I disagree on some level with the author with the criticism of Manly using a magic round game as a home game against bris Vegas. It’s the best time to play Brisbane in Brisbane as more than half the crowd don’t care if they win. That was clear when there was barely a sound from the crowd on the first try for Manly with a clear forward pass to Garrick missed.
As for the game. While recognising a few key players were out, on the whole, pretty ordinary. Cobbo was the saving grace.
The margin will be used to create a narrative that it was a great night, but the second game was a lousy spectacle. At least the first game, while also full of really poor errors, had some good skill moments and some niggle.

Geez I was disappointed with their second half. In order to get Mahoney through the 80 minutes he seems to be directed not to go dummy half outside the 20m markers from the sideline and for him to be first receiver. But between Reed being far more ineffective as a first receiver than the halves, – he just passes the ball along, doesn’t dig into the line – and having guys making errors at dummy half – I reckon there was at least one knock on and 3 passes along the ground by people who shouldn’t be at dummy half – not to mention Burton and Hutchison both being at dummy half on the last, it was just a really poor tactic and really hurt them.

James Hooper and Dean Ritchie talking about integrity – just on it’s own is irony and parody all rolled into one. But a couple of Journo’s who rely on getting stories from agents, upset because a player making a decision for himself, means they can’t treat an agents word as gospel for future stories…. It is only made more funny by the quote from Hooper that isn’t included in that clip.
James Hooper: “….. to the point where even after he had agreed he was going to go [to the Roosters], Ivan Cleary was still texting him..… oh uh, I think it was the night before he was texting him actually..”
Hooper grandstanding about integrity and respect and putting his foot in it that (according to him) Cleary was still chasing Fifita, even after he had agreed to terms with the Roosters – is Ringling Brothers level clown show stuff from a hack of a journalist.

Agree there is not close to enough talent for a 20 team league.
A draft in some way shape or form is an interesting concept. In order for a Players Association to support it, it probably requires something back from the NRL – most likely a big hike in the cap. So then you have to facilitate funding the salary caps of 20 teams in 2030 – up from 16 teams just 8 years earlier, and you are increasing those payments significantly.

And at the end of the day, without good back of house teams at clubs, drafting doesn’t even up a competition. The good teams with the good recruiters and talent id staff just keep getting better and the clubs shrowded in politics, internal instability, or under investing in admin and coaching, continue to fall behind.

Have a friend who runs a charity to help and support homeless people, and i know Reed (at least when he was at Parramatta) used to go out of his way to come out to Parra at night and get his hands dirty and support it.

Happy to take your word for it.
I wonder what sort of development he is getting at Newcastle? I don’t know if Andrew Johns is involved in any sort of coaching up there, but even if he is, i think the jury is a bit out on the conversion of his ability from playing the halfback position, vs his ability to coach it to others.

BTW Tony:
I liked the Michael Ennis Pest Academy. – where the anagram is presumably pronounced ME-PA.

I’ve had reason to cross paths with Mr Ennis quite a few times and he actually isn’t a bad bloke. Still fun to ‘sports hate’ though.

What about players who like to stay down for a penalty on a week-to-week basis, starting with:
Sivo
DWZ
Garrick
…..

Elliot Whitehead. I can only imagine as a teenager coming through at Huddersfield, he was watching Jamie Lyon in the Super League and thinking, “i want to be like that guy, whinging and all”. He and Ricky are made for each other.

John Bateman is on the list as well.

Reed’s most recent victims – Hetherington and Seyfarth would make it, but they are pretty irrelevant.

I’ve never seen him play, so i wouldn’t want to say he is good, bad or indifferent. But looking at the numbers, another player with a sub 50% career winning record who can’t get a start with 3 substandard guys in front of him who probably wouldn’t be first choice at any other NRL club, probably doesn’t bode well.

He has four viable options in the halves and two hookers
Hastings (NRL debut 2014) – A well below average NRL halfback
Cogger (NRL Debut 2016) – A competent back up at NRL level
Gamble (NRL Debut 2018) – A below average 5/8

I’m not sure who the fourth is. Ponga? In which case he is a top tier fullback and average 5/8.

The three above have no creativity to their play and substandard kicking games. They are all 27-28 years of age with a combined 211 NRL games between them, at a combined win percentage of just 47%.

I’m not sure which are considered the viable options, but the attacking issues begin and end there.

