Yesterday afternoon Gold Coast Titans coach John Cartwright apologised in the post-match press conference for his side’s abysmal performance against the Tigers at Robina, and rightly so.
The Titans looked like they had celebrated their first up win against the Sharks by bussing it home from the Shire and stopping at every hotel, nightclub, farmhouse, outhouse and doghouse on the way back to the glitter strip with a defensive effort Schapelle Corby’s lawyers would be ashamed of.
Later on the club’s CEO would also go onto apologise for it being sunny and the dangerous glare reflecting from Luke Bailey’s scalp, which seemed a slight bit of overkill, but made me think of some other people who should be saying “sorry” and buying a big box of chocolates for their performances on the weekend.
5. Anthony Milford to Canberra fans
The Raiders versus Newcastle match was a belter yesterday, but was once again bittersweet for Canberra fans as the soon to be departed Milford toyed with the opposition in a scintillating display.
If the green machine could somehow hang onto ‘Milf’ with their other youngsters they could be premiership material in the next couple of years.
If Anthony is going to hang around in 2014 maybe he’s better off just putting in a half-arsed effort or at least getting up to some mischief at ‘Mooseheads’ so the pain is lessened by the time he heads to the evil empire at the end of the year.
4. Phil Gould to his Panther players
In a move that will surely strengthen the ties between NRL clubs and the media, The Daily Telegraph reported on the weekend of Panthers boss Phil Gould passing up the opportunity to watch his side play football in favour of a trip to his local fish and chip shop.
And while this news should not surprise footy fans, after all Gould recently took to social media to air his general indifference to watching live rugby league and is known for a fondness for something that goes great with choccy milk, Phil’s decision may not have gone down like a rich creamy vanilla malt for some of his players busting their buns out in Melbourne.
3. Storm to Craig Bellamy
Speaking of the purple people eaters, it’s likely that the Storm also should be penning a few words of forgiveness after putting their highly wound coach through another nail-biter on the weekend.
Sure they looked a bit safer with Cooper Cronk rather than Ben Roberts leading them around this week, however after the miracle at Manly waiting to the last minute to wrap it up against Penrith makes it seem like Billy Slater and Cameron Smith just enjoy seeing Craig Bellamy frothing in the change rooms like a madman gargling Listerine.
2. Warriors to New Zealand
This is a no-brainer…which seems pretty apt for the Warriors at the moment.
After falling to the might of Parramatta the Warriors were humbled once again at Eden Park’s massive auditorium by the Dragons, in a performance that ranged through fair to fairly terrible.
While there are rumblings of discontent behind the scenes, the fact that once again their defence was leakier in both grades than Russell Packer after a case of Steinlager surely must mean that the panic sirens in Auckland on Saturday weren’t just for the impending cyclone.
1. Referees to JWH
Yes, not a typo.
While Jared Waerea-Hargreaves may be about as liked by the referees as Geoff Toovey press-conferences and stray Toni Carroll knees, their decision to leave one man loony bin Darcy Lussick on the field after his attempted decapitation of JWH on Saturday night had a bad whiff about it.
Now, I’m not saying the refs necessarily saying there’s an agenda here, but one can only imagine if the tattooed one had attempted a similar manoeuvre on Parramatta nice guy Will Hopoate and whether he’d still have been on the field before Hoppa hit the deck.
I think Waerea-Hargreaves deserves a full blown, on the knees apology here from the referees bosses. (By email of course, for their own safety).
Any other apologies you believe are warranted from the weekend Roarers?
matt h
Guest
For the old timers, substitute Don McKinnon
Fenpatch
Guest
Roosters want Souths first round every year? Everyone knows that the Rabbits are at their best in March. Don't think so...
mushi
Guest
Jrod - I think you've got the 18th player on the wrong team. It is a replacement for the player injured by the foul play so that the team on the end of the attack isn't left with a short interchange.
