From young players cashing in on opportunities or journeymen hitting new heights to veterans recapturing career-best form, NRL.com Stats has identified a best 17 of players who have improved their form dramatically in 2018.
Of those 17, the list has Ferguson at
5 Blake Ferguson
It hasn't helped him hold onto his NSW Origin jersey but Ferguson's form with ball in hand has been peerless in 2018. He has made easily the most metres of any player (4142, next best Jason Taumalolo 3724), averaging 197m per game and is equal-fifth for tries scored with 14. His previous best average metres was the 145 he racked up last year and his try tally already beats his season best of 13, in 2011 and 2012 at Canberra.
And off the bench Lane
17 Shaun Lane
One of the quieter achievers on this list is also one of the most dramatic improvers in 2018. The towering 23-year-old came through the Cronulla juniors before making his mark in the Bulldogs' NYC system. He burst onto the scene with a monster game against the Storm at Belmore in 2015 in just his third NRL appearance and featured in the Bulldogs' finals campaign that year. A shift to the Warriors in 2016 produced a dire season, in part impacted by injury, in which he struggled to even make the starting 13 in reserve grade. Lane managed nine games for Manly in his return to Australia in 2017 as a stop-gap player when injuries hit. An early-season ACL injury to Curtis Sironen handed him a chance to make his mark and he has improved out of sight, producing easily his most consistent year in a largely struggling Manly outfit. He tops the club's try-scoring list with eight – a career best – to go with career-highs in average metres (90), busts (38) and offloads (24).
Replies
Funny how everyone was bagging this signing a good buy and a good player.
Not everybody, many of us said it was a promising buy.