Here’s a thought no new team just get rid of the so-called “Wests” Tigers. Better still just rename them the Balmain Tigers and stop this pretense that they have anything to do with the West. They can then play all their home games at their “spiritual” home ground at the revamped Leichhardt.

Who cares what Billy Slater thought and who cares what Kevin Walters thought. What matters is what the referee thought. I don’t believe it was anywhere near as bad as the Sualili tackle as some media are suggesting and who did deserve to be sent off. Sualili’s tackle was as bad as Mitchell’s tackle on Manu a couple of years ago.

Could someone please explain the decision in the Eels Bulldog game where Stephen Crichton kicks the ball downfield which bounces three times in the field of play and is taken by Clint Gutherson on the third bounce who plants his foot on the sideline while taking it and the referee rules for the ball to be played by Parramatta from where Crichton kicked it from up field. The commentators were calling Gutherson a genius for knowing this rule and obviously the referee ruled in his favour but why? I thought you had to take it on the full with your foot on the line. I have gone through the rules of the NRL and couldn’t find anything to explain this decision so was wondering what is this rule they are referring to.

Could someone please explain the decision in the Eels Bulldog game where Stephen Crichton kicks the ball downfield which bounces three times in the field of play and is taken by Clint Gutherson on the third bounce who plants his foot on the sideline while taking it and the referee rules for the ball to be played by Parramatta from where Crichton kicked it from up field. The commentators were calling Gutherson a genius for knowing this rule and obviously the referee ruled in his favour but why? I thought you had to take it on the full with your foot on the line. I have gone through the rules of the NRL and couldn’t find anything to explain this decision so was wondering what is this rule they are referring to.

Mitch Moses, hes not the messiah, he just a naughty boy. 😁

Was it just an optical illusion for me but are the Tigers the smallest team in the NRL? Watching that game i was struck how the St George players looked so much bigger in almost all positions than the Tigers players. It really looked like a case of men playing boys.

Appointing an almost completely unproven coach to the worst team in the NRL is looking like the disaster it promised to be. Benji is a lovely guy and while everyone likes him and feels sorry for him, he should never have been appointed head coach with so little actual coaching experience in the first place. Benji had ONE season as an assistant coach at the last placed Tigers before being appointed head coach, who does that. Craig Bellamy spent 3 years as a lower grade coach before spending 4 years as assistant coach at the Broncos under Wayne Bennett, before landing the head coaching role at the Storm and the rest is history. I can’t remember anyone with so little coaching experience being appointed a head coach in the NRL and at the club running last in the competition even before he became an assistant. I feel sorry for Benji as he doesn’t deserve this, but I think he really needed to spend more time under a coach like Craig Bellamy before taking on such the massive task of lifting the Tigers off the bottom of the ladder.

I personally would let Hynes go he’s just not up to SOO mentally. Bring back Cody Walker and pray he plays to his best.

Tom Dearden is made for SOO

Luai is finished he will never be picked to play SOO again.

Edwards has missed his chance they won’t drop Teddy twice they haven’t got the guts.

Have to agree that Cleary has been a “failure” at State of Origin level, but NSW must have a paucity of halves if the fact that Luai and Cleary kept getting picked over the last few years of Queensland domination is any guide and Hynes certainly looked out of his depth in game 1 as well. Hynes appears finished as a No 7 at SOO level and he will most likely never play half for NSW ever again as Moses has the media behind him and will be the No 7 in games 2 and 3. But Moses has been a failure so far in State of Origin to date winning only one of three games he’s appeared in and that was a dead rubber as well. Hynes only hope is that when they drop Luai for game 2, which they surely will, he gets the number 6 but going on last year that should be Cody Walker even though he will need a walking frame to get on the field.

Sorry my mistake about Matterson but there was a story recently about Parramatta shopping him around to rival teams for next year so i had assumed he was only under contract to the end of this year. Never assume lol.

If I was Jarome Luai, I would start packing my bags as no matter how he plays in Origin he will be dropped for game 2 even if NSW win. He has no supporters in the halls of power in the NRL. He was only picked in the first one as there was no one else available for NSW, he was literally the bottom of the barrel. Moses is the poster boy of the press and will be picked for Origin going forward no matter what happens. I watched the highlights of the Cronulla game and can’t say I thought he was as godlike as he was made out to be as he made a few ungodlike mistakes. In fact, his 5/8 Brown seemed to snap out of his lethargy this season in this game and was the best player on the ground as far I could tell. The only god in the Parramatta team is Clint the God Gutherson.

Sloan is another at the Dragons

I can’t believe anyone would pick Drinkwater in first grade let alone for Origin, his defense has been poor his entire career and if anything, he seems to be getting worse. He also seems incapable of taking the ball on the full and has conceded tries on a number of occasions by either failing to take it cleanly or by simply refusing to get under it. To think that the Cowboys let the Hammer go to keep him. Insanity.

Neither will be missed. Matterson is no loss and could be punted by the Eels at seasons end as his contract is up, and they have so far not resigned him. Same goes for Simmonson, who while he tries his best just isn’t good enough, his contract is also up at the end of the season and Parramatta seems to be definitely not interested in resigning him with Lomax coming next year and while they try to hold on to Talagi.

