Monday Buzz: Highlights and lowlights from the weekend’s NRL action
MONDAY BUZZ: A golden-point thriller, a video bunker controversy and the State of Origin hopeful who’s barely been sighted in 2016.
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A GOLDEN-point thriller, a video bunker controversy and the State of Origin hopeful who’s barely been sighted in 2016.
Phil Rothfield reviews it all with his highlights and lowlights of Round 3 of the NRL.
HIGHLIGHT
The Knights-Raiders golden-point thriller. The draw was the best result because neither team deserved to lose.
HIGHLIGHT II
Rugby league back at the Sydney Cricket Ground and that beautiful old atmosphere.
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LOWLIGHT
The video bunker ruling on a forward pass and disallowing a try to Canterbury’s Sam Perrett when it was out of its jurisdiction.
LOWLIGHT II
The terrible injury scare to champion Souths forward Sam Burgess on Sunday. The graphic TV images from the SCG shocked everyone.
PARRA PLUNGE
The TAB has responded to Parramatta’s outstanding start to the season by slashing their premiership odds from $26 to $11 in three weeks.
DOG OF A NIGHT
The Bulldogs missed more than 40 tackles against the Eels on Friday night. Josh Reynolds and Josh Jackson missed SEVEN each. Reynolds in particular has been in average form since the start of the season and needs to improve quickly.
NEED FOR SPEED
Dally M centre of the year James Roberts joined the Broncos to improve his chances of playing State of Origin. In three games he’s hardly been sighted.
GUN FOR HIRE
In a great sign for the NSW Blues, James Tamou made 227 metres for the Cowboys against the Roosters in just 46 minutes of game time. No wonder the Parramatta Eels are chasing him to replace the soon-to-retire Anthony Watmough.
GRIFFIN A COOL OPERATOR
ANTHONY Griffin is one of those coaches who rarely shows much emotion.
He’s certainly nothing like Craig Bellamy, Ricky Stuart or Geoff Toovey in previous years.
That’s not to say the Penrith coach wouldn’t have enjoyed his victory over Wayne Bennett on Saturday night and the club that sacked him.
The Broncos nodded off and played negative football for the entire second half and the Panthers took full advantage.
Bryce Cartwright again showed why he should be in the NSW Origin team.
CLUBS WANT GRANT OUT OF WAY
PRESSURE is mounting on ARL Commission chairmanJohn Grant from the clubs to disappear from the public spotlight to give new CEO Todd Greenberg some clean air to run the game.
The best thing about round three of the NRL is the emergence of three more outstanding new faces.
In round two we were all raving about how calm Bulldogs centre Kerrod Holland was in landing the matchwinning conversion against the Panthers.
Then on Saturday we saw Newcastle’s Cory Denniss, Gold Coast’s Ash Taylor and Penrith’s Te Maire Martin all play massive roles. The Dally M rookie of the year award is going to be the most competitive in years.
QUICK BACK-UP TAKES ITS TOLL
THE five-day turnaround is going to create much debate as the season progresses.
Four teams have had the short preparation in the opening three rounds and three of them have lost.
The Panthers, Wests Tigers and Roosters were all beaten on the short turnaround. Only the Cowboys have won.
The Tigers had nothing in the tank against the Titans in the second half on Saturday night compared to the Monday night victory over Manly.
The VIP lunch that could deliver a new Blues captain
At a special lunch on Friday, Ricky Stuart pulled up a seat next to Nathan Cleary. What happened next could change the course of history for NSW, writes DAVID RICCIO.
The South Sydney contract call that infuriated Matt Lodge
Matt Lodge was confident that he was headed to South Sydney for a Wayne Bennett reunion, but one brief call blew up that plan and forced the NRL enforcer to make a surprising career pivot.