- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
After watching and blogging Friday’s game between the Canterbury Bulldogs and South Sydney Rabbitohs I couldn’t help but feel one of my pre-season thoughts had been confirmed. James Graham is not a captain and should not be leading the Bulldogs in the 2015 season.
Bulldogs fans will probably disagree with me on this statement and I’m sure there will be comments like ‘he is the Bulldogs’ best forward’ and ‘he is so passionate about his footy’.
However, while I’ll agree that those statements are correct he is not the right man to be leading the Bulldogs in 2015.
Graham’s passion is going to land him in hot water. During the game on Friday there were two major decisions that went against the Bulldogs, being the eight-point try to Issac Luke on the stroke of half-time and of course that penalty at the end of the game when Graham took out Adam Reynolds (who now faces four to five months on the sidelines) after he attempted to kick a drop goal.
After incidents on the field such as these it is the captain’s right to go up and question the referee. What is not within the captain’s right is to swear at the referee and generally carry on like a pork chop. Graham did both of these things on Friday afternoon and it would have to be one of the worst sprays aimed at a referee I have seen in the last decade.
On that final penalty that lost the game for the Bulldogs, the man at the centre of it was Graham and there is no doubt that this sort of play is not new to the forward. We only have to look back over the last couple of years and there is a rather long list of infractions, headlined by biting Billy Slater’s ear in the 2012 grand final.
Since then he has been involved in plenty of plays that have hurt the Bulldogs and at times it just seems his emotions get the better of him. As a leader of an NRL team it is imperative that the emotions are kept in check and under control, which also sends the correct message to the rest of the team.
With the captain losing control as we saw on Friday afternoon, forward David Klemmer also took the initiative to abuse the referee and found himself in the sin bin. How James Graham didn’t follow him I will never know.
From a neutral point of view, Graham will play better rugby league without the captaincy and the added pressure that comes with it. While he holds that role it seems his emotions will continue to get the better of him and affect the Bulldogs as a footy side.
The Bulldogs have plenty of other options that would be better suited to the role of captain. My top pick would be forward Aiden Tolman, he is an incredibly hard worker and just goes and goes, giving the team the right message and always putting in 100 per cent.
The other option for captain is Brett Morris, though maybe that shouldn’t happen until next year. Morris was vice captain in his final years at the St George Illawarra Dragons and would make a very good leader on the field.
So what do you think, Roarers? Is James Graham a suitable leader for the Bulldogs and if not who should take over the captaincy at the club?