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Canterbury five-eighth Matt Burton has declared his side is ready for a Xavier Coates aerial assault after Roosters winger Daniel Tupou exposed the Bulldogs kick defence last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The veteran scored a hat-trick, including two tries from bombs, in his side’s dominant victory to climb to fourth all time on the NRL try-scoring tally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The challenge doesn’t get any easier for the Bulldogs this week as they travel south to face Coates and the Storm on Friday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to stats compiled by rugby league historian David Middleton, Tupou and Coates are the best aerial wingers in the competition.<\/p>\n
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Tupou takes a step closer to history<\/p>\n
Burton acknowledged his side failed to adequately defend Tupou last week but is confident they will be up for the task at AAMI Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’ll have to look at last week and learn our lessons from that,” Burton said. “There are plenty of lessons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Coates is the same sort of player as Tupou so they’re definitely going to be targeting that area. We’ll have to be ready for that.”<\/p>\n
Middleton’s stats reveal Tupou has scored more tries from kicks than any other player in the NRL in the past decade, with Coates not far behind.<\/p>\n
The Roosters veteran has scored 38 tries from chips and bombs since 2014, 10 clear of former Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt.<\/p>\n
Ex-Melbourne flyer Suliasi Vunivalu is third on 26 tries, ahead of Coates on 25.<\/p>\n
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Storm playmakers Cam Munster, Tyran Wishart and Harry Grant have deliberately targeted the 194-centimetre winger in recent weeks, making the most of rules that protect players in the air.<\/p>\n
Coates has scored three tries from bombs in the past three weeks, including a penalty try, while he also earnt a penalty for a mid-air tackle in the State of Origin opener that saw Brian To’o sent to the sin bin.<\/p>\n
The winger’s physical advantages make it hard to defend precision kicks, but Burton said early positioning is key for right winger Enari Tuala to neutralise his opposite.<\/p>\n
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Coates continues to fly<\/p>\n
“They’re good in the air so you’ve got to do your work early,” Burton said. “It’s only a matter of seconds that you’ve got to react to the kick and the jump. It’s tough but I’m sure our right edge will be ready for it.”<\/p>\n
While Coates has featured in the headlines in recent weeks, Roosters coach Trent Robinson said Tupou deserves credit for revolutionising the way wingers play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Tongan international made his NRL debut in 2012 and has consistently ranked among the best finishers in the game.<\/p>\n
His ability to snare bombs has proven unmatched and he scored a crucial try from a kick in the 2013 grand final.<\/p>\n
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Air Tupou in full flight<\/p>\n
With Sam Walker’s precise short kicking game, the duo have formed a potent combination whenever the Roosters enter the attacking 20-metre zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Tupou’s achievements have been slightly overshadowed by Alex Johnston’s quest for the all-time scoring record, Robinson said his winger’s feats in the air cannot be overstated.<\/p>\n
“He’s one of the best wingers of all time, he’s certainly the best Polynesian winger,” Robinson said. “He’s led the way there.<\/p>\n
“Xavier Coates is doing a good job but Toops has been the first guy that’s really owned the air in this game for over a decade. He’s the one that’s led the way. I don’t know how many high-ball catches he has but he’d have to be No.1 on that last.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He’s changed the shape of defence with the way the high ball catch is defended. He’d have more high ball catches than any other person in the game. He always seems like he’s sitting behind somebody but he’s definitely at the front of the queue when it comes to that part of the game.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canterbury five-eighth Matt Burton has declared his side is ready for a Xavier Coates aerial assault after Roosters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-83863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}