It is simply incongruous that in a period when the game plays its trumpet loud and long about having attained transparency not one envoy, official or fan, can bring themselves to say “mental health” as a reason for Paul Green’s death.

I am only guessing, you’d have to enjoy an intimate knowledge of North Queensland league to have any idea what all the fuss is about.

You have served with distinction Michael Hooper, your achievements are exceptional. What you must do next will emerge when it does.

If your body tells you to rest, now rest.

Be well. Take good care.

“without getting personal and engaging in needless puerile invective”

You might spend some time substantiating these claims as well mate – you’ve come up short again. Tim Gore has offered much to support his opinion, you bowl along relying on fabrication and an insult to your host.

I puzzle over when and why they found it necessary to replace “that’s wrong” with “I don’t think that’s ok”?

“fear, logic, and religious beliefs do not ever walk hand in hand”

I always say it is good to nail down your argument with a good cliché, preferably an absolute!

If Gary Player was unhappy with his efforts during the last couple of holes he, Gary Player, told himself to go back out and play them again. Don Bradman improved his skills by taking a cricket stump and a golf ball out the back, batted the ball onto the water tank for hours, to discover that his reactions miraculously improved.

I don’t suppose the Elite Pathways Cricket Academy Professor at Bowral suggested that to him … sounds a bit “do it yourself”, eh?

John Raper routinely got to the end of a big night on the turps and ran home. He seemed able to work out how to make it to the top all by himself.

As Double Agent points out (just below here) Suliasi Vunivalu has an expectation that whoever is responsible had better get a wriggle on, do his job and put a green tick alongside his name.

Sensei Rennie said in 2020 that “there’s no plan to use Suli in the two Argentina games unless we have got a spate of injuries,” adding, “the key for him is to earn the right to play and [we are] keen to reward the guys who have been working for the last three months.” For a bloke as circumspect, as guarded, as Rennie that’s a rather blunt message don’t you think?

That teary dressing shed last hug ‘n smooch brings me undone every time.
They have been attached at the hip for a week, for breakfast, calisthenics, road runs, back for little lunch and then they are cruelly torn apart for about a quarter of an hour immediately before running out onto the ground to play. The separation must be just horrible for them.
But then … but then, soon after they enter the stadium they will experience that wee l’il pee of excitement when they reunion on the field for the very next huggity hug. That must give them such a thrill! 😁 😁

Oh boo! Bloody boo!! You have no shame! 😡

Direct and to the point. There is room and good reason for the NRL to confirm its unequivocal support.

Did you get lost en route to the Herald or the Financial Review?

They cover politics, this is a sports site. All sports, worldwide. Come and have a look around when you wish to relax and get away from other subjects. Leave those things behind.

Smith will be okay because he isn’t scared of anyone – he reminded me of Warner (vc) in the players stairwell in Durban in 2018, bravely confronting Quinton de Kock with “I’ll have ya, I’ll have ya – hold me back you blokes” (to Paine and Khawaja).

He sure had those Cronulla fans on the back foot when he stared at them for 4 seconds from 30 feet distance!

I know he is peak tough because he swears a lot. For the reporters, blurting out “effin” every 10 seconds is quite muscly, and beloved of the excitable schoolboys; but it is suboptimal as an advertisement to young mothers seeking out an honourable team sport.

This bloke is paid about half a million a season now and Easts plan to pay him $800,000 or something. Both places have smart fellas running their shows. How they reconcile this, beyond $2.35 for his bus trip home, is a mystery.

Yep, a basketball coach screeching at a few thousand paying fans, about being tired and fed up, is eccentric behaviour from an adult; and gee willy whiz it has had a powerful impact on the matters at hand 18 days later, oh yes it has.

I am pleased for the confirmation that I was not imagining things!

“hes (sic) still only a 22yr old kid”

… being paid $¾ million, $14,400 per week, to perform as a talented – supposedly – young adult, consistent with undertakings he gave in the last year or two under a much publicised contract in which he gets close to $10 million before he turns 30.

He is paid more than the Prime Minister, with contingencies the Club must make to engage a top ranked barrister at midnight when he gets carted off for abusing policewomen and abusing the companion (or whatever they are called these days) when he is drunk in Tweed Heads, which in 2019 he undertook most earnestly to not do (cough, cough); when he refuses to respond to the NRL Integrity Unit¹; and when he gets drunk in public and starts belting workmates, which in 2019 he undertook most earnestly to not do (cough, cough). A brief search found there is plenty more to consider.

