The Tackle: Paul Crawley takes a look at the big issues across round 8 in the NRL

South Sydney’s latest recruitment move is sure to provide extra motivation for Adam Reynolds ahead of Broncos showdown. Paul Crawley reveals his LIKES and DISLIKES from round 8.

Brad Arthur is facing a big call. Picture: Getty Images

Paul Crawley runs the rule over Anzac round, revealing his likes and dislikes in the NRL Tackle.

ROUND 8 LIKES

WHY REYNO SHOULD BE HOPPING MAD

Adam Reynolds has every right to scratch his head that he couldn’t get the Rabbitohs to offer him more than a one season contract extension to stay at Souths.

Meanwhile, the Bunnies are now chasing hard for 30-year-old Jack Wighton on a potential four-year deal.

Am I missing something here?

It certainly sets up an interesting clash this week when the former Bunnies skipper leads the Broncos against his former club in Friday night’s clash at Suncorp.

Reynolds was again among the best in the Broncos win over the Eels.

But now it’s time to see just where Brisbane rates among the genuine competition heavyweights.

Adam Reynolds was forced out of South Sydney. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty

Without Payne Haas and Ezra Mam this week (who have already accepted the early guilty plea for their hip drop tackles), it is going to be a huge challenge up against a Rabbitohs team that just bowled over the back-to-back premiers.

While the Broncos started on fire against the Eels, the way they let Parra back into the game was a worry.

But if they can play the footy they turned up with to start the game against the Eels, this showdown with the Bunnies will be a cracker.

And for Reynolds, there surely has to be some extra motivation, even though he’d never admit it publicly.

It kicks off a big month for the Broncos with the Sea Eagles, Storm and Panthers to follow.

TRELL’S BEST GAME IN A BUNNIES’ JERSEY

Latrell Mitchell cops plenty when he doesn’t perform.

But the superstar fullback’s effort in the Rabbitohs’ gutsy win over the Panthers was a joy to watch.

I’d go as far as to say it was up with Mitchell’s best in his time playing for Souths.

While he only finished with 14 runs for 88m, it included two crucial tries and nine tackle busts, while he also came up with some wonderful moments including that silky flick pass to Alex Johnston.

And you can’t underestimate how important his input was to the Rabbitohs on a night where they really needed to stand up against the Panthers who have been so dominant over them in recent years.

Souths had some great performers across the park but another standout for mine was big Tom Burgess who really turned the game with his impact off the bench.

BRAIN FADE CAN’T STOP DOLPHINS

There has never been a bigger comeback in NRL history than what the Dolphins produced to storm home from a 26-0 deficit to beat the Titans 28-26.

And wouldn’t Robert Jennings thanking his lucky stars after one of the craziest brain explosions you’ve ever seen on a footy field when Jennings stayed down on the ground with the line wide open to butcher what would have been a certain try.

Jarrod Wallace later explained how Jennings told him he thought if he got up it would have been a double movement.

But as Wallace told Jennings, “there was no one within 20 metres of you, you could have got up and kept running”.

Not that it mattered in the end with Jennings redeeming himself after scoring one of the Dolphins’ five second half tries.

It was just magic to watch, and once again showed the incredible belief Wayne Bennett has instilled in this team that just don’t seem to know how to give up the fight.

We said what we said 🗣️‼️ pic.twitter.com/1dIRmKGJaU

— The Dolphins (@dolphinsnrl) April 23, 2023

CLEARY BEST DEFENSIVE HALFBACK SINCE JOEY

Nathan Cleary has been raved about all year for his ability to come up with the clutch plays.

But on a night the Panthers suffered a rare defeat, it was Cleary’s defence that proved such an inspiration.

I remember doing a story with the legendary Trevor Gillmeister a while back who rated Cleary in his top five defensive players in the comp.

Well, this showed what a tough and courageous player he really is.

You’d have to say he’s the best defensive halfback since Andrew Johns, who was an exceptional tackler.

Johns’ playing weight was listed at 90kg. Cleary is 92kg on the Panthers’ website, but by the looks of him they might be selling him a few kilos short. He looks massive for a halfback.

‘ANGRY’ NICHO LEADS THE WAY FOR SHARKS

Have you ever seen Nicho Hynes lose his cool like he did when he took exception to a shove from Kyle Flanagan?

