For me that was the hardest game to watch all year. The Panthers Parra game last week was the best I’ve watched in years. But tonight, every single set there was hold down and carry-on in he ruck like before the 6-again era. There could have been 50 six-agains given and Harry Grant penalise or even binned in front of the posts. Terrible for the flow of the game. It’s like the refs are trying to make it defensive again. Some of the worst refereeing all year.

Parramatta fans also remember the Brian Smith years where consistently competitive was rather frustrating without ever winning the comp. Then we went through more than a decade of debacle after debacle. Kearny and Stuart spring to mind. It was through those years we would have traded back the Brian Smith years for anything.

I’d rather see Parra stick with Arther and dump all efforts to find that missing piece. As above I think a Manu replacing Waqa would be the first one I’d try.

I can’t help but think that a trade of Waqa Blake for Joey Manu could be the missing piece of the puzzle. Doing so without blowing up the whole Roster, keeping he ones we want to keep without paying overs is also tricky to pull off.

I think the mindset surrounding how serious an injury is and whether it is enough to stop a game is completely the wrong way to think about it. The point of stopping a game due to injury is all about ensuring that the injured player isn’t subjected to further danger. If the play has gone past them and they aren’t in further danger, like in the Kenny incident, let the set continue until either the ball goes dead or is recovered by the defending team and the play has stopped.

The Fergo incident is far from the first. There’s one almost every game. It’s a very easy fix. If a player stays down claiming high contact they are off immediately for a HiA. If its due to another injury, they should be forced to make an interchange. If the replay shows there is nothing in it like with Fergo, the team shouldn’t get a free interchange.

Go back to the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s. When a player stayed down like that because of a legitimate injury, they were almost always interchanged as they were almost always legitimately injured. When they were slow to their feet, or stayed down because of high contact they almost always got to their feet to play the ball to show they were ok so they didn’t get sub’d off. The latter had to change for the players own benefit.

Too often now days players are milking penalties, holding their faces, knees, ankles etc like a Premier League Soccer player only to stay on the field and make a miraculous recovery after a penalty is given.

Imagine a team being down with 10 to go and getting a light slap around the chops, head in an awkward position (after they hit, spin and drop in a tackle) etc etc and the Cleary’s, Turbo’s, Teddy’s, of the game staying down to milk a penalty if the result was an automatic HiA 10 mins on the sideline? You’re pretty much ruling out your whole spine/backline from milking that because it could cost them the game.

Minutes left in the game, everyone extremely exhausted, Panthers a man down and struggling to get back on side when the ball was played. You’d have to think that this moment was their best opportunity to score in the entire match. At the very least exploit an offside player to earn a penalty and level the scores up.

The first half bomb that had Kikau knock Moses over who only had eyes for the ball was one of the most blatant escorts I’ve seen go unpunished in front of the posts.

Why is it close enough to have play stopped? He was 20-25m down field with the opposition in possession with 3 tackles left. How does stopping the game short of the end of the set help the injured player?

The answer to the faking of injuries is simple. If the player stays down holding their head or neck they are automatically off for a 10minute HIA. That rules out basically the hooker and the whole back line in the last 10 minutes of each half from pulling fake injuries. If the injury isn’t head/neck related they are off and the side loses an interchange.

For either one, serious or not, if the play is down field from the injury like in this game there is absolutely no need for the play to stop until the end of the set. If the play is in no risk of causing further danger to the injured player, how is stopping the game going to help the injured player. The refs aren’t medical staff and neither are the players.

I can’t split Andrew Moore and Peter Sterling. Moore is the best radio commentator I’ve ever heard. I don’t know how he’d go calling live TV but I can’t help think that a combination of Moore and Sterling would have been the cream of NRL commentating.

For me I think CA needs to get the Federal government on board to accomodate the team and the families if they are fully vaccinated. Lay out a set of ‘relaxed’ bubble arrangements that the English players and families are willing to live with that takes into account that other the English are fully vaccinated and Australia will be at or around the 80% vaccination rate.

Once the ECB, CA and The Federal Government are all on the same page, they simply tell the states that this is how the Ashes are going to be run and ask them to sign off on it. Any state that pushes back and expects to hold onto the ability to retroactively throw a spanner into the works if the situation changes is immediately struck off the test series and the test is reallocated to a state that is more accomodating. If Palachuck, Andrews and McGowen want to play their games they can take a walk and lose the tests. If that means two tests are played in one state then so be it.

