I don’t think the 2013 Parra side was that pedestrian. Stuart just sucked.

I think Volkanovski’s earned the right to face someone else in the division before Holloway gets another shot. The decision was hardly outrageous with Volkanovski clearly picking up at least two rounds. One round in dispute really.

If Holloway was to move up I think he should take the time to add the weight in muscle and keep similar body fat levels going into future fights. Plenty of fighters step up by just not cutting the weight pre-fight and suffering for it. Kyle Noke springs to mind as one that seemed really good when he cut the weight and went down but didn’t do so well in the above weight class with no cutting.

Only thing I can disagree with there is Newcastle’s 5/8. Apart from tonight I think Kurt Mann has been doing a great job. Maccas inclusion has been fantastic so far. If I was the coach I’d be telling him that if the go forward isn’t there when the 5th tackle option comes, give it to anyone but Mitchell Pearce. Tonight, just like In so many of those origins, if he’s kicking long and his forwards haven’t laid a platform he puts it straight down the throat of one of the back 3. Give it to Mann or Ponga. Go to Pearce after good go forward and quick play the balls only.

Yeh I have to agree. Replacing Inglis and Burgess out of a very good side is always going to be problematic unless you have two out and out superstars off contract at exactly the right time. If the Bunnies has been able to replace Inglis and Burgess with say a Tedesco and Haas (probably commanding the same dollars) then the Bunnies would probably second favourites this year to win the comp.

Where I think the Bunnies are going wrong right now is the Arrow signing. Sure he’s a top tier forward. But for me he’s a like for like player with Cam Murray. You don’t need two locks in your pack. Replacing Burgess with a hard running, high workload/minute forward who can bend he line regularly and get a good offload away would have been better for south’s balance. Think Haas or David Fifita.

Feldt was a disaster In defence last week. Sure it was a Sivo ambush on him but a number of those options were weak as water. I reckon he saw the Teddy hit and said I’m having none of that thanks.

I think Holmes is still not at 100%. That’s got to be the reason for this call? Sure the Hammer has talent, but is he the best fullback option? Can’t he play wing also?

This was my thought also. Surely Boyd has to go?

Someone correct me if I’m wrong. I thought Boyd’s contract stated that the option for the extra year required him to play more than 8 games? So if he plays this game and changes his mind on retirement, they’d have to pay him 800k to not play next year? Please tell me I got the number of game wrong?

If there’s one thing Blake needs to work on, its his draw and pass. On multiple occasions this year he’s gone in field and taken the tackle with Fergo wide open. Fergo only sees the ball now days on kick returns/rucks and on the end of a bomb.

I think the 40th minute call is just as important as the 80th minute call. If they’re wrong they’re wrong and if the cost a team points then they’re worth the same. We like to trot out the cliche’s a lot like that then expect a salary cap to keep a competition even. Then when we get an even game, when one team gets dudded by a decision we say, should have won it without the decision. Can’t have it both ways IMO. Look at the Canberra Parra game. No way in the world that should have got to golden point. The Canberra forward pass and two of the three parramatta tries that were disallowed were dubious calls at best.

I think a little bit of credit needs to go to the centres also. While Sivo and Fergo provide that bit of punch to bend the line and get post contact metres on kick returns, this year Blake and Jennings have been coming in for second runs to spell the forwards. While I think Gutherson is barking at them to get in and help out, When you have forwards like Paulo and RCG trying to come off the back fence on every run, it’s hard not to be inspired to do some of the dirty work. If Brown can stay on the park and avoid injury or suspension, I don’t see a weakness in the Parramatta side anymore.

Good wrap up. I have to feel a little sympathy for Manly. If it wasn’t for poor refereeing decisions they could be sitting on 12 points and 4th on the ladder and certainly 10 points and 6th as a minimum. I can’t believe I’m defending a Manly side. But you’re right it simply isn’t good enough, but then again it isn’t good enough from the officials either.

I can accept the first one against Parramatta with the forward pass as it was a split second decision and Turbo got hit on release which exaggerated the forward motion of the ball. The failure to not award a penalty for that blatant push in the back is not good enough and that TMO should get as many weeks on the side line as AFB.