“I’ve got little brothers and sisters and family who look up to me … I want to be a good role model to them” sayeth Our Payne (7Sport May 27, 2019). Words are cheap.

¹ the Broncos CEO read a statement at the time “Payne’s level of cooperation with the investigation by the NRL integrity unit fell short of expectations and the standards set by our club. We see this is as a mistake made by a young man and we are confident Payne will learn his lesson.” It is said he then turned to the Club’s media staff and spluttered “Which one of you galoots wrote this rubbish?”

I do not know your work, Colvin Brown, but the other bloke above you is another story. I have long been familiar with his work, he knows stuff, and he values accuracy.

On this occasion however I say the pair of you are having a king-size lend of the readers! Who … why … would an undoubtedly educated and knowledgeable man such as Our PeterK carry information in his scone as irrelevant, ancient, unnecessary and distracting as a song about a lowered sulky carting me off to be interrogated for the last time by the Holy Spirit? I could ask a dozen of my mates, all smart fellas, what it was all about, and they would edge away, exclaim “Back in a minute Mick, it’s my shout!” and scarper!

This whole imbroglio would be ever so unsettling if it weren’t Friday evening schooners time, a lifelong ritual! See ya later. 😛

“NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said there was no place in the game for any public comments of that nature.
“The comments by a coach of Des’s standing were disappointing,” Abdo said.”
It is as simple as that, yes. Hasler knows better – which takes me to a long held suspicion.
I do not know if Des has made a fortune from the game however you would reckon anyone, rich or poor, facing the possibility of a substantial fine would stop going on and on in public, thereby turning it into a certainty. The League is not so transparent though, when it comes to proving the penalty has been paid.
I suspect there is a faithfully observed plan – after the match the NRL’s Deputy Assistant Divisional Manager Publicity gets on the phone with:
“Des, maaaate. You’d be aware we have lost a lot of product exposure with Wonder Boy from Souths out of the picture overseas, learning how to stop gobbling down donuts; and being taught how to break out of a lazy stroll and run a bit now and then.”
“Can you go ballistic for a couple of days, for Fox League 360 to debate and for the Tele to rattle up some column inches? You know the drill. We’ll pretend it’s cost you … oh … $25,000 sounds good for a giggle. 😁 😁 Onya mate, ta.”

I like how our Ben always looks so happy with life. USD$32 million last season for about 2¼ games would do that to a bloke.

You have done well, Glory Bound, in outlining the many things awry at Souths. Keep speaking of them so that other fans will have the message sink in.

I have commented before that Bennett doesn’t leave behind a great structure, dedicated ethos or a fine succession plan, not even at the Broncos.

A couple of weeks ago I was giving you a touch up in your absence 😛 and I offered advice from a long term Rabbitohs disciple to your good self. When daydreaming of what might be down at Redfern you are better off living in the past! – reflecting on Jim Morgan, Richie Powell, Bob Grant, James, Branighan – no, the other one! 😁 – and the great good they did for Souths, Manly, Easts, NSW and the Kangaroos.

Post World War II the Rabbitohs have appeared in 7 consecutive grand finals (’49 to ’55, won 5), St George in the next 11 (’56 to ’66, lost 0!) and Souths in the next 5 (’67 to ’71, won 4). No other team has since approached that dominance.

“Spoke to JD about …”? Who?

One of the coaches has a surname commencing with “D”, but I wouldn’t know his Christian name. I’m to scroll around the place searching? When I came here to read about the game? Nu-uh.

“Reynolds iced what came his way” Oh?

Even Urban Dictionary struggles with half a dozen quite different meanings. One I could understand:

“ice is the The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) so if you have been deported or detained by ice you have been iced”

but I am none the wiser on its application to League or Reynolds.

Time’s up, I have other things to do.

Another example of Sensei Bennett’s focus on short term gain. Create the opportunity sure, but drum into the players the technique is part of a repertoire from which they must draw in its entirety.

Cameron Smith tried every marginal ploy available, but not so frequently or predictably for the referees to be ready for it, and instinctively pull him up. Clever Cliff Lyons was as intelligent. Walker and Wonder Boy Mitchell do not enjoy the same expansive thinking – they waste their energy on anger and being special. Walker’s time is up and the nasty little man will disappear soon. I’ll warrant the other bloke will follow his lead, after he returns from Philadelphia Fat School (which will be about as successful as his recent six months holiday in getting rid of the waddle).