I’m really interested what peoples thoughts are on the loser of these two games.
If Manly lose, my feeling is that people will write that down as a massive missed opportunity. Most believe on their day they can beat any team in the comp. Melbourne really tightened the screws on Tommy Turbo and gave the Roosters the blue print on how to do it.
If The Roosters lose, I doubt there will be any criticism at all. With the injury/suspension toll they have suffered this year its remarkable they are in week 2 of the play offs. A win here and I think they have over-achieved.
If the Eels lose, it will be another year where they didn’t make the last 4. A few weeks back, that would have had many calling for BA’s head. But post the Melbourne win, there is hope they can pull off an upset. But coming up against the Panthers in week 2, should they not get humiliated, I don’t think many will expect them to do better considering the opposition and their injury toll (no Mahoney is a massive loss for them).
If the Panthers lose, there will be column after column dissecting every part of the game, the season, the tactics, the roster the selection. Over the same week, sports journos and the Roar alike will have to decide between dissecting the Panthers loss and the What-If’s around a very juicy match up between Parramatta and Melbourne considering the round 24 defeat at the hands of the Eels.

I’m more worried about the material Waqa Blake has on BA. With his horrendous defensive reads, how does he start with Tom Opacic on the extended bench. I can see tries free flowing through that 3/4 area.

Looking at that bench, surely the plan is for Papali’i to be the middle forward rotation?

There’s no difference. Both are legal kicks. Even though in slow mo I think you can see the ball touching his foot before contact with the ground and then kicking it again, it’s irrelevant either way.

Your interpretation of “any universe” is completely in contradiction with the NRL rules.

Go back and watch it again. I just did. It is 100% clear that Gutherson releases the ball with the intention of kicking it. I am not sure how anyone can come to your conclusion even on first watching at full speed let alone with slow motion replays. He is clearly shaping to kick when the ball is released from his hands.

It’s not like he lost possession and had a swipe at it. He clearly attempts a kick. Wether that happens prior to or directly after it hitting the ground is completely irrelevant. That is NOT a knock on.

I’m not sure why things like intent to drop kick it are even brought into it. Gutherson clearly releases the ball so he could kick it. So it’s clearly not a handling error with the ball leaving his hands. The only thing that matters after that point is wether his foot or shin makes contact with the ball before, or directly after the ball contacts the ground. Both kicks are legal kicks. The rest is irrelevant garbage.

I can totally see Manly beating the Storm. They shouldn’t be favourites and you’d expect Bellyache to get the game plan to win. But imagine they do win. Only to see Melbourne come up against the winner of Panthers/Rabbitohs in two weeks time? Then to see Manly face probably the winner of Parramatta/Rabbittohs. Manly pulls this off this week and they have a pretty sweet run to a GF.

Great article and I completely agree. One thing that could change is having all the clubs CEO’s and coaches get together in a room. All need to agree collectively that rants like Robbo’s and any other similar ones that stop short of calling the refs a cheat. They will all refuse to pay the fines. I loved what Robby said. The TV network loves what he said. What will the NRL do to a mini revolt like this?

Horsburgh seems to have a lot of mistakes in him. I’d take James over him any day.

Maybe Dezzie has confidence that they only need a win this week and a big one next week and then they’ll get their rest.

Only Fergo and Opacic would have been considered part of Parra’s starting 13 at the start of the year with Lane on the bench. The rest of the side are bench players at best… Though thats tough on will smith who’s better than a bench player.

I haven’t seen enough Canberra games this year but the ones I have watched Ryan James has hardly put a foot wrong. I can’t understand him not getting more game time. He proved he’s capable when at the dogs. Any Canberra fans shed some more light on this?

As much as I love to see the Sharks in pain. The decision was an absolute shocker. Not even close to a 50/50. He had no business calling held. But he’s not the only referee to do it. Almost all the referees now days call held as soon as the ball runner is driven backwards. Im not talking about the ones where players are lifted off their feet. Stock standard solid defence where forward momentum is only halted for a split second before being driven backwards should never have a held call. If ball runners want to hit the line upright they run the risk of being driven backwards by better defenders. It’s as simple as that. But referees these days feel the need to over adjudicate the game.

Don’t get me started on attacking players without the ball getting involved in halting defensive efforts near the line or sideline. There are no provisions in the Rugby League rule book that allow for anything remotely resembling a maul. It’s plain and simple obstructing the defence.