Isn’t it obvious? They’re treating City/Country as an Origin trial, and clearly Fensom is first man picked for NSW and has nothing to prove. Either that or there’s someone in the system who suffers from an acute fear of hardworking Raiders locks.

Yeah #2 has always been the problem child because of this nonsense around “what bit of who made contact” instead of using common sense to say – “Okay, this player was conscious until they were hit with a shoulder charge by this player, we can safely assume there was head contact.”

All it would have taken would have been harsh punishments around head contact and you’d see players correcting their technique or avoiding them altogether. Instead we’ve just added another bizarre grey area to the game and undermined the integrity of the rulebook by clearly illustrating that there was no cohesive plan on how to police and punish the new charges.

“There is no doubt that if a shoulder charge caused a serious injury, the aggressor would cop a lengthy suspension.”

Like a fractured orbit? Or a concussion? I understand that the NRL have now closed the “loophole” of incidental contact, but I’m not sure the degree of injury sways them in any way.

I’m not sure what it would take for the toothless judiciary to impose a fair sentence. It’d have to be from a player who is grubby enough to have a reputation for it, but not good enough to be above the law. Travis Burns is long gone, Paul Gallen is a martyr, the Storm boys are canonised, who’s left? Maybe Luke O’Donnell? In any case, they’ll eventually find someone to “make an example of” and they’ll cop 12 weeks in the same week that an origin superstar gets 1 week for something much worse.

He was woeful against the Raiders too. He turned in an even worse performance than Suttor and Sutton.

While I’ve never rated him as a player, the Count’s tiptoe down the sideline and swan dive for the tryline against the Warriors was probably the best I’ve seen this season.

Have to agree on Tanginoa too. The kid looks like one to watch.

Not sure I’d call it a choke. Raiders were all over the Roosters for most of the game, with a huge amount of possession. The Roosters just scored on every single attacking opportunity they had. If the Raiders defense wasn’t so fragile, the Roosters were never in it.

The Roosters have shown they’re pretty good at exploiting the failings of their opposition and have had an easy draw against a massively undermanned Warriors outfit who seem to hate their coach, a Broncos side missing what few attacking players they have left and an absolutely woeful Eels side. They didn’t create anything against a well drilled Bunnies side, and once the Raiders stopped dropping the ball near their own line, they never looked like scoring.

It’s tough. NSW have experimented with inexperienced halves several times without success, so I can understand the reluctance to do so again. Either way, we’re looking at another series defeat by either carrying the dead wood that is Mitchell Pearce, or by giving Adam Reynolds a series to find his feet. Personally, I’d go with Reynolds. He’ll get bashed, but he’s tough enough to bounce back and should come back stronger for the run. It’s just a question of how to manage fan expectations. It’s pretty rough to have seven consecutive losses and to say “hey, we might need another couple before this bloke is at the top of his game and ready to notch up some wins”.

The Roosters have gotten a lot of credit for beating some rubbish sides, and looked like doing it again after the Raiders let a handful of absolutely woeful refereeing decisions get to them. Very glad to see them turn it around, they’re going to be very hard to beat with Campese marshalling the troops and Josh McCrone adding some much needed spark to dummy half.

Surely that should read “Cowboys NRL win soured by Lui comeback”. I was very disappointed when the Cowboys signed this grub and even more disappointed to see them actually giving him a run.

I don’t really see a huge difference. If you want to directly compare, I’d lump them into a few categories:

Stars – [Andrew Johns], [Scott Prince], Johnathon Thurston, Cooper Cronk
Elder Statesmen – Scott Prince, [Brett Kimmorley], [Craig Gower]
Future Stars – Adam Reynolds, Shaun Johnson, Daly Cherry-Evans
Steady Clubmen – [Brent Sherwin], [Matt Orford], [Brett Finch], Jeff Robson, Mitchell Pearce
Rocks or Diamonds – [Todd Carney], [Tim Smith], [Matt Head], Chris Sandow, Albert Kelly
Good Prospects – Sam Williams, Blake Austin, Michael Morgan, Tyrone Roberts
Average – Peter Wallace, Luke Walsh, Kris Keating, Nathan Fien

The mid 90s saw a lot of blokes on the back end of their careers. In the present day, there’s a huge amount of potential with lots of raw young talent. Even moreso once you broaden the field to include five-eighths. We’ve moved well beyond that dark period of decent back-rowers masquerading as rubbish five-eighths, and I doubt you’d ever see something as utterly desperate as NSW fielding Mark Gasnier as a five-eighth in the present day.

