Is Joe Schmidt in frame for bigger job than Wallabies?
From colleagues to antagonists, the Bledisloe Cup match at Eden Park is personal for the coaches.
The controversy surrounding the Gold Coast Suns’ Matt Rowellbeing crowned this year’s best and fairest player has sparked annual calls for the vote to be overhauled.
While AFL football boss Greg Swann says the league will consider allowing umpires to look at stats before casting their votes, not everyone is convinced.
“They haven’t wanted to vote for years,” a former grand final ump, who wants to remain anonymous, insisted.
“There’s too much going on in the game that they need to focus on. Of course, they have a feel for the players and who play well but the game’s changed, and the umps have not wanted it – but the AFL executive wants the pureness of umps still voting.”
Few would argue Rowell isn’t a worthy recipient, but this year’s count seemed more contentious than ever. The groans and rippled laughter from those in attendance on Monday night when St Kilda superstar Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera attracted only two votes instead of three for his round 20 heroics against Melbourne told the story.
Handing the umps a stats sheet doesn’t necessarily solve the problem because numbers aren’t always the greatest measure of performance.
AFL Umpires Association boss Rob Kerr rejected our former umpire’s claim.
“I’m yet to have a conversation with an umpire wanting the AFL to take it off us,” Kerr said. “There may be one or two who quietly hold that view, but they have never expressed that to me. It’s been the opposite. It’s something that umps hold dear and take seriously.”
He did add this: “Spot betting has really put a focus on things. You can bet on every game and the votes on each game, and that has heightened the focus on game-by-game.”
Like most sports, match officials are already under enormous pressure and don’t need the added pressure of voting on the player of the year. Imagine the Category 5 shitstorm that would develop off Sydney Heads in NRL grand final week if referees, already under palpable pressure each week, also decided who won the Dally M.
As it stands, former players who hold jobs in the media provide 3-2-1 votes each week. It’s not always perfect – but at least it doesn’t bring further attention to the match officials.
Sweet September
Say what you want about the AFL – and let’s face it, we’ve said plenty this season – but it does grand final week better than any other code.
The Brownlow, the grand final parade, the various luncheons and functions all over the country. Good times.
On match day, the MCG comes to life as thousands make their way from the CBD, the unwashed clutching tickets in the nosebleeds marching shoulder-to-shoulder with well-heeled types who will strut into the September Club that morning before stumbling out later that night.
Before the 2005 grand final between Sydney and West Coast, I approached a Swans fan who had “South Melbourne Forever” tattooed on one shoulder and the Carlton and United Breweries logo on the other.
His name was Mark Davies, and he had just been released from Port Phillip Prison after serving seven years for armed robbery.
“I’ll tell you something,” he barked into my digital recorder. “I am not going back to jail today.”
When I asked him for his name, he pulled down his bottom lip and it revealed “MARK” tattooed inside it.
I’m not sure where Mark ended up that day, but I hope it wasn’t jail after the Swans won by a point in one of the game’s tightest deciders in history.
Let’s hope Saturday’s grand final between Brisbane and Geelong is similarly close. Apart from Collingwood’s thrilling four-point win in 2023 against Brisbane, the lopsided score lines in recent years have made the biggest game of the year a snooze. And that’s when the trouble starts …
Coaches’ crunch time
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has been hammering home to his players at training for weeks about the importance of beating the All Blacks at Eden Park – a venue where Australia has not defeated New Zealand since 1986.
While victory in Auckland on Saturday would confirm, once and for all, that Australian rugby is back, it could also help Schmidt become the next New Zealand coach.
Much has been made this week about Schmidt’s strained relationship with All Blacks counterpart Scott Robertson, relating to their time together as assistants under Ian Foster.
In a nutshell, Schmidt questioned Robertson’s “integrity” because he had used the media to push a line he could coach Fiji. It forced New Zealand Rugby into appointing Robertson as Foster’s successor before the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The All Blacks lost the final against South Africa.
Forget about bragging rights this Saturday. The juicier subtext is the possibility of Schmidt taking Robertson’s job.
While the Wallabies have turned the corner under Schmidt, the All Blacks have struggled under Robertson, particularly after their record 43-10 loss to South Africa earlier this month.
