Anneseley Has To Go: It should come as no surprise that three of the four controversial Bunker decisions over the weekend included Chris Butler and Kasey Badger having zero idea. Butler was utterly off his nut in awarding a try to the Panthers and disallowing one to the Roosters for two extraordinarily similar incidents of obstruction. Badger’s call was so bad that the callers were in disbelief. Both have been defended for adhering to a “black-and-white interpretation” of the obstruction rule but both showed discretion and that discretion was in not using their brain. Butler, in particular, to give two different decisions says all one needs to about him. The fact NRL Head of Football Graham Annesley is coming out mid round and calling one of Butler’s calls wrong and the other right says it all. The fish is rotting from the head. This black and white obstruction rule has Annesley’s prints all over it. Fans accept mistakes. They cannot accept the fabric of the game being eroded by these dunces, who are never held accountable. Butler and Badger have both been slammed for poor decisions in the opening three weeks but both were back in the bunker in Round 4, Butler remarkably getting two matches. There is confusion in interpretations, there is zero accountability and there is no leadership. Annesley needs to go. Fresh leadership is required. It is that simple.
Jason Taumalolo Has Fallen Off A Cliff: Todd Payten characterised the low minutes Jason Taumalolo has been playing as managing the big prop’s body but it is apparent to anyone who has watched the Cowboys this year that Jason Taumalolo is gone with his performances falling off the edge of a cliff. This season he has been restricted to 21 minutes or fewer twice. He has four tackle breaks and zero offloads in four games. He has topped 100 metres just once and is averaging just over nine metres a run.
Types of Officials: There are four types of NRL referees. Four types and only four. There are the competent and relatively ego-less who call what is in front of them. These are few and far between and only Adam Gee and Todd Smith fit into this category. There are the referees who are competent but have such an ego that their want to be smarter than everyone else has a hugely negative impact on games: see Gerard Sutton and Ashley Klein. Then there is the bumbling fool category, captained and coached by Chris Butler. And below that is the bumbling fool category crossed with a delusional belief of intelligence – Kasey Badger. The NRL needs to start finding a lot more of the top category or we are all in a lot of strife.
We Need a Competition Full of Tom Deardens: There is not a single player in the NRL who tries harder and gets more out of his body than Tom Dearden. His chase and cover tackle on speedster Selwyn Cobbo was absolutely elite, one of the moments of the season.
All 17 Club’s Fanbases, Ranked: We look at who shows up, the mentality of the fans, the atmosphere of home game, their behaviour on social media and their general assistance in helping their team along.
- 1. Broncos – Leading attendance, leading membership
- 2. Knights – No matter how battered and bruised the side is
- 3. Warriors – Turning NZ into a league-first nation, elite home atmosphere
- 4. Cowboys – Super job in a small market with fans coming from far and wide
- 5. Dolphins – Astonishing home crowd figures in debut year
- 6. Storm – Big membership numbers and do a great job – bar cowbell lady – in an outpost
- 7. Eels – Biggest membership base in Sydney but not much passion to drive change
- 8. Roosters – Criticised for being few in number but have a third highest home average
- 9. Rabbitohs – Lean on history but not a base to look inwards at issues. Very vocal.
- 10. Raiders – Pleasant. Inoffensive. Hate the cold. Love to clap
- 11. Bulldogs – Historically poor reputation and those drums are annoying
- 12. Panthers – Arguably the worst winners in the history of the premiership
- 13. Sharks – No members, fans don’t go often, ScoMo was one of them
- 14. Sea Eagles – Bitter, argumentative and not ones to show up
- 15. Tigers – No club’s fans whinge more and are more prickly than the Tigers
- 16. Dragons – Hopelessly delusional and totally fairweather
- 17. Titans – Do any fans exist?
Betting Close Calls: This week’s close betting calls and there were a few:
● The Roosters opened up either +5.5 or +6.5 against Penrith before Cleary was ruled out and early grubs either just collected or just missed out when they got the best of it by near two converted tries.
● Canterbury went out 6.5-point underdogs against Souths and looked to have blown the cover when trailing by six and giving a moronic dropout penalty that let Souths extend the lead to eight but a late bit of Stephen Crichton magic that sent Connor Tracey over for the cover.
● A late flurry of tries put the total in play when the Titans hosted the Dolphins but Tanah Boyd’s missed conversion with six minutes remaining allowed the under 45.5 to hit with a final of 44.