I’d like to see the NRL start to step in before registering contracts.

On one hand clubs have to take some of the ownership/ criticism for these problems. If what’s being reported is true, that there’s a clause in the contract that allows Bateman to renegotiate at the end of each season. That’s just dumb dumb dumb on Canberra’s behalf. There’s no point in having a 3 year contract if the player gets to renegotiate every year , then walk if he doesn’t get what he wants. To pay a huge transfer fee on what is effectively a 1 year contract is dumber than the contract itself.

On the other hand, it looks like some clubs need the NRL to save them from their own stupidity. It’s such a bad look for the game and it drives fans mad every time it happens.

Cowardly? Walker’s had a go before that and had to be pulled apart then goes back to him mouthing off. It’s attitudes like this that’s bringing up a generation of mouthy disrespectful youth. Don’t want a punch in the face? Don’t get in someone else’s face and shut your mouth.

A hand shake is a verbal contract. He abided by his end for the most part for all bar the last one. Even if you don’t see it like that you can’t have it both ways. Can’t discount the first 21 years only to focus on the 22nd year.

At Newcastle he wasn’t contracted to the club. He was contracted directly by Nathan Tinkler. The second Tinkler was ousted, Only Tinkler had an obligation to pay Bennett the way I see it. For Wayne to stay on he would have had to sign another contract with Newcastle. The club itself had nothing binding Bennet to them.

The point of the article was to paint Wayne Bennett as a coach that has a really poor record in fulfilling contracts by his own choice. He’s been a full time top tier coach And signed contracts for 39 years of coaching and completed all bar 4 years of those contracts by his own choice. You can draw your own conclusions on his integrity to finish his contracts from that.

There is a reason there was no mention of the 4-5-6 contracts Bennett would have signed in his first stint at Brisbane. It would have drastically skewed the “point” of the article.

I’d love to know the circumstances that he left Canberra. He was a co-coach with an opportunity to become a full-time head coach. You never see articles about assistant coaches leaving clubs to get full time coaching roles, so I think the same standard should be applied in this case.

Had he wished to stay at Newcastle, he would have had to sign a new contract. The rabble the organisation was in at the time he chose not to.

The whole premise of the article is that Bennet has a history with “Broken Deals”. The insinuation is that 5/6 of his deals were broken by Bennet himself. I think a long bow has been drawn on the 5 deals that have come to a conclusion and attention has been drawn to Wayne that I think is a little unfair.

The Raiders contract and Brisbane 1 are fair enough…… sort of.

Brisbane 2, Is 100% on the Broncos IMO. He got the sack. Demanded 400k because of it and settled on 385k.

Newcastle don’t have a leg to stand on to complain about his contract. The contract was never with the club itself. As I wrote in 2014. No Tinkler no Bennet.

Could Wayne Bennett be ripe for a Broncos return?

He saw out the contract with the Dragon after leading them to the finals all three years. 2 minor premierships and a tittle.

Remember Brisbane 1? There’s a reason Joe has quickly skipped over a 21 year tenure at the Broncos. I’m pretty sure Brisbane didn’t offer Wayne Bennet a 22 year contract to leave Canberra. There are multiple fulfilled contracts in there. Let’s look at Bennet’s coaching career as a whole in the number of contracted completed years and the number he actually saw out.

1. Canberra Raiders 1/4
2. Brisbane Broncos 21/22
3. StGeorge 3/3
3. Newcastle 3/4 (That’s giving the benefit of the doubt against Bennet which is harsh)
4. Brisbane 4/5
5. Souths 1/1 not including this year

Total = 33/39 Years of Contracts that he signed that he has fulfilled. Or 84.6%.

If you want to discount the last year of the Tinkler contract (as Tinkler lost the rights to decide who the coach was) and the last year of the Broncos contract when he was sacked by Brisbane that percentage moves up to 89%

I bet if you were to go back to the start of the NRL era. Add up all the years that coaches were contracted to clubs. Then calculated how many years they actually completed before being sacked by clubs compared to how many they are contracted to. The number completed would be far less than 89%. With coaches like Bellamy/Bennet/Robinson bringing the numbers up and coaches like Ricky/All of the West Tigers and Warriors coaches bringing that way down.

