Kev Axed as Broncos Make Smart Call: Despite the growing campaign orchestrated by News Corp pals of Kevin Walters, the Broncos dumped their coach after an awful year that saw the Broncos miss the Top 8. Few expected the Broncos to have the gumption that they have shown – even though it was under the smother of a review – to dump Walters when they did even though it was inevitable that he would be gone. Walters was gifted the Broncos job when arguably less qualified that his main contender and his performance over four years was sub-par and underwhelming. The Broncos did reach the Grand Final in 2023 but that was the exception rather than the rule with Walters astonishingly being given three missed finals – something only Wayne Bennett managed to get away with in the fledgling days of the club. He struggled with recruitment as quality players did not trust he would improve them. He was a poor development coach. He constantly misused his bench. It was clear players had little faith in him. That is now two major strikes against Karl Morris. He messes this up – and it looks like he will – the club has to get rid of him too.
The Butler Did It: These pages all season have railed against Chris Butler and his indescribably bad decisions that go on and on every week. In Round 2, this was written:
“The new Henry Perenara of the NRL is undoubtedly Chris Butler, an official who is regularly picked despite being seemingly confused at every turn.
He was somehow handed the keys to the Storm-Warriors game and made a goose of himself plenty of times, highlighted by a penalty that he awarded almost a full Haley’s Comet sighting after the infringement referred to.
The most egregious of his involvements though was when he backed into Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes, stumbling and instigating a potential suspension for the star Storm No.7.
Positional play is incredibly important, Recognising an accident is also important and it is clownish that Hughes may miss this week.”
Incredibly, the geniuses in charge of refereeing appointments Jared Maxwell and Graham Anneseley (even though the latter will deny it), appointed Butler to The Bunker for a preliminary final. You read that correctly. Of all the people in the world, Butler was one of two referees charged with running The Bunker on the second biggest weekend of the season.
To the surprise of nobody outside of the NRL, Butler not only delivered an all-time howler, in doing so he expressly confused the inside shoulder of Siosifa Talakai, subsequently disallowing a clear and obvious try to Penrith.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary was appalled after the game, levelling Butler by name and declaring he would be anxious and concerned if he was given the Grand Final. He called the decision ridiculous and wrong and used his pulpit to rally against these totally unacceptable errors from The Bunker.
If Butler is defended or appointed to the Grand Final, the state of those in charge of officials are worse of than most think and most think those in charge are a bunch of blind circus clowns.
Gee Up: Only 12 months ago, the NRL received universal praise for the way Adam Gee handled last year’s decider. Last weekend the world watched two utterly damning officiating performances that surely ruled both Grant Atkins and Ashley Klein out of the decider. Both made appalling errors in their respective prelims. The NRL needs to swallow its pride and the load of poppycock they have swallowed that determined Adam Gee was not one of the game’s four best officials, get on the phone to him and appoint him to the decider.
Rugby League’s Greatest Songs: Following on from last week’s tremendous piece on the Neds blog listing the greatest AFL songs ever, here are the greatest league songs ever.
