What a most satisfying weekend of rugby league that was.
Four good, fun games, a lot of off-field drama to keep us entertained and two great games on the horizon.
Here’s your talking points for the first week of NRL finals but remember – you can also check out the talking points pieces from each of the weekend’s games and have your two bob there as well.
Ivan can’t get Wayne out of his head
While the Bunnies’ 16-10 result was the most fun of the weekend, it was the press conferences afterwards providing the real fireworks.
Ivan Cleary lit the fuse, sooking it up about the refereeing and Penrith being (correctly) penalised for crusher tackles before going off on Wayne Bennett approaching the NRL to raise the issue of Panthers players blocking for Nathan Cleary to give him kicking time and space.
Cleary senior called on the NRL to “make a decision about whether they are going to allow coaches to deliberately manipulate referees and try influence them”.
Journos in Cleary’s presser couldn’t believe their luck as he rose to, then took their bait, question after question. Anything to do with the 80 minutes that just happened vanished and it was all about Cleary trying to influence what happens next.
(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Bennett has never refused a free hit and loaded right up.
“I never said anything for three weeks,” he said.
“We played them three weeks ago. He was the one that came out and started mouthing off. So just get that in its right perspective so if he is critical he is critical of himself.
“South Sydney had no say whatsoever until he started to come out and talk it all up.”
It was also all quite unnecessary. All Cleary needed to do was give platitudes, say the Panthers will be right and then leave, like Des Hasler did on Friday.
If I’m a Panthers fan, seeing Cleary act like that after a loss like that sets off alarm bells. He’s not a great performer in the wake of a loss, but this was something else.
Lucky for him, his team is stacked with incredible talent more than capable of taking care of the challenge ahead of them. But the example he’s setting for the locker room is chalk and cheese when compared to Bennett.
In the final standings it was Wayne first, the media second and Ivan a distant last. Maybe he should leave the mind games to the big boys.
Cross-code clash chaos
The NRL’s announced the Storm playing their preliminary final against Penrith or Parramatta on Saturday September 25 at 7:45pm, roughly half an hour after the first bounce of the AFL grand final.
It has kicked off a bit of talk about why the NRL would put Melbourne up against a game almost 100 per cent of Victoria will be watching, with two Melbourne clubs (Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs) involved.
The short answer is to give teams proper rest between games, but that’s boring. It also doesn’t matter who scheduled what first (the NRL was first) because I can’t remember the last cross-code meeting to work out a fair TV schedule.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
NRL chief executive officer Andrew Abdo came out chesty, saying last week: “I’m not being arrogant but they should be more concerned than we are that we’re going to put on an unbelievable game of rugby league.”
The game may well be the best of the season, but this is a clownish statement. The Storm game will be dwarfed by the AFL decider. Last year’s inaugural night grand final rated its face off and this year will be no different.
It’s tough for Storm and Panthers or Eels fans who like their Aussie rules and vice versa, but it is how it is. If the NRL wish to sacrifice one of their biggest games of the year, that’s their call. I can’t wait for the press releases on Sunday the 26th claiming ratings victories.
See? Resting players is smart
Remember all the expert criticism of the Storm, Bunnies and Eels when they all rested players in the final round, while Manly and Penrith went at full tilt to try and maintain form into the finals?
All the hubbub never made sense to me. Resting players is the right move and it showed out on the weekend, with Souths in particular having a more petrol in the tank to handle a Penrith side who were knackered and making fatigue errors and decisions after getting belted up all night.
Hopefully it’s the end of the ‘resting players is dangerous’ opinions, but you just know it will never end.
(Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
It’s also worth noting Parramatta and the Roosters had wins in quite tough conditions, with heat, humidity and hard surfaces. Having the fresher team is going to mean so much more than usual this final series.
Be nice to Patrick Herbert
Corey Thompson gave his teammate Patrick Herbert an almighty bake when the Titans centre went himself instead of doing a simple catch and pass to win the elimination final for the Gold Coast over the Roosters.
Naturally, social media tore into Herbert as social media does. Commentators, experts, former players, even people who have never watched rugby league before lined up to call out the bonehead play. But let’s ease off a bit.
Herbert knows he made the wrong call. Like Anthony Mundine in ’99, Cheyse Blair in ’16 and Joey Leilua in ’19, he’ll be stuck with what happened for the rest of his career, fairly or unfairly.
