NRL Tackle Round 23: Broncos coach Kevin Walters faces moment of truth
If Brisbane don’t turn it around this week things could get ugly fast for the Broncos and Kevin Walters. Check out PAUL CRAWLEY’S Round 23 Likes and Dislikes.
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Paul Crawley reveals his likes and dislikes from Round 23 of the NRL season in The Tackle.
ROUND 23 DISLIKES
KEVVIE FACES HIS MOMENT OF TRUTH
The Brisbane Broncos still have two games left to save their season.
But if they can’t turn it around against the Parramatta Eels on Thursday night then the Broncos may as well not even turn up for the finals because they’ll just be making up the numbers.
They are the only team in the top eight who you can’t legitimately make a case for when it comes to their premiership credentials.
After such a promising season, it has been disappointing how rapidly they have allowed it to spiral out of control.
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In their last four games they only have the one win against the Knights, while going down to the Tigers, Roosters and now Storm.
The 60-12 hammering was only the second time the Broncos have conceded 60 points in the club’s history.
We’ve been singing the praises of Kevvie Walters all season. Now the coach faces his moment of truth.
If the Broncos don’t turn it around this week things could get ugly fast.
‘GUS’ MISSES POINT ON TAMOU BAN
No one questions James Tamou is not a great bloke.
But you just can’t speak to referees the way the Tigers captain did to Ben Cummins and get away with it.
And Phil Gould is kidding himself suggesting Tamou should not serve any time out despite copping a two-match ban from the NRL’s match review committee.
Gould wrote on Twitter Tamou should be given a free pass because of his “exemplary career, the fact this incident was totally out of character, there is no chance of re-offending, his immediate remorse & apology was sincere”.
Seriously, Tamou told Cummins he was “f---ing incompetent”.
It’s like saying Nathan Cleary should not have been suspended for his spear tackle on Dylan Brown because Cleary is a cleanskin.
It’s a sad finish to Tamou’s NRL career given he is unsigned for next season.
But you commit the crime you do the time - good bloke or not.
CAPITULATION SHOWS WHY NRL NEEDS A DRAFT
That was not a game of football. That was a public shaming.
And while Wests Tigers players have been left to wear the embarrassment for their 72-6 capitulation to the Sydney Roosters, it again exposes why the NRL can no longer sit back and pretend the salary cap is working.
Surely if the majority of blowout scorelines this weekend proves anything above all else it’s that we just need to find a way to bring in at the very least a rookie draft.
Because if the game doesn’t do something to try and arrest the giant and widening gap between the haves and have nots in this competition it will only get worse in years to come.
This round we saw the most points ever scored in one weekend of football, with an unbelievable 466 points across eight games, surpassing the previous
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At the end of last season NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo spoke publicly that a rookie draft would be something the game would consider to try and even out the rosters after what was the worst season of blowouts in 86 years in 2021.
Yet here we are almost 12 months down the track and we are still standing still on this.
There is no question the Tigers were horrible on Saturday night.
But you have to be fair dinkum when judging the quality of the respective rosters.
You’d be flat out finding room for any of the Tigers players in the Roosters’ top 17.
Tigers legend Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach raised the issue of a draft in The Daily Telegraph just last week ahead of the game against the Roosters.
Roach said Benji Marshall was kidding himself even contemplating chasing a former Tigers junior like James Tedesco to try and get him back.
“As if Tedesco would come back,” Roach said.
But at least with a rookie draft it could ensure that future talent is distributed more evenly to start with, as is done in the AFL where the bottom teams each season are given the first picks in the draft.
In fact, it happens in just about every major sport across the globe that uses a salary cap.
Why can’t we do it in NRL?
TIGERS PUNCHING BAG GETS A FREE HIT
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. That’s certainly the case with perennial punching bag Luke Brooks whose worth to the Tigers has gone up in his injury absence.
We mention Brooks because the burning issue for incoming coach Tim Sheens and Benji Marshall in the wake of Saturday night’s debacle has to be sorting out what the make-up of the Tigers spine is going to be moving forward.
What we have learned in recent weeks is the Adam Doueihi/Jock Madden combination is not the answer.
But what has become abundantly clear is that the Tigers can’t afford to even contemplate letting Brooks leave - not before they at the very least find a more suitable replacement.
With Madden off contract this year and Brooks, Doueihi and Jackson Hastings all off contract at the end of next season, there are certainly some big calls to make.
No doubt young Madden is a promising talent who has done his best since getting a shot in Brooks’ absence.
But it’s also obvious Madden is going to need further time to develop before he is ready to take charge of an NRL team on a permanent basis.
And we’ve seen with what’s happened at Newcastle after they gave Mitchell Pearce a release before the Knights had an experienced replacement what not to do.
If there is an offer for Madden to go to Penrith and further learn his trade under Nathan Cleary - in a similar way to what Dolphins’ recruit Sean O’Sullivan has done - Madden should take it.
While this was undoubtedly Doueihi’s worst NRL game, he has been the Tigers’ best in so many you can’t judge him on that one off performance.
Doueihi must also be wondering if his future is best served staying at the Tigers or trying his luck elsewhere.
Though you just wonder at how many rival clubs Doueihi would get to wear the No 6 jersey.
DID NOT DESERVE SUCH DISGUSTING ABUSE
It’s just disgusting that some so-called fans can be so low as to make death threats on social media when a young bloke has a bad game.
