The Cronulla Sharks’ signing of Cam McInnes is one of the biggest talking points ahead of the NRL season.
Not only because the Dragons have lost their captain and best player of the past two seasons, but for the fact McInnes has signed a four-year contract to play lock forward despite the fact he has only started eight games in the position, with all of them coming during the 2020 season.
There’s no argument McInnes can play lock and play it well. He’s tough, strong defensively and has a great work rate. However, the signing signals a shift in the guard where a lot of teams will have a smaller body, whether that be starting or on the bench, to play in the middle.
The change has been happening over the past few years: Cameron Murray at the Rabbitohs, Victor Radley at the Roosters, and Brandon Smith coming off the bench for the Storm. There is also talk of Connor Watson playing 13 for the Knights this year.
(Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
The smaller forwards have a unique combination of great leg drive, footwork and quick play the balls that offers something different to a 115-kilo prop that NRL sides are trained to handle.
It’s a lot harder to get three in the tackle against the smaller forward as the defence struggles to get square on due to the late footwork, where they can wrap the ball up and wait for the other two players to come into the tackle to turn the ball runner on his back.
If a forward can find his front in a tackle, the play of the ball is two or three seconds quicker, which means the defence has less time to react to what attack is being thrown at them.
Why do Cameron Murray and Damien Cook make such a great combination? Murray creates the quick ruck speed Damien Cook needs to beat the markers and get in behind the A defenders. It’s the worst thing for a defence to be on the back foot. One play of the ball can change the whole momentum of a set.
Brandon Smith has a similar effect at the Storm. He offers a point of difference to the Storm giants such as Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Christian Welch. He has one of the fastest play of the balls in the game and it allows Melbourne’s star-studded attack to play on the front foot against a disorganised defensive line.
To allow the smaller forward to be most effective, however, they need to be complemented by other strong middles who are more dominant defensively against other big packs. If you had a set of middles who were all built the same as Radley or Murray, they’d get rolled over by the big NRL packs such as the Storm or the Eels.
Yet, having one or two smaller forwards who speed a game up can really change the dynamic of a side.
It’s no surprise the last three premiership winners have operated with a smaller forward who can complement the big men.
This brings me back to why McInnes is a smart signing for the Sharks. John Morris has recognised that with the upcoming rule changes, which are encouraging a faster game, it pays dividends to have a player who can play big minutes and provide speed and footwork around the ruck.
The Sharks have a reasonably strong pack, containing Aaron Woods, Andrew Fifita, Toby Rudolf and Wade Graham. McInnes brings a better balance and it will be interesting to see how players such as Shaun Johnson and Matt Moylan can play off the back of him.
Hopefully, we can see more use of the small middle as teams begin to adapt to the rule changes.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The thing is for most of history this is what lock was. From Johnny Raper who was an amazing cover defender and worker, you got into the 80s and 90s where on almost all occasions your lock was either your best/hardest working 2nd rower (Price, Pearce, Clyde, Mackay, Lindner, Ryan, Bartrim, Moore, Muir, Vautin, etc). Even into the 2000s with O'Donnell, Kennedy, Fitzgibbon this continued. Or Your lock was a decent ball player who was big enough to play in the forwards. Whether than be your Jason Smiths, Nik Kosefs, Paul Langmacks, Gavin Millers. Or the genuine backline players such as Dymock, Lewis, Hasler, Darren Smith, Fittler, etc. being played there also. That even continued into the 2000s with the players like Flannery, Timmins and Bird being selected. Starting in the 2000s though when hybrid front and second row players like Brad Meyers, Dane Carlaw, etc. were wedged into lock it really moved into just a 3rd prop position in the 2010s once the selections were dominated by McGuire, De Belin, Trbojevic, Parker, Burgess, etc. where blokes would play prop and get selected for rep duties at lock.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
it’s great to see the 13 go from a third prop back to a skilful, mobile forward Fixed
Rossi
Roar Rookie
Scott Hill was another playmaker whi played lock at rep level as he could handle the tough stuff, it's great to see the 13 go from a third prop to a skilful, mobile forward
Rossi
Roar Rookie
McInnes may go hard but the Dragons lacked go forward as he's simply too small. Handy to be able to put him there when needed but if they've signed him exclusively as a lock they'll be disappointed, I'd certainly prefer a skilful lock that is also physically imposing like a Jurbo, JDB, Finucane, Cam Murray etc.
