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It might seem strange to say this about the team that is leading the competition, but South Sydney sometimes get a bit too casual about winning for my liking.
The nature of their extra-time loss to St George Illawarra on Monday night tells me the Rabbitohs have still got a lot of work to do to win the premiership.
I’m going to deal with a few issues today, starting with Souths and the warning that should come with that loss.
If ever I’ve seen a game where a team should have won by a mile but ended up losing, this was it.
They led 12-0, then 18-6, and bombed several glorious chances to score along the way by taking the wrong option – most notably throwing passes that weren’t on.
As the game continued the hard edge went off their defence and the Dragons started making more ground with their sets than they were earlier without doing anything different. The better field position gave the Dragons more opportunities to try things out in attack.
The Rabbitohs looked like they knew they were the better team, and didn’t think they had to go all-out to prove it – an attitude that came back to bite them.
Check out Souths’ form line this season.
They won their first five games, then lost 17-10 to Melbourne in what was a battle of the two remaining unbeaten teams. The Storm called on their big-match know-how that night, and the Rabbitohs have still got to prove they can beat them.
Souths then won their next four games before having an off day when they lost to Cronulla. Another five straight wins followed before the loss to the Dragons.
The Storm won their first nine games of the season last year. They had a run of five straight losses through the middle of the season due to a particularly bad reaction to the State of Origin period, but they finished the season with eight straight wins, including the grand final.
Melbourne have got the absolute killer instinct in them. It’s an attitude that Souths coach Michael Maguire, having learnt from being an assistant at the Storm, is trying to instil in his Bunnies team.
It would have been easy for Souths to use the absence of injured superstar Greg Inglis as an excuse for the loss to the Dragons, but it also would’ve been dangerous to talk like that. What if Inglis were to be injured and unavailable during the finals?
The Rabbitohs could have – and should have – won easily without Inglis. Maguire would have been ropable with his team after that game, and so he should have been.
On to the next topic, and the performance-enhancing drugs drama continues to roll on without a conclusion.
Yesterday, there was a newspaper report which alleged a number of Cronulla players, including Paul Gallen, “were in negotiations to cut a deal over alleged anti-doping violations in March.”
It is obviously the sort of story which wouldn’t have been allowed to run without first getting the OK from the company lawyers.
Gallen reacted by declaring, in a radio interview, that he “never went to broker a deal with ASADA,” “never had an interview with ASADA” and “never spoke to ASADA.”
My view, almost since the start of all of this, is that while all of the allegations and denials are very interesting and make for great reading, there is not much point in absolutely believing or disbelieving anything until there is an outcome.
Only then are things going to become clear.
I’ve seen some video refereeing clangers in my time, going right back to when the concept was introduced in the Super League competition in 1997.
Some of the worst decisions have been made by former leading referees you wouldn’t think were capable of such shockers.
But the decision by Luke Phillips and Justin Morgan to award a try to Penrith centre Dean Whare in Sunday’s game against Newcastle has to go down as one of the greats. It’s in the Cox Plate-class of video refereeing stuff-ups.
How they couldn’t tell the fingers of Whare’s spare hand had brushed the touchline before he planted the ball is inexplicable.
That is, unless you are referees’ boss Daniel Anderson, who, while saying that “no excuse washes,” offered one anyway by adding that the screen Phillips and Morgan were watching on “didn’t have clarity.”
What was it, a 1950s black-and-white or something?
Phillips is not video refereeing in this weekend’s round, but he is still refereeing. Morgan is still video refereeing. How you don’t get dropped for a mistake that bad is mistifying.
Talking about people getting dropped, the post-Origin discussion over whether Mitchell Pearce’s career as NSW halfback is over is only just dying down now.
I’m not going to add much to it, other than to say that after witnessing from fairly close range for a long time as a member of the media how these selection issues work, I’ve got no doubt Pearce won’t be the Blues’ halfback again next season.
NSW will hope that Adam Reynolds continues to develop, and that with a second year of first grade and, hopefully, several more big finals games in him, he will be worth a shot. They were never going to pick him this season after just one year of first grade.
But there is no guarantee Reynolds will be the answer either, which is why the Blues will keep their options open in case anyone else puts their hand up with a blazing start to next season.
Too much has happened now for Pearce to get another chance, though.
Finally, if you follow one of the numerous teams in the overloaded Sydney market of the NRL and you’re enjoying the fact the Brisbane Broncos, with an entire city to themselves, are struggling, don’t smile too widely.
If the Broncos are still struggling in the next couple of years, it will reduce the chances of another team being added in Brisbane if and when the NRL gets serious about expansion.
There should have been a second Brisbane team long ago. The Broncos shouldn’t have been able to enjoy the luxury of exclusivity for so long. But the NRL would be very wary about adding a second team if, come decision time, the Broncos were doing it tough.
The Broncos will come good again eventually. It might be better for the wider competition if it is sooner, rather than later.
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