Tigers have handled Mick Potter badly and how the NRL table would look with bonus points
THE Broncos’ decision re-hire Wayne Bennett has divided fans but it’s been handled better than the Wests Tigers-Mick Potter issue, writes PAUL MALONE.
Opinion
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SAY what you like about the Broncos board and their decision to hire Wayne Bennett as coach for next year, but at least they made a decision.
It might not have been the decision everyone agreed with — count me in on that score, it should have gone to the best option as an emerging coach — but at least they settled some uncertainty in the minds of the players.
It is more than can be said for the Wests Tigers board and management who had two choices — give Michael Potter another year or announce there will be a new coach in place for 2015 — and decided to seek more time to think or have results make their choice for them.
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The Tigers chairman is former ABC weatherman Mike Bailey and that appears to be what the joint venture board is doing, checking the weather on the coaching issue on a regular basis.
After a loss to the Dragons last Sunday, they have a Monday night home game against a Melbourne side who looked like they are building nicely on the evidence of their 30-8 win over Brisbane last Friday.
The Tigers were 22-4 last-start winners when the teams last met, at Leichhardt Oval in round 16 last season.
Who knows what the weekend is likely to bring in the Robbie Farah-Potter controversy
Farah played it like Greta Garbo during the week, letting media mates fire the bullets for him in branding the Tigers culpable of an effort to paint him as the architect of urgings to axe Potter.
Footballers generally do not handle uncertainty well.
2 NEXT month, for the third time in 10 years, an NRL club is likely to be eliminated on points for-and-against.
That’s three times too many. There has to be a better way of determining who plays finals football than for-and-against.
The NRL sees it differently. They have no plans to change the method of allocating points.
Teams from seventh to 12th are currently on 22 points in pursuit of a top eight spot, with six rounds to go.
The NRL has rejected the option of giving one point to the losing team in golden point extra time or rewarding attacking football by adopting a Super Rugby-style system that pays a bonus point to a team that scores four tries and a point to a team that loses by a converted try or less.
Under a Fox Sports Stats table reflecting those rules, four points are given for a win, three for a win in golden point, two for a draw and for a bye and one point for a loss in golden point.
The top eight on the FSS table is: Manly 75, Souths 65, Roosters 63, Penrith 63, Melbourne 62, Cowboys 62, Broncos 59 and Canterbury 59.
The rest of the table is, Parramatta 58, Warriors 57, St George Illawarra 54, Wests Tigers 15, Gold Coast 49, Newcasle 42, Canberra 40, Cronulla 38.
Canterbury, fourth on the current NRL ladder, are eighth on percentage on 59 points on the FSS table.
That’s because the Bulldogs have scored four tries or more on five occasions only.
Manly (12 times) and the Roosters, Storm, Cowboys and Eels (11) would be the sides best rewarded with bonus points for scoring tries.
The Eels, 12th on the NRL table, place ninth on the FSS table and the team best rewarded are the Cowboys with 11 games in which they scored four tries or more and six, the most of any side this season, in which they lost by six points or fewer.
It all looks to me like a good incentive to play attacking football, but an NRL spokesman said there are “no plans to introduce a bonus points system’’.
“The current system rewards teams with the best points differentials,’’ the spokesman said.
“While a team may not get any competition points for a golden-point loss, the result helps their differential, Which may determine whether they make the finals or not.
“So the NRL believes the current system rewards the teams which perform best during the year.’’
It does provide a reward. It’s just that the bonus point system provides a more tangible incentive every week of the season.
When I did the exercise of nominating who wins where in the last six rounds I ended up with five teams — the Panthers, Cowboys, Broncos Warriors and Dragons — all finished on 30 points from positions five to 10.
I had the Panthers winning two of their last six and each of the other sides taking out four of their remaining matches.
The two teams in the past nine years to be eliminated on for-and-against after finishing equal eighth are Canterbury (in 2011) and Wests Tigers (2007). The Dogs had 28 points in their year and the Tigers just 24 in the season in which the Broncos staggered over the line in eighth place.
There is a myriad ways of working out a tiebreaker. One thing in favour of the current system is that at least it is simple.
3 THERE’S not much certainty about the fate of this round’s favourites after two of the eight favourites — Manly (v Warriors) and Souths (v Canberra) — won last round.
But the only underdogs team I have gone for in Round 21 are the Sharks, on the basis of home ground advantage against Parramatta.
Manly are justifiably $1.34 with TattsBet to beat Brisbane tonight with a nine-match winning streak at Brookvale since their narrow Round 1 loss to Melbourne.
The Broncos, who have been in the top eight for 18 rounds this year, had their last win at Brookvale in 2010.
The attitude of Manly centre Steve Matai, who wants to be released to join the Warriors next year, will be watched as closely as any Sea Eagle for signs of internal dissatisfaction with the club’s retention choices.
Matai’s one-arm grab to miss a tackle in the Warriors’ first try was most unlike him as he is normally one of the game’s best defensive centres.
A good start defensively by the Broncos would test Manly who have a startling trait this year of having scored the fewest points in the second half of any team (126, compared to 219 points in the first 40 minutes).
4 MANLY had some good news on Thursday with a report the NSW Government is set to contribute $10 million to a new grandstand at Brookvale, an issue that seems to have been around since Geoff Toovey was a player.
A new grandstand — with undercover seating for 3000 fans — would be built on the eastern side of the ground and the playing surface upgraded.
I’ll say this for Broncos forward Todd Lowrie: he certainly gets action when he goes public with an opinion.
On Tuesday, Lowrie told a Brisbane reporter that Brookvale was “a shit hole” and the field was sometimes so muddy the game should not go ahead.
Maybe Brookvale could one day have the Todd Lowrie Stand.
Originally published as Tigers have handled Mick Potter badly and how the NRL table would look with bonus points
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