Player Rocco Berry

[Riz]

Yeah no decision needs to be made now. I wouldn’t be in any rush to re-sign him come 1 November. We could re-sign him end of next year on the cheap (even the minimum possibly). An injury ravaged Berry as a fourth string center is still better than Morgan Harper.

Just see how next year plays out, we have some gun centers in our Flegg team (probably deepest position in that team in terms of talent) so a lot will depend on how they progress come end of next year, the likes of Kali, Vake, Putoko, Norris, Moimoi.

I don’t think we need to be looking externally for a Berry replacement. Pompey/Ali is a good pairing when Berry isn’t fit.

I'd be giving Kayliss Fatialofa some time in the centre's in cup, he's got all the attributes in my opinion to be very good there at NRL level. Otherwise I'm not sure how he fits into the longterm plan with our ritches of depth in the back row.

 

[Cces]

His old man had some injury plagued years too with only 8 games across 1987-1989. Had some reliable seasons either side of that though:

Martin Joseph Berry | New Zealand Rugby History

www.rugbyhistory.co.nz

 

[sup42]

Dude seriously needs to take up Yoga and Tai Chi.

He is wooden as a Kungfu Wooden man....needs to be more like water.

That shoulder injury was from hyper extension when his arm makes contact with the turf, like he gave himself a chicken wing by having his arm on a ball, face down, and a dude on top of him.

Get him into Yoga Warriors, or dance, whatever, build flexibility and flow. The brothers need to teach him the walk, slouched shoulders, swinging arms.

I like his build, but he runs and walks like he has stick up his arse.

 

[Bay39er]

.

That shoulder injury was from hyper extension when his arm makes contact with the turf, like he gave himself a chicken wing by having his arm on a ball, face down, and a dude on top of him.

I get it

We would rather he didn't dive on the loose ball to avoid injury and just let the Tiger player take possession

 

[Christchurch_Warrior]

Out until round 25

Casualty Ward

Check the Official NRL Casualty Ward, which players are injured, and who is expected to make their way back onto the field and in the game.

www.nrl.com

 

[Tookey 2.0]

Out until round 25

Casualty Ward

Check the Official NRL Casualty Ward, which players are injured, and who is expected to make their way back onto the field and in the game.

www.nrl.com

Sweet, 3 rounds to get up to speed before finals!

 

[Cces]

Elsewhere, on a post discussing DWZ's defense someone shared the opinion that DWZ's main issue was that he's been missing Berry. I replied that our right edge doesn't magically improve when Berry is there. The OP agreed, but another person flat out said it magically does & 2023 showed that, so I've crunched the numbers and am going to dump them here to reference in the future.

2023:
-Without Berry - 11 games, 8 against teams who played playoffs, 19.3 points conceded per game.
-With Berry - 16 games (15 alongside DWZ), 6 against playoff teams, 20 points per game. *In 2 of these games he went off before halftime, we won both of these & conceded just 14 total points across these 2 games*

2024:
- 12 games with Berry (11 alongside DWZ) at 21.1 points conceded per game *this includes 30 points conceded when he wasn't on the field*
- 12 games without Berry at 26.8 pg

2025:
- 13 games without Berry at 17.9 pg
- 6 games with Berry (only 2 games and combined 92 mins alongside DWZ) at 25.0 pg *32 combined points conceded after he went off injured*

2025 game by game tackle efficiency:
74% Storm
74% Knights
100% Cowboys
93% Souths (with DWZ who tackled at 78%)
75% Broncos
67% Tigers (with DWZ who tackled at 75%)

 

[CWC]

That shoulder injury was from hyper extension when his arm makes contact with the turf, like he gave himself a chicken wing by having his arm on a ball, face down, and a dude on top of him.

I..I don’t think anyone touched him when he popped his berry