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If rugby league ever decides to stop giving – on and off the field – we’re all going to be left with a massive hole in our lives.
Round 9 of the NRL has already given us plenty – and there’s still one game to go. It’s an important one, too, even though the two teams involved – Parramatta and Cronulla – are outside of the top eight.
The closer we get to team selection time for State of Origin I, the more performances mean in the positions that appear to still be undecided.
I’m a fan of St George Illawarra’s Josh Dugan, but Parramatta’s Jarryd Hayne should be the NSW fullback for Origin I.
This season, Hayne is the most complete he has ever been as a fullback. He is a player who has been moved around the backline at club and representative levels, but fullback is clearly his best position now.
He played centre for Australia in the World Cup final against New Zealand last November, but that was in a team that had Billy Slater as fullback. with Greg Inglis as the next choice.
It’s true, if you picked Dugan as Blues fullback you could put Hayne somewhere else – centre or wing – but if Hayne is the best option at fullback he deserves to be picked there.
If that means Dugan missing out on the squad altogether, then that’s the way it goes.
NSW wouldn’t be any better off with Dugan at fullback and Hayne somewhere else. I’m happy with Josh Morris and Michael Jennings in the centres, Brett Morris on one wing and probably Daniel Tupou on the other, unless the need for a goal-kicker points to Pat Richards.
So pick between Hayne and Dugan and leave it at that.
Newcastle’s Joey Leilua has, for a while, been described as a potential Origin player, but his stocks dropped with an extraordinarily bad game for the Knights in their loss to Penrith on Sunday.
Leilua effectively had three try assists, but two of them were for Penrith because of ill-advised passes from him that the Panthers turned into four-pointers.
And those were just the worst elements of an all-round bad game from Leilua.
Another centre, Konrad Hurrell, proved that a satisfied man is a dangerous man – at least on the football field.
Hurrell, in his first game since being fined $5000 by his club the Warriors for his involvement in a sex video that was leaked to the internet, carved it up in their big win over Canberra on Saturday.
But if you want to see a really intense tape, of the football variety, check out Canberra coach Ricky Stuart’s post-match media conference.
Things get awkward while a testy Stuart answers questions about the Raiders having conceded 54 points for the second game in a row.
The Raiders thought that appointing Stuart would be the answer to their woes, despite his poor coaching record in recent years. Now they have a win-loss record of 3-6.
The thing that was the greatest strength of Stuart-coached teams when he was having success, which seems a long time ago now, was defence, but Canberra have easily the worst defensive record in the NRL.
If defence is about attitude, then the Raiders have a bad one. The players are under the pump – but Stuart is justifiably under the pump as well.
League is, of course, no stranger to nightclub incidents, and initial reports suggest there is at least the potential for serious repercussions after Sydney Roosters and NSW halfback Mitchell Pearce was arrested outside a Kings Cross nightclub early on Sunday morning.
We’ll have to wait and see how that one plays out.
On a purely footballing note, it will also be interesting to see how the NRL’s match review committee views the dangerous throw charge against Gold Coast and NSW forward Greg Bird.
There is only one more round before the Origin teams are picked, meaning a charge that resulted in at least a two-game suspension would force Bird out of Origin I.
Finally, it was very sad to hear of the death last night of one of the original Immortals, the great Reg Gasnier, one day short of his 75th birthday.
As a part of the media I always regarded it as something special to be able to ring Gasnier and get his opinion for a story.
He’s a legend. Rest in peace.
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