● Late Warriors minus bettors were killed when Kalyn Ponga landed the conversion to a Bradman Best try in the final five minutes with New Zealand jumping -8.5 but winning by just eight – their second straight win and missed cover by a ½ point
● Cronulla put 30 straight points on Canberra and did it for lair punters on full time when Nicho Hynes kicked a conversion from the sideline to send the margin to 14 and 13+ punters into raptures.
2024 Field Goal Update – 4: That is now two straight rounds where there has not been a field goal kicked in what was nothing short of soul-crushing.
Fun Fact #1: Alex Johnston is 24 tries behind Ken Irvine’s “unbreakable” record for most premiership tries – he tore his hamstring against Canterbury.
Fun Fact #2: Daryl Halligan has won one Dally M Winger of the Year award (1994) – while Ken Nagas and Maika Sivo never won the honour.
Fun Fact #3: Sam Walker is the only one of the last six Dally M Rookie of the Year winners to not play international football.
Willie M Team of the Week – Round 4: This week’s team of Nigels, Nevilles and nonces:
1.Will Kennedy (Cro) 2.Xavier Savage (Can) 3.Valentine Holmes (NQ) 4.Brian Kelly (GC) 5.Jaxson Paulo (Man) 6.Kieran Foran (GC)
7.Tanah Boyd (GC) 8.Daniel Saifiti (New) 9.Lachlan Croker (Man) 10.Jason Taumalolo (NQ) 11.Ben Trbojevic (Man) 12.Beau Fermor (GC) 13.Jaeman Salmon (Bul) ———————————– 14.Kurtis Morrin (Bul) 15.Erin Clark (GC) 16.Sam McIntyre (NQ) 17.Corey Horsburgh (Can) —————————————- Coach: Anthony Seibold (Man)
Betting Market of the Week: Will Luke Metcalf and Billy Smith ever both play 20 games or more in a season?
$6.00: Yes $1.12: No
Rumour Mill: The injury to Jai Arrow is reportedly much worse than first expected with Arrow now likely to miss the season. The Sea Eagles and Dragons are in negotiations over a player swap that would send Zac Lomax to the Sea Eagles and Josh Schuster to the Dragons. Parramatta have reportedly reached out to Mitchell Pearce about making a return to the NRL.
Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Enough is enough with Cameron Ciraldo. The act is over. He is clearly not up to first grade coaching. He is obviously a very good assistant but the Peter Principle suggests that was his level. His refusal to make changes to the Bulldogs flat out cost Canterbury a win against a legless South Sydney. Stephen Crichton is the Bulldogs’ best and most highly paid player yet cannot get his hands on the ball enough because he is stuck in the centres. Blake Taafe ranks Top 10 in errors yet seems to have a mortgage on the No.1 jersey. Drew Hutchison has 1 try assists and 14 missed tackles in a month of action yet just keeps getting picked. Jaeman Salmon has not run a proper line all season yet is played ahead of Curran. The Bulldogs have zero shape, playing as horizontally as any team with line runners constantly confused by the simplest of plays that usually just involve a prop being used as a halfback which, in fairness, is not that different to having Drew Hutchison play halfback. Sharp coaches make quick adjustments. Ciraldo has been sticking with the same moron ideas for a month, just as he did last year. He might be too smart to be dumb but he is too dumb to be smart. Hiring Jason Taylor to run the attack is testament to that. Being a stooge is not an adequate reason to remain in the job. He has been handed enough talent to be better than he is. The time has come. The Bulldogs need to go to Wayne Bennett, get on their hands and knees, open both their wallet and their mouth and pay and tell Wayne exactly what he wants to hear. If Gould can’t do that, the board needs to move him on too.
The Coaching Crosshairs: It is highly unlikely that the Titans will move away from Des Hasler anytime soon but the focus is starting to get sharp on him and if the game has passed him by. There is no doubt Hasler has an outstanding record but he has just a 58-66 record over his last six seasons in charge including a 9-18 record across his final year at Manly and the start of his Titans tenure. The players are clearly not playing for him and at no point in his career has he been known for being a strong tactical coach, particularly in attack. The pressure is going to mount soon.
Watch It: Let’s go back 31 years and watch the 1993 season preview from the ABC that features Warren Boland pontificating if Alan Jones will succeed in league, spending a lot of time focusing on a horrid Balmain. There was lots of Marty Bella chat and Luke Goodwin being mentioned before Jim Dymock. He was bang on about the Broncos returning and he nailed the Dragons. The Knights were not “right up there”and Wests were not “a tough nut to crack”. Manly were not “fragile” and so much more. Worst call was the Titans to be competitive, when they managed just a single win. Watch it here.