Tony
Roar Guru
He'll be playing 9 for sure
mushi
Roar Guru
It really depends on the big middle option and the game plan. It feels like the 13 is now the balance position.
Albo
Roar Rookie
I like the idea of the small middle forward , but only if they can truly compete defensively and offer something different offensively. The small middle forwards quoted here are all good defenders , and in attack they offer varying amounts of offensive skills. Murray offers great game awareness, ball skills and quick play the balls. Radley can be a link man or a runner. Brandon Smith is hard runner up the guts . McInnes in that role is similar to Smith , a hard defender and strong runner up the guts. Both are tough but susceptible to plenty of bruises. Maybe some bigger bodies could do similar such runs but with less bruises ? Take for example Jason Taumololo, Payne Haas or a James Fisher-Harris , bigger bodies hitting it up with pretty quick play the balls, as well as showing some ball skills and a solid defence. Basically it takes all types players to succeed in our game. Variety is good , if the basics are still being met.
Malo
Guest
Agree Sharks and Cowboys packs are too big and slow. Melbourne though have some big forwards have a few small speed machines in their pack. Agree Souths and the Roosters have a great forward balance between big and versatile.
William W
Roar Rookie
The reason the Rabbitohs are so good is the fact that they have identified early in the piece that smaller and more importantly more mobile forwards are more important in the six-again era. I use the term “Six-again” era as 2020 is the start of a new era in RL. I won’t go into the history of rule changes! Sure the Rabbitohs do have only 2 players now considered as “Big Boppers” Thomas Burgess and also Mark Nicholls, the rest of our Forward Pack are on the small side but they sure are fast in comparison to other clubs. Cam Murray is the standout as is Junior Tatola, Jai Arrow and Keone Koloamatangi.
watcher
Guest
Somewhat surprised that Jazz Tevaga wasn't mentioned. Small middle who won Dally M Bench player.
Sammy
Guest
It's often suggested that the small forwards are more mobile and have valuable ball playing skills, but I think most of the time the standout "small forwards" simply have a better work ethic due to years of competing against bigger players. Look at Paul Vautin and Trevor Gillmeister - these guys were playing Origin at 90kg and will be remembered for their reliability and no-nonsense play. Also look at Corey Parker - the best off-loader in the NRL era. He wasn't exactly small. In fact he was 108kg in his early days at the Broncos and often played Prop.
Paul
Roar Guru
What a curious article. It starts off posing a question then about half way through, it changes, " the signing signals a shift in the guard where a lot of teams will have a smaller body, whether that be starting or on the bench, to play in the middle." I don't think the McInnes signing or the other 3 players named, signal any change of anything, given there are still 12 Clubs who don't have a small middle forward. The guys named are also elite players, more than good enough to play SOO or even Test football. That they're not 8 foot 14 and 120kgs, simply means they have to have other attributes to make up for their body shape and all have those in abundance. I'd also suggest if this was a change in the game as the author suggests, there's no way Bellamy and the Storm would allow Brandon Smith to speak to other Clubs. That McInnes was allowed to get away from the Dragons is a point of shame.
Chilli
Roar Rookie
Tend to agree. Having enjoyed how cook & walker play off the back of a Murray charge and play the ball for a few years now, I can only be an advocate for a small middle forward but one who can tackle his heart out. They aren’t falling off trees mind you...
Nat
Roar Guru
I would disagree as well if I misssed the point as far as that.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Me personally I would always been looking for the next Jason Smith. He had every thing you would want (other than a brain off the field) in a lock and with the new rules hopefully we will see his like return and not just have three props.
Kerry Hanson
Guest
There’s Enough lemons to fill my pool with lemonade . With the exception of Dugan , who was one of NSW best for a while there. But the other two a perennial disappointments.
max power
Guest
big guys robbed of a chance? yeah right
max power
Guest
its a pleasant development. was tired off seeing another prop playing 13.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
I'll be a keen observer of McInnes's impact at the Sharks. He's getting a lot of very good publicity and he's a real goer but to me he's very much the next rung down from Radley, Cheese and Murray. He's valuable but these blokes are match winners and I'd pay a lot more for them.
Tony
Roar Guru
I love your optimism. I reckon McInnes will play 9.