The Tackle NRL: Likes and dislikes from Round 1, Dally M votes
Cameron Smith is widely regarded as the best player of all time - but there’s one area where Harry Grant has him covered. Read more in Paul Crawley’s Likes and Dislikes from the opening week.
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There won’t be too many people around the NRL feeling sorry for the star-studded Sydney Roosters after going down in one of the biggest boilovers in the game’s history.
Yet if it was Wayne Bennett in charge and the Dolphins had been beaten by 40 points you know exactly where the questions would have been directed in the aftermath.
So as embarrassing as it was for the Roosters players to go down 28-18 on a historic day at Suncorp Stadium, surely the buck must stop with coach Trent Robinson.
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Yes, it’s only round one and no one is going to be writing them off just yet, just as they won’t the Panthers following their shock loss to the Broncos.
But internally there would have to be some serious soul-searching about how a team with a roster every coach would kill for could turn up with an attitude so poor for their first match of the season – especially when playing in honour of the legendary Arthur Beetson.
DISLIKES
STUART AND BENNETT MISS THE MARK
Ricky Stuart and Wayne Bennett are two of my favourite coaches but they are dead-set barking up the wrong tree with their calls to scrap independent doctors.
Let’s be fair dinkum about this: the only reason we have independent doctors in the game now is because coaches, players and clubs used to rort the old system.
Back in 2015 Bennett even called for their introduction to eliminate “a chance of a rort”.
LUCKY NO ONE WAS SERIOUSLY INJURED
When are players going to get it through their heads that you can’t take an opponent’s head off in the act of trying to inspire your team?
And if you do you deserve to cop a heavy suspension, which is what Jordan Rapana and Wade Graham are looking at now.
Rapana is becoming a liability for these silly brain explosion moments like the shoulder charge on Scott Drinkwater that has Rapana facing a three to four week ban.
Rapana was only playing because he took the early plea and a fine after being charged for a
vicious high shot on Adam Doueihi in the trials.
Meanwhile, Graham is facing the same ban for his grade one reckless high tackle charge on Davvy Moale that was lucky it didn’t decapitate the young Souths forward.
It’s ridiculous how incidents like these get overshadowed by all the commentary surrounding independent doctors.
Just imagine if that was Jared Waerea-Hargreaves or Nelson Asofa-Solomona doing that tackle on Moale, there would be hell to pay.
Wade Graham sinned binned for this.
— Rugby League Best Tries Hits and Biffs (@NBiffs) March 4, 2023
Turn it up NRL.
Was a great hit…#NRLSharksRabbitohspic.twitter.com/USBeda0CZ9
LET THE BUNKER RULE ON FORWARD PASSES
The year is 2023 and we still can’t come up with the modern technology to solve the NRL’s forward pass controversies.
And what’s more, NRL head of football Graham Annesley has confirmed there is no clear time frame for when technology will be introduced.
It’s just embarrassing for the game how a pass from Cronulla halfback Braydon Trindall to Sione Katoa that was called back can be so easily spotted by anyone sitting on their couch at home, but the Bunker can’t rule on it.
The same goes for Blayke Brailey’s ball to Matt Moylan late in the game which should not have been called forward, especially when you take into account Josh Hodgson’ creative dummy half work for Parramatta on Thursday night.
The rule states if the ball goes backwards out of the hands, it is not a forward pass. It’s not exactly rocket science.
The NRL has been trialling two technologies, one involving a microchip in the ball, the other a body movement tracker.
I just can’t understand why the Bunker can’t overrule the onfield howlers that stick out like dogs’ you know what.
NRL’S BIGGEST PEST TURNS ON TEAMMATE
It’s too early to say the Panthers are going to struggle in the wake of Api Koroisau and Viliame Kikau’s departure.
But if things do fall apart we might well look back on the post match blow-up between Jarome Luai and Jaeman Salmon as the moment that exposed the first cracks in what has been until now an unbreakable bond between the Panthers players.
WATCH THE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER ABOVE!
Former players will say these type of things tend to happen from time to time but it is really no big deal.
Andrew Johns and Billy Slater spoke about it on the Sunday Footy Show, with Johns saying it was “good. It has got to be the players that hold each other to account”. Slater conceded it shouldn’t have happened in public.
Yet it was only the intervention of young outside back Sunia Turuva who spotted the Channel Nine camera filming that probably stopped the ugly exchange going to the next level.
The Panthers were anything but embarrassing in their golden point loss and it is obvious it is going to take a while before we see their best this year, so we won’t be writing them off just yet.
Of course Luai is the game’s biggest pest so he won’t be getting a lot of sympathy here.
If it’s okay to denigrate your teammates in public as Joey says, keep up the good work. At least on this occasion it wasn’t a rival player copping it from him.
COACHING PRESSURE GAUGE BLOWS UP EARLY
Adam O’Brien should be more concerned about getting the Newcastle Knights to win football games than complaining about independent doctors.
O’Brien goes into Round 2 as the NRL coach under the most pressure to save his job, although Anthony Griffin could be saying “Hold my beer, Adam” as the Dragons play their first game against the Titans next weekend after a Round 1 bye.
While O’Brien is under the pump already, it’s a different story for the likes of Manly’s Anthony Seibold and Brisbane’s Kevin Walters who step into round 2 full of confidence after releasing the pressure valve with encouraging wins.
