Every now and then you witness a transcendent performance in the NRL where a player can single-handedly will his team to victory. Before his precipitous fall from grace for the Blue & Gold in 2016, fans would fondly recall such heroics from Jarryd Hayne from 2009 to 2014.

Corey Norman’s overall performance against the St George Illawarra Dragons was in no way anywhere near that sort of effort. In fact the stat-sheet reads rather poorly for Norman in Round 15; 0 line breaks, 0 line breaks assists, 0 try assists and 2 errors. Yet this is a game where I sincerely hope – nay, insist – that the footy staff commit the game tape to the club archives for all our young halves to watch as core learning material. Why? Because Corey Norman (and Mitchell Moses as a fantastic secondary option) put on a clinic from the boot – placing a vice-like grip on the key territorial battle from the first set of the game.

I don’t know if the Eels have an internal grading system for this sort of stuff but I graded Norman out for 1 negative, 1 neutral, 6 positive and 2 excellent results from the boot. In his 10 attempts in Round 15, Norman impressively found range on 9 kicks and with Moses chiming in for 3 neutral, 5 positive and 2 excellent results of his own it is easy to see why the Eels maintained ascendancy through out the game despite a lack of line breaks.

Let’s see what the film has to say!

Positive Grade – Clearance Kick (Finds Grass) [00:40]

Norman sets the tone from the first set with a peach of a clearing kick that flies ~46m off the boot and bisects Nene McDonald and Jason Nightingale to pull up on the goal line. While it is not really obvious in this example, there is a peculiarity to Norman’s long kicking game that will become apparent as we roll through the tape.

Negative Grade – Attacking Kick (20m Restart) [06:49]

This was Norman’s sole negative grade for the game with Gareth Widdop picking off his curling in-field kick for a 20m restart. Mitchell Moses, the intended target for this set play, ends up tangled up in the defensive line allowing Widdop an contested run at the ball. The Eels didn’t execute this play perfectly but it was also a phenomenal bit of heads up play from Widdop. Let’s freeze the beginning of the kick down to see why in spite of the result it was a good piece of football from both teams.

Corey Norman is one of the NRL’s most feared short side attackers, having proven himself extremely adept at maneuvering both himself and the footy in the narrow confines of the blindside. When he runs it down the left edge short side on the last Jason Nightingale is obliged to track just inside Norman lest Corey create a 3-on-2 by skipping outside of Kurt Mann or kicking ahead for Semi Radradra. Of course this is all just a ruse designed to drag Nightingale away from the intended kicking zone as Norman peels off a leg-breaking kick meant for Mitch Moses.

Moses is actually off screen at the moment Norman kicks on the telecast but you can see from the GIF above the Nightingale would have been unable to recover to compete for the ball with the Parramatta half. Unfortunately for the Eels there is one lone player on the Dragons who was cerebral enough to understand the subtle threat to the open side.

Gareth Widdop immediately diagnoses the blind spot in Nightingale’s coverage due to having to respect the run or kick down the short side and flies across from the other side of the field to fill that void. It was an incredible off the ball play that didn’t garner the respect it deserved from the commentators at the time but likely saved the Dragons a line drop out or even a try given that Michael Jennings was also lurking.

Positive Grade – Mid-field Bomb (Line Drop Out) [10:30]

Norman’s touch on this towering bomb is actually a fraction too heavy. A surer set of hands could have flipped the actual result of a line-drop out into a 20m restart but fortune favoured the Eels in this case with McDonald hesitating under the swirling bomb. The crucial difference in centimetres is created when McDonald initially takes a poor angle on the chase and incorrectly tracks the ball too far in-field.

Unlike say, Billy Slater (who is also the #1 fullback for taking the best lines to a kick mind you), who creates extra time and distance in catching a ball due to how comfortable he is going to the ground – McDonald prefers to stay upright and reach for the ball. This leads to the crucial drop and it quickly spirals out of control from there.

Excellent Grade – Attacking Kick (Line Drop Out) [11:54]

Nene McDonald is also involved in Norman’s second forced line drop out but this time around the result is all about the class of Norman. Norman and Manu Ma’u do an excellent job of selling the short option before Norman drops the ball to the boot in a flash. The time he takes to transition from the threat of a run or pass to kicking the ball is seriously impressive here and he imparts side spin on the ball by design to minimize the risk of the kick rolling dead.

There really isn’t much the Dragons could have done here. With teams increasingly adopting the 13-man defensive front on their goal line prior to the last tackle of a set there is no longer the safety net of a fullback lurking in behind the line for these sort of early kicks.

Norman executes the play to perfection and earns an excellent grade as a result.

Positive Grade – Clearing Kick (Finds Grass) [27:22]

Back at the start when I mentioned a peculiarity about Norman’s kicking game – this is what I meant. Norman has a propensity to flatten out a lot of his long kicks and rake them low and long over the defensive line. He extracts the same (or better) metreage as many other NRL halves but the drastic reduction in air time eliminates a big chunk of the window of opportunity for wingers and fullbacks to track to the ball on the full. It also tends to impart a degree of top spin onto the ball which in turn produces a skid or favourable bounce for the Eels.

I may be mistaken but I can’t recall many other kickers in the NRL employing such a pronounced style and it really is to Norman’s benefit.

