These days, some young rugby league fans would rather look at a stat line than the game.
In one hand they’ll have their phone checking live fantasy scores and betting markets, and with half-an-eye, if you’re lucky, they might actually be watching the action to see what’s really happening. Blame the Americanisation of our sporting habits, where box scores are trendy and actually watching the box is not.
But sometimes the data is damning. Take Kalyn Ponga: 14 tackles made, seven missed tackles.
At what point do the Knights draw the line on Ponga in the frontline? Because for all the talk of tackle techniques and concussion, it’s simply not working having the club’s franchise player trying to make more tackles than he ever has had to.
He was far from alone in the Newcastle’s thumping 43-12 loss at the hands of Parramatta at CommBank Stadium on Friday night, but his bright blue and red headgear did more circles than the lazy susan next door at the leagues club. Brushing by was Mitchell Moses and Will Penisini, and then they all tried their luck down the right attacking corridor because when there’s blood in the water, a rugby league ball carrier will smell it.
So where does it leave Ponga three weeks out from the State of Origin selection table? He’s never going to play five-eighth for Queensland while Cameron Munster is fit, but it’s hard to play him at No.1 too on current form after his concussion-enforced lay-off, prompting a visit to Canada.
Will Penisini brushes away from Kalyn Ponga and Bradman Best.Credit: Getty
Compare that with Eels co-captain Clint Gutherson, who bagged a hat-trick in the seven-tries-to-two demolition which only had one surprise: Maika Sivo didn’t score.
It was one of those nights when Gutherson ran this way, and that, and never stopped pinballing from sideline to sideline, just in case he had to be there to stop a marauding and hulking Greg Marzhew, like he did.
Yet the combined total runs for his two first-half tries: about 60 centimetres. So scattered and frantic were the Knights on both occasions, the captain had to pick up the ball, swivel and dive over for two dummy-half tries. He would walk further to his fridge.
The damage to the leaky Knights defence came from short, long, down the right, the left, through the middle, and it was so often even Andrew Johns nursing a premiership hangover would have fancied his chances of beating them on a skateboard.
Is it possible to say a 30-6 deficit at the break actually flattered the losing team? Because this looked better than it should have for Newcastle.
Gutherson could have had a first-half hat-trick if he didn’t bobble a ball over the line after Junior Paulo and Bryce Cartwright skittled the middle of Newcastle’s line, but it didn’t matter because before half-time Dylan Brown, Moses and Sean Russell had also touched down. They could have had a couple more, and the half ended with complaints from the Knights when Sivo appeared to grab Dominic Young by the hair as he raced down the sideline. There was no penalty. Tyson Frizell was not so lucky.
Predictably, Gutherson got his hat-trick in the second half when Moses skirted, you guessed it, Ponga, to burst downfield.
Maybe there was a mercy rule because for the rest of the night Ponga didn’t have to do too much tackling.
But you only needed half-an-eye to know the Knights must be wondering if they need to pluck Ponga from the frontline.
PARRAMATTA EELS 43 (Clint Gutherson 3, Dylan Brown, Mitchell Moses, Sean Russell, Junior Paulo tries; Moses 7 goals, field goal) defeated NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 12 (Mat Croker, Dominic Young tries; Lachlan Miller 2 goals) at CommBank Stadium. Referee: Chris Sutton. Crowd: 15,875.
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