Marky Mark's NRL try compilation: couple of thoughts
Firstly, go and give this a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnnFc9yfeZQ
Few observations:
Marky M’s post-contact metres are insane, he's essentially unstoppable from 5-10m out. There are several examples of him carrying 3-4 defenders from 5m out and further, and still scoring easily. Simple plan: get the ball to him close to the line every time.
I can see Andre Piardi (probably) penalising him based on the way he jumps for a high-ball where he leads with his knee (as they do for a specky in AFL). Would be a very union thing to do to stop a highlight package try. Luckily he won't play any international Wallabies games until it's too late for WR to implement a new 'safe jumping' law in a WC year.
League doesn't have the same severity of consequence for a failed intercept as Rugby does. Whilst MM reads those interceptable passes better than most (who remembers his full field one against Argentina), I wonder if teams will exploit this by throwing intentionally difficult balls for him to bite at and spill, therefore warranting a line-break spoil and yellow card. We've never seen it adjudicated where the pass has to be reasonable in order to mitigate the failed intercept penalty. Watch this space.
God it's exciting to see him back.