Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s likes and dislikes from Round 8 of the NRL

The Courier-Mail chief sportswriter Robert Craddock lists his likes and dislikes from NRL Round 8, including the Cowboys’ crisis, Walters’ wisdom and a Maroons star the Blues can’t help but love.

Matt Scott. Picture: Alix Sweeney

• Where has it all gone wrong for Cowboys?
• Cowboys shake-up could cost Morgan
• Titan locked in as McGuire’s Maroons replacement

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 the Cowboys’ crisis, Walters’ wisdom and names a Queensland Origin star the Blues can’t help but love.

DISLIKES

1. COWBOY CRISIS

SOMETIMES the most hurtful criticism comes not from anonymous ghouls on social media but people inside the tent simply calling it straight.

That’s why one chastening sentence from Test prop Matt Scott after the Cowboys’ loss to Canberra stung. “In certain areas we’re not quite trying hard enough,” he said.

It was as damning an insight into the Cowboys’ season of woe as any statistic or caustic call from the bleachers.

Matt Scott. Photo: Alix Sweeney

The Cowboys not trying hard enough? This from the team that chased last year’s premiership like a broken beggar scrambling for a stray biscuit.

But Scott was right. The Cowboys look down on energy and a team mentally immobilised by the shock of their slump.

You could see it the way their sleepy defence let Canberra surge 25m from a penalty tap, from their predictable, mundane, slow-moving attack, from the anxiety in their faces that seems to be constricting their entire game.

2. HALF THE WORRY

Michael Morgan was sparked to career best form last season by a conversation with Cooper Cronk, who urged the Cowboy to be decisive and consider himself “The Man”.

Yet something strange has happened. Morgan has gone back to being the player he was before the Cronk chat. His confidence is gone. He is second guessing himself.

Michael Morgan. Photo: Alix Sweeney

Morgan was great when Johnathan Thurston was out injured last year yet this year he is like a comedian who was laying them in the aisles until Jerry Seinfeld sidled up beside him on stage and suddenly he felt a smaller man.

For all of the Cowboys’ woes, don’t be surprised if they are shock winners over Penrith this week, for stinging criticism will act as smelling salts eventually.

3. HISTORY LESSON

Kevin Walters was not even born when Spanish philosopher George Santayana said “those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it”.

People are saying Walters’ history lesson from last year’s Origin series is to remember that Billy Slater should never have been ignored but there was another which was even more important.

After the first-game loss, Walters axed long serving but out-of-form players like Nate Myles and Jacob Lillyman and Queensland stormed home to win the series, reinforcing to Walters that while loyalty is fine, form must never be underestimated, a point he will no doubt remember as he weighs up Ben Hunt’s case against the struggling Morgan this series.

4. NO CHERRY ON TOP

WHAT on earth was Daly Cherry-Evans thinking?

With his club in free fall and his standing as a captain heading south with it, Cherry-Evans foolishly rubbed his hands over the eyes of his old mate Jamie Buhrer in the last play of the Sea Eagles’ loss to Newcastle.

He was cleared of eye-gouging but at the very least it was a dumb, dangerous play.

Daly Cherry-Evans. Photo: AAP

5. MUCH TO PROVE

Do coaches become a prisoner of their recruitment strategies?

Titans fans must contemplate this point every time they watch Bryce Cartwright play.

Coach Garth Brennan made Cartwright a priority recruit from Penrith where they were both previously employed yet the utility has hardly set the world on fire as we ponder whether he is as good as his bulging scrapbooks suggests.

LIKES

1. KEV’S CALL

When Queensland coach Kevin Walters announced he was quitting as Broncos assistant coach because the role was hindering communication with players at other clubs it appeared a lightweight excuse.

But as Origin nears and a host of key positions remain in the air we can see his point.

Queensland Maroons Coach Kevin Walters. Photo: AAP

Only last week Walters had a long conversation with Canberra coach Ricky Stuart about Josh Papalii and his recent fitness campaign, the sort of chat which is easy now that Walters is not club aligned but awkward when you are tied to a rival.

2. HONEST JOHN(S)

Andrew Johns is ruffling feathers for being a part-time coach at the Roosters one day, then bagging them on Channel 9 the next.

We applaud his honesty. There’s any number of ex-players who would take the easy way out and bite their tongues in the commentary box to protect their coaching jobs.

3. THE FAME GAME

Good to see the NRL getting its house in order by reactivating the Hall of Fame project that was sadly neglected for too many years.

Many loyal league fans did not even know it existed given that the project lay dormant for a decade between 2000-18 before a group of 25 champions like Petero Civoniceva and Ricky Stuart were put up for consideration for six Hall of Fame berths this year.

4. THE GLAMOUR BOY

BELIEVE it or not, there have been Queensland State of Origin stars who became pin-up boys of NSW Test selectors.

They are a rare and special breed and few were better than debonair 1980s backrower Bob Lindner.

Bob Lindner

Queensland selectors never had to fight to get Lindner a Test jersey because Blues selectors were even bigger fans of his ability than they were.

It’s why Lindner is such a pleasing inclusion in the 25-man list for Hall of Fame nominees for, like fellow poster boy Andrew Ettingshausen, he proved you could have grit and glamour in the one package.

5. KANE IS ABLE

It’s always a big test of an NRL player’s mettle when they are sent bush to play in the Intrust Super Cup.

But discarded Gold Coast half Kane Elgey took the challenge and responded with gusto for Tweed Heads in their 52-24 win over Mackay, which is the first step back to where he wants to be.