Here are some stats:

Ryan Hoffman has a 20% record at Origin level
Greg Bird has a 30% win rate (36% if you want to count dead rubbers)
Anthony Watmough has a 25% win rate (33% if you want to count dead rubbers)

But then, maybe it’s better to keep these guys around until we can assemble a half decent spine. Otherwise you run the risk of blooding your youngsters into a losing culture with very little prospect of winning any time soon.

Haha. I think a TV that plays videos of Daniel Anderson from 2002 would be a better coach for the Warriors than Matt Elliot.

I don’t know whether I’d be looking at the Roosters/Eels game the other night as an indicator of form. Everyone looks like a world beater when your team wins by 50, but unless they’re doing it week in week out, you’ve got to consider just how woeful the opposition was. Just look at the Eels. Round 1, Sandow looked like he was finally ready to earn his $550k a season, and Jarryd Hayne was everpresent in support. Where are they a few rounds later? Certainly not putting in performances worthy of praise.

The Roosters have had a soft draw, with games against the Eels, Warriors and Broncos. In their only real test against the Bunnies, Pearce was beaten up and found out. Reynolds copped just as much attention, but stood up to it.

F***ing Billy Slater again. I’d say the entire system needs an overhaul, not just the grading. You can’t have a system that allows established precedent but also has 1001 unofficial get out clauses for star players. If Paul Gallen decided he was going to force feed a corner post to Brett Suttor a week out from Origin, he’d escape the charge, and then all of a sudden that rule has a line put through it because any future offender can argue precedent.

They need to formalise the rep footy get out clauses by allowing deferred suspensions (or exempting rep footy from judicial punishment), and they should stop the ridiculous practice of throwing big dollars at QCs to argue on the behalf of players. They should show up with their coaches and be prevented from arguing around the rule. It couldn’t be more clear that the rulebook doesn’t stand up to legal scrutiny and that just about anything can be overcome with semantics.

It shouldn’t really matter if Richie Fa’aoso made contact with his head or his shoulder. The whole point of outlawing the shoulder charge was because of the high risk of injury *when it goes wrong*. That’s exactly what happened in this instance, so you can’t treat the deliberate shoulder charge and the “accidental” head contact as separate elements.

He committed an act of foul play, we all saw the result, and once upon a time an illegal tackle that saw your opponent stretchered off in a neck brace would have been an instant send off and a couple of months on the sideline. We wouldn’t all be arguing the ins and outs of what bits of the tackler hit what bits of the victim. Richie Fa’aoso may not have intended to put Ash Harrison in a neck brace, but he certainly intended to hit him late and hard and give him second thoughts about holding up a pass on the defensive line next time around. The exact wording of the particular rules shouldn’t matter – it’s a cheap shot, a late hit on a pivotal player without the ball that took him out of the game with a concussion. Four weeks was a common sense ruling, maybe even a bit lenient.

Anyway, the moral to the story is, if you’re Billy Slater, do whatever you like. If you’re not Billy Slater, just say you’re doing what he did.

Maybe it’s all been a ploy to make the usual gang of idiots and dribbers seem more palatable by comparison.

I have to humbly disagree with “accident” in the context, when the NRL uses “careless” and “reckless” to grade other unintentional fouls. Is it okay for a player to run at a low tackler with raised knees? Or for an attacking player to lead with the forearm while hitting the ball up? Or kick at the ball while on opposition player is diving for the try line? Or diving at a kicker’s legs?

I just don’t understand the NRL sometimes. After all the fuss over the shoulder charge last year where we saw a legitimate defensive tactic banned due to the potential of injury when it is poorly executed, it’s completely baffling to me that something with a similar potential for harm is waved away. Why wait until this becomes more commonplace? Stamp it out immediately. Even if you take no action against Slater, issue an immediate response that any subsequent incidents will be dealt with as reckless contact.

Anyway, enough ranting. I’m off to throw rocks into crowds, shoot crossbow bolts into the air and drop coins off tall buildings. If anyone gets hurt, its their own fault. Actually if anything, they should be penalised for getting in the way of my projectiles. I could get used to this victim complex thing.

I don’t know that the 1994 grand final was depressingly predictable. I mean, who would have thought that Tina Turner would bring out Tim Capello, the gyrating, oiled up sax man from ‘The Lost Boys’ to play the solo from ‘Simply The Best’? Very provocative indeed.

Typical Storm and typical Billy Slater. Always pushing the boundaries and then playing the victim when it comes back to bite them in the arse. Why not just admit it? Billy Slater plays hard, with a determination and intensity that makes him an exceptional rugby league player – but sometimes it gets him in trouble. Whether he’s mistiming a (now illegal) shoulder charge, leading with his studs in a jump for the ball, leading with his knees or feet trying to hold a player up, losing his cool after a Jarryd Hayne headbutt or committing a professional foul to run a kick chaser off his line – it’s no excuse to just say “it’s what he does and shouldn’t be accountable for it”.