Looking at clubs at the moment:

Great: ….
Good: Penrith, Sharks, Storm, Roosters, Brisbane
Average-Good: Dolphins
Average: Manly, Raiders, Parra, Bulldogs, Warriors
Average-Poor: Cowboys, Tigers, Dragons, Knights
Poor: Souths, Titans

You can argue the semantics of the positioning of the average and below teams, but the fact there are few good teams is the bigger worry.

100% on the rules being the bigger issue than the officials – and where the Bunker who are infuriating, are between a rock and a hard place. Show common sense and don’t send Grant to the Sin Bin – and get crucified by Annesley for not applying the rules, or follow the rule to the letter and have Annesley condemn you on a Monday in public.

100% on the Bears. Why have a new club trying to increase their profile in a new city, be tied down by a faction of the club who will constantly be trying to push for the club to be more recognised in Sydney.

Surely they can switch the Sharks v Roosters game and the Souths v Cows games around and move the only quality match up of the weekend to the prime time slot? Do it today. Who would be impacted?

I think Brown has been good, not great, and that is probably enough to be among the best each week. But the last few weeks his second halves have been floating in and out of games when they need him to demand the ball and win the game for them.
Believe me, i want him to be a star. He is a modern day Brett Kenny/Terry Lamb. His cover defence and non stop run (usually) are awesome. I hope he has a blinder tonight. Maybe without the effects of ANZAC day the day before this week, he might be better prepared.

No drama with your view on O’Neill.
My view on him. After footy he tried his hand as a PT, running his own business, didn’t work out. No worries. Got a cushy NRL job, basically in a management role around the MRC for a few years. Got a promotion and lasted one off season and went to the Wests Tigers, where whatever happened, happened. Then went and did his studies and the Eels employed him before he even finished that. Its the problem with so many NRL clubs, that they give their senior roles, and he is the second most senior in the Club, to people with none, or literally no experience doing the role he is employed to do, much less experience where they have done the job well. The Eels, as a big club with plenty of resources, shouldn’t be employing people with so little experience and successes. In my opinion anyway.

And in my experience, i have worked at 5 companies with Boards in my life time. None of them ever appointed anyone except the CEO. You can’t hold the CEO accountable for the performance of someone he or she gets no say in appointing or has no authority to performance manage. So if the Board appointed O’Neil, there is the start of the problem and Gurr – who came in to fix up the governance of the Club, didn’t do a complete job..

O’Neill is the prime culprit in all of this – this being the debacle of an Eels squad. But at the end of the day, while Arthur can’t control the negotiations O’Neill has with player mangers, Arthur gets some say and has to take responsibility for who he listens to when he agrees to bring players in..

He had Johns at the Eels for a couple of years to mentor Brown and Moses and they went basically backward in development. Johns left and things went in the right direction.
I would love to know who recommended Hodgson and Simonsen from the Raiders. Was it all O’Neill, or did Ennis – who did some consulting at Parra after his stint in Canberra – have influence there? I suspect the latter given his unabashed love in commentary for Simonsen who should be a depth player at best..

It can’t be denied though that Arthur has developed talent and resurrected careers. And it can’t be denied that he has been able to get his team to compete with the top tier teams most seasons. But you accept the pat on the back for that, you have to accept the criticism of losing to teams you should beat too often.

And as for Dylan Brown. Super talent and I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that whatever he did on his ill fated night out last year, was really dumb drunk behaviour and an aberration. But he vowed to make it up to his team, and here he is with a chance to do that and be a leader while the chips are down, and he hasn’t. Is he trying? On the field it seems like it, but the local rumour mill suggests his behaviour continues to be that of someone who isn’t doing everything he can to be prepared for games… and the way his impact fades in the second half of games, gives some pause to believe those rumours.
Making him co captain seems like a last ditch effort to get a leadership type performance from him and it should be scary for Eels fans that it has come to that, especially since they just saw the insurance plan for the halves sign with the Raiders…

Have a look at the NSW Cup line up the Eels are trotting out this weekend. I reckon there are three guys in that line up that could/should be in your 30 man squad and at most clubs and those three would be in the 25-30th ranked players. In actuality, i think 8 or 9 of those NSW Cup players are in the Eels top 30.

How does that happen when you are effectively only missing two players through injury and suspension?!

