Tempo & Deception: NRLW 2023

Tempo & Deception: NRLW 2023

Oscar Pannifex

Now into our sixth NRLW season and with the number of teams increasing from four to six to ten this year, the competition is growing at a rapid rate.

It’s both demanding and justifying stand-alone fixtures and prime time slots on the tele.

The appeal of the women’s game to start was in its simplicity.

There wasn’t the same contest in the ruck as the men’s game, not so many dark arts in defence and structures in attack – just pure, ‘old-school’ footy some might say.

Not so in 2023.

For better or worse, the competition is developing – and at a rapid rate.

As more players spend more time focusing on rugby league, they’re learning how to manipulate the ruck and slow it down.

We’re starting to see more detail in the finer areas of the attack, with different shapes and set pieces popping up across the park.

Where the game was once dominated by individuals, more elaborate structures and sequences are now becoming more prevalent.

As the competition goes from strength to strength, Round 1 of the 2023 NRLW season provided us with another glimpse of how far the game has come and how quickly it will continue to develop in the near future.

From ball playing to tempo changes to set pieces, here are three actions from Round 1 that have me excited for the rest of the NRLW season.

Tamika Upton’s double pump

The Newcastle Knights fullback needs no introduction to long-time viewers of the NRLW.

While some of the biggest names in the game ply their trade at the back, Upton has been the most consistently elite performer in the #1 jersey over the last few years.

Upton is quick and has been beating defenders with her feet since making her debut in 2019.

Her ability to anticipate the pass and fly onto the ball and into the backfield is second to none.

Get her running downhill in good ball and defences struggle to slide in time to contain her.

While she has scored 12 tries in 17 appearances herself, it’s Upton’s passing game that best captures how she is improving, and how the competition is improving as a whole.

In the Newcastle Knights’ 32-16 win over the St. George Illawarra Dragons, the 26-year-old threw this peach for Yasmin Clydesdale to crash over.

The double pump on the pass is one thing.

Looking long and playing short – turning the Dragons centre, Keele Browne, out in the process – is what really makes the play.

Upton even tilts her head upwards before passing, as if she’s looking long to her winger.

That small action, at speed, is enough to throw Browne off balance and provide Clydesdale with the passage through a desperate arms tackle to score.

With one pass, it looks as though Upton has taken her game to another level this year.

As one of the premier players in the game, she’ll be taking the competition with her as a whole.

Losana Lutu

Ali Brigginshaw will go down as one of the best women’s players in the history of the game.

The 24-game veteran plays at a Cameron Smith-like pace and precision, seeing the set ahead of time and playing seconds before anybody else.

She has set the standard for ball playing in the NRLW, and while there are a number of youngsters developing as ball players across the competition, Losana Lutu is the most intriguing prospect right now.

At only 19 years old she’s only just at the beginning stages of her NRLW career, but her smarts and feel for the game go far beyond her two appearances to date.

Whether it be at lock or in the halves, Lutu is in a league of her own when it comes to the subtleties of ball playing.

She doesn’t have the lethal step of Jesse Southwell, the speed across the park of Tarryn Aiken or the go-forward at a defensive cue of Raecene McGregor, but she plays with something the rest are still developing: tempo.

Ball players are tasked with engaging the right defenders and creating opportunities for others out wide.

They’re often not credited with the try assist, but their work is constantly the catalyst for points a pass or two down the line.

Deception and tempo are key attributes of the best ball players in the game.

You can see how the defence reacts when Lutu shapes to drop a teammate underneath before slowing on her run and straightening off her left foot.

That slight change in tempo as she brings her lead runner (11, Kezzie Apps) onto the ball invites the two- and three-in defenders to turn in, creating the overlap one pass wider.

You could put a box over the five defenders she’s managed to shrink in the space of eight or nine steps above.

Wests Tigers took the chocolates with a whopping 36-8 win over the Parramatta Eels in Round 1 with Lutu playing just 18 minutes off the bench.

However, with the score at 10-8 when she took to the field and by having a hand in points on only her second touch, Lutu will surely force herself into the starting lineup sooner rather than later.

She has the potential to be one of the most recognizable names in the game by the end of this NRLW season.

Roosters set the setpiece standard

The Sydney Roosters are the favourites to win the competition and it’s the firepower they possess in attack that is expected to get them there.

In Corban Baxter, Jess Sergis, Isabelle Kelly, Tarryn Aiken, Keeley Davis, Millie Boyle and Olivia Kernick, the Chooks play with power across the pack and can score from anywhere, at any time.

Add the nous of John Strange in the coaches box and this squad has the potential to improve on their NRLW-best 27.7 points per game last season and set the tone in attack for years to come.

We’ve already seen the Roosters set up to have Kelly and Sergis sweep around from centre into a second fullback role on the edge in recent seasons.

But with so much to throw at the defence out wide, the Roosters may find more success through the middle this season, just as they did in Round 1.

Following a typically destructive Boyle carry at the line, Davis fired a long pass to Mya Hill-Moana who was positioned wide at the outside of the C-defender.

The big prop shaped as though she was going to catch and pass to a wrapping Keilee Joseph – another classic action we’re sure to see more of this year.

However, as Joseph wrapped around while Hill-Moana cut back inside to engage the trailing marker, the defence is at sixes and sevens.

A gaping hole opened for Hill-Moana to pass Baxter through it to score a beauty.

We heard Aiken talk in the pre-season about the Roosters doing things a little differently in attack this season, and this Baxter try is the first example.

I also won’t be surprised to see this shape pop up in the men’s game in the coming weeks…

A lot of people enjoyed the ad-lib nature of the women’s game in the early years.

Outside of the likes of Brigginshaw, points came through individual moments of brilliance more than they did the deliberate breaking down of a defensive line.

But this try paints a picture of what is to come in the NRLW as players spend more time in high-level rugby league environments working on the details that only come with experience and opportunity.

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Who (or what) caught your eye in NRLW Round 1 and why? Let us know in the comments below!

Written by Oscar Pannifex | rugbyleaguewriters.com