Billy and the Storm need to accept that playing hard, determined, but risky football will go pear shaped from time to time. They need to take their lashes and move on. He’s like a truckie speeding and running red lights to get to his destination faster. He gets outstanding results for his employer, but it’s nobody’s fault but his own when he gets pulled up – particularly when his recklessness causes harm to someone else.

I’d love to see Dugan line up for the Dragons on Sunday. It’d give the players and fans the opportunity to show him exactly what they think of him.

Geez, you’d be filthy if you’d put safe money on Matt Elliott being first to go before the Sharks randomly sacked Flanagan.

It’s something that’s exascerbated at this time of year. It takes a while for players to get their match fitness back, and in a lot of cases, the heat is stifling. I wouldn’t be busting my arse to get to a scrum in 35 degree heat.

There’s certainly some merit to the idea of clock stoppages whenever the ball is out of play though. It would have some interesting effects on the state of the game. Longer telecasts should translate into higher TV revenue, and a longer playing time would see more scoring opportunities as the big blokes get tired. But really, it’s a question of player welfare. It’s already very taxing on players under the current system, and a longer playing time might mean longer recovery periods between games.

The Mince’s days are numbered. Good thing he loves counting so much.

How many elite players have we lost recently? How many have stayed away for longer than a couple of years? Lote Tuqiri has spent more time sidelined with injury than he has playing Rugby Union. Big Dell and Israel Folau were almost like practical jokes we leaguey’s played on rival codes.

It’s all talk. We only ever hear that the ARU are sniffing around these blokes when their contracts are up for renewal, and then surprise, surprise, they have a sudden change of heart and stay in the NRL for big money. Even the Superleague traffic has turned around. We ship off a handful of blokes on the wrong side of 30 (or the wrong side of their coaching staff) and they send back their rep stars like Gareth Ellis, James Graham, the Burgess boys, etc.

The NRL isn’t losing any stars, and even if we did, there’s always someone waiting in the wings. Player turnover isn’t always a bad thing. Israel Folau got his first run because Steve Turner had picked up an injury. He then went on to be the youngest debutant for both QLD and Australia, while Steve Turner continues to have a solid club career after a horror first (and last) game for NSW.

The A-League needs marquee players as a drawcard to a sport that isn’t hugely popular within Australia. It allows them to recruit high profile international sportsmen on the downturn of their careers and get more bums on seats. It doesn’t make sense to throw more money at NRL players just to reward them for being part of our great game. Does it matter if Johnathon Thurston earns $800,000 or $1,000,000? Does it make him a better player? Does it make the Cowboys a better team? The NRL a better competition?

On the other hand, $200,000 makes a *massive* difference to grass roots footy. The Johnathon Thurstons and Cameron Smiths of the world wouldn’t be where they are without fields, goalposts, line markings, jerseys, balls, tackling bags – say nothing of the kids that played alongside them and the thousands of parents who volunteer their time and effort to keep the wheels of the game running.

$200,000 could pay for a few blokes like Nathan Hindmarsh to visit schools, run coaching clinics and tell kids how rugby league is the greatest sport in the world. That’s a pretty big deal, and it’s looking after former players at the same time.

I don’t think the benefit of the doubt rewrite is *that* bad. It’d be stupid to have the on field ref point to the spot and then draw his imaginary box to send it up to the video ref, but I don’t see an issue if he verbally acknowledges his decision as he’s sending it upstairs. The onfield ref says “That looks like a try to me, but can you check to see if his leg went into touch?” It’s not really that far removed from double checking with the pocket ref and linesmen before awarding it. It all depends on the execution.

Personally, I don’t see what’s wrong just flipping back so benefit of the doubt goes to the defending team – but the new interpretation is still better than what we had. I’m still not convinced on captains/coaches challenges, but it does certainly add an element of comedy to the cricket when someone as thoroughly unlikable as Michael Clarke throws away his challenges on deadset plumb LBs.

As for the shoulder charge, the real test will be what punishment they dish out to anyone who breaks the rule. It’s not like their promise to get tough on head shots last year actually amounted to anything. There’s no point in having rules if you just throw them out the window because you’ve sold a bunch of tickets to a player’s 250th and don’t want to suspend him. Same applies for the bloke dishing out headbutts and the guy planting an elbow on the back of his neck in retaliation if they’re both set for origin duties the week after.