Bennett did not leave much for Demetriou to work on in terms of pushing long term improvement and a more mature focus from that fella.

I have long looked askance at You score, I score, more so as time passes and the dollar amounts paid rocket skyward.

That has brought with it an indisputable truth, that the more one is paid the wiser one becomes – look at Le Brain, career earnings of AUD$1.31 billion, with AUD$916 million of that from off the court. In 2021 he pulled AUD$125 million, including AUD$84 million off court. That puts him up there with the smartest men, shilling for BLM cities destruction carnivals, advising voters on which president to buy, natural resources policy and national education curriculum.

L’il Ben? AUD$46,529,907 in 2021 … $895,000 per week. 😛

He weighed in on the Presidential election too, when he really ought to have been paying an extra million to hire a better Second Assistant Life Coach (Fashion) – have a go at the I-threw-up t-shirt and the leg irons around his neck!!

It’s good work – lurch about dressed like a drongo, with a permanent surly expression on your face, on the edge of a team but all alone by choice, get paid in a week near twice what the Prime Minister earns in a year! and mumble incoherent stuff about your difficult life. 😛

“Jason Demetriou felt that it was not a malicious tackle“

Irrelevant.

“No one is hurt, everyone is OK. Settle down. He doesn’t need a spell,” raged Phil Gould

Irrelevant.

“Des Hasler … might have been merely a binning …

…. He’s devastated, the poor kid, he’s such a hard worker. … such a nice temperament.

… certainly no malice in the tackle … Why, just last Wednesday he took his grandmother to McDonalds Manly for a cappuccino, opened the door for her ‘n all, and he paid!“

Cameron Smith: “I don’t think he had any intent at all … tackle gone wrong … ten minutes in the bin”

Television commentator(s): “He’s been sent off! HE’S BEEN SENT OFF! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Goodness gracious!”

These are senior figures in the game who are clearly not serious about player protection. The player is not to blame, they all agree on that.

That leaves the referee as the only one in the culpability spotlight.

The most decisive referee I have seen in recent years, Bill Harrigan, finished up twenty years ago. His rulings were clear, direct, authoritative and unequivocal. Bill didn’t much care for lengthy captains’ submissions on the paddock and was happy to march childish disregard for authority another ten yards. For a period the League appreciated Bill’s value as a handsome, charismatic contributor to marketing of the game. Eventually they got him – bigger egos, officials with authority and power, the small big men of the game.

This really is a comical situation which will be repeated throughout the year – comical, that is, if you can live without League in your life sooner rather than later.

Staggering isn’t it? The game has a couple of blokes on the field plus however many more in their video room, with video screens big enough to shade your barbeque area, and still they could not see what I have seen? On a faded 9 inch black and white HMV with rabbit ears aerial (1972 😁 ).

At no stage was that Tupou below Ravalawa’s neck. It was not clear on the first view from the far touch line but it was clearly evident from the later view from the close touch line. His forearm connected with Ravalawa’s eye socket.

The tackler sauntering off unconcerned after the event has me wondering “was he half asleep during the planning?”, as Griffin observed “He had 30 metres to decide where to tackle him.”

These donkeys aren’t much interested in the Laws, perhaps they should be distributed as coloured in bedtime story books. Give him six months off, with occasional training in A grade juniors in the faint hope that he might learn how to tackle. Let him come back in 2023 when he has grown up a little.

PS. I have just looked his name up. Tupou is 30 years old! and still doesn’t know how to tackle! Forget him, leave him behind.

Haas has prior infractions in 2021 or 2020 of “intimidating a female police officer” then in 2019 “… failing to cooperate with an NRL investigation”.

I recall one was the fault of a death in the family – most people start throwing punches when someone dies, yeah.

This latest one “… being 8 years old in public …” brought the response:

“I did stuff up a bit, but I felt like it wasn’t worthy of getting suspended,” … “… I didn’t do too much wrong.” … funny as a circus.

“But we’re in the public eye; … can’t be doing that kind of stuff … need to handle … situations better … I’ve learnt my lesson there.”

Yeah, sure, of course you have.

Smothered with opportunity, first class education seven days a week in … chucking a ball about 😁 … and deluged with dollars.

They have no idea just how fortunate their life has turned out to be. He’ll be back, over and over again.

I remember reading last year about another multi-millionaire League hero who abused and intimidated the police at Tweed Heads and his well paid barrister blamed it on a death in the family a year before, therefore the police should have copped it sweet.

All that extraordinary success brings so little joy, eh?