2021 in review - Tom Starling

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greeneyed
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2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by greeneyed »

2021 in review - Tom Starling

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Now it is season over for the Canberra Raiders, we will be reviewing the year of all 31 players who pulled on a green jersey in first grade in 2021. So far, we have looked at the season of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Xavier Savage, Caleb Aekins, Jordan Rapana, Bailey Simonsson, Semi Valemei, Harley Smith-Shields, Sebastian Kris, Jarrod Croker, Curtis Scott, Matt Timoko, Jack Wighton, Sam Williams, George Williams, Matt Frawley, Josh Papalii, Joseph Tapine, Emre Guler, Sia Soliola, Ryan James, Dunamis Lui and Josh Hodgson.

Tom Starling made his mark in 2020, after Josh Hodgson suffered an ACL injury in the Round 9 clash with the Melbourne Storm. Most commentators immediately ruled the Canberra Raiders out of contention for the 2020 season. However, the Green Machine confounded the critics, due in no small part to the substitute hooking duo of Starling and Siliva Havili.

Starling, 23, stands at 170cms and weighs in at 82kgs, making him one of the smallest players in the NRL. But as the old adage goes, he plays well above his weight - and he uses his size to his advantage. He's nippy and quick out of dummy half, and often shows up opposition forwards in the middle of the park. He takes decisions quickly, and gives crisp, clean service to the halves. In defence, he has great technique for getting in and under much bigger players, and dumping them on their backs.

Starling's off season preparations were interrupted by an incident at a Central Coast night spot in early December last year - when he was out celebrating a friend’s birthday with his family. Police alleged that Starling and his brothers became aggressive and assaulted police after being asked to leave the premises. They also claimed Starling attempted to grab the gun of an officer. Those claims proved to be false - and it was Starling who was the victim of police brutality. All but one minor charge against him - that of hindering police - were dropped in January. Photos taken the morning after the incident showed how horribly he'd been beaten. Thankfully, the incident seemed to have little impact on his season.



Starling made 19 appearances in 2021, five at starting hooker and the remainder off the bench. He made his first starting appearance in the Round 7 clash with the Cowboys - after Josh Hodgson was ruled out with a calf injury. It later became clear that prior to Hodgson's injury, coach Ricky Stuart had planned to promote Starling to the starting team and drop Hodgson to the bench. Starling held the No. 9 jersey until the Round 12 clash with the Roosters - when Stuart made a late switch, putting Hodgson back into the starting line up.

For a while, it looked like coach Stuart had found the best way to use both Hodgson and Starling - with Hodgson starting at dummy half, before Starling was injected after 20 minutes or so. That allowed Hodgson to shift into the back row, and take the role of an extra play maker. Injury put an end to that, when Starling suffered a fractured jaw in the Round 22 loss to the Storm. He missed the final three games of the season.

I rated Starling an average of 5.6/10 in 2021, with his season rating (6/10) being slightly lower than his 2020 score (6.5). I rated him a "7" in 10 games, but his average was dragged down by four matches in which he was used for around 15 minutes or less. He was given just five minutes in Round 4 against the Titans and nine minutes against the Dragons in Round 15. Starling picked up man of the match honours in the Round 7 loss to the Cowboys - when he produced two try assists, one line break, one line break assist, two tackle breaks and 47 tackles. He earned a total of eight points in the Fans' Choice count, finishing eighth.

His try involvements (six, compared with 10 in 2020) were down last season. At the club, he was second to Jordan Rapana for dummy half runs, but only just, and first for metres per run, amongst the regular first graders. His average running metres (40) were not up with the benchmark hookers in the NRL. Brandon Smith and Harry Grant averaged over 70 metres per game. But he wasn't far off the likes of Api Koroisau and Damien Cook and was ahead of Reed Mahoney. In defence, Starling ranked equal sixth for tackles per match at the club. His tackle efficiency declined slightly (89 per cent, compared with 92 per cent in 2020), though he still ranked ninth at the club on that score.





Tom Starling is on contract to the end of 2022. The club has reportedly agreed to a contract extension to the end of 2023 - with a mutual option for both player and club for the 2024 season. That allows Starling to take up an option at an agreed contract value - or the club can do so at a set, higher amount. Clearly, Starling is very much in the Raiders' plans for the future. The slight concern is that Starling is not an 80 minute hooker - at least not yet - and that he has been at his best when coming off the bench. However, he's still a young player and still developing - and there are a lot of things to like about his game.