I am!
Actually, I’m not questioning it, I know it is awful.
Who was CEO when he was appointed? Was it Gurr or the current invisible CEO? I am questioning what he was thinking given O’Neill had next to no experience and came to the club after his professionalism was not to the standard of the Wests Tigers. And when you are behaving in a manner that doesn’t meet the standards of the 2015-2020 Wests Tigers… wow….

A game that some would say was entertaining given the momentum swings and talking points. But outside the Fuller try, which was impressive, there were not a lot of wow moments. About 20 errors and run metres and post contact metres were way down – both teams below the average for all teams this year. 3 intercepts in the first 27 minutes, a lack of structure and consistency from both sides, kicking games which didn’t trouble anyone – even with the slippery conditions, and actually this a pretty poorly played game by two top 8 teams – even factoring in the weather.

Of course all the talk is a slap on the face penalty, more ref bashing (after a week of – stop bashing the refs) and Turbo’s injury.

As for Turbo’s injury. Is it the end of Manly’s season? Maybe not if they can sign Fuller! Turbo has been playing well enough, but he has been a long long way from his devastating best. Even his defence has been pretty ordinary. So he is obviously a loss, but not a nail in the coffin loss. And Manly have far bigger issues anyway.

I think if you look at the build of their back 5, and the depth players for their back 5, Fuller wouldn’t fit what they are going for.

I don’t know about a whole round as it messes with the legitimacy of the competition. And you can’t go completely bunkerless anymore.
But at the back end of the year in games with no impact on the Finals, by all means try reducing the Bunker footprint and moving or limiting further the captains challenge.

There is a financial advantage if part of the deal is in an area where you have a licensed club with gaming machines which a) makes them money, and b) when they then have to provide community grants from a percentage of that gaming revenue (that would otherwise be tax) as part of NSW legislation. They then look good when they give all this money to the community, and benefit when a chunk of those grants go to local junior rugby league clubs, which helps them attract more players – and boom! you have yourself a business plan….

All true.
But if a club has outstanding assistants, aren’t they more likely to take a punt on one of them for a HC job, than a guy they haven’t worked with and who has very limited league experience?

Moulding coaches to your way of doing things is fine if the assistant coach is willing to be moulded and you have the level of respect and experience that the assistant feels they could learn plenty from you. A club signs an unknown quantity to work with their guys who may or may not fit with his style, or respect his knowledge could backfire.

It just seems like an unnecessary risk to me. That said, all but one or two NRL clubs aren’t known for consistently making smart decisions…

I see many suggesting that he could go well if paired with assistants with good technical knowledge of rugby league. That is possibly true and would be worth watching. Problem is (may be), head coaches pick their assistants.

Sheens knew Benji very well. Bennett had relationships with JD and Wolfe. Ryles has played for Bellamy. These guys know each other, their personalities gel, and have formed relationships talking footy a lot over a long period.

So a club would have to sign Cheika and hope he signs the right assistants. And Cheika himself would have to know who the assistants with good technical knowledge are, that he could work with and that compliment his personality. I am sure Cheika has met some league coaches, maybe even is mates with some. But all that fitting together seems a bigger stretch than going with someone with NRL pedigree.

His best bet might actually be Super League first.

Origin is analysis by paralysis – Can you imagine if NSW and QLD were in the same place where the teams almost picked themselves. It would shave 5 weeks off of the pre-series conversations.

Yep the marginally different styles of play a Tedesco, Edwards, Turbo bring may tinker ever so slightly with the style of play. But they are all outstanding players. Anyone of them could walk in, play and if NSW won, they would be short price to be Man of the Match.

And if NSW win or lose, how much of that will be determined by the “style of play”? Some, no doubt. But in the small sample size of Origin, where games are often decided by small margins which come back to one error, one lapse in concentration, one poor interchange, one bounce of the ball, does it really matter THAT much? Effort seems to be as bigger a factor in determining the result as anything, and these three are all huge ‘effort’ players.

Tedesco has won games for NSW with his skill and effort. He has also watched a prop take a bomb over the top of him for a try. Turbo has been unstoppable in some games. He has also left the field inside 5 minutes courtesy of his dodgy hamstrings leaving his team with a hooker playing centre. And Edwards has not had a chance on the Origin stage, so does anyone know what they will get with him? of course not.

Its all fun (for some) to hypothesise, but at the end of the day, there is actually no wrong selection. They can all play and play on the big stage. Comes back to luck and form on the day.