While it was a bit of a nothing moment, it certainly showed Hynes won’t be pushed around after the Cronulla playmaker came up with another wonderful performance to up the ante in the NSW Origin halves debate.

While Jarome Luai was good for the Panthers, there is just no way you could leave Hynes out of the NSW team if he can continue his form heading into the Origin series.

Don’t make Nicho Hynes angry!

HALFBACKS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE

Speaking of big halfbacks, what about the Bulldogs’ new No.7?

I can only remember one bigger halfback in history and that was Sonny Bill Williams when he played the role for the Roosters in 2013 against the Bulldogs.

Williams ran out in the No.12 jumper that day but played the halfback role, finishing with 12 runs for 126m.

Sonny Bill was 191cm, Burton is 190cm. Nicho Hynes is 188cm.

It’s incredible to think of the growth of the playmakers in the modern game when you look back at the likes of Steve Mortimer (173cm), Peter Sterling (178cm), Allan Langer (165) and Geoff Toovey (168).

Burton can’t be rated alongside those blokes just yet.

But he certainly showed Bulldogs fans why it’s the right move playing him at halfback and Kyle Flanagan at six for the time being.

While the Bulldogs were guilty of again shooting themselves in the foot, you can’t question the effort they are putting in, and Burton was their best.

COWBOYS DESPERATION A WELCOME SIGHT

It wasn’t the Cowboys’ prettiest win, but the attitude and effort to get home against the Knights could be the making of their season.

Those final desperate moments defending their tryline really summed up how important this match obviously was to Todd Payten’s team.

The look on Coen Hess’s face when he dived on the loose ball towards the end was priceless. He deadset looked like he’d found a piece of gold, while Valentine Holmes was exceptional with 19 runs for 209m.

While they are still buried down near the bottom of the ladder of three wins, that will be a huge boost ahead of the Cowboys’ next two games against the Sharks and Roosters.

It was also great to see Kalyn Ponga back on the field after returning from his concussion injury. Ponga had some good touches after coming off the bench and he will only get better.

The Knights can be so proud of the way they have played this season. Even in defeat here they were very gutsy.

ROUND 8 DISLIKES

TIME TO COME CLEAN ON TURBO

Manly might have narrowly escaped the embarrassment of becoming Wests Tigers’ first victim of the season.

But let’s not kid ourselves, that was very nearly a full scale disaster for Anthony Seibold.

And who would have ever thought they’d see the day when Tom Trbojevic would be run down from behind by a front rower?

While the champion fullback left the field heading into the final 10 minutes nursing a groin injury with his team trailing, the most concerning incident was early when Turbo was chased down by Tigers prop Stefano Utoikamana.

Utoikamana would have given Trbojevic a good 5 metre start but hunted him down with ease.

That was long before Trbojevic got up holding his groin in a tackle that saw him replaced late in the game.

Tom Trbojevic leaves the field with a groin injury. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty

And just to look back at the stats Turbo only had 11 runs for 118m and 2 tackle busts before he limped from the field.

In comparison Tigers rookie Jahream Bula 21 runs for 145m with 5 tackle busts.

It’s probably time the Sea Eagles came clean and gave fans the full story about what has been holding Turbo back this season, and not just give an injury update on this week’s issue.

Josh Morris even said on the Matty Johns Show last night “it almost looks like he’s running at 70 or 80 per cent”.

And that’s being extremely conservative.

SIMPLE WAY TO STOP HIP DROP CONFUSION

Surely it’s time for the NRL to take away the Bunker’s power to sin bin players for hip drop tackles after seeing what happened with Payne Haas.

Seriously, this is just out of control.

It is as inexcusable as it is embarrassing how Haas escaped the sin bin for his tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard, yet he then gets charged by the match review committee with grade two dangerous contact.

Factor in both Parramatta’s J’maine Hopgood and Brisbane’s Ezra Mam being sin binned on the night.

But while Mam also copped a grade two charge that has rubbed him and Haas out of Friday night’s blockbuster against the Rabbitohs after taking the early guilty plea, Hopgood got a grade one and will escape with a fine?

The issue is on the night as soon as you saw the Hopgood tackle you knew he wasn’t going to be suspended. So why bin him in the first place?

Payne Haas wasn’t sin binned.

But not Haas.

It’s madness.

Haas would have had a genuine case to fight this charge because replays showed Campbell-Gillard got himself in an awkward position with his legs spread wide apart.

