Storm in awe of rival but grand final no one-man show
Melissa Woods |
With Payne Haas going beast mode to help Brisbane secure an NRL grand final berth, Melbourne prop Josh King has described his opposite as a “different breed”.
Haas was crucial to Brisbane’s preliminary final win over Penrith, with his statistics for a front-rower off the charts.
Playing a full 80 minutes – itself a feat for a prop – Haas topped his team for runs, run metres and post-contact metres and lodged the second-most tackles made, with a whopping 46.
The 25-year-old was also the player who charged down-field in the final minute to prevent Panthers gun Nathan Cleary getting a match-levelling field goal attempt away.
For context, the Storm’s leading prop Stefano Utoikamanu, who has vowed to steam-roll “stuck-up” Broncos players in the title decider, only managed 46 minutes of game time.
King told AAP that Haas, a 17-time NSW Origin player and four-time Dally M Prop of the Year, wasn’t just the best front-rower in the game but among the top players across the competition.
“Payne showed it against Penrith – played 80 minutes in the middle and made close to 50 tackles, close to 200 metres – that’s freakish, really,” King said.
“He’s a different breed. You talk about best front-rowers in the game, Payne would easily be up there with one of the best players in the game, and I think everyone can agree on that.”
But he says the superstar Bronco can’t win the Sunday’s premiership showdown in Sydney on his own.
“As great a player as Payne is, he can’t win the grand final all on his own,” said King.
“At the end of the day, it takes more than just one player to win a game of footy, it takes a collective.”
Part of the “collective” that Melbourne needs to stop includes Brisbane’s powerhouse lock Pat Carrigan, who missed the preliminary final through suspension.
King expected the Queensland and Kangaroos forward to help rejuvenate the pack, after they were taken to the wire against the Panthers.
“He’s going to bring a lot, he’ll be bouncing in and be up and about so that’ll be a big boost for them with him coming in,” he said of Carrigan.
After six lean seasons with Newcastle and contemplating a return to his trade as an electrician, King is set to play in his second grand final in his four years.
He said he still pinches himself about how his career had panned out.
“If I stayed where I was, I probably wouldn’t be playing rugby league anywhere,” the 30-year-old said.
“I got approached by the Storm and it didn’t take much convincing to get me down here.
“Storm’s got a good reputation for taking players that haven’t gone that well and turning them into a half-decent player so I sort of thought, if I come down here and play a couple of games and be under some good players and some good coaches, then I’ll learn a bit and be able to go somewhere else if I need to.
“Obviously that’s not the case and I’ve been able to stay here for four years and have a couple more years to go, so yeah, I have to pinch myself sometimes.”
AAP
