Roar Guru
Joined July 2010
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As the curtain raiser to the NRL grand final, the winners of the Queensland Cup will take on the NSW Cup champions. In NSW…
In some ways the NRL painted themselves in a corner with the shoulder charge, its interpretation and the associated penalties. The Billy Slater case…
The grand final of the NSW Intrust Super Premiership was held at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday afternoon between the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs and the…
'Them’s the rules' is an awful excuse. I get why the shoulder charge needed to be banned. I didn’t like it at first but…
On the way to work this morning, I was reading the news and shaking my head at the crass selfishness displayed by the people…
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…
After nine rounds of NRL, the whiff of Origin is in the air. It's time for armchair selectors to dust off their notebooks, sharpen…
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…
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On the eve of a new NRL season, who has got the most to prove at each club? Broncos Wayne Bennett has made significant…
Let me make something clear from the outset. It feels absurd to be defending the Roosters. As a Bulldogs fan that grew up, went…
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…
Not long now until NRL season 2017 kicks off. It looks like being one of the closest fought seasons we've seen, however rather than…
Most NRL fans are confounded by the inconsistencies in the grading of charges laid by the match review committee (MRC), and the penalties handed…
During the week someone challenged me to write my own Roar article, so I thought I'd tackle the subject of NSW Origin selection. Like…
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…
During the first half of the Souths versus Parramatta game on Friday night there were a couple of periods where I noticed the players…
A couple of weeks ago there was a school of thought that the NRL top eight had pretty much been decided and that those…
State of Origin has highlighted the crisis that the NRL has on its hands at the moments around the officiating of the game. From…
It’s not on me to demonstrate anything. I mean you’ve just said Topine’s case was on 360 and Titmuss’ wasn’t
I follow league pretty closely. What happened to Titmuss or the young cowboys player a year or two ago haven’t received close to the attention Topine has. That’s my informed opinion. I don’t need to demonstrate anything…
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Yeah, you said it was pretty common in the 70s and 80s. Can you give me one example of a coach slapping a player n the sideline in the 70s and 80s?
He wasn’t made to wrestle 20 odd people. You’re firing off without knowing even the basic facts that have been made public
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Again, it’s got nothing to do with bias. I’m more on the front foot because it is the Dogs, but at the same time, I’ll accept whatever punishment is handed down if the Dogs have done the wrong thing
As per my original comment, this is bigger than the Bulldogs and has ramifications far greater than whatever the Bulldogs have to pay
These aren’t practices unique to the Bulldogs
If the Bulldogs have gone too far with 5-6 minutes of wrestling against a dozen team mates – which I can understand they may have – then what’s the acceptable level?
Genuine question, please answer. Is four minutes ok? One minute? The whole practice should be banned?
What about having to do extra weights or laps or sprints as discipline while team mates watch on?
I can understand people not liking this, but I haven’t heard one suggestion about where the line is drawn
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
If they were doing spring training, he works have had to do extra sprints
One, you cannot possibly know that. All of a sudden you are now making assumptions without any evidence.
Yeah, I do know that… that’s happened in rugby league forever. I copped it as an amateur player. EVERYONE knows that. You got offended when I said it doesn’t sound like you know what happens at rugby league clubs… but here you go again
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Was it rude? What I meant by I don’t mean to be rude, is that I’m not insulting you for insult’s sake. It’s a genuine Do you do that in your line of work then?
Do you do that in your line of work then?
That’s just a silly question. I’m not a professional rugby league player. You’ve said a few times ‘every workplace is different’. I’ve said you can’t treat a rugby league team like a ‘normal’ workplace. Why would I be dishing out physical punishments for people showing up late in an office?
But a huge part of building organisational culture is not allowing behaviours that don’t fit within that culture or the values
I work in WHS, workers’ comp and HR… and I’ve worked as a consultant
100% yelling at an employee would be a breach of fair work and WHS legislation and would mean an automatic acceptance of a workers’ comp claim, regardless of the circumstances
You’re doing it again… on one hand you’re saying just because shark baiting is accepted practice, it’s not right. Also saying yelling at an employee ( or consultant) is accepted practice, but it’s fine
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Positives for the Storm are many and obvious…
But that right edge defence isn’t getting much better. I know it’s churlish after a win like that but Souths exposed them down there more than a few times
Storm slaughter second-rate Souths as 'a myriad of errors' hammer the final nail into Demetriou's coaching coffin
😂
A walk in the park: Super Sam shows Roosters what they've been missing in 60-point Anzac smash-up
He better be nice at training on Monday… he’s got all weekend to work on the PowerPoint and send ‘notice to attend a meeting’ letters
A walk in the park: Super Sam shows Roosters what they've been missing in 60-point Anzac smash-up
Probably like a lot of people, I really thought the Dragons were right in this one
Tough (self inflicted) break losing Suli so early but the Su’A try was a corker
You’ve gotta be good to score 60 but geez the Dragons made it easy with errors
Ennis pointed it out in commentary – and once you see it, it’s hard to unsee – but Walker quite often brings the ball up to his foot for a short kick, rather than dropping it to the boot. Changes the trajectory and got through the line a bit easier…at least tonight
Roosters looked great tonight but not so good against the good teams… like the Bulldogs 😂 😂
A walk in the park: Super Sam shows Roosters what they've been missing in 60-point Anzac smash-up
See you in a few weeks – good luck tonight (I think you’re a Storm fan, right?)
Game’s gone soft, huh? League's tough enough without dangerous incidents getting feather touch from judiciary
Players can use bad technique and be as reckless as they like. If it comes off and no one is hurt, then fine. But when it goes wrong they face the consequences. This is applied to every single tackle on a rugby league field
I wrote that three weeks ago… it’s completely consistent with Suli’s tackle, even though the outcomes were different…
Game’s gone soft, huh? League's tough enough without dangerous incidents getting feather touch from judiciary
There’s a difference though
Use bad technique and injure someone else – penalty, bin, suspension, etc
Use bad technique and injure yourself *shrug emoji*
Surely that difference isn’t too hard to see…?
