NRL 2022: Tui Kamikamica banned for nine weeks, assault charges dropped
The charges may have been dropped, but Melbourne’s Tui Kamikamica has stll copped a nine week ban by the NRL. FIND OUT WHY
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Melbourne forward Tui Kamikamica has copped a nine week ban over a physical altercation with a woman that occurred late last year.
But the banned Kamikamica will be allowed to return to the field as early as next week after a court dropped assault charges against the 27-year old last month.
Kamikamica was banned under the NRL’s no-fault stand down policy and has not played this season after he was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm over an incident involving a woman outside a Fortitude Valley hotel on November 13 last year.
On Wednesday, the NRL slapped Kamikamica with a breach notice that proposes a nine week ban and a $10,000, half of which is suspended, for bringing the game into disrepute.
Kamikamica has already served eight of the nine week suspension proposed by the NRL and will be available for selection for Melbourne’s Magic Round grand final replay against the Penrith Panthers at Suncorp Stadium.
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“Following the conclusion of the criminal proceedings the NRL has reviewed available CCTV footage of the incident which showed Kamikamica in a physical altercation with a female member of the public,” a statement from the NRL said.
“Any form of violence against women will not be tolerated by the NRL.”
Kamikamica is required to complete personal development and a rehabilitation program through the NRL’s wellbeing system before being officially cleared to make a comeback.
A warrant for Kamikamica’s arrest was issued in January when the forward failed to appear at a scheduled hearing.
But on April 27, a Brisbane magistrate’s court recalled and cancelled the warrant. The assault charge against Kamikamica was also dropped.
Kamikamica has five business days to respond to the breach notice.
HOW REVOLUTIONARY BELLAMY KEEPS BREAKING THE GAME
It sounds kind of crazy, of course, proclaiming Craig Bellamy as something of a genius coach and, quite possibly, the greatest coach of all time.
Can anybody say ‘cuckoo’ anymore?
The cheer squad for Wayne Bennett will rally hard, naturally, citing Bennett’s six premierships with Brisbane before he switched to St George Illawarra where he repeated the trophy lift, which he then almost did again when he returned to Brisbane and then again at Souths.
Jack Gibson, of course, is the benchmark measure for all coaching careers. Gibson won two premierships with Eastern Suburbs and three more at Parramatta but contributed a whole lot more than that.
He took the Roosters to the finals in his first year as a coach after they failed to win a game the previous season, showing he could improve them at both ends of the ladder, then took St George to the grand final and club championship in 1971 before he took Newtown to its only club championship in 1973.
Stream every game of every round of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free In Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
Warren Ryan will never get the recognition he deserves as one of the greatest coaches the game ever saw, which has more to do with his polarising manner than his coaching record.
For one, though, the modern game plan had its blueprint in Ryan, for which he never gets proper credit.
And for a long time the knock on Bellamy, which was only slight, admittedly, but in such a fierce field every edge is minimal, was that he coached some of the best players in the game with a style that pushed the limits of fair play and sometimes tripped over.
The Storm was rarely pleasant to watch. And the wrestling tactics trademarked in Melbourne and reproduced around the League remain a stain on the game.
Yet the Storm’s evolution in recent seasons has been exhilarating.
They are the best attacking team in the NRL with only Penrith having the right for a rebuttal.
They have ditched the stock standard shapes, a block play into a block play, to play a brand of footy that meant even the 70-10 win over the Warriors was exciting to watch.
The simple explanation for the Storm’s metamorphosis is the change in rules.
The six-again rule eliminated the need for a break in play after a penalty. The better teams figured out before the poorer teams, as often happens, that structured footy was too slow under the new look and so they began to play far more instinctively.
For some old greybeards, it was a throwback to the way footy used to be played, a purity in the lack of structure.
In reality, it began before then when Melbourne began using the full width of the field, breaking away from the trend in the game to play to the middle third of the field before making a play.
As Melbourne went down this route other teams quickly followed.
Now they have transformed again.
It came up Monday night on NRL360 after Melbourne gave it to Newcastle, beating them 50-2 after the Warriors beating a week earlier.
“I don’t think it has got anything to do with the rules,” Cooper Cronk said.
“When you have, traditionally, three fullbacks, [Cameron] Munster, [Jahrome] Hughes and [Ryan] Papenhuyzen, the whole idea is not to play in short spaces, not confine players to playing straight up and down the field.
