From The Couch: Round 1, 2017
You Only Get One Peter Doust: Kerry Packer famously quipped that “you only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime”. Ben Hunt no doubt thanks his lucky stars because he will only get one Peter Doust in his life, a CEO so removed from the understanding of the game that he will splash a ridiculous amount of money on a name half who has lost all confidence and probably just isn’t that good. Hunt has not been the same since his infamous Grand Final gaffe. His form against Cronulla on Thursday was horrendous. He will be a disaster for the Dragons and most likely won’t see his final year with the Broncos out in first grade.
Simona Deserves Life: Tim Simona deserves life and anything less from the NRL would be embarrassing for the game. The size of Simona’s bets are irrelevant, as are the fact his former girlfriend gave him up for no other reason than spite. Simona attempted to fix matches by betting on his opposite number to score the first try. It is as black and white as match fixing gets even if he was stupid in thinking he could fix one of the more random markets that has plenty of fat built into it. Simona’s career needs to come to an end this week.
Banning Exotics Ridiculous: While banning Simona is the only option for the NRL, cracking down on exotic bets as they have is just idiotic. The NRL has moved to ban a heap of betting options including betting on NYC matches. This will do nothing other than show the NRL to be short-sighted. The NRL needs to stop micromanaging bookmakers and do more to add transparency – like their teams lists changes – if they want to improve the integrity of the game.
Bring Back Monday Night Football: We have had one Friday 6pm game and it should be the last. What an utterly stupid time to start a game of NRL football. There was nobody at the game. Nobody could get home to see the start of it. As a Bulldogs fan, there could not have been a worse way to start the year. We have yet to endure a Monday night without Rugby League but it will no doubt be a flat night. Time to bring it back and punt the stupid Friday 6pm clash.
Canterbury Attack As Threatening As A Baby in a Cardigan: Melbourne’s defence is the benchmark in the premiership. It has been for well over a decade. But Canterbury’s pathetic attack was more of the same on Friday night, managing just a single try. And this was on the back of the Storm losing Jesse Bromwich in the opening minutes. Canterbury had few issues getting field position but could not cross. When Brenko Lee is the most dangerous outside back your team is in a lot of trouble. This starts with the coach and the hooker. The latter needs to go and the former needs to get more creative.
Panther Pretenders: Punters who backed Penrith into equal premiership favouritism were off their rockers prior to Round 1. Seeing that inept performance would have sent them into a deep despair. Penrith are a team that seem to have bought right in to the hype around the side. This is a talented young side and they won’t be nearly as bad again this year but there are holes all over the paddock and most of them are right next to Bryce Cartwright’s arms. The Panthers aren’t challenging for a title in 2017 – and only a small part of that is based on their horrific Round 1 effort.
Punters Guide Subscription Service: If you don’t mind a punt on Rugby League and enjoy winning, sign up to the Punters Guide Tipping Service. Subscribers won 12.11% on turnover last season and are off to a flyer this year with a seven-unit bet on the Dragons plus part of the nine units bet in Round 1 (with the Tigers plus and the Eels). Email nicktedeschi@hotmail.com if you want details.
2016 Field Goal Update – 0: Not a single field goal was kicked in the opening round of the season – though Johnathan Thurston hit the crossbar and scored a try in golden point, which was nearly as impressive.
Fun Fact #1: There are four players who go by the name of John in the NRL – while there are three players who have been christened Moses.
Fun Fact #2: This season marks 80 years since University were excluded from the premiership – they lost all eight games and scored just 41 points in their final season.
Fun Fact #3: Home underdogs getting a start of 4 or more points in the opening four rounds of the season are 38-7 against the line.
Rumour Mill: Luke Brooks will be at Canterbury next year bar a late change of mind Mitchell Moses style. The Tigers will retain their other three big names. Des Hasler will not be his coach though with Ivan Cleary favoured to take the reins of the Bulldogs in 2018. Kieran Foran is very much shopping himself to Australian clubs despite not playing a game for his new club New Zealand. Gareth Widdop is looking at offers to return to England. The Saints are also set to lose Josh Dugan.
