be sure that there will be Queensland forwards running at him all game.
Next is Mason Lino with 78 per cent, which is significantly lower than the man he replaced in Shaun Johnson (87 per cent) and the other half for the Warriors, Blake Green (85 per cent).
Next in the pecking order is Johnathan Thurston with 77 per cent. I doubt this is a surprise to anyone, with opposition coaches regularly sending mountains of traffic his way to test those busted shoulders. Interestingly, in 2015, when the Cowboys won the premiership, JT had a tackle effectiveness of 85 per cent.
Down to the final two. The second-worst halves defender in the NRL is Luke Brooks with a tackle effectiveness of 75 per cent. Brooks’s defence has always been a weakness and one wonders if he is ever going to be seriously in the running for an Origin birth until he fixes this part of his game.
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And finally the winner – or loser, depending on which way you view this – with a staggeringly low tackle effectiveness of 62 per cent and confirming all expectations is James Maloney.
Wow! Is it any wonder Brad Fittler is looking elsewhere for his halves? You could carry a player of Maloney’s experience if it was in the high 70s, but 62 per cent is just terrible.
Maloney has never been an amazing defender, but in 2015 he was at 82 per cent; in 2016, when the Sharks won the premiership, it was 80 per cent; and last year it dropped down to 70 per cent. As good as Maloney is with the ball, one wonders if he doesn’t fix this, it might cost the Panthers in the big games in 2018.
To give some perspective, Maloney’s best defensive performance of the year is when he made 73 per cent of attempted tackles against the Cowboys in Round 4, so his best is still worse than Luke Brooks’s average of 75 per cent, which shows how far Maloney really has fallen in terms of his defensive ability. In the Panthers Round 3 loss to the Bulldogs Maloney made only 50 per cent of his attempted tackles.
I was surprised when I first heard that Brad Fittler was seriously considering not picking Maloney. I figured, like everyone else, he had a lock on one halves position. After looking at this I would now be very surprised if Maloney is running out for the Blues at the MCG in Origin 1.
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