15.Rebel Yell (Billy Idol) – The greatest NRL halftime screw-up since the exploding Optus television. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWkZaB6RrIQ
14.Let Me Entertain You (Robbie Williams) – Bland anthem that was used during a dire time in the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqNbLSmdA6o
13.Tubthumping (Chumbawamba) – Rousing song that was a mark of its time and a train the NRL were quick to jump on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ7-Rhpd8Oc
12.Duffy’s Song (The Whitlams) – Tune about fictional Rugby League player Brent Duffy, who defecated on the field during a match, from the show Love Is A Four Letter Word. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLu_q6k0qI0
11.Something’s Got A Hold On Me (Jess Mauboy) – Our Jess is as Rugby League as bad journalism, complaining about refs an the smell of an off-season atrocity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fj-9juBbCY
10.The Rugby League Song (Danny McMaster) – Beautiful little ditty paying homage to the greatest game of all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrYXn-TLv8M
9.Two Tribes (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) – Super League theme that is linked to that time to this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO1HC8pHZw0
8.Shock The World (The Wiggles) – Arguably the only song written about Rugby League in the United States written by an iconic children’s band written about in The New York Times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUu-Ny25KGI
7.Friday On My Mind (The EasyBeats) – Perhaps Australia’s greatest ever song used to promote Friday Night Football on Ten. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyQNsN4npdQ
6.That’s My Team (Hoodoo Gurus) – Legendary Aussie band The Hoodoo Gurus reworked their classic ‘What’s My Scene’ to create one of the few NRL promo successes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejT7_V9VFUc
5.The Day John Sattler Broke His Jaw (Perry Keyes/Black Stump) – Cracking tune that captures a time and a place and the essence of the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6JjWWBdbqs
4.The Olympic Spirit (John Williams) – Infuriating song to remember but the iconic walk-on song for teams in Grand Finals and big final matches in the late 1980s and early 1990s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4QQ2SvQcE8
3.That’s In Queensland (Denis Carnahan) – Hysterical song by Australia’s finest Rugby League musician Denis Carnahan showcasing all the places outside of Queensland the Queensland Origin team has picked their players from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFi2mT9G65A
2.Simply The Best (Tina Turner) – The most famous Rugby League tune of all from the greatest marketing campaign a league has ever run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXIzp0ok24I
1.What You Get Is What You See (Tina Turner) – The song that started it all with Tina and one that remains criminally underrated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXIzp0ok24I
Newtown Run Backwards Into Immortality: Congratulations to the Newtown Jets, who claimed the NSW Cup premiership with a 28-22 win over North Sydney. It was a super win for the foundation club and capped with a super backwards run that brought back memories of Tony Iro’s famous backwards run that sealed the first Adelaide Rams win.
Press Conference of the Year Winner: Ivan Cleary, preliminary final. Cleary tore shreds off the NRL and the officiating. And he did so without a history of doing so and doing it from a winning position. He was pointed. He was blunt. And he expressed what every fan thinks.
2024 Field Goal Update – 27: No NRL field goals this week but we did see Tarryn Aiken drop one in the Roosters’ prelim final win over Newcastle.
Fun Fact #1: Joe Thomas almost missed the 1988 Grand Final with gout.
Fun Fact #2: The last man sent off in a decider was also one of just five players to play for three different clubs in a Grand Final – Phil Sigsworth.
Fun Fact #3: Just 12 referees have officiated a single Grand Final in history – and just four in the last 50 years – John Gocher, Eddie Ward, Paul Simpkins and Adam Gee.
Fun Fact #4: The clown who said on AFL360 that Sydney would be an AFL town has stepped down from his role – broadcasters obviously embarrassed by such ridiculousness.
Betting Market of the Week: Kevin Walters will be a head coach again:
$101: Yes – at another NRL club
$1.10: No – no NRL club will touch him
$2.50: Yes – he is in line to be the next referees coach
Rumour Mill: Ben Hunt has been linked with a move to the Bulldogs. Michael Ennis and Trent Barrett are the two likely favourites to coach the NSW Blues. The Dragons were reportedly laughed off the phone when offering Mikaele Ravalawa in a swap deal with Josh Addo-Carr.
The Coaching Crosshairs: Michael Maguire will be appointed to replace Kevin Walters at the Broncos, an interesting and likely extremely poor choice. There is no doubt that Walters had to go but the rush to sign Maguire is nothing short of malpractice. Maguire has done a super job at both New Zealand and New South Wales but rep coaching has about as much in common with club coaching as common sense does with Bunker officials. The rah-rah and “do it for the Gipper” speeches work in short runs – it is not a trick that works for entire seasons. Maguire is not beloved by Adam Reynolds, his job at the Tigers and at the backend of his Rabbitohs run was poor and tactically he has not evolved with the game. Karl Morris has done it again with another idiotic hire.
Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Craig Fitzgibbon is an outstanding young coach but he left the clearly red-lining Siosifa Talakai on the field way too long in Cronulla’s tough prelim loss to Penrith.
Watch It: One of the more underrated finals when it comes to controversy was the 1994 preliminary final between Canberra and North Sydney at the SFS. John Lomax and Gary Larson were both sent off and the Bears’ ambition to return to the Grand Final would go unfulfilled. Watch it here.