Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s NRL likes and dislikes

RUGBY league’s desire to bring all 16 teams to Suncorp Stadium next May is a great idea – but the booking clash was a cringing stuff up, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

The Courier-Mail’s chief sportswriter Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock lists his likes and dislikes from the weekend’s NRL action.

DISLIKES

MASTER COMMANDER

Athur Beetson, Gorden Tallis, Greg Dowling, Petero Civoniceva, Shane Webcke, Matt Scott and now … who?

That’s the big issue with Queensland’s State of Origin team to be named today.

Yes we know tireless Josh McGuire never has a bad game, Dylan Napa is full of promise and Gavin Cooper will work his heart out but who will be the big-time enforcer who can intimidate those dreaded Blues on Sunday?

SUNCORP FARCE

Rugby league’s desire to bring all 16 teams to Suncorp Stadium next May is a great idea – but the booking clash was a cringing stuff up.

Either two things have happened. Rugby league has forgotten that Suncorp was booked for the Queensland-NSW Super Rugby match that weekend or it simply decided it had the bigger show and would elbow its rival code out of the fray.

Arrogance or ignorance. Either way it’s poor form and all parties concerned should be embarrassed.

Titan Ash Taylor, NRL CEO Todd Greenberg, Queensland Minister for Sport Kate Jones, Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and Bronco Darius Boyd at the launch of NRL Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)

NO CHERRY CHEER

Anthony Watmough’s volcanic criticism of Daly Cherry-Evans reflects poorly on both men.

Over the years there have been countless stories written about Cherry-Evans being a man apart who never really fitted into a team environment but they lacked the all-defining anecdote that put everything into perspective.

Suddenly everything seems clear after Watmough’s revelations that Cherry-Evans threatened to boycott training over the size of his modest contract.

All good and well but it must be remembered Watmough had his own contract dramas, playing just 17 games in two years of a massive four-year deal with Parramatta before taking a medical retirement.

Anthony Watmough ended a four-year deal with the Parramatta Eels early. Picture: Gregg Porteous

COACHING CONFUSION

You don’t survive for three decades in the rugby league jungle without knowing when to hold and fold your cards.

With Craig Bellamy staying at Melbourne, Wayne Bennett suddenly has more power in his negotiations for a fresh contract and he was on the front foot within hours of Bellamy’s decision leaking out on Saturday, revealing he had approached the Broncos about a plan for his future.

The appointment of the Broncos 2020 coach is a major decision. Last time when Bennett left the club a decade ago and Bellamy refused the chance to head north, Ivan Henjak and Anthony Griffin took over and the club’s profile and performance dropped.

KEV’S CURSE

The echoes of Darius Boyd’s unfortunate exile from State of Origin could rumble on for the next 18 months.

Tension between the Queensland hierarchy and the Broncos over the way Boyd slipped between the cracks for Game One means that Kevin Walters is lesser chance of becoming the next Broncos coach than he was a month ago.

Hopefully the anguish will recede because Walters remains the standout choice to follow Bennett when he does leave the club sometime before the year 2050.

LIKES

KING JAMES

Queensland beware. NSW are starting to fill their team with players who “get it.’’

Players who know the team comes first. New Blues selection and Titans skipper Ryan James had every reason to be dirty after being chosen in the first NSW side of the season then mysteriously dropped for David Klemmer a few hours later. But he buckled down, continued his fine form and even after Saturday’s great win against the stinky Bulldogs offered “if I don’t get picked for NSW I will just try and keep improving but I just want to see the team win.’’

WILD OATES

WAYNE Bennett sometimes looks at tapes from the 1980s and feels the game was brighter then but there’s an area that has simply soared into the stratosphere in today’s game – wing play.

The decision to make the corner post in bounds has been the best rule change of modern times and to watch Corey Oates somehow slam dunk the ball in the corner for the decider against the Sharks – reaching backwards, mid-air and with his right boot higher than his head in the air – was simply one of the game’s most spellbinding moments of recent times.

SETTLED STORM

Was there a secret reason for The Melbourne Storm breaking the bank to keep Craig Bellamy?

We keep hearing the Storm owners could eventually sell the club so retaining Bellamy was essential.

Much as the Broncos are disappointed at missing out on Bellamy, his decision is the right one for rugby league. The Broncos won’t miss him because they never had him. The Storm, with Billy Slater and Cam Smith soon to exit, would have fallen apart had he headed to Brisbane.

The Rabbitohs are running rampant under coach Anthony Seibold. (AAP Image/Michael Chambers)

COWBOY COURAGE

Matt Scott will not be chosen for Queensland today because of a neck injury and if this is the end of his State of Origin career then we dip our lids in recognition of an exceptional servant.

He was not the biggest or most terrifying prop to play the game but from 2006-2016 he was Queensland’s tower of power in a wonderful era. Well played.

RAMPANT RABBITS

When South Sydney won a drought-breaking premiership in 2014 they announced plans to take their brand global and soon found themselves going backwards.

But they are back with a vengeance now. To have scored 380 points after 15 rounds is as good as any side has done in recent years and their expansive style of play under new coach Anthony Seibold has been a joy to watch.