Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s onside and offside calls from Round 2 of the NRL
ROBERT Craddock wraps up Round 2 of the NRL with 20 things he likes and doesn’t like, including rugby league’s fiercest rivalry, Suncorp Stadium’s next statue and how the game is missing out on millions of dollars.
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- Monday Bunker: Blues clues from round two
- Broncos back Lodge despite DV revelations
- Big guns return to boost Titans
EACH week, The Courier-Mail’s chief sportswriter Robert Craddock looks at the big talking points coming out of rugby league.
ONSIDE
1. LADY IN WAITING
HOW long will it be before the NRL has its’ first female first grade referee?
We are hearing whispers that before this season is over either Brisbane’s Belinda Sleeman or Sydney’s Kasey Badger will get the call up.
Nice words flowed our way about Sleeman from the hard-marking locals at Norths’ Bishop Park in the Intrust Super Cup last week who said she was so inconspicuous her name wasn’t mentioned by the Devils before or after the game and she was barely noticed during it as well.
2. SHARK ATTACK
The Sharks and the Cowboys are forming the most fierce, non-traditional rivalry in rugby league.
They have eliminated each other from the competition three years running and the jousting over Matt Scott’s twisted leg last week epitomised the ill-feeling between two clubs who just don’t get along.
Gavin Cooper gave the Sharks a decent spray and was so angry about the return fire he was ready to give them both barrels again before it was best decided he should put a sock in it.
3. TOM TERRIFIC
You just have to love the way Tommy Raudonikis sees the bright side of life.
Even as Raudonikis battles cancer — his last major dose of chemotherapy starts today — his mates still love ringing him because his positive attitude makes THEM feel better, never mind the other way around.
4. JUST IN TIME
Recent knee surgery was never going to stop Justin Hodges from being part of the Queen’s Baton Relay in Cairns last Friday.
It’s great to hear Hodges has agreed to coach the Queensland Under-20s again and as the years pass his resemblance to his former mentor Arthur Beetson grows.
Pin this one on your fridge ... Hodges to be State of Origin coach by 2025.
5. ANTS PANTS
Anthony Milford has copped plenty lately but the million dollar man produced a million dollar play in the Broncos’ hour of need on Friday.
It was Milford’s idea to try the shallow goal line dropout early in the match when the Broncos were under siege in goal, a bold, risky play which changed the course of the match after Brisbane managed to regather it.
6. TITANIC RESTRAINT
The Titans-Warriors game had not even reached halftime when social media was buzzing with refereeing complaints against the Titans.
Impressively, even though he had a case for a blue, new coach Garth Brennan just let it slide, claiming the decisions were “close to the mark’’ and “the referee had a better view than I did.’’
The former cop does not like cop outs, perhaps feeling the more excuses you make the softer you become.
7. DYNAMIC DUO
Colleague Greg Davis has come up with the perfect way to decide whether Johnathan Thurston or Cameron Smith deserves a Suncorp Stadium statue — do them together.
Smith’s favourite personal photo is of him helping up Thurston from Suncorp after knocking him over for the umpteenth time in a match between the Cowboys and Storm. It made a great photo and would be an even better statue.
8. THE LAST POST
Social media has a lot to answer for but at times you have to pay the dry wit.
Moments after Scott Bolton cost the Cowboys the game by crashing into the goalpost a tweet appeared featuring the goalpost lined up ready to be interviewed at the man-of-the-match ceremony.
9. BRILLIANT BENJI
The Wests Tigers opening wins against the Roosters and the Storm must surely represent their finest one-two punch since they won the premiership in 2005.
We also loved the sight of Benji Marshall calling his troops out of their own celebration to help form a guard of honour for Billy Slater in his 300th game.
10. PATIENT PANTHER
The dogs were barking. The vultures were circling. The Panthers were on the nose.
A string of pre-season departures including key weapon Bryce Cartwright bode poorly for coach Anthony Griffin but the Panthers boss did well to hold his nerve, coolly deny there was tension in the ranks and stay focused on the job at hand. Two rousing wins has eased the pressure and quelled suggestions this side would not play for each other.
OFFSIDE
1. THE LODGE AFFAIR
Rugby league has made a mockery of its own standards by letting Matt Lodge sign with the Broncos.
On one hand the NRL proudly trumpets its Women in League round and its support for the White Ribbon day which stands up to domestic violence. Then it sanctions the return of Lodge who, we learnt yesterday, physically harmed and verbally threatened his ex-girlfriend Charlene Saliba.
You can have Lodge or you can have your White Ribbon and Women in League rounds but you can’t have both. Putting them together makes you a hypocrite.
2. A LOW ACT
RUGBY league is rightfully irate at Greg Inglis being racially sledged by the Penrith crowd on Saturday but jeering of him was almost as tasteless.
To see a great of the game being roundly booed as he left the ground for concussion was a dreadful moment for the game.
3. LOW FATTY DIET
Declining ratings for Channel Nine’s Footy Show confirmed what many league fans thought — Fatty Vautin was that show.
When he was axed last year Fatty poked fun at himself, claiming he was surprised a “short, chubby redhead’’ would go so far in the industry.
But that was to undersell how good he was in front of the camera, strangely appealing on television because he was untelevision-like in so many ways.
4. THE RIGHTS STUFF
Rugby league can learn off cricket in the way the summer game has cut up its new television rights deal into eight different packages.
The result will be that every possible dollar, from Ashes Tests down to humble highlight packages, will be squeezed out of the game.
League has wasted a lot of money by not making State of Origin matches a stand-alone product. Origin is so big it could decide the winning station for the year. The bidding war would be epic.
5. WEIRD WORLD
Rugby league referees are leading a double life.
On one hand they are asked to be like pedantic school teachers cracking down on sloppy play the balls yet there must have been at least 10 forward passes let go in the Broncos-Cowboys game on Friday.
It’s like spending an hour tucking your shirt in properly without noticing the pie stain on your tie.
6. KANE AND ABLE
Gold Coast playmaker Kane Elgey is under pressure to lift a gear this year.
The Titans were honourable enough in a fighting loss to the Warriors on Saturday but without key man Ash Taylor they lacked spark. It can’t always be Taylor or bust and while Elgey’s poor winter last season came after knee surgery this year there are no excuses.
7. THE SERVE
The big spray is back. At least three NRL coaches have given their sides massive verbal sprays at training over the past week.
It’s an interesting tactic. No doubt there is short term game but what do you for a follow up in a season which has another six months to run once you’ve fired the mortar guns after week one?
8. ORIGIN ENERGY
It hurts to think that Queensland teams could help to rescue NSW from its Origin blues this winter.
The form of Jordan McLean (Cowboys) and Tevita Pangai Junior (Broncos) in the derby on Friday night was exceptional and both could be Blues bound.
9. BAD PUNTING
There were two big plunges to win the wooden spoon this year — Wests-Tigers and the Warriors.
That money seems all but gone already after both sides started the season with two wins with the Tigers playing so well against the Storm they won despite conceding more penalties in a game (18) than any side in 15 years.
10. HAYNE AGAIN
Jarryd Hayne’s return to Parramatta had a heavy whiff of romance about it — until the grand final dropped from the skies.
Parra are in dire straits after two starts this season and Hayne appears to be carrying extra weight which won’t surprise any of his Titans teammates who used to lap him on the training track.
Originally published as Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s onside and offside calls from Round 2 of the NRL
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