Roar Pro
Joined May 2010
5.9k
Views
4
Published
126
Comments
Published
Comments
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Channel 10 tendered an offer to the ARLC of $800m for four live games a week. At…
Every second year or so, the brains trust at NRL marketing gets together to roll the dice on a new theme song for the…
The NRL judiciary has given us plenty of talking points over the last couple of weeks, and continue to rule with the consistency of…
[caption id="attachment_24041" width="300" caption="Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy overseeas a training session in Melbourne. AAP Image/Julian Smith"][/caption] Yes, I know. Another article about the…
I really cannot disagree more strongly. A lack of talent within the Raiders lineup doesn’t explain their decade old MO – mostly average performances broken up by the biennial string of a dozen or so world-beating performances. This year’s squad may not be as strong as last year’s but it’s still a squad capable of beating any side on its day.
The biggest hurdle facing this squad is their own mentality. And that’s always on the coach. Dave Furner couldn’t consistently get the best out of his players, but if they got on a roll and fueled their own confidence we’d see strong, committed performances against all sides. There’s nothing in Ricky Stuart’s history to suggest that he’ll do any better. Yes, he managed to convince the NSW Origin side that they could win, but his culture of blame shifting meant that when they didn’t, it was everyone else’s fault. If you look at the mentality of the consistently good teams there’s not just that confidence, but also accountability when they don’t meet that expectation of victory.
What scares me though is Stuart’s track record with his previous teams that seems to suggest that once morale and confidence reaches a low point, he’s absolutely incapable of doing anything but driving it to rock bottom.
Raiders will struggle but it's not Stuart's fault
Surely Parramatta can pay the Raiders compensation for getting rid of a major headache.
Stuart farewells angry Parramatta fans
Has there ever been a time where the Parramatta club wasn’t marred by constant infighting? Plenty of coaches made a much better fist of it than Ricky Stuart. From mine, it’s just the usual from a guy who loves to blame everyone but himself.
It's time to turn the Eels around
I’d have said the Eels job was his last chance. And yet, despite leading the club to one of the worst seasons in NRL history for any club and leaving them in ruin, he’s been cherry picked to do it again with yet another club.
Good riddance to bad Ricky
If he plays his cards right, he could be a very rich man. Go to a different club each year, get sacked for “underperforming” and get a payout for the remainder of his contract. All because the fact that he’s arguably the worst rugby league coach ever never seems to come up when he’s interviewed.
Are Greenberg and Stuart telling the truth?
You muppet. Suck it up. You deserved far worse on both counts.
Gallen annoyed at NRL ban
Not as unsportsmanlike as a squirrel grip, but disappointing to see. He just comes out of it looking petty
Time to crack down on time wasting in NRL
It just wouldn’t be NSW Origin without a handful of players picked for the success of their team rather than their individual performance. It might have worked back when players like Gidley and Tahu were getting picked on the merits of Andrew Johns, but it certainly doesn’t work when players like Hoffman are getting picked on the merits of the Queensland spine.
Origin 2013 Game 3: NSW drop chances, must drop Pearce
Have to agree. Theoretically, it might just be that the Blues are the worst Rugby League side in history and the Maroon’s record is flattered by that.
Are the Maroons the greatest rugby league side in history?
You can take the boy out of the Storm but you can’t take the Storm out of the boy.
State of Origin 2013 Game 3: Streaker on field nearly ruins game [GIFs, VIDEO]
Rather than banning him for life, I say the fat naked bald bloke just needs another 11 origin appearances to settle in and prove himself.
Mitchell Pearce vs fat, naked bald guy
Bird I can understand. He may not have thrown a punch, but that’s a technicality. He came in at full pelt, jumped at Justin Hodges and swung both arms around him. He didn’t have the look of someone who was coming in to break anything up, he looked like someone coming in to instigate something. He stood out, and he was the first Blues player to come running in. Trent Merrin instigated, Paul Gallen basically just stood up and tried to grab someone, but Bird came flying from 10 metres away. Regardless of his intention, or the technicality of whether or not he threw punches, he deserved 10 in the bin and probably would have copped it regardless of the new crackdown attempts.