You’d think that would have made it incredibly hard to make Haas accountable.

But that doesn’t excuse the fact that the Bunker and match review panel were on different pages here.

And that puts the governing body in a precarious position because how do fans trust a system that the game’s experts on the rules don’t agree on?

And while we would never dare question the integrity of the game’s officials, at the time of the Haas non sin binning it crossed my mind that perhaps the Bunker didn’t want to leave the Broncos’ two men down, given Mam was already in the bin at that point.

Of course, that is ludicrous to suggest because the officials would never think like that.

But when controversial calls like this one go against a team fans have every right to question the process.

CALL WILL MAKE OR BREAK EELS

Brad Arthur is facing a huge selection decision this week relating to what to do with a player who was supposed to be one of club’s key signings this season.

Josh Hodgson’s worrying form was completely overshadowed in the ugly post-match aftermath that surrounded the hip drop controversy, with the non-sin binning of Brisbane’s Payne Haas combined with the nasty injury to Reagan Campbell-Gillard hogging the spotlight.

But almost as concerning from the Eels’ fans perspective was the fact that after a poor start the 33-year-old veteran was replaced in the 31st minute and did not return for the duration of the match.

Instead, Arthur stuck with young gun Brendan Hands, with the Eels clearly playing their best football when the 22-year-old was on the park.

It’s worth pointing out that there was probably two key factors contributing to Hodgson’s reduced game time.

Hodgson of course missed the previous week’s win over the Bulldogs due to the flu, so he could have been struggling in the Darwin conditions.

Josh Hodgson has struggled for Parramatta. Picture: Getty Images

The loss of Campbell-Gillard would have also thrown Arthur’s bench rotation out of whack.

But even if that was the case, there is no hiding from the fact Hodgson has been clearly struggling all season, and it was a big call not getting him back on the field when the game was on the line.

Not only is his dummy half play still a long way from his best, but Hodgson missed some really bad tackles against the Broncos that cost his team dearly.

The big question now is does Arthur stick with Hands for Friday night’s crucial game against the rejuvenated Newcastle Knights and play Hodgson off the bench?

Or does Arthur continue to back the out-of-form Englishman in hope that Hodgson turns the corner sooner rather than later?

Eels coach Brad Arthur. Picture: Getty Images

There is also a school of thought it might take the pressure off Hodgson to give him a spell in NSW Cup so he can work on his game away from the spotlight.

In fairness to Hodgson, everyone expected he would take time to get back to his best this season after returning from his second ACL knee injury.

But that doesn’t help the Eels right now with last year’s grand finalists scoring just three wins from eight games.

When the Eels signed Hodgson to replace Reed Mahoney this year it sparked a lot of debate given Hodgson’s age and injury history.

So far you’d have to Mahoney has been the Eels’ biggest loss, even more so than key forwards Isaiah Papali’i and Marata Niukore.

SHARKS WINGER NEEDS TO GET A GRIP

Ronaldo Mulitalo is one of best try finishers in the game when it comes to his sideline acrobatics.

And we all know how much he loves to celebrate by rubbing it in the faces of his opposition.

But the Sharks winger might need to put more focus on making sure he just gets the ball down than worrying about how he is going to carry on afterwards.

Mulitalo missed another sitter in the win over the Bulldogs when he inexcusably put his hand on the touchline before he grounded the ball.

He had a similar stuff up in round one against the Rabbitohs when he dropped the ball while attempting a spectacular dive and young Lachlan Ilias slapped the ball out of his hands.

Ronaldo Mulitalo during the Warriors game. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty

Ronaldo Mulitalo. Picture: Matt King/Getty

TUALAGI’S LUCKY AFTER BRAIN EXPLOSION

Murray Tualagi was lucky to escape with just a sin bin and a fine for his brain explosion.

You can make up all the excuses in the world that in previous years his late shot on Newcastle’s Dane Gagai probably wouldn’t have been worthy of a sin bin.

But in the current climate it was always going leave his team a man down, and if the Cowboys would have lost on the back of it Tualagi would have had a lot more to answer for.

The NRL match review committee also handed Tualagi a $750 fine for a grade one dangerous contact charge.

The Cowboys worked so hard for each other on the night, but it’s silly moments like this that are letting them down.

Originally published as The Tackle: Paul Crawley takes a look at the big issues across round 8 in the NRL