For all the fallout surrounding Kalyn Ponga being taken from the field for a head injury assessment, and other similar incidents over the weekend, the fact is under pressure coaches will always find a way to spin the narrative, and winning coaches get on with life.
And it’s the Knights players and their coach who need to take ownership of the fact that still had plenty of chances to win that game but were ultimately rolled by a Warriors outfit many have tipped to finish down near the bottom of the ladder this year.
O’Brien is now in his fourth season in charge at Newcastle, while the unheralded Andrew Webster is in his first.
Yet you could clearly see that the Warriors were playing with new found enthusiasm that is a really positive sign for their fans going forward.
LIKES
GRANT MORE FUN TO WATCH THAN THE GOAT
Cameron Smith is widely regarded as the best player of all time. But give me Harry Grant every day of the week over the GOAT when it comes to watching rugby league for pure enjoyment.
Smith used to frustrate the hell out of opposition fans and teams for his scheming ability to manipulate the rules as well as the refs.
But even if you’re not a Storm fan it was outstanding watching how the current Storm dummy half closed out that win over the Eels with a daring golden point charge from dummy half that caught everyone by surprise.
For all the magic Smith could conjure on the field, this was a play even the GOAT wouldn’t have been capable of in his wildest dreams.
Meanwhile, if Mitchell Moses is commanding $1.3 million a season on the open market, what would that make Jahrome Hughes worth?
The Melbourne halfback doesn’t get near the accolades he deserves.
EELS UNVEIL THE ‘NEW PRICEY’
For all the hype of the big buys for this new NRL season, Parramatta’s clearly backed a winner with workaholic lock J’maine Hopgood.
What a performance the 23-year-old former Panther turned on in his NRL debut in his new club colours.
At one point in Fox League commentary Andrew Voss labelled the Queenslander the new “Pricey”.
While it’s the highest accolade you could ever give any Parramatta forward, in this instance it was worthy describing Hopgood’s non-stop effort, finishing with 20 runs for 146m along with his 57 tackles.
WALTERS, SEIBOLD EASE PRESSURE
Kevin Walters has taken the heat of himself on the back of the Broncos’ stunning performance to topple the back-to-back reigning premiers on the Panthers’ home turf in golden point.
Walters certainly wasn’t complaining about the fact he’d lost two of his stars with Herbie Farnworth and Thomas Flegler defecting to the Dolphins next year in the build up.
Or that he went into the game without the club’s star recruit Reece Walsh who should be back for Friday night’s blockbuster against the Cowboys at Suncorp Stadium.
Seibold was another under pressure coach who should be feeling a lot more at ease for the way Manly accounted for Canterbury on the back of a Daly Cherry-Evans masterclass, and a sound if not spectacular return from superstar Tom Trbojevic.
The Sea Eagles looked so fit and so united it shows whatever Seibold has been doing with the players over summer has this club heading back in the right direction.
In fairness to new Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo, no one really gave the Bulldogs any chance of winning this game at a sold out 4 Pines Park.
And the Bulldogs did well to stay in the game up until Kyle Flanagan’s controversial sin binning in the countdown to halftime.
But that was not the reason they lost.
MAHONEY INSPIRES BUT KIKAU ‘OWNED’
Reed Mahoney was another to dig in for his new club, but the same probably can’t be said for big Viliame Kikau who was absolutely owned by young Manly wrecking ball Haumole Olakau’atu.
Mahoney played his guts out and as coach Cameron Ciraldo pointed out, showed why he is the captain of this team.
But Kikau certainly won’t look back fondly on this game.
Olakau’atu finished with 14 runs for 119m including five tackle busts, while Kikau had 10 runs for 70m but never looked at ease.
REYNOLDS/ILIAS DEBATE ROLLS ON
Did Souths get it right letting Adam Reynolds leave?
I’ll tell you one thing.
The Brisbane Broncos would not be the premiership contenders they are today without Adam Reynolds.
But credit where credit is due to the Rabbitohs for sticking to their guns and playing the long game with Lachlan Ilias.
This time last year I was extremely critical of Souths for not doing more to keep their home grown skipper, and I would maintain they would have been in an even better position to win the comp last year had Reynolds stayed.
That said, Jason Demetriou has done a tremendous job working with Ilias to develop his game and confidence, and it all came together with what was easily his best NRL performance in the win over the Sharks.
Not that Reynolds was too shabby, sealing the Broncos’ win over the Panthers in what was a statement about their intentions this season.
If Reynolds stays fit, the Broncos will be one of the teams challenging the Rabbitohs for this year’s title.
COOK SHOWS HIS REP DAYS AREN’T OVER
It was a cheeky jibe from Damien Cook during his post match interview when thanking Fox League’s Mal Meninga for not taking him away with the Kangaroos to the World Cup so he could stay home and concentrate on his fitness.
In a weekend where I reckon the footy was up with the best opening round action we’ve seen in years, the Rabbitohs’ No. 9 was really impressive with his run-first mentality.
And while it’s too early to get caught up in the Origin selection debate after one round, it clearly showed that, at 31, Cook is still playing with a lot to prove. The other serious challenger for Api Koroisau’s Blues No. 9 jumper this year will be the former Dragon Reece Robson, who was again tremendous for the Cowboys.
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Originally published as The Tackle NRL: Likes and dislikes from Round 1, Dally M votes
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