Roar Guru
Joined July 2010
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You could argue that facing the Sharks, Panthers and Raiders is a pretty tough start to the season for the Knights.
As we near Round 1 of season 2019 it’s timely to have a look at the job security of the people with their necks most often on the block in rugby league: the coaches.
Before the start of every NRL season there are those players and coaches for whom the spotlight shines a little brighter, the bar is set a little higher or who are just a little more determined to prove the knockers wrong.
As the curtain raiser to the NRL grand final, the winners of the Queensland Cup will take on the NSW Cup champions.
In some ways the NRL painted themselves in a corner with the shoulder charge, its interpretation and the associated penalties. The Billy Slater case has brought that to light.
The grand final of the NSW Intrust Super Premiership was held at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday afternoon between the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs and the Newtown Jets.
On the way to work this morning, I was reading the news and shaking my head at the crass selfishness displayed by the people we trust to be our leaders. For relief, I went to sport.
This isn’t about referee bias or a ref costing us the game. This is about whether the ‘crackdown’ was really about enforcing the rules of the game.
I don’t think the NRL’s referees are beyond criticism, but I don’t like the childish ‘that decision cost us the game’ attitude of some fans, particularly when they cherrypick one moment and ignore the other 79 minutes of the game.
It’s the final part of our series on who’s got a serious spotlight shining on them ahead of the 2018 NRL season.
Every year, there are NRL teams that really need to prove a point, but who within each club is being scrutinised the closest?
On the eve of a new NRL season, who has got the most to prove at each club?
Let me make something clear from the outset. It feels absurd to be defending the Roosters.
Everyone knows Round 2 is at least 15 rounds too early to be declaring teams chances for the season but I’m going to have a crack anyway.
Most NRL fans are confounded by the inconsistencies in the grading of charges laid by the match review committee (MRC), and the penalties handed out by the judiciary.
During the week someone challenged me to write my own Roar article, so I thought I’d tackle the subject of NSW Origin selection.
With 12 tries and 66 points scored, Friday night’s Roosters versus Bulldogs clash was a cracker. Intense footy, great ball movement, brutal defence, see-sawing momentum and all completed at near-perfect execution rates by both teams.
Queensland won four out of sixteen series between 1990 and 2005.
The Maroons had the passion but not the cattle
Couldn’t agree more. His pass didn’t create the line break and I don’t even think he’d be credited with a LBA for it.
He was average and when NSW needed direction and a calm head (you know standard halfback play) in the last 10 minutes he provided nothing and actively contributed to the game almost slipping away. If not for Ferguson’s last minute heroics this would have been the exact same script as most of his other Origin games.
How do you rate Mitchell Pearce's Origin 3 performance?
I know what you mean. It’s been a great origin series and game 3 should be a cracker but it feels like it’s been dragging on for ages.
State of Origin fatigue has officially set in
You can pressure a kicker without playing at the ball.
Have another look at it. Radley doesn’t play at the ball at all and actually turns away from the ball. It’s not a Rambo Ronnie Gibbs or Steve Price charge down at all.
It certainly wasn’t atrocious. Definitely not a 100/0 call and wasn’t even the worst call of that game.
Fittler doesn't need Latrell, but the Roosters sure do!
Was the charge down an ‘atrocious’ decision? I saw a still shot of it and while the Roosters player was running at the kicker he didn’t have his arms raised and was actually turning away from the ball to avoid being hit.
There’s a very good argument that while having the ball kicked into him was a good result for the Roosters he was pressuring the kicker and wasn’t making any attempt at all to play at the ball. Maybe there’s a bit of clarification required on the rule as to what is defined as playing at the ball in that situation. Is pressuring the kicker enough to be deemed to be playing at the ball.
Anyway, it was awful defence of the bomb from the Tigers that led to Tupou’s try. That was as big a contributor as the charge down ruling and something Wests can control.
The Tigers got the benefit of an extremely iffy put down…I think that decision was worse than a charge down call made on the run.
Fittler doesn't need Latrell, but the Roosters sure do!
It’s a really interesting point and one that gets forgotten about in all the talk of multi million dollar law suits from professionals.