It is not clear at this point whether the Raiders are interested in extending Josh Hodgson beyond next season. As I mentioned in Hodgson's review, 2022 might be a transitional year - when we again see Hodgson at dummy half during the opening exchanges, and Starling taking over once the opposition forwards tire. It was a combination worked well in the second half of this year. We shall see.

How did you rate Tom Starling's 2021? Tell us below.

Tom Starling's 2021: 6.5/10

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2021 Statistics: (Stats from Fox Sports Lab)
Games: 19
Average minutes: 44
Points: 16
Tries: 2
Try assists: 3
Try contributions: 1
Total try involvements: 6
Total kicks: 3
Kick metres: 78
Average kicking metres per match: 4
Forced line drop outs: 0
Kicks dead: 0
Kick errors: 0
Total runs: 72
Dummy half runs: 44
All run metres: 757
Average metres per carry: 10
Average metres per game: 40
Tackle breaks: 21
Offloads: 7
Line breaks: 3
Line break assists: 3
Tackles: 482
Average tackles per game: 25
1 on 1 tackles: 36
Missed tackles: 42
Average missed tackles per game: 2.2
Ineffective tackles: 16
Tackle efficiency: 89 per cent
Try causes: 7
Line break causes: 7
Errors: 8
Penalties conceded: 4
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Canberra Milk
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Re: 2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by Canberra Milk »

The concern for me is that he's not a playmaker/organiser... which wouldn't be a concern at all if not for having a running five-eighth and a fullback who can't pass. He's a good player though, that's the main thing
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Matt
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Re: 2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by Matt »

Starling is great when we are rolling forward. His threat of running is huge. However, when we are on the backfoot, he adds little. He doesnt really have a slight of hand, and only seems to have a minimal kicking game. He is a decent player, but Im not convinced he is a #1 hooker. So I agree with Canberra Milk.
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Re: 2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by Rickmando »

One of the few bright spots around the club that give me hope at the moment.

Genuinely, how many people around the whole organisation that you can say had a good year and performed well (or even as expected) in 2021?

The fact Starling managed to further improve his game in spite of the absolute s-show going on around him shows me what a quality player he has become. Lock him up for a decent amount of years and give Josh Hodgson the directions to Leichhardt or Robina
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Re: 2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by Canberra Milk »

Matt wrote: October 12, 2021, 3:00 pm Starling is great when we are rolling forward. His threat of running is huge. However, when we are on the backfoot, he adds little. He doesnt really have a slight of hand, and only seems to have a minimal kicking game. He is a decent player, but Im not convinced he is a #1 hooker. So I agree with Canberra Milk.
I'm a big fan of him though! And definitely see him as a #1 hooker, with a big future

Get him on the field at same time as Savage, with a ballplaying 13, and there'll be points in this team
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Re: 2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by Finchy »

greeneyed wrote: October 12, 2021, 1:37 pm All but one minor charge against him - that of hindering police - were dropped in January.
Did we ever find out the end result of this? Does he still need to go to court over the one charge that didn't get pulled?
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greeneyed
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Re: 2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by greeneyed »

Finchy wrote: October 12, 2021, 3:10 pm
greeneyed wrote: October 12, 2021, 1:37 pm All but one minor charge against him - that of hindering police - were dropped in January.
Did we ever find out the end result of this? Does he still need to go to court over the one charge that didn't get pulled?
I couldn't find it. He pleaded not guilty and it was reported it was to return to court in March. I'd be surprised if anything came of it, given what happened on the other charges (and the lack of any media coverage).
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Re: 2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by RedRaider »

The good hookers offer a threat from dummy half with a running game. Penrith, Souths and the Storm have such a threat. Tom Starling does too. They generally run after a quick play the ball to catch the defence off side. Tom is a fine defender with a good tackling technique. I like the quick service from dummy half. He could work on a short kicking game close to the opposition line to give us some more variety. I think he is a 7/10 this year with upside for next year.
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Re: 2021 in review - Tom Starling

Post by BadnMean »

Rickmando wrote: October 12, 2021, 3:00 pm One of the few bright spots around the club that give me hope at the moment.

Genuinely, how many people around the whole organisation that you can say had a good year and performed well (or even as expected) in 2021?

The fact Starling managed to further improve his game in spite of the absolute s-show going on around him shows me what a quality player he has become. Lock him up for a decent amount of years and give Josh Hodgson the directions to Leichhardt or Robina
Yeah I rate him. He knows when to run and has good speed.

He's absolutely not a Hodgo type creative hooker. But with Fogarty arriving to do some of that organising we don't need that style hooker so much. Ideally we need another ball player somewhere though- whether at FB or lock with Whiehead/Hodgo/a buy in.

I don't think he's stopped improving yet either.
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