I’d like to see the NRL make sure clubs are protected against this with clauses ensuring transfer fees get returned in full of players don’t see out their contracts.

Actually I think Dean Pay has had this team over-achieving for the last couple of years. This squad on paper is terrible and few would get picked up at other teams. Actually looking at the weekend squads even with Hoppa in 34-6 I think is a fair score line. Anything better and you need to give Pay some credit. If you were building a squad from both teams, Josh Jackson and Hoppa would be the only ones really looked at.

They started off giving Parramatta a scare only allowing one try in. You can make excuses about that. First game of the season. All rusty opening week, yards yardage but look where Parramatta sit now? Second game they push NQ. Sure NQ aren’t travelling well but they have a far far superior side on paper. If we are to flog Pay for losing games, or performing poorly against teams then we have to give him credit when it’s due. Those two loses should have been blow outs.

Then round three comes and they blow out to Manly. I’d call that par. Anything less than that and Dessie would have been blowing a gasket in the sheds surely?

Round 4 they flog the Dragons 22-2. How Mary was even allowed to get to the press conference without being sacked I don’t know.

Round 5 They get flogged by a white hot Roosters who had just done the Broncos 59-0. Still 42-6 is still way better than 59-0 but looking at the Roosters side there aren’t many teams in the comp that you’d be gobsmacked so see the Roosters beat them 42-6.

Round 6 they lost by two to Cronulla. Overachievement by the Dogs, Under achievement by Cronulla.

Overall, while Pay may not be the right man for the job at Canterbury Bankstown, he’s taken hold of a poisoned challenge and possibly ruined his future coaching possibilities by doing so. We may not ever know after being handed a basket case from Des Hassler. At least Parramatta had the smarts to cheat the cap then subsequently blow their roster up when “caught”. BA comes in and rights the ship in a fairly short amount of time. The dogs are in the hurt locker for the long haul I think regardless of the coach. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took another 5 years to be serious finals contenders.

I suppose Taumalolo, Paulo and Papali would be the closest body wise to being able to stick their heads in the front row. Neck length alone would be a deciding factor. Taumalolo wouldn’t be eligible anyway.

The hybrid game would surely be 10 man scrums. With 14 a side, there’s no place for one breakaway to unbalance. This certainly couldn’t happen if a regular union scrum was the norm and no NRL coach would allow it if it were the case. Scrums are dangerous enough as it is.

The break down rucks, line outs and mauls could be taught but I’d suspect a hybrid approach to those also.

How long has it been since Union Scrums were really what they are meant to be about anyway? For the last decade the dark arts of scrummaging have been all about winning the first inch of the battle before driving your opponents head into the dirt to earn a penalty. Rugby union forwards aren’t about winning the possession the old fashioned way anymore.

I think Sivo is faster the Vuni. I heard someone on Fox Sports mention young Xavier Coates is the quickest in the NrL now.

I think this will be a sell-out no matter where it’s played and will probably be watched by more than an origin game.

Look at this from the Warriors owners/management perspective. If reports are correct Kearney would have been sacked last year. His manager, who happens to manage a number of Warriors players apparently held the Warriors to ransom by suggesting that if Kearney was sacked those players would walk. The Warriors extended him instead. Now that the manager has been deregistered with the NRL at exactly the same time as the warriors are still playing terrible footy, the timing seems perfect to me. If all of the above is true, and who knows with today’s muckraking journos in the NRL. But if it is, there should be zero sympathy for Kearney or his manager.
I can only hope one thing is true. At the moment the sacking/renegotiation/extension took place, that KPI’s were inserted into Kearney’s contract, that if not met, meant he could be sacked without a further payout. That would be justice.

Scottie Pippen anyone?

The problem seems to be with Bateman is that it’s a new manager that is causing all this. His new manager gets nothing until a new contract is signed to get the old manager off the books. The Raiders should be asking for every cent of the transfer fee plus 33% back if they allow Bateman to leave his contract early.