Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s likes and dislikes from NRL Round 11
WHY the Storm’s loss to Manly is a worry for the Maroons, Dylan Napa needs to change his game, and the player who can inspire a new generation of rugby league stars. Robert Craddock lists his likes and dislikes from Round 11 of the NRL.
Opinion
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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.
DISLIKES
HEADS UP DYLAN
Dylan Napa’s passion is a key weapon for Queensland this winter but his cannon ball tackle must stay in the closet.
One of the reasons the law-makers demand players use their arms in a tackle is that by doing so it stops them from using their head as a battering ram. Heads are hard — and dangerous.
Old timers can say the world has gone soft but the facts are if Napa had used his arms first in Friday’s tackle, Korbin Sims would not have a broken jaw, and, if he tries it again he is likely to break someone else’s jaw. It’s that simple.
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TIME FOR CHANGE
THE NRL has spent at least $6 million on its bunker — and at least $20 on sin bin officials.
Melbourne officials were in uproar over two Sea Eagles players returning early from the sin bin on Saturday but there are times when rugby league rules are so loose that they seem made for parents sharing afternoon tea duties for your local under-7s.
The rules quite nonchalantly state the visiting club can bring a sin bin timer but if they don’t then they can use the home club’s man. If only the NRL had enough money to hire a neutral party for $400 a game then it’s problem solved.
CHEAP TRICK
RUGBY league’s latest trend — players passing into a deliberately off-side player to milk a penalty — is a blight on the game.
Genuine league fans cringed when Anthony Milford arrowed a pass into Dylan Napa on Friday night as he was recovering behind the play-the-ball.
A suggested rule change could be to make such passes simply play-on after they rebound off the opposition player.
PURPLE HAZE
KEVIN Walters has spent the past decade admiring Melbourne as rugby league’s benchmark team but suddenly must warn his Origin team “don’t play like the Storm.’’
Queensland will not have Smith’s soothing leadership in the Origin series and if they display the same level of panic and rampant indiscipline the Storm did in Smith’s absence against Manly on Saturday they will lose the first Origin match by 20 points.
HEADLESS CHOOKS
IS it their large error count? Is it the fact that they choke in the big moments? Or that some of their biggest players are slightly overrated?
Whatever the reason, the Sydney Roosters were exposed by a gutsy Broncos outfit on Friday as a side who just lack premiership fibre. For the names and cash they have, the Roosters should be better than they are.
LIKES
EPIC RIVALRY I
THOUGH the mist and madness of Curtis Scott’s punches, sin bin timing errors and general chaos, one key fact emerged from the Manly-Storm match on Saturday.
The game has a rivalry to cherish, perhaps not as brutal as Manly’s rivalry with Wests in the 1970s, but, in a modern sort of way, just as spirited and engaging.
Many of the traditional club rivalries have faded due to transient players and common home grounds but you can see why Billy Slater devoted a chapter of his book to how much Storm and Manly cannot cop each other.
EPIC RIVALRY II
REMEMBER those wonderful years when a contest between Allan Langer and Ricky Stuart or Brett Kenny and Wally Lewis would be talked up all week and become a momentous occasion.
That old-time vibe was back at Suncorp Stadium on Friday when brilliant centres James Roberts (Broncos) and Latrell Mitchell (Roosters) harrased and haunted each other with Roberts motivated by a deep desire to extract revenge for the way Mitchell towelled him up in last year’s finals.
Roberts won the day with a matchwinning try with echoes of Steve Renouf’s long-range classics but it was a desperate, seesawing scrap in which two hungry men drove each other to the very limits of their ability. Just brilliant.
VALENTINE’S DAY
KEVIN Walters has passed his first commonsense test of the season.
Darius Boyd has had a epic Origin career but has been slightly off his game for most of the season, leaving just enough of a gap for wing incumbent Valentine Holmes, with four tries in two games for Queensland and 14 in 11 Tests, to rightfully sneak through, especially as he can kick goals.
In its purest form this selection boiled down to a man who has played 10 years for Queensland against one who can play the next 10.
THE KING’S LEGACY
AUSTRALIA’S banned cricketers have been sentenced to 100 hours community work over the next year but some sportsmen donate even more without many noticing.
We love the way Wally Lewis gives so much of himself these days, popping in to two charity golf days (including Ian Healy’s Aspirations 4 Kids) on Friday before heading to Suncorp Stadium where he gave out slices baked by his wife Jacqui to the crowd.
PONGA MAGIC
YOU Tube gets blamed for a lot of things but famous highlight reels of iconic All Blacks sensation Christian Cullen have been credited with inspiring generations of youngsters to take up rugby union.
In time Kalyn Ponga’s highlights reel can do the same thing for rugby league.
Ponga is yet to complete a full season of first grade yet his 95m try against the Titans was just another gold stud in a rapidly expanding portfolio.
A clip of his highlights for Churchie’s First XV has more than a million hits and the mind boggles on how great his golden moments package can be for league.
Originally published as Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s likes and dislikes from NRL Round 11
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