The Tackle: Paul Crawley reveals his likes and dislikes from an intriguing round 5 of action
Five rounds into the season and the Tigers have not won a game, their worst start in the joint venture’s history. Coach Michael Maguire was back to stay, so surely he doesn’t now walk alone?
Opinion
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Parramatta may have escaped with another tight win over the Titans but the talk of the game centred around the sin-binning of Junior Paulo.
Some called it ‘harsh’, others went even further and labelled it ‘a disgrace’.
PAUL CRAWLEY bring a sense of realism to the debate in his likes and dislikes from Round 5.
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ROUND FIVE DISLIKES
TIGERS JUST SAD
What is happening at Wests Tigers has gone beyond embarrassing, it’s just sad.
Sad for the players, and sad for coach Michael Maguire.
We are five rounds into the season and the Tigers have not won a game, their worst start in the joint venture’s history.
At the end of last year the club had a chance to make a tough call but instead management backed Maguire to stay.
So surely if the coach is forced to go at any stage this season he should not be walking out the door alone.
PAULO LUCKY
Forget the outrage over Junior Paulo supposedly being hard done by for getting sin binned for his high shot on AJ Brimson.
The Parramatta prop should be thanking his lucky stars he wasn’t sent off before copping a grade two careless high tackle charge by the NRL match review committee.
It means Paulo can escape with a one-match ban if he pleads guilty, or faces a two-match suspension if he fights the charge at the judiciary and loses.
But in respect to the outrage over his sin binning on Saturday night, when are players and coaches (former and present) going to get it through their heads that any contact with the neck or head is not acceptable when it is avoidable?
Phil Gould predictably labelled it a “disgrace” on social media, while Fox League’s Michael Ennis excused it as “shoulder to shoulder first contact”.
Braith Anasta called it “harsh” while Cooper Cronk also thought “it was a penalty” at worst.
Even current players weighed in with Jackson Hastings tweeting “What is happening?”
You’ve got to love a bandwagon.
It’s true you had to slow it down and watch it frame-by-frame to see that it was almost simultaneous that Paulo’s shoulder ricocheted off Brimson’s shoulder to end up near his head.
But the fact is it was avoidable if Paulo lowered his target zone.
That’s why blaming the ref is just a cop out.
The refs are in a no-win situation knowing criticism will come just as intensely if they don’t act.
The real issue here is if the players and coaches were all self-compliant we wouldn’t even be arguing this.
We wouldn’t need the game to continually change its rules and change its interpretations so we get to the point where rugby league is safe and still what the fans want to watch.
It’s long overdue that the players and the coaches take responsibility for their own actions because, at the moment, it’s always the blame game, but they will never accept any responsibility.
JWH ESCAPES BAN
Still on the match review, Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves escaped sanction for his leg grab on Ryan James.
While he can cop a $1000 with an early plea for a leg twist on Corey Oates, it was the incident on James that sparked the bigger controversy.
There is no question JWH sails close to the wind, but in this instance the match review has agreed with the Roosters that the grab on James was a nothing incident.
CAPTAIN’S CALL CONTROVERSY HYPOCRISY
The captain’s call controversy that occurred on the Gold Coast is another blight on the game that is self-inflicted by players and coaches constantly chasing an unfair advantage.
It turned into a farce when the Titans twice gave up cynical penalties so they could challenge previous incidents, and in both cases they won the ruling and scored soon after.
NRL head of football Graham Annesley all but conceded on Sunday that, in the case involving Patrick Herbert, the captain’s challenge should not have been allowed for a ruck infringement (that came when Herbert deliberately gave up the penalty to challenge him being held back by Dylan Brown).
Annesley said he wanted to wait to review further footage and listen to audio on Monday before making a final judgment, but confirmed “holding down in the ruck is not a challengeable decision”.
But while everyone blows up and blames the refs for stuffing up again, surely some of the responsibility needs to go back to the players and their coaches who continually find a way to put more and more pressure on match officials who are on a hiding to nothing.
For instance, it’s getting ridiculous the amount of players who will go down to try and milk a penalty for high contact for the most minor incidents.
Yet then everyone wants to complain about the game going soft when someone like Paulo gets sin binned for a shot that could have easily taken someone’s head off.
The hypocrisy is mind-blowing.
BUNKER NO-TRY HOWLERS
An area where the match officials need to be a lot better is in the bunker.
We had two more howler no try calls over the weekend relating to obstruction calls that cost the Rabbitohs and the Knights.