I had aspiration in my teens to be a serious footy player but never ended up more than a weekend warrior. Still loved it. I reckon I had about half a dozen concussions through the years I played footy. Who knows how many minor ones? The more I read about it, the more of a concern it is. Every time I have a name on the tip of my tongue that I can’t quite remember, I think is this just me forgetting or is it the onset of something more sinister.
I don’t think that itch you describe ever goes away. I miss that moment when at half time of the game before yours the players would run back out and everyone in your team would grab their bags and head into the sheds and start getting ready.
I wonder what the demographic is for the average A grader these days in terms of age, fitness levels, etc.
I’m not sure what the insurance situation was back in the 80s and 90s but I assume players and/or clubs need to be insured these days. I wonder how insurance would treat this type of injury that may not be revealed for 30 or 40 years down the track.
Really interesting article.
Could CTE spell the end of Grassroots footy?
Not often the Roosters get it wrong with recruitment but letting Matterson go for Crichton isn’t llokingbthe best deal at the moment. Matty would have been on about 1/3 of the money too…
Former Rooster rampages through FIVE tacklers for sensational try
Really?
I’m not sure Ron.
Bennett never won a premiership with the original Broncos players like Lewis, Miles, Conescu, Dowling, Niebling, etc.
The 92 Broncos team contained players like Langer, Walters twins, Renouf, O’Neill, Cann, Hancock, Carne, Matterson, Allen who all debuted under Bennett.
Why is Bellamy any more responsible for the development of Smith, Inglis, Cronk, Slater than Bennett is for Langer, Walters, Renouf, Lockyer, etc…?
Super coach or anything but?
If someone wanted to put forward a theory as to why they think Bellamy (or whoever) is a better coach than Bennett, I’m all ears (or eyes)
But this idea (loosest definition of the term) that a seven time premiership winner is only good because he inherited teams is nonsense.
You could apply it to every coach ever.
If Jack Gibson didn’t inherent gun sides at Easts and Parra he’d be a dud.
If Bellamy didn’t have the big 3 (or 4) he’d be a dud.
All as ridiculous as one another.
May as well argue if Paul Langmack had a good roster he’d be the greatest coach of all time.
Super coach or anything but?
You’re getting boring with all the references to Lamb’s field goal. It’s a funny incident in a game that happened 27 years ago
I’ve never celebrated it any more than you celebrated Inglis doing the same thing.
Like most things, you go on and on an on until there’s nothing funny about it any more and you squeeze every last piece of enjoyment out of something.
Here is a serious question though.
Why do you think this is a satirical article? I can’t see anything in it to suggest its satire and every single person who’s responded has taken literally.
So what have you read that suggests satire?
Super coach or anything but?
Disgruntled Knights fan. Tinkler isn’t around to shake a finger at so Bennett will have to do
Super coach or anything but?
Brown was in charge for six years and didn’t win a comp. Bennett wins one in year two at the Dragons but “we did not need Wayne Bennett to win a comp”
Also saying it was Brown’s team but Bennett added Costigan, Fien, Smith, Gasnier (and Boyd and Weyman) is weird too.
Super coach or anything but?
I think articles like this are pretty churlish. He has seven premierships in the national comp and I’m sure our Brisbane buddies will point out how many he won up there as well.
It’s a remarkable record.
Part of your argument seems to be that because the Dragons couldn’t win a premiership before he got there, won one in his second season and then couldn’t win after he left that’s somehow an indication that he’s a bad coach? Strange.
I get you’re a Newcastle fan and the relationship wasn’t exactly rosy but I think it’s a bit rough pointing the finger at Bennett. Tinker deserves far more of the blame than Bennett.
Bennett was hired for short term results at the Knights and he was on track. He got the Knights to within one game of the GF in 2013, defeating both of the previous season’s grand finalists in the process. When you look at the roster they had it was a remarkable achievement.
In 2014 Tinkler’s money ran out, players weren’t getting paid, the club was in financial turmoil and emotional turmoil dealing with the Alex McKinnon injury. Bennett wasnt getting paid. There was no way he was going to stay for no money and the crisis after he left was almost entirely down to Tinkler.
