NRL Round 21 Review: How The Cowboys Capitalised Through The Middle, Bulldogs Halves & Running On Last

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What's to come this week:

• Cowboys Capitalising Through The Middle

• Quick Play-the-Balls

  • Cleary Has The Ball On A String

  • Bulldogs Halves Touches

• Setting Up For A Shot: Run On Last

• Try Time: Trbojevic Floating

Big Takeaway From the Week: Cowboys Capitalising Through The Middle

Tackle one can make or break a set of six. First up here, we’re breaking down what makes for the biggest talking point of the week.

The North Queensland Cowboys are one of the best attacking teams in the NRL when it all sticks. Tom Dearden is a triple-threat with the ball in hand. Likewise, Scott Drinkwater can create something out of nothing.

Their problem this season, along with a defence that has conceded an NRL-high 563 points, is in creating those opportunities for things to stick. We can often see the Cowboys play fairly sideways and rely on individual brilliance rather than creating repeatable actions across the field.

In Round 21, however, they seemed to narrow their focus to the middle of the field first. From there, the points piled up on the edges late.

Their first try looked too easy as Zac Laybutt skipped through the middle of the Dragons defence to score under the posts.

Roll back the tape, though, and we see a plan come to action.

A strong kick return sends the Cowboys up the field towards halfway where they can start to get into their work. The job of the Cowboys forwards is to put work into the Dragons middle.

Note the tacklers in each tackle:

1 - Klemmer, De Belin, Leilua
2 - De Belin, Cook, Lawrie

Working their way up the field and generating momentum against a back-peddling defensive line, the Cowboys look to the edges.

While they initially shift, it ends with a drop play, and there Klemmer is again.

You can see Gutherson hold the shortside until the third man gets to A. From there, he puts himself into the longside with Klemmer (first marker) and De Belin (B) either side of him.

Gutherson is arguably the hardest-working fullback in the NRL. He is constantly moving and covering in defence. It’s his downfall here, though. As the ball goes past him to the edge, Gutherson takes himself out of the line and folds in behind, leaving a gap between Klemmer and De Belin.

It’s early in the game, and the Dragons’ forwards should have done better here. Still, it’s by design and a play the Cowboys pull off to perfection.

North Queensland’s second try again comes through fatigue in the middle:

1 - De Belin, Klemmer
2 - Lawrie, De Belin
3 - Leilua
4 - Leilua, De Belin, Lawrie

The result is Leilua left on the ground and out of play, two middles at marker, and De Belin unable to reel in a nippy Reece Robson down the shortside with three outside him.

The Cowboys earned a repeat set in the build-up to their third try through the middle of the field.

Hamish Stewart, in particular, made four tackles back-to-back while travelling¹ 75 metres from where he made his first to defuse a Drinkwater chip before being dragged back in-goal.

Stewart is back in there making two more following the dropout before falling off Coen Hess’ legs in a tired attempted tackle.

Drinkwater spoke to the game plan as he walked off the field for halftime:

“We’re going through the middle well. We’re not trying to go around really early and playing up the guts a lot more, bringing fatigue into the game, make that line a bit shorter and play around it at the end.”

With the work done through the middle, the Cowboys had their way out wide. Dearden, in particular, gave Lykhan King-Togia nightmares as they went on to score four more tries following Hess’, with all four coming through the Dragons edges.

Their back-five were fantastic in returning the ball last week and allowed Dearden and Drinkwater to play on a strong foundation. Similar can be said of the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks when at their best in recent weeks. With NRL Finals spots on the line with every result, their Round 22 clash looks set to be a ripper.

Quick Play-the-Balls

We’re generating momentum through the middle of the article with a couple of quick carries.

Cleary Has The Ball On A String

Nathan Cleary’s short kicking game is among the best in NRL history. There isn’t a kick he can’t execute, but this swinging grubber is incredible.

It all looks planned, too. The Panthers have five players flattened up through the middle of the field ready for Cleary’s bouncing ball to pop up to them. Remarkably, it’s Izack Tago, after it has rolled behind four Tigers players who lands on it.

Bulldogs Halves Touches

This requires more exploring, but the numbers from the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs halves raised my eyebrows.

Touches & Passes v Sea Eagles (via NRL.com):

Lachlan Galvin - 71 touches/56 passes
Matt Burton - 68 touches/41 passes

The Bulldogs played with 56% possession on Sunday, so had a lot more time with the ball. Still, for Burton to touch the ball only 43 times in their first full game together in the halves last week and add another 25 in the second is a significant increase.

Galvin remained roughly the same following his 77 touches in Round 20 and 66 touches in 80 minutes in Round 18. Perhaps these three games offer an insight into why Galvin wanted to leave the Wests Tigers where he averaged 52.1 touches per game in 2024, and 53 per in in his 10 there this season?

Part of a halves pairing coming together is determining who is getting the ball where and when. The Bulldogs are still working things out, and the allocation of touches might give us a hint along the way.

Setting Up For A Shot: Run On Last

Teams play to points with the following tackle in mind. Here, I’m touching on something to watch next week as we try to keep ahead of things happening on the field.

Isaah Yeo spoke this week about needing to be a Top 2 defensive team in the competition to win the premiership.

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Penrith Panthers are the two best defensive teams in the NRL right now. It’s not a huge surprise when you consider Penrith’s history and the apprenticeship the Canterbury head coach took to get to where he is today.

The best defensive teams are well-drilled and well-organised across the entire set. They’re consistent in every action. From the kick chase and tackle one to defending the last tackle, they move as one.

It’s that consistency that could offer opprotunity to the team game enough to throw caution to the wind on the last tackle.

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