BY DAN

One of the best things about Friday night’s victory over the Warriors was that Matt Timoko looked back to his best.

15 carries for 170 metres. 71 post contact, six tackle breaks. These were impressive stats, if not noticeable better than other games recently (he cracked 200 in the Knights game). But more than numbers he seemed to be back to running into and through defenders with the anger of Odin.

It’s pretty amazing given where he was a couple of weeks ago. Two dislocations in back to back weeks isn’t a good sign (thanks doctor! Is that your professional opinion?). It seemed like he was running tentative for maybe the first time in his career. There’s no doubt it had an effect. His metres weren’t down but it felt like his impact was. The line was hit but tackles weren’t broken. The run was taken but it didn’t feel violent. You can’t tell me a Matty T with a healthy shoulder gives you that strip to Nelson Asofa-Solomona late in the Storm game. Somehow he got healthy in just a week of rest. Maybe we should call him Wolverine.

It’s needed. He’s Canberra’s weapon and its workhorse. He leads the team in tackle breaks, is second in metres. His line-breaks are down this season, which one could argue is to do with the lack of opportunities he gets combined with the increased attention he gets as the ‘star’ in the Milk backline, but then again he’s equal 3rd in the team in line-break assists, reflecting the adjustment he’s made to that. He’s punching out career highs in metres and is on track for a career high in try assists.

That he’s achieved all that with an attack that’s such a work-in-progress it should come with a yellow sign and a lollypop man should be celebrated. Each week he turns up to a system that has, for the most part, offered him nothing approaching good ball or easy opportunity. A system that *at best* has a grand plan of shuffling the ball to him and saying “I dunno, you work it out”. Even then it’s not like he often gets early ball or any space to operate. The reason his metres are up are because in the absence of getting the ball as a centre, he goes and gets it as a yardage back. His tackle breaks are high because he’s impossible to tackle, but his line-breaks are low because most of the work he does is coming off his own line.

That he’s managed to be so productive across the board is a minor miracle. We’ve seen how creative and effective he can be in the (annoyingly) more sophisticated operations of the New Zealand national team. That shouldn’t be possible but it is. There’s no doubt in my mind that the best version of this team includes Matty Timoko with space and opportunities to roll dudes and more. But the imperfections and lack of sophistication of the operating model this year (and basically every year of his career) has made it so difficult for him to thrive. And yet he has, to the extent one mortal can.

Perhaps Fogarty’s return, the ongoing maturation of Ethan Strange’s game will expand the opportunities offered. 100 per cent of Timoko’s try assists this season and 100 per cent line breaks have occurred with Fogarty in the team (like, no foolin’ man). It was a bit of a slog finding points in the absence of a proper halfback. Even with Fogarty back at the helm the Milk look almost surprised at the opportunities they got, fumbling the ball like attack was a new language. Timoko himself threw a ball away, the fact he was space making him, and his teammates overexcited puppies released in a dog park.

If Canberra are going to make anything of the back of this season then finding more numerous and sophisticated ways to get Timoko involved are needed. While they’re trying to build for a future that won’t be realised this year, they still need to put foundational and systemic improvements in place. There’s no time like the present.

While we wait Timoko will continue to succeed. Not because the environment encourages it but because he simply refuses to fail.

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