Exactly and he had 11th most tackles of any player in the comp this season. Averaged 39 tackles a game. Put him in the 13 jersey. He will be a game changer on defence.
Jazz Tevaga also averaged 39 tackles a game and played way less minutes so im not sure it'd be such a huge game changer, also Papali'i missed a lot of tackles this year (68 most of any warrior forward altho the more u make the higher that count will probably be) but what was disappointing many seemed to be on the line letting tries through (that sharks game he was a turnstile), altho i do agree his best position will inevitably be as a tacklebot 13.
The other thing that surprised me about Papili'i is that for a noted power lifter was his lack of explosive speed or strength (which is what i thought power lifting was all about) to break tackles ball in hand. He was almost a non entity on the edge on attack (not that Blair on the other edge was such a force either) He's often compared with Mannering but at least a young Mannering had decent enough speed u could consider playing him in the centres.....Papili'i no way....he's a slug....at 20 years old u would think that's the fastest he'll ever be...so yeah....not great in that regard.
We had a definite lack of punch on the edges this year through our backrowers and it hurt out attack. The inability to be able to break the tackle or line meant set defences we're rarely troubled and we had nothing to create off the back of. A few things to consider, (just randomly comparing our backrowers with other backrowers in teams that i follow) and just to highlight where i thought are real shortfalls in our game
Season figures
Isaiah Papili'i - 2 line breaks, 26 tackle breaks
Adam Blair - 2 line breaks, 26 tackle breaks
Jazz Tevaga - 3 line breaks, 38 tackle breaks
Briton Nikora (Sharks) - 11 line breaks, 65 tackle breaks
Adam Crichton (Roosters) - 7 line breaks, 66 tackle breaks
David Fifita (Bronco's) - 10 line breaks, 106 tackle breaks
Damn those tackle breaks! If your a half or fullback you'd be loving running of those!
In saying that tho our offloads stats we're off the hook (Blair - 31, Jazz - 22, Papali'i - 13) but i'd argue over the quality.....there's a big difference from being able to offload at the line at pace to support as opposed to fighting in the tackle for 5 or so seconds giving the defence time to re-set and getting an offload out the back where the support is then running at a set line.