The timing lines up perfectly for Schmidt after he earlier this year extended his tenure with the Wallabies until the end of next year’s Super Rugby season when he hands over to Les Kiss.
By then, NZR might be ready for change a year out from the 2027 World Cup in Australia.
Former All Blacks Jeff Wilson and Stephen Donald were onto it on The Breakdown podcast earlier this week.
“Do you think Joe Schmidt would ever want to coach the All Blacks?” Wilson asked.
“I dare say of course he does,” Donald responded.
Schmidt has said he is returning to New Zealand to be closer to his adult son, Luke, who suffers from severe epilepsy, which makes the All Blacks job all the more appealing.
If Robertson’s men taste defeat at Eden Park against the Wallabies for the first time since 1986 – and against any side since 1994 – the job might come up sooner than later.
Mark my words
We told you last month that Roosters officials were pessimistic about retaining winger Mark Nawaqanitawase because of the Wallabies’ resurgence and his desire to play in the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
This week, the 25-year-old confirmed he was returning to the 15-man game once his NRL contract finishes at the end of next season.
Rugby types are trying to take the high road, dismissing suggestions it’s a victory over rugby league, but let’s not kid ourselves: they’d be clicking their heels with delight at Rugby Australia HQ.
In the space of two years, RA has enticed both Joseph Suaalii and now Nawaqanitawase back to into rugby’s warm bosom. And both from the Roosters, who pride themselves in securing players and never letting them go.
But Kiss faces a conundrum because of the abandonment earlier this year of the Giteau Law, which restricted the number of overseas-based players who could be selected for Australia.
Nawaqanitawase’s reported desire to play rugby abroad instead of Super Rugby means he’ll have to be plucked straight out of French rugby or the like and plonked into the Wallabies squad.
Surely, though, this is the future for outrageously talented players such as Marky Mark.
Much like Sonny Bill Williams and, indeed, Suaalii, if you’re talented enough you should be allowed to play whichever code takes your fancy and when.
The deeper problem for RA is what it means for the domestic league after the world cup, when players are expected to take the big money in Europe and Japan.
Hewitt hoo-ha
So the Lleyton Hewitt thing got weirder this week when the 44-year-old’s father, Glynn, decided for reasons known only to him to release a 700-word statement about the whole thing.
And you thought you had daddy issues.
Earlier this month, the International Tennis Integrity Agency handed Hewitt Jr a two-week ban and a $30,000 fine after he was found guilty of “offensive conduct” for shoving a 60-year-old anti-doping chaperone following Australia’s Davis Cup defeat to Italy last year.
Hewitt Jr’s lawyers released a statement after the verdict was handed down, claiming video footage of the incident had been “manipulated”, although no further explanation of what that meant was provided.
Hewitt Sr now claims the ITIA attempted to have his boy banned from the Davis Cup in response to the former world No.1’s criticism of the competition. No proof, of course, just accusations.
The ITIA responded by telling Hewitt Sr to read the full decision on its website.
This column has done so a few times now and it’s clear Hewitt Jr unnecessarily and aggressively pushed a 60-year-old volunteer just trying to do his unpaid job.
While Hewitt Jr has opted against appealing the decision, I’m told we’re not discussing any of this if he’d simply apologised to the poor bloke on the day.
Instead, it’s a statement-a-thon from Team Hewitt. I’m expecting mum Cherilyn to weigh in with a statement next week.
Panther power
“They’ve got the chance to win five or six comps in a row. Who’s gonna stop them?”
When Phil Gould said this about Penrith, his former club, in July 2023, it wasn’t entirely clear why he said it.
Was he putting pressure on coach Ivan Cleary, whose return in 2019 pushed Gould out the door?
Was he patting himself on the back for the pathways system he set up when he was the Panthers’ general manager of footy, creating a direct pipeline between the NRL club and its 9000-strong junior nursery?
Or maybe Gould and that big brain of his was just spitting facts. As the Panthers zero in on a sixth consecutive grand final appearance, the prophecy is coming true.
The Panthers meet Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday afternoon and it’s a definitive contrast of styles: the cyborg efficiency of Penrith and halfback Nathan Cleary up against the derring-do of the Broncos, who are very much galloping thanks to fullback Reece Walsh.
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