Game’s gone soft, huh? League's tough enough without dangerous incidents getting feather touch from judiciary
Enjoy your trip
I’m honestly not saying the Bulldogs haven’t done the wrong thing. I’m sure there’s lots of twists and turns to come
This has obviously had a big impact on Topine. But that doesn’t automatically mean the Bulldogs have done the wrong thing either
As I said right at the start it will be interesting to see how this plays out and the repercussions it has
It’s easy to look at the extra wrestling and say that’s not appropriate. That doesn’t mean all extras as disciplinary measures are inappropriate
So it’s a spectrum. Where is the line? That’s going to be different for everybody
Shark baiting is common practice. To my knowledge this is the first time anyone has come forward and publicly complained. So what have the Dogs done that hasn’t happened in the past…?
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Why would others be listed in Topine’s statement of claim…?
Where did I say anything about 360…?
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Yet they’ve improved this year. Who are you to say it clearly didn’t work…?
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
They were doing wrestling training. His punishment was extra wrestling
If they were doing spring training, he works have had to do extra sprints
Doing extras as a disciplinary measure has always been part of the game… if it didn’t have an impact, why has it persisted
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Sorry, when was coaches slapping players on the sideline pretty common…?
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Again, you have zero clue that Topine was singled out for disproportionate treatment either…
It’s got nothing to do with Bulldogs glasses. I can honestly say that if they’ve farked Topine over they deserve what they get. I’ve worked in WHS, workers comp and HR teams for 25 years. I’ve seen more times than anyone the effects of what can happen to people in the workplace
You’re saying absurd speed and absurd distance, I’m assuming as a comparison to Topine’s matter. But you don’t know that what Topine was subjected to was / is “absurd” compared to others… neither do I
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
He didn’t wrestle 35 team mates. There were 35 squad members present. It’s a shame if you’re making your mind up on things like that, if you haven’t read the allegations properly
It was 5-6 minutes against a dozen team mates. Is that too much? Maybe. Is four minutes ok? One minute? Where is the line?
Maybe wrestling training will be banned altogether? It will do us all a favour
Maybe we’ll have players turning up late to training and the coach will say “you’re late! Two laps of the oval” and the players will say “let me call my lawyer first”.
I wasn’t offended by either term you used. It’s just a weird approach to start with “anyone who disagrees with me is a ….” If I’d started with “anyone who disagrees with me is a small d..ked snow flake” I’m sure you’d think less of me, even if you weren’t remotely offended 😁 😁
PS – I’m not saying that 😂
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
You’re still having a bet each way
Bullying isn’t appropriate in ANY workplace, but shouting at a worker is ok in the right circumstances?
I don’t mean to be rude about this but it doesn’t sound like you know much about what happens at footy clubs. Yeah, players have to do extras at training as a result of disciplinary breaches. It’s a cornerstone of building culture
Wayne Bennett is as good a man manages as has ever coached. He’s big on disciplinary punishments and extras and shark baiting
So again, maybe the Bulldogs have gone to far on this one, but maybe they haven’t and Topine cracked and couldn’t handle it
I’m reasonably sure this we’ll end up being a question of how far is too far as opposed to the Bulldogs inventing some form of draconian punishment that had only ever been applied to Topine
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
My use of the word willingly was very specifically in reference to pre season training. Are you saying that players are unwilling? They do it against their will? BS. It’s ridiculous to pull me up on that
No one would want to do sharkbaitinb. But players go in knowing that shark baiting – and other things – is a potential punishment and they don’t walk away
Topine may have a very valid point that what he was subjected to was over and above what could be expected, but he can’t say – and I don’t think he is – that he didn’t know shark baiting was a thing or that he was unwilling to do it
“And it doesn’t justify the behaviour by the employer.” – you don’t know what the behaviour of the club is though. You’re making your mind up on a very small amount of information…
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
The Lewinsky example is ridiculously irrelevant
Do you think Topine was unaware that if he was late – or any other disciplinary breach – that he would be punished by having to do extras? Of course he was aware
Do you think he would have refused to sign his contract?
Shark baiting is a common and accepted practice among NRL clubs. Again, do you think Topine would have knocked this back. The only thing in question here is the scale of what Topine was put through
So what I wrote isn’t incorrect. Players know this stuff will happen and sign on. They know they’ll get flogged at training and they know they’ll be punished for discipline breaches with additional physical training
So by that I’m not saying that what the Bulldogs did was right – we’ll all have to wait and see about that – but Topine knew this stuff could happen and signed up for it. What needs to be seen is the scale. Was five minutes too much? Is one minute too much? I don’t think this is the massive, let’s humiliate and torture this bloke it’s being made out to be
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
I’m not missing the point
Read the article again. I can’t see anywhere in Topine’s claims that he’s the only person subjected to extras as a disciplinary measure
It will all come out in the wash one way or the other but the idea Topine has been singled out is just made up at the moment – unless you’ve seen something I haven’t
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
You’re last paragraph is a bet each way
You can’t on one hand expect an NRL club to function like a normal work place and then say yelling at people and pushing them “beyond their limits” is ok…
NRL News: 'Happens every day' - Anasta defends Dogs as $4M lawsuit looms over former player's training punishment
Yeah, he’s the definition of he’ll set up two but let in three
What do you do? He’s such a point of difference in attack, but not interested in defence…
A walk in the park: Super Sam shows Roosters what they've been missing in 60-point Anzac smash-up