Roar Guru
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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.
During the first half of the Souths versus Parramatta game on Friday night there were a couple of periods where I noticed the players standing around not doing much. I started scribbling notes on the back of an envelope about breaks in play and how long they lasted.
I reckon Queensland fans might support a relocated Sydney team now just to spite Gallen…
Queenslanders won't support a relocated NRL club, says Gallen
Come on Maxy…a professional troll like you should be able to do better than that…
Pay’s had one season as coach and has inherited a club in shambles due to salary cap issues
McGregor has been in charge for five years and has a squad loaded with rep players that he built himself.
Yet they’re on the same competition points…
Musical chairs will cost the Dragons a finals spot
Yeah…great call on Filipaina. His presence and the way he’d turn out for NZ transcended just footy.
I used to work with one of his Tigers teammates from the 70s and 80s and he spoke about Olsen almost reverentially as a great player and even better bloke.
I think he ran around in the Manly A grade comp until his mid 40s?
Rugby league history: The all-time great alphabet teams – Letter F
No room for Foran, Faitala-Mariner or Matt Frawley?
Rugby league history: The all-time great alphabet teams – Letter F
Hmmmm…are you suggesting McGregor might not know what he’s doing…? Who knew…?
Musical chairs will cost the Dragons a finals spot
Thanks for the tip…I’ll keep an eye out for them!!
Jason Taumalolo dealt heavy injury blow with torn medial ligament
This injury impacts so many people.
Taumalolo, the Cowboys players fans and officials, Paul Green, me.
I captained JT13 in my SC team this week!!! 99 points last week. 18 this week.
Jason Taumalolo dealt heavy injury blow with torn medial ligament
Wasn’t it doing a one on one tackle at fullback (RTS from memory) how Morgan tore his pec or his shoulder last year…?
Seven talking points from NRL Round 2
Agreed. It will be interesting to see what the cowboys pack serves up if JT13 is out for a couple of weeks.
Seven talking points from NRL Round 2
I thought JMK looked ok yesterday. Like the halves he needs the forwards laying a platform to be remotely effective and they went MIA for the middle 40-50 minutes of that match.
They can get rid of Lichaa – what a flop he’s been. He’ll have had five years of first grade at the end of this season and other than three games at the end of 2017, it’s been a resounding failure. As a comparison, Ennis only had six years at the Dogs, compare the impact and contribution of the two…
Seven talking points from NRL Round 2
Only used Storm and Roosters as examples…but yeah same applies with Souths. Throw in the Broncos and Sharks too…and probably most of the comp. If the Eels and Warriors can put 78 points on in two weeks anyone can.
I’m not sure the 1M per season for Foran is true but it’s near enough and even if it is true it still leaves 8.5 or so mill for the rest of the squad. Even allowing for a few top ups there’s no hypothetical valuation that gets this squad even close. So where is the money being spent…? It doesn’t add up.
I’m not sure about Lino. I don’t think the halves are the problem. Lewis laid on a try for Foran, should have had another if Montoya didn’t have feet for hands. I think they’ve gone ok in their two games playing behind a well beaten pack.
Foran’s been taking the ball to the line well. He’s not worth a million bucks but if they’re paying him that much they can’t really justify splashing out on more halves.
We desperately need middle third forwards and outside backs. I can’t recall seeing a Dogs pack so resoundingly beaten in the middle two weeks running in my life.
Robinson, Kelly, Tunks, Dunn, Gillespie, Britt, Price, O’Meley, Asotasi, Rauhihi, McGuire, Brokenshire, Bella, Hannant, Sargent, Battese, etc must be hanging their heads in shame…
Seven talking points from NRL Round 2
I wish…if we played you blokes at the moment you’d put 100 on us…
Seven talking points from NRL Round 2
Pretty solid team with some outstanding players.
With guys like Fittler, Fulton and Farah they’d certainly be capable of springing an upset on their day but overall I’d probably have them a tier or two below the B and C teams.
I think that makes my order roughly B, C as a clear top two. Then F, A, D with E in last place.
Rugby league history: The all-time great alphabet teams – Letter F
I remember reading a story that in the 70s a church in Manly put on their letterboard out the front :
What would you do if Jesus came to Manly?
And someone graffitied underneath:
Play him in the centres and keep Fulton at 5/8
Rugby league history: The all-time great alphabet teams – Letter F
Sue was embarrassingly bad. Did the Tigers send the wrong bloke over?
Of course I’m going to say it but I think the Lewis kick to Foran was deliberate. The players chasing hard closest to the advantage line were the two players in the middle of the park. There’s always an element of luck I guess but he put the kick into vacant territory and Foran knew where it was going.
Laid on another beautiful kick for Montoya and the Dogs should have had a try as a result. I don’t really care what they do but Montoya must go. He’s been dreadful in two games so far.
I can’t be too critical of Lewis and Foran at the moment. They’re doing their job when the Dogs forwards are laying a platform but once the starting middle third forwards are off the park they’ve got nothing to work with.
Yesterday was like a slow motion car crash. Errors compounded into errors. Sue made two back to back…an ordinary tackle for the Eels first try and then dropped the ball early in the count next time they had it, which led to the Eels second. The ability of this team to recover from one error is questionable. When they’re back to back they’re stuffed. Heads dropped, body language was awful, no one put their hand up to fight their way out. The Eels grew a foot and from about 25 minutes in didn’t look like losing.
The Martin decision is ridiculous. Plenty of rumours…he turned up to preseason overweight and unfit, Martin and Pay have had a personality clash, Martin wants to leave next year to play for a Queensland club, Pay doesn’t think his defence is good enough.
