Crash Tackle: Robert Craddock’s likes and dislikes from Round 23

FOR all the undeniable logic behind the decision to move Wayne Bennett on, the Broncos could regret not offering him the one extra year he wanted, writes Robert Craddock.

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

BENNETT: Webcke pleads for peace in standoff

ONSIDE

1. WORTH A TRY

THE Broncos may need Kevin Walters more than they think they do.

The club needs a healer as its next coach.

Someone authentic who, apart from being able to coach, can get the common fan and the disenfranchised old boys network back on board and unite the club through the simple sincerity of his performance.

The Broncos should be considering Kevin Walters as they search for their next coach. Picture: AAP Image/Glenn Hunt

A few laughs along the way would not hurt either.

Walters has never been the Broncos preferred choice but he should be the standard-setter for the position. Whoever gets the job must bring more than Walters. It’s a small field.

2. THE MAGIC SPRAY

Red-faced Titans coach Garth “Vader’’ Brennan produced the spray of the season with a withering tirade that produced a rousing 32-point second half in his stirring win over Manly.

The response proved two things — that Brennan still has the dressing room and the key to delivering eyeball-popping serves is to pick your moments for when they are needed most.

3. MASTER CRAFTSMAN

There is a thread in the story of exceptional Titans playmaker AJ Brimson which should be noted by all emerging players.

Brimson got his carpentry apprenticeship out of the way before his rugby league career got too serious which meant that if everything went to seed in rugby league he still had something to fall back on.

AJ Brimson (right) ripped apart the Sea Eagles in the Titans’ comeback win. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

4. NOT AGAIN

BEN Hunt revived bitter images of his dropped ball in the 2015 grand final when he grassed a kick-off against Wests-Tigers.

Team-mates rushed to console him as if he had just reversed over the family pet but Hunt, to his credit, started laughing.

Was this the moment that he finally set himself free?

5. WHAT A GAL

Paul Gallen may be loathed in Queensland but you have to pay his resilience.

Most cricketers and tennis players are long gone by 37 yet Gallen with thundering up the middle at age for the Sharks next year.

6. BRING HIM HOLMES

What a moment it will be for the Cowboys if they can bring Valentine Holmes back to the far north at around the time they open their new stadium.

It deserves a box office star and Holmes shapes as the man.

OFFSIDE

1. NO BLISS IN UNION

THEY says there’s only one thing worse than when a bitter marriage ends — that’s when it doesn’t.

When it just grinds on in eternal misery.

Wayne Bennett’s next year at the Broncos could be tumultuous. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

News that Wayne Bennett will stay at the Broncos next year is bad news for both parties who are completely over each other. The sooner they part the better.

Brace yourself for a rocky year between a coach who no longer fears the backlash of public comments and a club who no longer manages to control him.

2. THE BITTER END

For all the undeniable logic behind the decision to move Bennett on, we wonder whether the club will regret not offering him the one more year (2020) he wanted.

That would have at least ensured that the greatest club-coach union in the history of the game finished on a dignified note. A group of players have taken undoers to play for Bennett with Matt Gillett an extreme example some time back when he knocked back an extra $300,000 a year from Cronulla.

3. RABBIT STEW

Is Anthony Seibold really the right man to coach the Broncos?

Vision of an agitated Seibold losing his cool over coaching rumours at the post match press conference against the Broncos has me wondering how he would fare in the piranha pool is the life at the Broncos.

4. LONESOME COWBOYS

Every member of the Cowboys side must commit to playing the game of their lives for Johnathan Thurston against the Eels on Friday.

Queensland league fans have reluctantly accepted the fact Thurston’s last season has been a fizzer but if he lost his final home match to the Eels — and that sentenced the side to wooden spoon — it would leave an historical stain that would tarnish a wonderful career.

After years as the NRL’s ironman, Cameron Smith is starting to feel the pain. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

5. MERE MORTAL

Cameron Smith — Mr Unbreakable — is starting to look breakable.

Smith is starting to get injuries he has never had before and if he plays on next year it could be a long season.

6. WILL POWER

WILL Chambers crusher tackle on Parramatta’s Jarryd Hayne was a dreadful look for the game.

It’s never a pretty sight when a player forcefully rams another into the ground and a bad advertisement for a game trying to win over mothers and female fans.