It’s not easy to preview NRLW games. A function of the short season is the incredibly small sample size, and that is coupled with the rapid pace of development in women’s footy that often renders insights obsolete within months.
Here’s an example: in late 2020, I did an interview with Jodie Cunningham, the captain of the England women’s team and a multiple champion with St Helens in the Women’s Super League, about the tactics of women’s rugby league.
Much of what she said then remains true, but plenty of it is absolutely useless now, just two years later. Such has been the advancement within two seasons of NRLW. England are going to get absolutely trounced at the World Cup and it won’t be their fault for a second.
This year has seen that skyrocket. Newcastle have gone from not winning a game to red hot favourites for the Grand Final. Parramatta lost four, won two and find themselves within another victory of the Premiership.
I’d like to say “here’s how the game is going to go” with confidence, but in truth, I don’t have any: this could be anything.
The Knights are ahead with the bookies, and the one time I’ve seen them in person they should have beat the Roosters (for mine, the actual best team over time), but for an intercept.
Parra were always in the fight in the games that they lost and it isn’t surprising at all that they eventually turned those defeats into victories. I’d not back against them doing the same in the Grand Final.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Millie Boyle is a winner. No, really: she has won 84% of the game she has ever played at professional level, which is frankly insane. Part of that is because she was with the all-conquering Broncos team of the early NRLW era, but also because she is very, very good.
Boyle tops the metre count for forwards, and while we’re there, she’s also right up there for tackles, post-contact metres and runs, so by whatever metric you like to measure your forwards, she’s there.
Then you have her partner in crime, Caitlan Johnston, who is perhaps even more effective on a per-minute basis. Any discussion regarding how this game is going to go starts with those two.
Parra have Simaima Taufa, a similarly dominant figure in the middle, and it’s on her shoulders to stop those two. Taufa makes the second most tackles in the comp, behind only Georgia Hale of the Titans, and made a ridiculous 51 in their game against the Roosters earlier in the year. Expect to see a lot of her tackling Boyle and Johnston.
The Knights have a knack of scoring through the middle as well, with Romy Teitzel and Yasmin Clydsdale, both former backs, able to strike close to the ruck and Johnston and Tayla Predebon are very difficult to stop from short distances.
It’s cliché to say this game will be won in the middle, but the ability of Taufa and Kennedy Cherrington to stop Boyle and Johnston really is the rub of it. Everything stems from that.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Ronald Griffiths, the Knights coach, explained in the pre-match presser that his team played with a very simple style, and it’s easy to see why. If you have the best props and the best fullback, as is the case, then go straight through the middle.
And make no mistake, Tamika Upton is the best fullback in this year’s NRLW. The 2021 comp was defined by superb fullbacks, with Emma Tonegato and Evania Pelite emerging to join Upton and Corban Baxter at the top table.
Tactically, this resulted in a strange quirk of the NRLW, in which teams were highly reluctant to kick on the last and often opted to chance their arm rather than gift the ball to the best player on the opposing team.
This year, that has changed. Kicking has improved massively, limiting the range of the fullbacks, but Upton has bucked the trend by being, if anything, even more effective.
She’s averaging 200m per game with the ball, excelling both on kick returns and in broken play, with rookie halfback Jesse Southwell regularly able to find her out the back of shape.
Her counterpart, Gayle Broughton, is a recent convert from rugby union and has looked superb in possession, but, understandably, is still coming to terms with the structures of rugby league in defence.
In the regular season meeting between these two, Upton dominated and breezed past Broughton for a superb individual try.
The Knights’ gameplan will be to batter in the front door, then shift to Upton as soon as possible. Dean Widders, the Eels coach, will be well aware.
His plan to counter it will rest on Rikeya Horne, repurposed in the centres this year, particularly with Tiana Penitani ruled out with her quad strain. Upton tends to strike between the back-rowers and the centres, and Parramatta will need to have their best on deck to stop her.
Widders will not have panicked for a second this year. Even when his Eels were losing, they were – not that he would phrase it this way – losing correctly.
Twice, against the Knights and Titans, they tied on tries but lost on goalkicking, while against the Dragons, they were winning well into the second half before tiring. Against the Roosters in round one, they ran into a red hot side and were caught cold.
The underlying metrics were always there to suggest that Parra would turn it around. The fear was that they would run out of games in which to do so, given the short season.
With a few tweaks – Horne to the centres, Ash Quinlan into the side – they were gradually able to turn the ship around.
Widders’ side keep a tight ship. They make the fewest errors, despite playing closer to the line than most, and kick as long as anyone. They back themselves to win a grind.
A Grand Final, especially one that might be played in the wet, could suit them. Taufa and Cherrington, along with Vanessa Foliaki and Filomina Hanisi, will seek to nullify the big girls in the middle, which can enable Tayla Preston to kick Newcastle to death.
Preston is top for kick metres and long kicks to space, while Ash Quinlan is first for line break assists and second for line engagements. One will do the manoeuvring, the other will do the creating.
The third part, as mentioned above, is Gayle Broughton. She is excellent in broken play and can provide serious impetus from the back, especially if Quinlan can give her space and time.
Newcastle’s defence has been the best in the NRLW this year, but will have to be at their best to contain the Eels’ rejuvenated attack.
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