What Does Cameron Ciraldo see in Jaeman Salmon? Canterbury’s story in 2024 has been nothing short of a fairytale. After a disastrous opening year where the Bulldogs defence was humiliating and coach Cameron Ciraldo made some questionable selection decisions, Canterbury have stunned in 2024 by sitting fifth on the ladder and putting together the second best defence. Ciraldo has generally pulled the right rein, moving on quickly from Taafe for Tracey at fullback and eventually seeing the light with Toby Sexton over Drew Hutchison at seven. The club has recruited astutely, Ciraldo has done a nice job with the lock position rotating Kurt Mann and Bailey Hayward and he has got the best out of Reed Mahoney. There is just one glaring blindspot and both suspension and injury will force Ciraldo’s hand but it is stunning that after seeing his mind-bogglingly bad play for 18 rounds that Jaeman Salmon continues to be picked to start for the Bulldogs and play big minutes. Salmon has been horrific. He does very little well. He plays reckless. He is a poor decision-maker. He misses a lot of tackles. He makes a lot of errors. He concedes dumb penalties at the worst times. On the latter, he should have cost Canterbury the game against the Warriors when he needlessly hit Te Maire Martin late as he passed with the levels locked at 12-all. How it wasn’t given a penalty is an indictment on the Bunker. He ranks 9th in missed tackles and 25th in penalties conceded while he has offered very little in terms of positive numbers. Canterbury have numerous better options including the coach himself playing on an edge. Hopefully this jaw injury will allow Ciraldo to quietly move on from him.
Jared The Warrior: Sunday at Allianz Stadium was one to behold, truly one of the moments of the season when the Sydney Roosters, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1974 premiership, paid tribute to one of the foundation club’s finest servants when Jared Waerea-Hargreaves became the most capped player at a club playing its 116th season. JWH has long been a polarising figure outside of Bondi Junction, his rugged style overstepping the lines of both legality and decency many times, but across the game he is revered for his warrior-esque toughness. That was on display for all on Sunday when he was sent to the sin bin, returned and then left with his face covered in more blood than Roddy Piper after his dog collar match with Greg Valentine. It would be a lie to call JWH likeable – though to Roosters fans he surely is. It is hard to have anything but the most enduring respect for him though given where he plays, how he plays the game and how long he has done it for. Why he was not given that final kick though should be a great shame on the Tricolours – that is the view of unders punters everywhere!
Singin’ The Trell Blues: New South Wales coach Michael Maguire has likely spent the weekend over the brasco when news came down that Latrell Mitchell would miss Origin III. His absence cannot be underestimated. It is more than his bursts of brilliance on the field. It is his aggression, his leadership and his refusal to fold to this notion of Queensland’s inherent superiority. There are three potential replacements and one would be utterly moronic. Joseph Suaalii should be behind Ethan King, Mat Croker and the statue of Michael Weyman should all be ahead of him considering where he has signed next year and his showing in the opener. The only real choice is to either take a chance on Tom Trbojevic’s health or roll with the in-form Bradman Best.
Rugby Union Has No Place on Rugby League Fields: Once upon a time, when Vince McMahon was trying to rule the wrestling world and there were competitors in the NWA and the AWA and then WCW, he would threaten both pay-per-view providers and arenas with a very simple question: us or them. He would withhold his incredibly popular content if PPV providers or arenas got greedy and showed his competitors. They nearly always went with the WWF. The NRL should be doing the same, threatening any ground that the great game uses that if they want to schedule hideous union matches, nothing but an orgy of rules and red do-rags and scrimmaging and tight knitwear around necks, then the NRL will use other venues. The state of Allianz Stadium on Sunday was an utter disgrace and the SCG Trust should be ashamed of themselves. Like every other issue in NSW these days, the only solution is for PVL to start throwing out some threats.
Remembering Geoff Robinson: Rugby League and Canterbury lost one of the most popular figures in the game’s history this week when Geoff Robinson passed away at just 66. There is almost no figure in the history of the game who has held the cult-hero status that wildman Geoff Robinson had and has today. No player personified the game of the late 70s and early 80s more than Robinson with his long mane and bushranger beard and his fearless running. His disregard for personal safety, his willingness to go where others would not and his Bruiser Brody like charisma were genuinely beloved. Robinson won two titles with the Bulldogs and enjoyed great success as a coach in the lower grades. He bled blue and white and his loss is felt by everyone who loves the game.
