Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s likes and dislikes from Round 9 of the NRL

WE LIVE in a world where instant gratification is king but sometimes good things are worth waiting for … like Kalyn Ponga, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Dane Gagai of the Rabbitohs shakes hands with possible Maroons teammate Kalyn Ponga of the Knights. Picture: AAP Image/Darren Pateman

EACH week, The Courier-Mail’s chief sportswriter Robert Craddock looks at the big talking points coming out of rugby league.

This week Crash talks of the Ponga push for Origin honours, acknowledges the king of all champions and calls out a coach who might want to bin the bias talk.

Dane Gagai of the Rabbitohs shakes hands with possible Maroons teammate Kalyn Ponga of the Knights. Picture: AAP Image/Darren Pateman

LIKES

PONGA‘S ORIGIN WAIT WILL BE WORTH IT

WE LIVE in a world where instant gratification is king but sometimes good things are worth waiting for … like Kalyn Ponga.

Plenty of people are pushing for the mesmeric fullback to be blooded in the first State of Origin side but what’s the rush?

This wonderful young player is so good he could be an Origin mainstay for a decade so you want to make sure when you pick him he is ready for the long stay.

Ben Hunt is favourite to start at halfback in Origin I and Michael Morgan to come off the bench. Waiting behind these two will enable Ponga to bake in the oven a little longer.

We’re really gonna miss him when he’s gone. Cowboys champion Johnathan Thurston talks to the media after his side’s clash with the Penrith Panthers in Bathurst. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

2. STILL THE KING

Rugby league will miss Johnathan Thurston when he leaves for good at season’s end.

Thurston had more than 100 children milling for his autograph in Bathurst after the 26-20 win over Penrith and stayed for almost an hour, with six security men around him to complete the job.

By the time he had finished his North Queensland teammates were already on the bus.

It’s time for an in-form James Roberts to come out of hiding. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

3. CENTRE OF ATTENTION

James Roberts has made great progress on the field and the time is right for him to tell his story.

Roberts has spent the vast majority of his stint with the Broncos off limits to the media yet at some point a connection should be made, for the player as well as the fans.

It does nothing for a player to be hidden away from the media — ask Darius Boyd about his tortured early years. If Roberts is chosen for NSW he will have no choice but to front up to the media and he would do well to condition himself for the challenge.

Namila Davui has made a return to the Norths Devils in the Intrust Super Cup competition. Picture: Darren England

4. A TALENTED DEVIL

You have to love some of the exotic characters who float through the Intrust Super Cup, including a man who has a Hollywood credit to his name.

Namila Davui is back playing for Norths Devils, 18 years after he first made an appearance in their colours and four years after he thought he had retired for good.

After quitting league four years ago, he took an interest in acting and made a cameo as a security guard in Thor — Ragnarok and as a waiter serving a drink to Paul Hogan in the television series Hoges.

5. BRING NINES TO BRISSIE

The demise of rugby union’s Global Tens tournament has created the perfect space for the NRL Nines to be switched to Suncorp Stadium for the first time next season. Auckland has hosted the Nines since their inception in 2014 but crowds have dwindled and the tournament will have a fresh edge if, as expected, it is taken to Brisbane next season.

There should be no sympathy for coach Dean Pay if he today gets fined for bagging the referees. Picture: Alix Sweeney

DISLIKES

1. JUST PAY IT

You can argue the Bulldogs were unlucky against the Broncos last week but there should be no sympathy for coach Dean Pay if he today gets fined for bagging the referees.

Pay might just get away by calling some decisions “ridiculous’’ or even “disgraceful’’ but the NRL simply should not stand for the suggestions that referees were deliberately biased against the Bulldogs.

Pay’s quote “it’s like we are not supposed to win” minutes after Moses Mbye was sin-binned in the dying moments for impeding Broncos skipper Darius Boyd, has sinister implications which NRL officials are rightfully angry about.

2. BACK END BLUES

THE chastening story of former Bronco Greg Eastwood and his contract dramas is a grave warning to every club coach about the perils of back-ended contracts.

Eastwood, who suffers from an irregular heart condition, was paid $250,000 last year by Canterbury but his wage has risen to $800,000 this year in a back ended deal and he is struggling to crack first grade.

Coach Pay has become a prisoner of a contract system put in place by previous coach Des Hasler and his first grade coaching career is exploding on the tarmac because of it.

Greg Eastwood in action for the Canterbury Bulldogs against the Wentworthville Magpies. Picture: Christian Gilles

3. THE ODD COUPLE

GOOD on the Cairns council for trying to partner Papua New Guinea in a new NRL team — but it does not make a lot of sense.

How could a team based in cities in different countries with as vastly different identities such as Cairns and Port Moresby possibly share the one identity?

Insiders tell us that having a PNG team in the NRL is a wonderfully honourable thought — until you start working through the financials of it and dealing with the PNG government.

4. ABSENT FRIENDS

IT’s always haunted Cowboys recruiters that Innisfail’s Billy Slater slipped through their net. Will Kalyn Ponga’s defection to Newcastle become a similar nightmare?

In many ways Slater’s exit was more explainable because he was an extremely small player who barely made a junior representative team and blossomed in his late teens.

But the Cowboys had Ponga and lost him due to a superior bid from the Newcastle Knights whose $500,000-a-season bid looked big bucks last year but more of a bargain buy with every match Ponga plays this year.

Gold Coast target Shannon Boyd of the Raiders breaks through the Titans flimsy defence — again. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

5. TITANIC CHALLENGE

One of the priorities for the Gold Coast Titans this season should be to prove they are a club you want to run to rather than from.

At times they have shown cheek and promise but if, as the saying goes, defence says everything about attitude then their 41 missed tackles against the Raiders on the weekend showed there is some serious toughening up to do.

Former Test prop Shannon Boyd is tipped to join the club but they may need more men capable of defensive steel if they are to surge up the ladder.

Originally published as Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s likes and dislikes from Round 9 of the NRL