But a full-scale pile-on is the last thing we should be doing. It adds nothing, changes nothing and can have a significantly bad impact on a player’s mental health.
I saw Thompson has posted his support for Herbert, which was good to see. Hopefully everyone else who took a shot will leave him be.
What did you make of finals Week 1, Roarers?
The Final Word
Roar Rookie
Shhhhh... They're hunting Wabbit!
Nat
Roar Guru
Distant memory Paps. :stoked:
The Final Word
Roar Rookie
Too soon to bring up Anthony Seibold too Nat? :laughing:
The Final Word
Roar Rookie
My eyes! My eyes! :shocked:
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
The older I got the better I was.
KenW
Roar Rookie
You only got that good later?
mushi
Roar Guru
It’s not loyalty – it’s necessity. With Manu, Smith, Morris, Suali and Copley out Icky has to be picked. The Barry asked earlier in the year why I was negative on Icky, I think people see it plain as day now. He’s seems like a good guy and well liked but his finishing doesn’t offset his early set work and defence. 500k a year at the tigers maybe?
Tom
Guest
Exactly right - when a player goes limp as Frizell did, they should be taken off immediately with no HIA under the head injury assessment framework. HIA is where there is doubt, and there was none in that instance.
Tom
Guest
More recently, if Turbo dummies and goes instead of passing to Teddy in Origin 3, NSW win.
Cyril Snodgrass III
Guest
The Easts/ Gold Coast match Fumbles Ikuvalu again showed that he is the weak link in the Easts team Two stuff ups resulted in Titan tries A bad miss in defence in the final minute nearly gave victory to the opposition Fumbles has to be dropped for the Manly game You cant go into battle with a massive liability on the right wing Loyalty can only go so far If Easts are to beat Manly ,Copley for Fumbles Ikuvalu is a must
Kilgore Trout
Roar Rookie
Not a great result for the Panthers but a great result for the comp . Despite the great advantage of the week off for the Bunnies , that side of the draw with Roosters and Manly is wide open .
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Oh. you are so correct. There were a heap of opportunities, not forgetting to watch Radley. Yet, we're not talking about it being Herbert's fault, it's just what people will remember. There were a number of reasons Dragons lost the '99 GF, but if Mundaine passes the ball none of it would matter.
Opposed Session
Roar Rookie
Interesting to see on try scoring plays that the bunker can check if someone’s hair is out of place. We can put people on report after a couple of sets of continuous play but we can’t review a potential game winning play in an elimination final. Titans probably win if Herbert decides on any other action, other than the one he chose. He probably shouldn’t have been down by 1 at this point in the game if the rules were applied correctly. Just feel the heat should be on this decision. Not that Ivan got owned in the press conference by the old coach. If you don’t want illegal tactics doing the media rounds then don’t coach them. It’s a clear tactic designed to push the boundaries which means more than one coach would have notified the officials through the season.
Ian_
Roar Rookie
And Graeme Annesley as well
Rossi
Roar Rookie
There was some good footy and 3 close games at least, as you've mentioned
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
.Parra’s first premiership should have been ’76 instead of ’81! They would've been a worthy premier. They had beaten Manly three times but I saw them thrash St.George 31-6 in the Major Preliminary Semi-Final. It was a far worse beating than St.George's loss in the 1975 GF. It was 18-0 very early in the game and 21-0 at half time. Saints scored their tries in the 62nd and 77th minutes. Manly have always been strong and they are very successful but 1976 was the year I wished they had lost. Other than that I don't hate Manly.
mudchooks
Roar Rookie
Half the Titans squad was at the burleigh pavilion getting stuck into the beers Sunday afternoon, both Pat Herbert & Thompson were there and getting on fine. To say not passing the ball cost them their season is ludicrous, he should be thanked for saving them a belting against manly next week there’s no way they were going deep into the finals and with a 14 loss 10 win season they didn’t deserve to be in the final against the chooks anyway.
Contego
Guest
Don’t forget Fermour and Sami somehow both running into Tedesco the play prior to Herbert’s decision to run
Big Mig
Roar Rookie
KK "the Storm are as good a thing as Winx" The last time I heard the phrase "winx like odds" was for Bill Shorten, and we know how that turned out. Bunnies to win it.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
Thanks for that Phil, the 1976 GF was the only one I have missed since my first GF in 1964. I heard about poor Neville but I didn't know of the Moran pass.