Bellamy’s a great coach but two premierships is a long way short of Bennett’s record of success.
Super coach or anything but?
Thanks Andrew – that’s a really interesting analysis. I think the stats show Boyd is in decline, just not the stats the original article provided.
I’ve never particularly been a fan of Boyd but it’s sad to see any playergo through this.
You would have thought Boyd would be sweet as he got older because he mainly relies on his smarts than blistering pace or a red hot sidestep. Smarter playmakers tend to last into their 30s a bit better.
But he really looks like he doesn’t want to be there. It would be an interesting montage to see all his lack of effort plays on one video and pretty revealing. I like statistical analysis, it’s a way to get objective support to a position, but stats don’t always clearly show effort and that’s where Boyd’s game is falling down at the moment.
Reckon Darius Boyd's stats prove he's in terrible form? That's where you're wrong
I hope so mate…but a long history tells me, every time I think NSW should win comfortably is when I should be most concerned…
The craziest Origin series ever is destined for a crazy finish
Sssshhhh…apparently we’re supposed to forget all about that…
The craziest Origin series ever is destined for a crazy finish
What a load of rubbish.
I don’t think the hit was outrageously late, Morgan took the ball as close to the line as he possibly could.
It was definitely high. “He fell into it” hasn’t been an excuse at the judiciary for a decade.
“He hit him with the shoulder, there was no swinging arm” hasn’t been a defence since the days of Adrian Morley.
The onus is on the defender to not make contact with the head. Sims didn’t lower himself at all to make a tackle and he knocked Morgan out.
Sims has made a career in whacking smaller, defenceless halves after they’ve passed or kicked. Bad luck.
A week is a fair result.
The NRL judiciary is officially a joke
I’m not suggesting Pearce should have beaten Queensland on his own every time, but is it too much to ask a halfback with 18 Origins to have stepped up in the clutch and put on a play that wins ONE game…?
Nathan Cleary ruled out of Origin decider, and yep, Mitchell Pearce is his replacement
That’s all well and good but it’s sort of the halfbacks job to create points and win games in the clutch.
At this level Pearce has done little of the former and zero of the latter.
He’s had 18 games to do so which isn’t an insignificant sample size. I’d suggest there isn’t an origin half that has had as limited an impact on results over so many games.
As limited a player as Hodkinson was he stepped up and put on a series winning play in his second origin game.
The craziest Origin series ever is destined for a crazy finish
The Gallen over calling thing is a chicken and egg situation. Did he try and get his hands on the ball because his halfback wasn’t doing anything?
I don’t think Gallen over called Pearce. I think Pearce wasn’t calling for the ball.
The Gallen over calling never happened for Australia and rarely happens at Cronulla, yet when Pearce is around…?
I didn’t want Graham picked at 6 for that reason and I’m case Maloney got injured.
Nathan Cleary ruled out of Origin decider, and yep, Mitchell Pearce is his replacement
For all the “he was up against Cronk, Thurston, Lockyer, etc” there have been plenty of times in Pearce’s 18 game Origin career, against those players, where NSW has been right in the game or the series in the last 10 minutes.
Not once has Pearce put on the play that’s iced the game for NSW.
If the blues are as dominant as they were in G2, I have no doubt Pearce will do a job and contribute. It’s if the game is close and heading into the clutch that I have no confidence in Pearce.
18 games is a massive sample size for a half to have not put on one match winning play regardless of who was on the other team.
Make no mistake there is a huge amount of pressure on him. If NSW lose, there’ll be gronks that blame Pearce regardless of how he plays. But every play and mistake he makes will be amplified and gone over with a fine tooth comb.
Why Pearce is the right man for NSW
I’d be more interested in hearing from Fittler.
Klemmer almost not picked for G1 last year, reduced minutes all series. Poorly used in G1 this year and then dropped for G3 before a lucky call-up.
I’m not suggesting there’s anything personal but there something about Klemmer’s game that Freddy doesn’t rate, it would be interesting to know what that was.
Klemmer denies rift with Fittler
Nope. They won four series. There were two drawn series. As holders Queensland retained the shield but the series themselves were drawn and not won by either team.
The Maroons had the passion but not the cattle