What’s funny is that only two weeks ago the Sharks were being lauded as getting the monkey off their backs by beating “heavyweights” the Storm in Melbourne and the Roosters. They were now the “real deal”. Two weeks later they have lost 42 nil at Shark Park to an understrength Panthers team, who had been beaten by the Warriors the previous week, before getting rolled 34 to 22 by the fifteenth placed Eels. They now face the Broncos at Lang Park as heavy outsiders and could fall out of the top four in the next few weeks unless they can turn their current poor form around quickly. Their defense which had seen them win 9 out of 10 games evaporated overnight conceding 76 points in just two games. They have gone from being the ‘team to beat” to “also rans” in very quick time, such is the NRL these days.

If i remember rightly Parramatta failed to make the finals last year with Mitchell Moses playing in most of their games, in 2023 he played in 19 games they won 10 lost 9. NRL is a team game, and one player can’t make his teammates tackle better. Though Gutherson’s return more than Moses’s seemed to put more steel in the defense as he is their captain and leader. Whether they can keep that up going on last year and their efforts so far this year is doubtful. Parramatta’s weakness last season and in this season, so far, is their defense and Moses presence doesn’t change that. This competition is so inconsistent any one of the 17 teams can make the top eight but unless you can get into the top four you won’t be a factor in the finals. Whether Parramatta with or without Moses can make the top four is another question.

I don’t get the hatred of Luai in NSW, there are far more aggressive arrogant players in the NRL than he is. If they hate him because of that then I take it they must also hate Cameron Munster for example. Luai was dropped last year after SOO2 after a media campaign to get rid of him. He was blamed for the loss saying that he failed to take control of the game when he wasnt even the player that was primarily selected for that role in the half back Mitchell Moses. Moses copped no criticism for not being able to take control of the game as expected and then when he and Tedesco who actually cost NSW the game, kept their positions and played in the win in the dead rubber game 3 where people said Moses should replace Cleary going forward as he had proven he was the right man for SOO and Cleary wasnt. I couldn’t care less about Luai whether he is selected or not for NSW but have never had a problem with him. The fact is he wouldn’t even be considered for selection for Queensland, even if he was eligible, as there are at least 3 players well ahead of him, as a five eight in the NRL, in Cameron Muster Tom Dearden and Ezra Mam. NSW have a dearth of five eights at the moment, as Luai’s selection shows, as their best candidate is 33 yold Cody Walker and obviously no one else must be good enough if NSW fans opinion of Luai is correct that he is no talent player who is only made to look good due to Cleary. I’m guessing that Luai will be made the scapegoat again when NSW fail to win SOO again this year.

Hate to pour more pain on the Parramatta Eels, well not really lol, but if you think things are bad now wait till this current roster is gone soon as they are all mainly in their 30s. The manner of the sacking of Brad Arthur on his 50th birthday shows the lack of heart in the culture of the club, as well as the awful treatment of his son Jake Arthur by so called Parramatta fans that forced him to leave, then you can understand why no one outside the Eels camp gives a damn. The next coach of the Eels faces a monumental task to rebuild the club and try to attract young up and coming players to the club and stem the flow of Parramatta juniors leaving. 38 years without winning a premiership might end up seeming like a short time as the Eels take over the perennial cellar dwellers tag for the next decade. And watch this space Brad Arthur might be about to be made the next coach of the Sea Eagles.

You read nothing but people bagging Cleary and Luai at SOO yet Mitch Moses gets a free pass. In Origin 2 last year all the criticism was of Luai who was dropped from game 3 and will probably never be selected in SOO ever again. Yet in game 2 last year who was the half back the main playmaker and kicker, Moses. He and Walker were praised after game 3 for making all the difference but that game was a dead rubber and it meant little. It lacked the intensity of the first two when the series was on the line. He has played in 3 SOO matches for only one win the final game last year. His performance in the 2022 grand final was hardly inspiring. But of course, he’s the best half back for NSW and Cleary is overrated and not up to SOO despite being in the winning side in three series to date. People forget that Origin is normally won in the forwards and thats where NSW has failed in recent years to match the Maroons.

The bit i don’t get is if as the Eels management now says they considered getting rid of Arthur last year before keeping him on why did they sign someone like Trent Barrett this year as his senior assistant and instead put someone in as his senior assistant that was more likely to become a head coach like say a Jason Ryles.

Honestly who cares who coaches Parramatta they are a basket case with no future and years in the wilderness. Coaching them will be a death sentence for the coaching career of whoever is foolish enough to take it on. Look at what is happening to poor Benji Marshall his coaching career practically over before he even gets started.

He is right though Drinkwater shouldn’t be playing NRL he just makes far too many mistakes and Chad Townsend is now too old to be the starting halfback in an NRL team while Reece Robinson is OK but there are much better hookers in the NRL and he is only in line to play origin for NSW because of a paucity of hookers available for NSW compared to Queensland. The only member of the Cowboys spine that is any good is my fav player Tom Dearden who is being continuously let down by those three players in particular. The Cowboys overall have the makings of a great team with the likes of origin players like Holmes Taulagi Nani Cotter and internationals like Taumalolo etc. The fact that Payten can’t get that team winning games means he has to be let go like Brad Arthur was by the Eels.