Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s likes and dislikes from NRL Round 12
HE MAY never win a popularity vote in Queensland, but Daly Cherry-Evans is everything the Maroons need right now. Which is why his Origin snub makes Robert Craddock’s ‘dislikes’ list this week.
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EACH week, The Courier-Mail’s chief sportswriter Robert Craddock looks at the big talking points coming out of rugby league.
This week he laments Daly Cherry-Evans’ State of Origin snub and looks at the fallout from the Broncos coaching saga.
DISLIKES
NO CHERRY CHEER
SOMETHING strange is happening to me — I’m feeling sorry for Daly Cherry-Evans.
Cherry-Evans will never win a popularity vote in Queensland following his contract snub of the Gold Coast Titans but he is as stiff as old rope not to make the first Origin team.
With Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston gone Cherry-Evans is three things Queensland are craving — a leader, a goal-kicker and a decent halfback.
At 29 he is at the peak of his career and can do no more. He may never get another chance.
NERVOUS TIME
DON’T underestimate the ripple effect of the Broncos coaching dramas on nervous club staff members.
Assistant coaches and staff members hired by Wayne Bennett fear they could be cut adrift at short notice if Craig Bellamy joins the club next season and are understandably anxious.
The insecurity is widespread.
BELLAMY OR BUST
IF Bellamy comes to the Broncos surely it has to be next season or never despite the fact that Bennett has a year left on his contract.
The Dead Man Walking idea of Bennett filling in next year while Bellamy takes a year off is at odds with the fast pace world of coaching swaps.
The Broncos paid out Anthony Griffin, Ben Barba and Martin Kennedy to make way for Bennett back in 2015. Paying Bennett out this time would actually be a cheaper pay out exercise that it was to get him here.
AWKWARD STANDOFF
IT just can’t keep happening ...
Gold Coast’s Bryce Cartwright did it again on the weekend when he refused to mount any sort of tackle on James Tedesco when the Roosters flyer sped through a gap in a cringing moment in the Titans landslide loss.
If, as they keep telling us, defence is all about trusting your teammates how could the Titans trust Cartwright to ever do it properly?
THE LONESOME COWBOY
Is Michael Morgan too nice for his own good?
Playing Morgan at fullback hardly seems the way for the Cowboys to crack their form slump.
He has signed a million dollar contract to be a play maker and that means getting back into the halves. As uncomplaining as he is about fitting in with team strategy he may have to speak up for the good of the team.
LIKES
HOOKED
AS Brisbane scramble in negotiations for their next coach it should not be lost that the man they let go has led Penrith to the top of the competition.
Hats off to Anthony Griffin who was a hunted man back in February with talks of player unrest and other players such as Bryce Cartwright leaving the club.
When he sits at a press conference Griffin still has the demeanour of a man whose lawnmower has just broken down. Inwardly he must be beaming at what is an exceptional coaching effort.
ARROW HITS MARK
In the traditional of Ash Harrison and Dallas Johnson comes another uncomplaining, get-your-hands State of Origin debutant in Jai Arrow.
It’s rare for a player of such little experience to be as widely admired as the emerging Arrow who today is set to be given his Origin spurs.
GREAT SCOTT
Matt Scott will be a shattered man this morning but when the hurt subsides he should feel proud of a wonderful Queensland career.
What a story he has been, the kid from the fly’s footprint of Ilfracombe who used to travel eight hours for a game of football.
We could go on about his statistics but a simple testimony to his worth was that former Test prop Greg Dowling, a no-nonsense marker if ever there was one, would often be heard saying “I just love him as a player.’’
WAYNE’S WORLD
You can pick holes in his arguments, call him yesterday’s man and wish that he would open up more.
But this much is certain — rugby league will miss Wayne Bennett when he is gone. No-one will replace quirky, spicy totally unique flavour he brings to rugby league.
Michael Ennis’ interview with Bennett on Fox last week about his life an 800 game NRL journey was the best league magazine show of the week.
A GENUINE BLUE
Has NSW coach Brad Fittler thrown the baby out with the bathwater?
At least 10 debutants are expected to be chosen in a new look Blues team for Origin I to be announced today.
It’s all good and well to say goodbye to old timers like say Aaron Woods but after all those years of beating their collective heads against a brick wall called Smith and Thurston this might have been the year for sweet revenge and when experienced finally counted for something.
Originally published as Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s likes and dislikes from NRL Round 12
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