In Souths’ case, Cameron Murray was denied when St George Illawarra’s Junior Amone made a defensive decision to go in on Tevita Tatola.
It was clear to anyone with half a clue watching that it was a try, yet the bunker unbelievably denied it.
On Thursday night, it was every bit as bad when the Knights had a try to Dominic Young disallowed after Kieran Foran was supposedly taken out by Tyson Frizell.
Even the commentators called it a “black and white” obstruction call.
But if you watch that replay it clearly shows Foran again made a defensive decision to stick to Kalyn Ponga.
It was only at the last minute Foran changed his course to run smack bang into Frizell, who was hitting the inside shoulder of Brad Parker.
Frizell could not have done any more to avoid contact. It was actually an outstanding piece of footy how the Knights created the overlap.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH CODY?
On a night where South Sydney young gun Lachlan Ilias produced his best NRL performance, his halves partner, Cody Walker, went MIA with his worst game of the season.
In Fox League commentary Corey Parker declared the Rabbitohs’ five-eighth “looks like he just doesn’t want to be there”.
It was a fair assessment given Walker didn’t have a single run in the first half, and by fulltime it was only two runs for a grand total of 11m, along with 18 tackles and six missed.
Walker still hasn’t produced a try assist all season.
ENNIS’ STUNNING SMACKDOWN OF DUFTY
There is not a lot worse you can say about a fullback than accuse him of dodging collision.
Yet that is precisely the spray Matt Dufty copped from Michael Ennis that certainly won’t make the flying fullback’s chase for a new contract any easier.
On Fox League the former Dogs captain blasted Dufty both barrels after leaving skipper Josh Jackson stranded.
Jackson had taken a run and was expecting Dufty backing up on the inside. Instead the ball went to ground and the Panthers scored soon after.
Ennis fumed on Fox “he hesitated away from collision. He just completely removed himself from getting tackled … that’s his job. We see it with Papenhuyzen. We have seen it with Slater.”
Dufty finished the first half with one run for two metres. In comparison his opposite Dylan Edwards had nine runs for 105m.
Ennis doubled down in the second half when he brought up the fact Dufty has a slight build similar to Papenhuyzen yet Papenhuyzen always makes it his job to help his forwards out.
DIABOLICAL DRAGONS IN DENIAL
St George Illawarra’s season is just going from bad to worse.
Understandably there are a lot of questions being asked about their recruitment and team selections following Anthony Griffin’s decision to punt fullback Tyrell Sloan for Moses Mbye and Junior Amone to the bench for Jack Bird at five-eighth.
But it goes further than that because even when they get things right on the field they still find a way to stuff it up.
And there was play from Zac Lomax that summed up perfectly where their heads are obviously at.
You talk about coach killers.
Trailing just 4-0 midway through the first half, they looked set to claim the lead when Lomax inexcusably threw a no-look pass to Bird and butchered a try.
Lomax is one of Griffin’s most dangerous attacking weapons, but the selfishness of that play was there for all to see.
Lomax has been around long enough to know better.
RAIDERS THEIR OWN WORST ENEMIES
Speaking of brain snaps, what about the flick pass from young Canberra centre Matt Timoko inside his own ingoal.
How does an NRL player even do that? Like, these guys are the best of the best. It’s not under 8s.
But this was up there with the most ridiculous plays you’ve ever seen.
Now Timoko is a really promising player, but it just again shows what coaches are up against.
It was a miracle the Storm didn’t score with a knock on saving the Raiders.
DALLY M R5 POINTS
Newcastle v Manly
Judge: Gary Belcher
3- Haumole Olakau’atu
2- Daly Cherry-Evans
1- Jake Trbojevic
Warriors v Cowboys
Judge: Scott Sattler
3 - Chanel Harris-Tavita
2- Scott Drinkwater
1- Euan Aitken
Broncos v Roosters
Judge: Andrew Johns
3- Joey Manu
2- Sam Walker
1- Payne Haas
Raiders v Storm
Judge: Steve Roach
3- Jahrome Hughes
2- Ryan Papenhuyzen
1- Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Souths v St George
Judge: Luke Lewis
3- Damien Cook
2- Keaon Koloamatangi
1- Campbell Graham
Gold Coast v Parramatta
Judge: Paul Whatuira
3- Clint Gutherson
2- Regan Campbell-Gillard
1- Mitchell Moses
Cronulla v Wests Tigers
Judge: Greg Alexander
3- Jesse Ramien
2- Nicho Hynes
1 - Will Kennedy
Bulldogs v Penrith
Judge: Jimmy Smith
3 - Dylan Edwards
2- Matt Eisenhuth
1- Izack Tago
DALLY M LEADERBOARD AFTER 5 ROUNDS
12: I Yeo,: R Papenhuyzen
8: M Moses, J Hughes, N Hynes
7: Daly Cherry-Evans
6: Joey Manu, J Clifford, J Wighton
ROUND FIVE LIKES
LITTLE SAM STICKS IT UP HIS CRITICS
The Broncos played the game of their lives on Friday night and, if not for Sam Walker and Joey Manu, they probably would have scored another huge upset.
