NRL 2021: Rabbitohs star Cody Walker faces one-match ban

Cody Walker will have to win at the judiciary to be available for South Sydney’s clash with the Broncos.

Lachlan Lewis of the Bulldogs was allowed to play on despite wobbling away from a tackle. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Cody Walker is facing a one-game ban after being charged twice by the NRL’s match review committee after a fiery clash against Canterbury.

The South Sydney five-eighth will miss one game with an early guilty plea after being hit with a grade one striking charge for his tackle on Canterbury’s Nick Meaney. If he fights the charge and loses he will be suspended for two games. Walker is now in severe doubt for South Sydney’s clash against Brisbane on Thursday night.

Walker was also charged for stepping on Bulldogs back-rower Corey Waddell but will only be hit with a fine.

Walker was involved in several fiery encounters prompting coach Wayne Bennett to joke about the “angry pills” his star five-eighth was taking.

Immortal Mal Meninga described the Meaney tackle as “deliberate” in Fox Sports commentary.

Walker’s teammate Keaon Koloamatangi will miss two games with an early guilty plea for a crusher tackle on Will Hopoate. Brisbane’s Pat Carrigan is set to be banned for one game for a crusher tackle on Christian Welch.

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Adam Reynolds and Cody Walker talk to the referee during the match. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“I can’t remember that incident,” Walker said.

“But in any game we’re trying to win a game of footy. What happens on the field stays on the field, we shook hands after the game and that’s where it’ll stay.”

It was a fiery encounter throughout despite South Sydney’s dominance and Walker was embroiled in a melee with Kyle Flanagan later on in the match.

“It’s just spur of the moment. It’s a big occasion here, Good Friday at Stadium Australia, massive crowd,” Walker said.

“The Dogs are always a gritty side and every time we play against them they’re a hard team to break down.”

Walker could also be in hot water for seemingly stepping on Corey Waddell’s ankle in the early stages of the match.

A scuffle breaks out with Cody Walker in the middle of itall. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

If Walker is sidelined for a week it could open the door for Benji Marshall to make his run-on debut for the Rabbitohs.

Souths coach Wayne Bennett could see the funny side of things at least.

“I’ll check the medication he’s taking,” Bennett said.

“There was obviously something going on there. He had the angry pills in today.”

Walker was one of South Sydney’s best, scoring two tries and setting up another with a pinpoint kick to Alex Johnston.

His combination with Damien Cook was on song, with the Test and Origin hooker creating both of Walker’s tries.

Through the middle of the field there are few more dangerous combinations in the competition.

“There’s a few different things I look for (when Cook runs), but I’m not going to give them away.

“I understand when he’s about to jump and my job is just to keep up with him cause he’s so quick.

“It’s been a combination we’ve grown over the past couple of years.”

Bulldogs create unwanted history

The loudest the Canterbury fans got all day against South Sydney wasn’t for a try, a big hit or a bit of individual brilliance or anything worth remembering.

The cause for celebration was when the Bulldogs successfully pulled off a captain’s challenge midway through the first half.

The way Canterbury are going it might be the only win they have for a while, so the fans had to get around it.

At 0-4 and with their last try coming 246 minutes ago and counting you have to take what you can get and the blue and white faithful didn’t get much.

Trent Barrett’s first month in charge has created all the wrong kinds of history.

The 2021 Bulldogs are now just the second team in Australian rugby league history to go three straight games without scoring a point, joining the 2014 Sharks.

They also have the dubious honour of having the worst attacking start to a season since Glebe scored just 12 points in their first four games in 1928.

“There’s a lot of things that are going wrong with our attack,” Barrett said.

“Our attack is pedestrian, but we don’t help ourselves with these fundamental errors we’re making.

“We had two passes over the sideline, a forward pass from dummy half, we got thrown into touch a couple of times.

“Points come on the back of a lot of things. A lot of things have to happen for us to build pressure to be able to get across the tryline. Good teams don’t just let you score.