“Get them in wider spaces, two passes wide where they feel space and sense it, and can play with a little bit more time and freedom.
“I think it’s more, not what the game has given, but what players they have.
“Craig Bellamy picks players first and then will adjust after it.”
The genius in Bellamy is that he dared to play differently than the cookie-cutter style that reduces the risk in performance and reputation.
Nowadays, every team plays with similar game plans, the bad copying the good, a safety first mentality that reduces the gap in criticism.
It should terrify struggling clubs, yet they persist, more prepared to fail safely than win bravely.
If nothing else, it keeps them in the job longer than they otherwise might be.
How successful it will be carries little hope.
Bellamy is one of the few original thinkers in the coaching roster and, says the mail, is soon to commit to more years coaching at the Storm.
If they keep playing like this, may it go on.
WHY EVEN THE RIVAL ORIGIN COACH CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF PAPS
—Brent Read
Ryan Papenhuyzen’s rip-roaring start to the season comes as a surprise to few, but some saw it coming more than others.
One figure close to Papenhuyzen, who would prefer to remain nameless, tipped the Storm fullback to win the Dally M medal to a handful of journalists in the pre-season, having walked away from Melbourne convinced he was at the peak of his powers.
It has proved a moment of supreme prescience. Papenhuyzen has been flying through the opening seven rounds of the premiership in a Melbourne side that has found its customary position near the top of the NRL ladder.
A bad concussion last year put the breaks on his season when a State of Origin jersey looked within his grasp. His current form suggests he will get another chance when NSW coach Brad Fittler sits down to pick his side in coming weeks.
“I think he was there a couple of years ago barring a calf injury,” said former Storm fullback Billy Slater, who works with Papenhuyzen in Melbourne and also happens to be Queensland coach.
‘He has been on NSW radar for a while and rightfully so. Performances like last Monday night certainly put you at the front of people’s minds.
“He is at that stage where he has built the foundation of his game and he is playing really consistent. A lot of the stuff he is evolving himself now.
“He is at that stage of his career that he is seeing the game really well, and it is up to him how he wants to progress and evolve his game from here.
“You get to a point at a certain level where you really understand the game. When you are out there, you are understanding what plays to put on when and you have that confidence to really own your area.
“That is where he is at the moment – his defensive play, his positional play, his effort is fantastic. That allows him to do everything.
“He just has a really good understanding of the game and his position now. That is why he has been able to put himself in positions where he is really dangerous consistently.”
Papenhuyzen’s form contrasts with the man in the opposition No.1 jersey on Sunday at McDonald Jones Stadium. Kalyn Ponga has had his struggles through the start of the season, a knee issue and contract negotiations not helping.
Their statistics paint a glaring picture of the gap in form between the pair. Papenhuyzen has six try assists through the opening seven rounds. Ponga has one.
Papenhuyzen has six line breaks. Ponga has two. Papenhuyzen, it must be said, has been given more of a helping hand by an all-star support cast.
What Ponga would give to have Cameron Munster creating doubt in the defensive line or Harry Grant doing the same out of dummy half.
Ponga will have to wait until Origin kicks off for that opportunity. Until then, they are working in concert with Papenhuyzen and along with Jahrome Hughes, playing a beguiling tune.
Slater plays his part as well. He works alongside attack coach Marc Brentnall in Melbourne and still speaks to Papenhuyzen on a regular basis, although the thrust of their conversations have changed as his successor has grown more confident in his role.
“We still talk and work together,” Slater said.
“It is shorter and smaller things – it is little conversations other than trying to help him understand the position. He already does that.
“It is little things I pick up. He may ask me a question here and there at training. It is things like that. Two years ago he was still a very young player.
“He hadn’t played many games at all before that 2020 season. He has developed really quick. That is a testament to who he is as a person.
“He is a great young man. He is the sort of person you would like your daughter going out with. He is mature beyond his years, he is very respectful, he is just a really good lad and he has a really good work ethic.
“I have always said his greatest attribute is his want. He just wants to be in the game. But now he is putting together the knowledge along with his skill and his attributes like speed.
“It is a dangerous formula.”
‘He’s one of ours’: Western Sydney war over NRL prodigy
In barely 12 months, Lachlan Galvin has gone from being a promising rookie to being at the centre of a multimillion dollar bidding war – and the Eels could be his home, writes Brent Read.
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