We had an issue with Mitchell Moses a few weeks back.
Now Jaxson Paulo.
There’s no hiding from the fact the young South Sydney winger had a night to forget after bombing a couple of tries.
But the abuse that followed online was just ridiculous, with the club confirming Paulo had received death threats (yes, plural).
The game needs to use every power available to track these dopes down and make sure they are dealt with.
As for the Rabbitohs, that was a game they probably should have won.
But they certainly won’t lose any support.
If anything it just confirms what a threat they really are, even though that loss kills off their top four hopes.
The Panthers were absolutely awesome.
But some of the ball movement from the Rabbitohs was just sensational.
NO WAY TO FAREWELL A WARRIOR
It was a sad way for Kieran Foran to go out in his final game at Brookvale Oval.
After all Foran has given the Manly over the years, you would have thought even with so many missing (13 players were unavailable) they could have done a bit more to say thanks to one of the game’s true modern day warriors.
Foran is of course leaving to join Gold Coast next season, and leaves behind huge boots to fill.
From what we’ve seen from Josh Schuster this season (expected to take over at five-eighth) there’s more than a bit of work to do over the summer.
While you don’t want to keep harping on about how the fallout from the Pride jersey debacle has ruined their season, how can you not?
You get the feeling this could easily explode again when Manly’s season is officially finished.
ROUND 23 LIKES
NOW THAT’S WHAT EELS ARE CAPABLE OF
Mitchell Moses showed what a difference he makes in Parramatta’s impressive 42-6 pounding of the Bulldogs.
But the bigger test comes this week to see if the Eels can back it up against the Broncos, who are on the slide but did beat Parra 36-14 as recently as round 19.
Coming on the back of last round’s 26-0 smashing by Souths, the Eels needed to lift in this one and they did.
They were much stronger through the middle, and that allowed Moses and Dylan Brown to really cut the Dogs to shreds.
Brown finished with two tries and three try assists, while Moses also had three try assists.
While inconsistency has been the issue all season, with two games to go against the Broncos and Storm it’s not too late to get it right.
If they turn up for both then they will still be in good shape come finals time.
SO DO WE STILL THINK KEARY IS COOKED?
A few weeks back we questioned if the Sydney Roosters were doing themselves an injustice not playing Joey Manu at five-eighth.
Now Luke Keary has come out and showed what he is still capable of.
This was Keary’s best game in a long, long time, turning back the clock after all his concussion issues.
The way the Roosters are building they are certainly showing why they are more than capable of going all the way even coming from outside the top four.
This Friday night’s blockbuster against the Storm is going to really tell us where they are at before another huge final round showdown against their arch rivals the Rabbitohs.
It’s going to be a different challenge taking on the might of Melbourne with the likes of Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Harry Grant flying.
And what about big Nelson Asofa-Solomona who is just creating mayhem on the edge.
Asofa-Solomona had 17 runs for 177m against the Broncos including nine tackle busts and a try.
You don’t reckon he won’t be pinning a target on the Roosters five-eighth just as he did Ezra Mam?
A CLASS ACT REDISCOVERS HIS MOJO
As good as Nicho Hynes has been all season, it’s somewhat overshadowed the remarkable revival of Matt Moylan.
But it’s a testament to rookie coach Craig Fitzgibbon how he has just found a way to reinvigorate the talented five-eighth.
Ability was never a question for Moylan, attitude certainly was.
Though this year it can’t be questioned with Moylan really rediscovering his mojo.
Moylan was again outstanding in Cronulla’s seven-tries-to-one win over Manly, and his halves combination with Hynes is just terrific to watch.
It’s going to become even more important in the coming weeks as more and more focus gets put on Hynes as the stakes go up.
It just might open up more opportunity for Moylan.
HUNT’S COMMITMENT A SHOW OF CHARACTER
On a weekend when we saw plenty of players give a whole lot less than their best, Ben Hunt continued to show the type of character that drives the Dragons’ inspirational skipper.
In a play that summed up perfectly Hunt’s commitment he chased down speedster Jayden Campbell early in the second half (when the scores were 26-14) and somehow got his arm under the ball just in time to prevent the try.
It was just a fantastic play from the man who is rightfully considered the Dally M Medal favourite.
A COACHING MASTERSTROKE FROM CLEARY
It was one of the most brutal starts to a game we’ve seen this year.
And it highlighted why Ivan Cleary’s decision to start Mitch Kenny at dummy half and Api Koroisau off the bench was an absolute masterstroke.
After Kenny wore the early bruises, Koroisau came up with two crucial try assists, including Liam Martin’s match winner.
It was a such a tremendous game.
And to think the Panthers claimed such a gutsy win without Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai as well as James Fisher-Harris up front just shows what a wonderful team they are.
PROOF GOOD SYSTEMS MAKE BETTER PLAYERS
It’s hard to believe the team sitting second on the ladder with only two rounds remaining continues to get questioned about whether or not they are legitimate premiership contenders.
But the way the Cowboys demolished the Warriors on their home soil, you wouldn’t want to be facing them come finals time, especially if they get to play it in Townsville.
Tom Dearden finished with his first career double, while Chad Townsend had three try assists and a try.
It’s hard to believe Dearden is the same player who the Broncos let go.
It again shows how playing in the right system can really make or break a player’s career.
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