Not sure if any or all of them are true but Pay needs to be the bigger man and do what’s best for the club right now. If Martin leaves next year so be it, but he’s definitely in the best 17 at the club now. I’d put Martin in the second row, play Jackson at 13 and Elliott back to the bench and bring in either Ogden or To’omaga and drop Sue and Fualalo.
Pay needs to get more minutes out of Tolman and Napa.
Clearly we don’t have the personnel at the moment but the way they are being used is all over the shop. 76 points in two weeks is embarrassing. I like the way the Eels have started the season and no disrespect but I’m not sure I see them as a top tier team and no way the Warriors are, so what’s going to happens once we start running into some of the stronger teams…?
Seven talking points from NRL Round 2
The off-season optimism hasn’t lasted long…
Dean Pay needs to mix it up a bit now. Conceding 76 points to the Warriors and Eels is grim. How many will they let in when they play the Storm and the Roosters.
In both games the Dogs have been in the contest until they went to the bench and then they’ve been absolutely destroyed in the middle. The Dogs were 10-0 up – probably unlucky not to be more – when Napa, Tolman and Elliott came off all around the same time. From there they folded like a house of cards.
Fualalo isn’t up to this level and Sue was terrible yesterday. I’d drop them both and give someone else a crack.
I’m far from the worlds biggest Dylan Napa fan but when he went off the Dogs were up by ten, by the time he came back on they were down by 20. If that’s the standard of the 14th and 15th players in the squad then they need to find a way to get more minutes out of the starting 13.
If Marcelo Montoya is an NRL standard centre then I’m a Dutchman. Put Hoppa there and bring Meaney in or put in Morgan Harper or put Smith in the centres and bring in Okunbor or whatever…just do something because this is rubbish.
How long is the salary cap issue going to be held up as an excuse? Surely the cap dramas are pretty much dusted by now. I know we’re still paying a couple of players at other clubs but there’s no way this squad could cost $5M to put together, let alone 10M.
In a couple of seasons we’ve lost Klemmer, Mbye, Graham, Woods, Morris, Morris, Reynolds, Kasiano, Eastwood and Frawley off the top of my head. How can the salary cap still be that much of an issue to have such a sheet squad.
Can we have this team back…?
1. Mbye
2. B Morris
3. J Morris
4. Lafai
5. Phillips / Kennar / Abbey
6. Reynolds
7. Hodkinson / Sezer
8. Graham
9. Cook
10. Klemmer
11. Taupau
12. Lane
13. Finucane
Seven talking points from NRL Round 2
Exactly. You can’t “manage” or “manipulate” 180+ metres per game week after week at the highest level for 19 years.
How is “Paul always played for Paul first second and third and his team came a poor 4th” actually quantified or qualified.
I’m far from his biggest fan but I saw a bloke regularly busting a gut for his team at club, state and test level.
I really don’t know how you can watch a game of footy and say “that hitup straight up the middle was for Paul, not for his team”
There’s plenty of valid criticism to be made about Gallen but this one is nonsense.
Paul Gallen to hang up the boots at the end of the year
Of course he was proud…he ran out and grabbed the corner post after the win…
Wests Tigers fans deserve better
Classic – I swear it wasn’t me!! I like the aeroguard story more…!
You must be happy with this start…?
Sam Burgess on fire for Bennett's Bunnies
I know there’s going to be a lot of vitriol here – he’s hardly the most popular player around but it has been a very good career.
The number of seasons, club games, origins and tests alone are remarkable. Take into account that he’s done the hard slog through all of those games and continually posted massive numbers in terms of runs, metres and tackles and done the in the toughest part of the field.
On top of that he’s been a one club man. When he started out he was an effective edge backrowers with ballplaying skills and he’s gradually made the transition into the middle third. There were several years where he could lay legitimate claim to being the best forward in the game.
I know we’ll get the inevitable “I remember he hogged the ball on the fourth tackle in origin in 2011” which is a load of nonsense and what happens when your halfback won’t take control.
Great career.
Paul Gallen to hang up the boots at the end of the year
Was that somewhere between premierships six and seven…?
Sam Burgess on fire for Bennett's Bunnies
I think it’s injury rather than weight that’s Inglis’ issue at the moment. I know he’s skipper and a great player but it’s pointless playing him busted. It looked like it was hurting even having ice on his shoulder in the sheds after the game.
What is it about Inglis that coaches want to grind him into the dirt. It’s not as bad as roadkill making him play with a torn ACL a couple of years ago.
They’re rarely going Inglis’ side of tenfield at the moment anyway so they may as well give him a rest and a chance to get his shoulder right.
Sam Burgess on fire for Bennett's Bunnies
“Now when people think of the Wests Tigers they think of them scraping their way to eighth on the ladder”
I don’t…I think of them coming ninth or tenth.
Wests Tigers fans deserve better
Below is a side made up entirely of bench players from round 2. Some of these players weren’t in the 17. That would be a competitive side and you can’t tell me would devastate the competition…
1 M Dufty
2 B Xerri
3 K Staggs
4 Z Lomax
5 P Sami
6 J Reynolds
7 J Luai
8 A Woods
9 B Smith
10 J McGuire
11 A Crichton
12 M Barnett
13 I Soliola
14 C Harawira-Naera
15 M Fotuaika
16 I Luke
17 C Welch
Expansion? Moving teams? Nah let's do it a different way
I had Teddy last week as skipper too…!!!
Jason Taumalolo dealt heavy injury blow with torn medial ligament