But while you’ve come to expect that type of performance from Manu, once again Walker also showed what a winner he is.
Still only 19, it’s just unbelievable what this teenager can do on a football field.
Whether it was the brave line running off Angus Crichton for his try. Or the composure when slotting that conversion from wide out at such a crucial time. Or putting in that magical grubber for Sitili Tupouniua’s touch down.
He’s just got it all.
But as impressive as anything is his courage because when the match needed to be won, it was Walker who stepped up and delivered.
That’s what every team wants from their most experienced and highest-paid players. But remember, Walker is still a teenager.
You can only imagine how much it would hurt the Broncos watching him produce that type of performance on Suncorp Stadium.
While the young Queenslander might not be ready for Origin just yet, it’s becoming blatantly obvious he is going to be one for the ages when he gets there.
THE REAL KOTONI STANDS UPS
Broncos fans are entitled to be asking Kotoni Staggs, where has that been all season?
We can only hope Staggs delivers an encore performance when Brisbane meets the premiers in Penrith this Friday night.
The Roosters’ Paul Momirovski is regarded as one of the best defensive centre in the NRL.
But he just had no answer to Staggs who finished with 14 runs for 182 metres that included 13 tackle busts.
ARTHUR IS EELS’ UNSUNG HERO
When teams win, star players get the credit. And when they lose it is often the coach who cops the brunt of the criticism.
Like it has been every season Parramatta fail to make it past week two of the finals.
But watching the development of the Eels again this year just highlights what an unsung hero Brad Arthur is in all this.
Since taking over at a club that was pretty much a basket-case back in 2014, Arthur has built this team brick by brick to make it the premiership force it is today.
And the way he has developed every member of the spine to become the players they are deserves tremendous credit.
Clint Gutherson arrived as a rookie from Manly. Mitchell Moses a flighty Wests Tigers playmaker who couldn’t tackle. Dylan Brown was a schoolboy. And Reed Mahoney a Bulldogs reject.
Arthur didn’t buy any of them as proven stars.
But it has been Arthur’s patience as much as his obvious coaching ability that has brought it all together to create one of the best spines in the NRL.
FREAKISH FIFITA SOLO TRY OF THE YEAR
We won’t see a better solo try this year than the effort David Fifita produced on Saturday night.
Taking a run from dummy half and with nothing doing, the barnstorming Titans backrower busted through tackles from Ryan Matterson, Nathan Brown, Bryce Cartwright and Clint Gutherson in a phenomenal 40m charge that no forward in the game’s modern history would have been capable of.
It’s just a shame the Titans can’t find a way to get Fifita more involved in the game.
COOK ANSWERS GRANT’S CHALLENGE
Just when we all thought Harry Grant had taken over Damien Cook’s standing as the game’s best dummy half, the Rabbitohs’ veteran has fired back.
Fox League’s Steve “Blocker” Roach had just finished saying “there is the next Australian hooker right there” when Grant exploded during the Storm’s win over the Raiders, before Cook made an equally spectacular start in the Rabbitohs’ win over the Dragons.
Cook finished with seven runs for 104m including six tackle busts and a try assist. Grant had seven runs for 66m, six tackle busts and a try assist.
It is going to be a cracking showdown when they go head-to-head during State of Origin.
MUNSTER SHOWS HIS WORTH
It shows you how well off the Storm are for superstar talent that they can afford to leave Cameron Munster until last to try and nut out a new contract extension.
After securing Ryan Papenhuyzen, Jahrome Hughes and Harry Grant, they are now trying to get Munster to take a huge pay cut to stay at the Storm beyond 2023.
The talk is it’s close to $300,000-a-season.
Not that it appears to be worrying Munster judging by his form.
His performance against the Raiders showed beyond any doubt his market value is up with the $1 million-a-season players.
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