Footy can be a simple game sometimes.

You’ve got four and they have three? Take it.

There is still a lot of detail into executing on the extra man, though.

Zane Harrison does a good job of fading out on the pass to avoid the breaking backrower, getting into the three-man with a lead inside two.

Keano Kini nails his line, too. He’s wide out the back of the lead. That can sometimes encourage the winger to jam in, but given how the Melbourne Storm so often defend on their line, he could be confident in backing his speed to get outside the two-man with relative ease.

It’s hard to make a strong tackle moving backwards. Even as the winger did well to make the read, he can’t make good enough contact to stop Kini on the line. The Storm look to use the sideline as an extra defender, but Kini is too quick around the corner here.

I don’t imagine the Storm got their numbers how they wanted them with how early the Titans set their four. Still, Harrison and Kini did well to identify the opportunity and execute it to perfection.

Smart Footy: As Trey Mooney was attended to by the Newcastle Knights trainer, Ashton Ward started plotting his next play. He already had his pick of sides from a play-the-ball in the middle of the field. With a minute to draw something up, he circled Sandon Smith in the line and sent David Fifita straight at him.

The simple lead off the dummy half is enough to hold up the A and B defender, and with Ward able to get into Dylan Lucas himself, finds Matt Dufty who throws one of his classic face-ball’s to the winger.

Next time, Ward played inside. The Knights no doubt spoke about the need for the left edge backrower to look after the half with Fifita in front of him. That requires work from the inside. When the inside defence worked too hard to get at Ward with the intention of Lucas being able to slide over to Fifita, the Rabbitohs halfback turned it back inside.

He made the most of the late flip of the A defender and the angle it produces off the line. He wasn’t able to get up square and correct his positioning on the runner inside.

The Bunnies attacked differently without Cody Walker. Ward liked to play from a play-the-ball from the middle of the field where he could directly attack the three-man in defence. Whether or not they keep some of this Ward-focused attack when Walker returns or not, it’s likely to be a glimpse into the future.

Getting At A Mismatch: Exploiting a mismatch can seem so obvious but prove to be so difficult to execute.

When the Knights found themselves with the 170cm Jye Gray stood opposite their two-metre winger, they became obsessed. Obsessed to the point they failed to generate their most dangerous look; an attacking kick landing on the head of Gray with a flying Dom Young approaching.

Instead, they tried to run through him. Gray is a brave defender and chopped at the legs well enough as the Knights shifted over halfway to slow down the big winger. Closer to the line, a relatively predictable shift allowed him to slide across and close the space for Gray to again get his body in front. Trying to run over Gray on the fourth tackle took away their fifth-tackle attacking kick more than once.

When finally getting to a kick on his side on the last tackle, the better play appeared to be a run.

Newcastle eventually got over in that corner, but with the game getting away from them and plans being torn up, they looked their most dangerous. The obsession with spots became less of an issue. They played with momentum and to cues instead of trying to create something on the right edge out of nothing.

Foran Keeps Cooking: The honeymoon period of results is over for Kieran Foran at the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, but he’s still scheming up the sort of actions in attack that proved so successful early on in his tenure.

He’s proven more than capable of finding a chink in the defence every week, and did so again from a scrum against the North Queensland Cowboys in Round 19.

What looks like a nothing drop play is a setup. Note Jamal Fogarty and Tom Trbojevic on the right side. When looking to set his numbers from this field position, Scott Drinkwater will have those two in mind.

With Drinkwater likely filling in at A on the longside¹, the Cowboys have five defenders on their right edge from the middle of the field.

What looks like a typical diamond shape is anything but in the end. Jake Trbojevic is inside Joey Walsh to hold up the inside defence and he puts a lead inside three.

When the centre sees that it’s Taniela Paseka out the back of the lead, he has no choice but to jam. The winger follows, as he should, but is too slow against the face-ball which allows Tolutau Koula to flick his pass wide for Lehi Hopoate to score.

These actions aren’t an accident, and Foran is already one of the best at drawing up specific plays every week depending on what the defence gives him.

End-On Field Goals: Please, somebody in television get in touch to explain why, when it’s fifth tackle in Golden Point and Scott Drinkwater is stood on the 30 metre line right behind the play-the-ball, we can’t flick straight to the end-on camera angle?

There must be a simple explanation because it seems like a no-brainer.

Daniel Tupou is one over the most under-appreciated players in NRL history. He’s chalked up 300 first grade games, 10 State of Origin appearances and 24 test caps between Australia (1) and Tonga (23). His career is top shelf on paper but he never really seems to get the mentions he deserves.

Even in the week leading up to his 300th game things around Tupou remained relatively quiet.

Perhaps he was slightly before his time. If you’re designing a winger in 2026 you’re looking for a strong carry out of yardage, a good finisher, and size and strength to compete in the air on the last play. Tupou does it all, and is still doing it at 35-years-old.

I’d have loved him to be healthy over the last month. With Brian To’o losing his spot in the New South Wales Blues side, Tupou should have been mentioned as a possible replacement. He deserves to be spoken about as one of the all-time great wingers, and will be when it is all said and done and reflections on what has been an excellent NRL career take place.