Crash Tackle: Wayne Bennett’s supercoach status under threat
Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock looks at the big talking points coming out of the NRL, including a surprise test for Wayne Bennett, an unsung Queensland star and more.
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Each week, The Courier-Mail’s chief sportswriter Robert Craddock looks at the big talking points coming out of the NRL.
ONSIDE
SEIBOLD’S SURGE
Wayne Bennett is facing a surprise test of his mantle as the game’s super coach following an extraordinary twist in his cold war with the Broncos.
Bennett and Anthony Seibold swapped jobs this year and the old fox exploded out of the gates as Souths won 11 of their first 12 matches while Seibold’s Broncos stumbled along with five wins in that period.
However, against all expectations, the Rabbitohs have stumbled badly and have lost seven of their past 10, while the Broncos, despite a player clean-out, have lost one of their past six games and are creeping up the ladder.
That’s why Friday night’s blockbuster between the two clubs is such a watershed.
Will it mark a Rabbitohs revival or will it be the crossover point where Seibold’s remodelled Broncos are on an upward trajectory and in better shape than the team that trounced them 38-6 back in May?
SLIPPERY EEL
Nambour-born hooker Reed Mahoney, who rose through the ranks at the Kawana Dolphins and Beerwah Bulldogs, is one of the NRL’s unsung Queensland stars.
The Parramatta hooker is a smoky for future State of Origin selection and we can’t help thinking opposition teams misread him.
He often hears rival trainers shout “run at Mahoney’’ yet if he is such a poor tackler why did he just become the first player this year to record 1000 tackles for the season?
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RAMPANT RAIDERS
Here are seven words we have not written for years — hats off to Ricky Stuart and Canberra.
When the Raiders are hot they bring a special flavour to the competition and Stuart has them humming this year, a reward for going a long coaching journey spanning six torturous years.
Josh Papalii is a key part of the resurgence, with his forward teammates being inspired by the standards he sets.
PAYNE’S PROGRESS
Life isn’t supposed to work like this.
Broncos big boppier Payne Haas has been declared the best prop in the NRL by several good judges at age 19. Conventional wisdom tells us he is not supposed to be peaking for another six years.
BIRTHDAY BOY
Broncos back-up halfback Sean O’Sullivan celebrates his 21st birthday this week as he sweats on a possible first grade call-up to replace Jake Turpin.
Some Broncos players drift through the Intrust Super Cup without leaving a major impression but the Norths Devils are big fans of O’Sullivan’s commitment to all tasks great and small at their club.
OFF-SIDE
NO SYMPATHY
Plenty of old heads reckon Broncos Tevita Pangai Jr is the victim of rough justice but he deserves no sympathy unless he changes his reckless ways.
There has been a chorus of voices suggesting the four-week suspension hanging over Pangai after his crusher tackle on James Maloney late in the Broncos’ win over Penrith was an over-reaction. But as former referee Bill Harrigan said, Pangai Jr deserves what he got given.
He only had to place a finger on Maloney once he had been slung to ground rather than jump on top of him.
Pangai Jr is getting a poor reputation as an enforcer who picks bad moments to do silly things and this was one of the dumbest plays of the season.
DIAMOND LIFE
The NRL’s decision to give Cameron Smith’s wife Barbara a diamond ring for her husband’s 400th game was questionable but the bigger mistake was not revealing it.
Transparency is supposed to be the buzz word in rugby league which is why the $15,000 ring should have been declared in the list of gifts given to the Smiths, along with an explanation why.
Sometimes you don’t have to spend a fortune to hit the mark … the Storm bought her a bunch of flowers.
ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Football clubs accept that there will always be players who slip through the net but some blows just keep stinging.
The Cowboys have made some fine player calls over the past decade but the sight of Kalyn Ponga slicing and dicing them with one of his best games of the season for the Knights will only reinforce the theory that their form slide might never had happened had they re-signed him.
STORM WARNING
The grumbles are getting louder that the Storm are again undermining the game with wrestling tactics.
We’ve gone back through the files which reveal rival teams have been blowing up about this tactic all the way back to 2008 when the Storm’s Antonio Kaufusi declared: “We don’t do wrestling drills.”
If it truly is an issue, then how on earth have they got away with it for 11 years? Where is the crackdown?
NOT TAYLOR MADE
It’s totally understandable the Gold Coast don’t want to trade their troubled million-dollar man Ash Taylor but that’s just the start of the problem.
The harsh reality is that while he has lost his passion for the game, it’s not worth him playing.
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Originally published as Crash Tackle: Wayne Bennett’s supercoach status under threat
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