Aside from that, though I have to agree wholeheartedly. I don’t see how Merrin’s 1 week is any tougher than Gallen’s week after Game 1 or Jennings’ week after his flying punch last year. As always, the NRL is quick to trumpet change, but very slow to actually implement it. And to add insult to injury they’ll probably now let Merrin’s punishment stand as a precedent, like they did with Billy Slater’s dog shot on Antonio Winterstein.
Personally, I look at Gallen and Merrin’s hits and can’t really see much difference between David Fa’alogo’s hit on Anasta that he copped 7 weeks for. If anything, Fa’alogo’s was more innocuous, he looked like he was lashing out to get Anasta off him and got him square in the beak. Both Gallen and Merrin had time to think about what they were doing and very much intended their actions.
Origin rivals fuming over cheap shots
I wouldn’t call it that concerning. A bloke who’d rather cry and whinge like Braith Anasta than put in the hard yards and a bloke who spent most of the night bouncing off the chests of QLD attackers. I don’t think either will be missed.
Injuries add to NSW's Origin concerns
I want an apology from the NRL for letting a thug like Greg Bird continue to ply his trade. He’s got no respect for women, no respect for his mates, and clearly no respect for himself if he’s willing to speak this dribble publicly.
Bird wants apology for Origin sin-binning
For lovers of the art, the Eels/Tigers game earlier this year had a classic moment. The Eels had just made another costly error and one of their players was on the ground on all fours, hanging his head and trying to work out where it all went so wrong. And so Liam Fulton casual wanders across, swings a leg over and with a completely deadpan expression, sits on his back like a jockey for a couple of seconds and then stands up and walks off.
Five greatest Blues Origin moments
I hope the Eels are making Ricky pay his own fines. They really need to start socking away $10k here and $15k there in advance of paying out Ricky’s contract when they eventually man up and sack him.
Eels face $15,000 fine for Stuart outburst
I don’t know that the Tigers copped any tough penalties, I think the overall standard of the refereeing was just poor all around. The Raiders had 2-3 penalties go against them from poor Tigers ball security, and had 2-3 clear strips called as knock ons. The only 50/50 call I saw the Raiders get was the Reece Robinson not held ruling.
Eels face $15,000 fine for Stuart outburst
No idea how both Raiders players copped a higher grading than Nathan Brown. Granted, Mitch Barnett’s punches were a class above, but he was retaliating to a dog shot from Brown who apparently can’t handle a dose of his own medicine.
I’m also still not sure how a dust up warrants such high grading in comparison to Marike Koroibete’s disgraceful neck tackle in the corresponding game last year.
Under-20s rugby league brawlers face bans
It’s all a bit sad really. You could throw a dart at either Origin team and struggle not to hit someone who doesn’t have countless alcohol related offenses, AVOs, acts of violence toward women, or big question marks over their involvement in salary cap cheating and/or match fixing.
Part of me wonders if it’s all just part of this “Made for Origin” label. If you’re the kind of grub who is unable or unwilling to control violent or anti-social urges, you’re Made for Origin. If you’re the kind of grub that would lie, cheat and steal to win at all costs, you’re Made for Origin. Can’t hold your alcohol? Welcome to the VB Blues or XXXX Maroons.
On the plus side, how good is it see Nathan Merritt getting a run at last?
NRL: stop rewarding misbehaving players
I assumed he punched him because once your hand gets within cooee of Myles’ gigantic forehead the gravitational pull is almost impossible to escape.
Gallen slams NRL's fighting ruling
If he’d just taken his lenient suspension on the chin and shut up, we wouldn’t be here.
Gallen slams NRL's fighting ruling
Is he anything like Sebas Chabal? I would have loved to see him try his hand at footy.
Frenchman Casty joins Sydney Roosters
This might spell the end for Aussie Jum. I hope he feels like he’s been well paid for turning his back on the country he loves and wasn’t factoring a few more years of Origin into the asking price.
Tamou got what he deserved
Yeah, not sure how you get from “Barba playing in the halves is just not possible for his defence” to “buy Chris Sandow”. Sandow’s defense is and always has been awful.
SMITHY: NRL lacks quality and depth