Once again here he perfectly splits McDonald and Nightingale and forces the right winger for the Dragons to recover the ball 5m off his goal line.

Neutral Grade – Clearing Kick (Caught) [33:06]

This was Norman’s sole neutral grade off the boot in Round 15 and it comes as he heaves the ball 50m down field and forces Nightingale to track it over his shoulder and run a further 3m towards his goal line before coming to a halt.

While it may appear like Norman has the opportunity to drill the ball to McDonald’s portion of the field once more, the Eels are set up poorly to give chase down that edge. Norman instead concedes the opportunity that his kick will be caught on the full for the pay off of a cohesive kick chase.

Positive Grade – Clearing Kick (Finds Grass) [49:32]

Norman seems pretty keyed in to when there is little or no kick pressure and in those scenarios he is happy to pinch a few extra steps and open up his hips to drive that ball flat and hard.

One thing I think worth mentioning as we keep scrubbing through Norman’s kicks in this game is that at no point did Norman get greedy and look to over cook a clearing kick in the hope of a 40/20. Given how successful he was proving to be at landing the ball in behind McDonald you could perhaps forgive him if he rolled the dice but his restraint and control are highly commendable. There are times when you need to look for a big play like a 40/20 but when you are up 18-4 in the second half, ensuring that you keep safely flipping the field and turning the opposition around is what will win you games.

Excellent Grade – Attacking Kick (Line Drop Out) (53:25)

In what would be Norman’s third and final forced drop out of the day, we see a prime example of the old footy adage that ‘a kick is only as good as its chase’.

As with the prior example, Norman displays excellent peripheral vision to understand that he isn’t under immediate pressure from the marker and as a result he pushes up a further 5m before stabbing his kick in behind the line. While Norman deliberately imparts top spin in his raking clearing kicks, he does the exact opposite here. By punching his foot through the underside of the ball, Norman creates favourable odds of back spin occurring when the ball hits the grass.

This is indeed exactly what happens as the ball holds up and trickles into the corner instead of skidding on for a 20m restart. The extra time created by this subtle difference in kicking styles allows a flying Bevan French to corral Jason Nightingale in the in-goals.

It is really difficult to decide whether it was this effort or the earlier attempt that resulted in Norman’s second forced line drop out that was ultimately the most impressive kick. I think the difficulty of the angle and the touch shown to work in such a minuscule target zone have me leaning towards this kick as my favourite.

Positive Grade – Clearing Kick (Finds Grass) [60:42]

I am of the opinion that Norman does a very good job of not over-kicking the ball here in what would be his penultimate kick of the day. If you go back and have a second look at where Norman was positioned for all of his prior clearing kicks you will find that they nearly all came from comfortably inside his own 40m mark. This time around he adjusts perfectly to kicking much closer to halfway and really dials back the trajectory of the kick – allowing for the natural roll on to take the ball to the goal line.

This is exactly the sort of kick that Jonathan Thurston loves to rattle off when placed in a similar position.

Positive Grade – Attacking Kick (?) (Found Touch) [66:23]

At face value this kick – Norman’s tenth and final kick of the game – is a sensational piece of game management. With the Eels leading by 14pts and with under 14min left on the clock, Corey drills a long grubber kick from the Dragons’ 40m mark that finds touch inside 10m. What the GIF doesn’t show you is the disappointment that Norman had with his own kick as he pushed downfield in chase. One of the in-goal cameras captured Norman visibly frustrated with himself as the ball rolled into touch because clearly he wanted to give Semi Radradra a chance to make a play near the goal line.

More than anything else I think this speaks towards Norman’s competitive drive. Even after an evening in which he practically kicked the Dragons to death, he was still looking to extract more from his own boot.

The Final Word

While Corey Norman and Mitchell Moses still have a ways to go as they find the balance between each other and their repertoire of attacking personnel, it is patently obvious what benefits come with having two genuine kicking options. It has been noted many times on both TCT and other bastions of Parramatta fandom that the Eels give away a significant handicap through the middle when compared to the premier forward packs in the NRL. Thus, the astute kicking games of Norman and Moses will be crucial in keeping the Eels in the contest when we meet such teams in the future.

Norman’s kicking game against the Dragons is a breath taking mix (if you allow me to be a footy nerd for a moment) of guile and vision. His ability to flatten out his long kicks and drive a wedge between the winger and fullback is almost unique among kickers in the NRL while he displays an excellent understanding of when and where to utilise top spin and back spin kicking techniques.

I wasn’t kidding when I said that I hope the club puts this tape in the archives – this is the pretty much the gold standard of kicking for play-makers.

Supplementary Reading

For the super keen, one of the most interesting contributors on Reddit – a chap by the handle of Tunza – has compiled a draft rankings of NRL kickers using some advanced metrics. It isn’t a diabolically heavy read by any means and I recommend it to any one that wants to further their knowledge on the matter. There are some surprising results in the rankings.

Tunza also maintains a weekly ELO based ladder that is calibrated across the history of the NRL. I thoroughly recommend checking that out if you get the chance as well.

Link

All images and GIFs are sourced under Fair Dealing (Copyright Act, 1968) for criticism and review. The rights for all imagery used belongs to the NRL and their broadcast partners; Channel Nine, Fox Sports and Telstra.

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