“I know what’s wrong with our attack, but I’m not going to discuss it here. It’s not an easy fix.”

The gap between the best teams in the competition and the rest becomes more of a yawning chasm by the week and for the Bulldogs to compete with Souths at all they would have needed a lot to go their way.

Lachlan Lewis of the Bulldogs leaves the field after a head knock. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

DOGS COP CONCUSSION HEAT

Five-eighth Lachlan Lewis, who came into the side to ease the playmaking pressure on Kyle Flanagan, was concussed after five minutes and the Bulldogs will get a please explain from the NRL after Lewis stayed on the field for a set afterwards, before he came off and was ruled out for the remainder of the game.

“He’s not real well,” Barrett said after the match.

“He should have come off, we realised that and we thought that. We’ll sort that out, he probably should have come straight off.”

Lewis’ exit forced Sione Katoa, a hooker, into the halves and rookie backrower Jackson Topine into dummy half. Against South Sydney’s dynamite attack that was like bringing a butter knife to a gunfight.

Damien Cook and Cody Walker didn’t just eat the Bulldogs alive, they looked like they were playing a different sport and whatever game it was it was faster and more furious than anything Canterbury could muster.

There are some bright spots for Canterbury, if you look hard and squint your eyes.

Nick Cotric looked dangerous – even if he was a little kick-happy when he got into space, he’s one of the few who can get into space at all. Adam Elliott’s effort never wanes and Corey Allan tried hard on the wing.

Jack Hetherington was reported for a crusher tackle on Cameron Murray. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Bulldogs players swear they’re better than this, and that Barrett really is the sharp attacking mind he seemed to be at Penrith last year.

If you ask them, they’ll tell you that what they’re showing on the field is nothing like what they do at training. And the cavalry is coming, in the shape of Penrith’s Matt Burton and Melbourne’s Josh Addo-Carr.

But that isn’t happening until next year, and four games in is very early to be talking about next season.

And if a Bulldogs revival is happening in the foreseeable future there’s a lot of players at the club right now who won’t be here to see it.

This year, which began with at least a little bit of optimism, is quickly collapsing into misery again. It doesn’t matter how bad your roster may be, April is too early to be planning your off-season.

“We just have to keep sticking together and working hard,” Barrett said.

“We get a couple back next week. There’s a couple of things we need to work on and we know that. But in terms of turning up and sticking together I can’t fault them.

“There are patches in those games they are doing well, just not for long enough periods.”

Things won’t get any easier next week, when the Dogs have to tangle with the Storm.

No team in Australian rugby league history has been kept scoreless four times in a row and at this point avoiding another unwanted record is about all Canterbury can hope for.

Damien Cook was in the middle of everything for South Sydney. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

COOK ON FIRE

There are heavy suspicions Bennett planted the story a couple of weeks ago about Damien Cook’s running game going missing.

Since then it’s been a case of run Rabbit run.

The No.9 ran for 130m and set up two tries for Cody Walker with darts out of dummy half against statue-like defenders.

Way to use the media, Wayne.

STINK ABORTED

Just for a minute, the big crowd of 23,340 thought it was in line for a good old-fashioned all-in brawl early in the second half.

After a cranky Walker rag-dolled Flanagan to the ground, players came from everywhere to join the fray.

Fists were at the ready and there was plenty of jumper grabbing, but the only thing thrown was Walker’s dummy from the cot.

There were bigger blow-ups on the dodgems at next door’s Easter Show.

JACK ATTACK

Trouble has a way of finding Jack Hetherington.

The fiery Bulldogs forward is a regular on the Match Review Committee’s rap sheet and again found his name pencilled in after a run-in close to halftime.

Hetheringon was reported for a crusher tackle on Cameron Murray and was lucky not to be in further hot water when an attempted shoulder charge on Mark Nicholls just missed its mark.