NRL: Supercoach Winners and Losers for Round 8

Mark Molyneux

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NRL: Supercoach Winners and Losers for Round 8 image

The Melbourne Storm backline ran riot against a Newcastle side who sank to the bottom of the table, without a trace. The Cowboys made a bold statement against Parramatta. Meanwhile, a search party has been sent out to find a star Rooster and it's back to the drawing board for David Fifita. 

Read on to find out who the winners and losers were in NRL Supercoach from round eight's action...

Winners

Storm backline: It’s best to just group them in as a collective. Xavier Coates (116) top-scored with his hattrick, while Justin Olam (115) was a point behind the winger. Ryan Papenhuyzen (107) notched about his hundredth century, as Nick Meaney (107) also got in on the action.

Scott Drinkwater (113) - Involved in everything, as usual. His cut-out pass for Kyle Feldt’s first was a beauty, with his passing creating 32 points for linebreak assists. Drinkwater’s scores since coming into the side read 94, 43, 102 and 113. He must now be the Cowboys’ first-choice fullback.

Kyle Feldt (113) - His first try was one for the highlight reels. He mixed in his hattrick with a powerful running game, making 26 points for hit-ups. Feldt more than doubled his best score for the year, which came in round five with 54.

Adam Elliot (104) - In his best performance for years, the Raider got a try assist, made 35 tackles, notched 24 points for hit-ups and 12 for effective offloads. Tom Starling could probably barely watch from the bench. Who knew Elliot would work so well at dummy-half?

Harry Grant (104) - Speaking of working so well at dummy-half. Grant is the best number nine in the game by a mile, right now. He dished up three try assists and scored 12 points for offloads.

Euan Aitken (101) - The quiet achiever. Aitken is one of the most consistent CTW’s this year. His try and try assist were supported by an excellent work-rate; 36 tackles without a miss.

Luke Brooks (101) - Fresh off his field-goal exploits, Brooks cracked a century. His kicking game was again on point, as he collected 18 points for forced dropouts. His solo try at the death wasn’t quite enough though to get the Tigers another win.

Cody Walker (99) - The signs have been there. In his 150th milestone game, Walker finally got a big score with a try and two assists. He also made 20 tackles - without a miss - and 16 points for linebreak assists.

James Tedesco (94) - In truth, he looked like one of the only Roosters who was capable of getting through Canterbury’s staunch defence. His typically all-action display included 38 points for hit-ups, 18 for tackle busts and ten for offloads.  

Nathan Cleary (88) - For the third week in a row, Cleary appears in the winner’s section. He scored one and assisted two, in a strong second-half showing. He also missed six tackles, kicked it dead twice, and conceded a penalty, but that didn’t deter him from standing up when the game was in the balance.

Notable Mention: Kotoni Staggs (82) emerged from Aaron Schoupp’s back pocket to produce a stunning defensive display. Staggs took his battle against Siosifa Talakai personally. He won that individual battle and helped win the game with his solo try in the corner.

Losers

Karl Lawton (-13) - Got sent off for piledriving Cam Murray barely ten minutes into the contest. It wasn’t that bad, according to Phil Gould.

Mitch Moses (8) - The halfback made 13 tackles. This was as good as it got.

Sam Walker (9) - The five-eighth made ten tackles. It got much worse for him though, with throwing an intercept for Josh Addo-Carr to race away and score.

Newcastle Knights (except David Klemmer): Jake Clifford (18) took the phrase ‘start as you mean to go on’ a bit too literally, as he kicked it out on the full from kick-off then eventually got hooked. Kalyn Ponga (31) continues to toil in a side which doesn’t look capable of posting any tries. Tyson Frizell (39) got his lowest score of the season. And Daniel Saifiti (41) has had a hugely disappointing start to the year.

Sharks left edge: Despite still running for great yardage, the Sharks’ left edge was silenced by Brisbane. Ronaldo Mulitalo (24) got 22 points for hit-ups, while man-of-the-moment Siosifa Talakai (36) did all of his best work through the middle, away from Staggs.

David Fifita (25) - The centre experiment didn’t work last week, while the interchange rotation didn’t work this week. Made eight tackles and 12 points for hit-ups. Now he’s injured.

The rest of Penrith’s backline: Charlie Staines (27) and Taylan May (39) were kept quiet on the wings, while the two centres - Stephen Crichton (36) and Izack Tago (50) - didn’t fare much better against a previously leaky Titan’s defence. Dylan Edwards (31) registered his second-lowest score of the season, while Jarome Luai (33) touched down for a late try.

Joey Manu (27) - A search party is still out at ANZ Stadium looking for him.

Jordan Rapana (31) - It was the Kiwi's wild pass to Nick Cotric (18) which led to a Warriors try. At this point in the game, the Raiders were well on top. Rapana’s stint at fullback has not been a success.

Reimis Smith (33) - All sympathy for those who had Smith in their team, as the rest of the Storm backline racked up centuries against a dour Newcastle outfit.

Mark Molyneux

Mark Molyneux Photo

Mark Molyneux is a freelance writer covering the NRL and UFC for Sporting News Australia. He has previously worked in the music industry and as a teacher around the world.