Could switching sides help Penrith playmaker James Maloney’s defensive woes?
Maloney defended on the right side at training today.
Which was new.
And intriguing.
Understanding that for as long as the Fox Sports Lab has kept tabs on such things, Maloney has defended — and at 83kg, been extensively targeted — on the left.
But not Thursday.
No, on Thursday morning at Panthers HQ, as Penrith churned through an opposed session that was physical, intense and serious enough to not only be officiated by NRL referee Ashley Klein, but watched over by GM Phil Gould, Maloney spent all game defending on the right.
Barking, pointing, tackling, the lot.
And all while, hovering like a shadow on his inside shoulder, was that fella more reliable than even a country boy’s handshake — backrower Isaah Yeo.
Which makes sense, right?
Remembering back in the day, even Queensland icon Darren Lockyer had Tonie Carroll riding shotgun for him.
Just as more recently, Johnathan Thurston employed Gavin Cooper.
So why not a bodyguard now for Maloney, too?
Certainly a little support wouldn’t hurt the gritty NSW playmaker who, despite continued debate about his defensive game — a chatter which exploded prior to last year’s Origin series — has still put himself up among the greatest winners of the modern era.
Not only securing two premierships, Kangaroo caps, even an Origin shield, but boasting the type of toughness that is fronting every postgame interview with bark off your melon.
So what chance this new switch is permanent?
Defending last year on the Panthers left edge, and alongside relative NRL newbie Viliame Kikau, Maloney missed 131 tackles.
Or put another way, more than any other player.
It was the same a year earlier.
And before that, in 2015.
All up, a run that would’ve hit four straight years had Ben Hunt missed just four fewer tackles in 2016, when he pushed Jimmy back to second.
Yet now, it seems, incoming coach Ivan Cleary is ready to switch things up.
And if Thursday morning is any guide, set to sit Maloney outside a backrower who, in Yeo, tackles often and effectively — last winter, among the competition’s Top 10 defenders with 500 tackles or more.
All of which you reckon Gould knew as he watched proceedings from, wonderfully, a golf cart positioned by the sideline.
And as for what else he saw?
Well, while The Daily Telegraph was positioned slightly further away, we can tell you Wayde Egan was given first go at No. 9 — ahead of Sione Katoa — while forward Hame Sele, who spent most of last year in reserves at St George Illawarra, was surprisingly used as Cleary’s first interchange.
Elsewhere, halfback Nathan Cleary also excelled in his toughest hit out since returning from major ankle surgery — involved several times defensively despite wearing a contact bib — while prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard was also back to full contact after breaking his jaw.
Afterwards, the new company of Cleary & Son also spent some 10 minutes talking through the previous 80 minutes.
One which saw the NSW No. 7 defend exclusively on the left.