Brad.H
Guest
The Warriors organisation should apologise to all the television viewers for the retarded and incessant drums booming over the PA system whenever the Warriors have the ball. I understand that Warriors home games lack any game day atmosphere and have to be artificially ramped up but it is getting to the point where I am refusing to watch any Warriors home game that is televised until this ridiculous practice ceases.
al
Guest
1)Financial crisis 2)Australians are embracing Football 3)Rugby League is poorly managed Not necessarily in that order ;)
marco
Guest
I can see it in the boardrooms now, " maybe we could pay people to go". "that's a crazy idea". " no ,hang on a minute, I think he's on to something".
turbodewd
Guest
I agree - complete disaster! Free tickets are destroying the game! I saw the Titans game, there is now way that venue was half full. Try 25%.
marco
Guest
An apology needed to explain the need for the storm to openly advertise " bring your mate for free" and the titans to openly advertise " kids get in for free all of this season". Makes the game look cheap and still nobody is turning up.
belrose eagle
Guest
That's because the nrl keep changing rules and making it all about interpretation which everyone can see differently they need more black and white rules instead of all these Grey area ones
chris
Guest
How the hell as the NRL went from being king of NSW/QLD and good/decent crowds to where it's at today.
BA Sports
Guest
When do the NRL not apologise for falsely advertising to sign up to their digital pass where you can watch the games live on your laptop, only for customers to find out they haven't yet got it set up for viewing on lap tops...
casper
Guest
or toovey gets stuck into them if he gets beaten & they end up in the doghouse and won't get to officiate in October. Must have learned that from Bozo, cement trucks and all. Refs are a symptom of the system. send offs are as rare as penalties in golden point, where offside is the norm to stop a field goal kicker. all kudos to the ref who gave manly (not my team) a penalty in front that ended up winning them the game against the rabbits. he'll probably need a police escort if he gets souths again. Were they really that bad over the weekend, it's early season & the players are making a high number of errors so give the refs a bit of latitude to develop into the new system with a 'boss' ref and secondary official. I'd just like to see them swap around a bit more or one side ends up having more exposure to the pedantic version who wants to find the picky penalties while the experienced guy lets things run a bit longer. Can we dispense with the norths nostalgia, they'll never come back & south east qld deserves a side ahead of another sydney club. did anyone notice the crowd figure at suncorp on friday night, surely the nrl has got enough nous to promote those games to get the attendance back up. The week before the Cowboys pulled 12,000 despite the risk that people might get isolated from home because of the cyclone. why don't some of the sydney clubs take games to Mackay or rockhampton to take advantage of the booming interest in the game in Qld. Alas, the poor titans had to play a home game in the sauna, really conducive to crowd pulling.
jrod
Guest
18th players don't really punish the team though, just the player. If you break the laws of the game badly enough to warrant no longer being allowed to play in that match, then there should be a team penalty associated with that, which would prevent "maniac enforcer" tactics by teams, who could send out a boofhead to wipe out a star player early in the match, get sent off/replaced and the team keep playing with a full complement.
mushi
Guest
Isn't it just a "genuine attempt" test these days not an actual roll of the ball with your foot.
mushi
Guest
The only issue with that is it assumes every team plays with equal discipline/adherence to the rules and therefore penalty differentials are the result of bias. I'm a roosters fan and it was bloody obvious that we pushed the envelop last season early in the tackle count and on our own line.
Storm Boy
Guest
Le Gaz you are right but you can't expect the NRL in November to remember what went wrong in March. There are too many other stuff ups in between.
Storm Boy
Guest
JWH is the one the referees used to call out to play the ball with his foot instead of roll ball. Now he is still doing it and the referees ignore it. Any wonder he gets in such quick play the balls for the Roosters and puts his team on a roll on. There's other Roosters nearly as bad. Roosters should be getting penalised for it.
Le Gaz
Guest
The worst thing about this is that the NRL do it every year. Every. Single. Year. And guess what; the end result is always the same. We get a scrappy match with exhausted players while as mall crowd sits baking in the sun, trying their best not to pass out from heat stroke. Ridiculous. Their are Sydney teams screaming out for more Sunday footy, yet the NRL seems determined to put it in an area that works much better for Saturday night games. Honestly; how can these people keep making the same mistake? /rant.
Le Gaz
Guest
"Their defence was leakier in both grades than Russell Packer after a case of Steinlager" Gold.
ctar
Guest
Roosters get what the Roosters want when it comes to the draw, always have.