A Backdoor for the Ages: Anyone who took the Tigers +12.5 early can never complain about a losing bet again – or for at least a week – when the Tigers scored in the death and converted to lose by 12 in the final minute. The Tigers in no way deserved to cover. They played stupid. They played without brains. Some of the rotations were awful – why is Heath Mason ever on a field!. But a late bit of luck after recovering a short kick saw Jahream Bula and those took the early plus believing rumours that Pap and Fa’alogo would be ruled out left relieved.
2024 Field Goal Update – 21: It was a terrific weekend for the field goal with three landed and about a dozen more missed. Matt Burton banked another golden point winner off the post, Scott Drinkwater drilled a sublime two-pointer to level the scores against Manly and then the greatest field goal kicker of the NRL era in Daly Cherry-Evans slotted the winner, giving him 28 career drop goals. Praise also needs to go to two heroic field goal blocks with Reed Mahoney and Jake Trbojevic, who both deflected shots at full stretch thar saved the games for Canterbury and Manly respectively.
- Fun Fact #1: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was sent to the sin bin in his record-breaking 308th game.
- Fun Fact #2: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has missed nearly an entire season through suspension.
- Fun Fact #3: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has remarkably only been sent from the field once in an NRL match – against Manly in 2013.
- Willie M Team of the Week: This week’s team of clowns, chumps and clutzes:
1.Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (NZ) 2.Jake Tago (Par) 3.Valentine Holmes (NQ)
4.Will Penisini (Par) 5.Ronaldo Mulitalo (Cro) 6.Will Pryce (New) 7.Nicho Hynes (Cro) 8.David Klemmer (Tig) 9.Blake Brailey (Cro) 10.Reagan Campbell-Gillard (Par) 11.Jaeman Salmon (Bul) 12.Bryce Cartwright (Par) 13.Shaun Lane (Par) ———————— 14.Heath Mason (Tig)
15.Jack Williams (Cro) 16.Griffin Neame (NQ) 17.Teig Wilton (Cro) ————————– Coach: Craig Fitzgibbon (Cro)
Betting Market of the Week: After Ziggy endured another rough night in the middle when he handed the Sharks a four-tackle set among many other nonsensical calls, his future is:
$101: Immediate dismissal
$3.00: Ascendancy to Origin $1.50: Future NRL Head of Football
Rumour Mill: Former Eels coach Brad Arthur is expected to be named the next head coach of Leeds. Taylan May will also be off to Super League after reaching a settlement with the Panthers, allowing him to be released. The pressure is building on Graham Anneseley to step down or make changes with a number of CEOs expressing their dissatisfaction with his performance in recent weeks to his face.
Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Anthony Seibold’s decision to play Tom Trbojevic in the centres rather than at fullback will sit in the all-time echelon of completely idiotic decisions made by coaches that cost their teams. Trbojevic is one of the most talented handful of players in the competition and can have the most impact at fullback yet he was presumably put in the centres to reduce his chance of injury, a presumption that is absolute rot. The Sea Eagles got away with the win in Townsville but it was in spite of playing Turbo in the centres, not because of it.
The Coaching Crosshairs: Parramatta are believed to have ended their long, drawn-out, bogus adventure to find their next coach with Josh Hannay set to be announced soon. A search that quickly ignored any non-conventional coaching path yet entertained both arguably the worst coach in premiership history (inclusive of Alan Jones) Trent Barrett and a candidate that has been driving Ubers in Brian Smith is mercifully about to be put out of its misery. Josh Hannay is hardly the most inspiring option but given the final three candidates the process spat out, he was unquestionably the right call.
Watch It: One of the most iconic moments in the great Bulldogs-Eels rivalry was Geoff Robinson smashing the infamous Parramatta wall by propelling himself like a guided missile
into it, smashing not only the wall into pieces but ending the idea of it once and for all. Watch the great man discuss it here with Terry Lamb.