Betting Market of the Week: Jamal Idris will finish the season:
$51: Play for NSW and Australia
$2.50: Turn out to be an average first grader
$1.50: Playing NSW Cup
Robbie Farah’s Anger Levels: Catastrophic – A bitter player like Farah got towelled by his old club and had a general stinker to boot.
What I Like About … Fox League: Everything. Just everything. I’ll never watch Nine again. The commentary is superior. The shows are smarter. The talent is more astute. And it is just 24 hours of Rugby League. The Professor’s new show is one of the funniest things on television. Andrew Voss is a star. It is great to have Yvonne Sampson at a place where she is appreciated. Long live Fox League.
Game of the Year Nomination, Round 1: North Queensland – Canberra, 20-16. Round 1 games are never of this quality, particularly in the heat, and the finish will be hard to match at any time throughout the year. Cracking game with some defensive brilliance.
The Coaching Crosshairs: Des Hasler has lost just a single game with Canterbury but is already under the pump after another insipid attacking display. He has six weeks to get Canterbury’s attack in order or he will be gone. And that attack will not turn around with the makeup of the current roster.
Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Michael Maguire gets the gold, silver and bronze here. His decision to let Greg Inglis play on with a potential ACL tear was absolutely moronic. Leaving Damien Cook on the sidelines until the game was well and truly gone was silly. And keeping Robbie Rochow and Tom Burgess on the bench and dropping George Burgess while starting Dave Tyrell and Zane Musgrove gave all the indications that Michael Maguire has indeed flown over the cuckoo’s nest. Maguire may well have cost Inglis his season.
Beard Watch: Damien Cook has long been a favourite of this column – and has only increased his appeal with one of the great porn moustaches of all-time.
Watch It: There is always plenty of excitement when the new season comes around because you just aren’t sure how the game will be tweaked. So it was great to see the Bulldogs and Storm come out firing and bringing back the biff. Watch it here.
2017 has begun where 2016 left us. Canterbury is still a mess and (I didn’t think this was possible) they are worse than last year!
This is Hasler’s team, he built the squad and lets face the facts – they are so out of touch with the modern game it is ridiculous. The team is slow, after 2 games they look a step behind the competition in terms of fitness and they have no structure at all to their football. At least last year they had a structure even though it was 5 years out of date.
To have a first grade squad these days without a half decent goal kicker is a cardinal sin. To have a first grade team where your spine consists of a centre playing fullback, two average 5/8’s running the halves and a hooker who is not first grade standard is pathetic and when your most creative player is a 120kg prop who comes of the bench and plays 30 minutes game time it pretty much sums up the situation.
The buck stops squarely with Hasler, he should’ve seen this train wreck coming at the end of 2014 season and had recruited for the modern game. He has lost touch of what it takes to be a successful NRL coach and has no idea how to build a club for sustained success (aka Bellamy / Melbourne)
The only positive I am taking out of 2017 is that with every loss he and the dead wood Canterbury are carrying are getting closer to the exit door. In 3 years time there should only be 2-3 players that played last night against the roosters still playing for Canterbury.
Not a massive fan of the Ben Hunt deal, and not solely on dollars, but I think there is a significant shift in what players can demand and receive going on at the moment. No mention of Paul Vaughan or Nene McDonald’s dollars this week. Hunt might be behind half a dozen half/five-eighths in Qld selections, for example, by the time they need to choose a new pairing. That can be good and bad for the club. Also I thought “you only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime” was null and void when Packer handed the AFL and Channel Seven a massive leg up before passing.
Yes, great to have you (and the footy of course) back.
Amazing stat on the home underdogs in Round 4 or earlier. How far back does that stat run? As far as I can tell, it is since 2007….?
Friday 6pm may end up being a terrible call (or every game in Auckland or teams taking home games to NZ) but where to if it has to be scrapped? Players don’t want 5 days of footy a week, 9 doesn’t want two games on Friday….something has to give?
While humour is largely subjective, have to disagree completely on the Professor. His Saturday night show was woeful.
Fox’s commentary superior? You are kidding. I’ll give you the combination of Smith and Alexander, and probably Anasta, but Caine, Russell, Ennis, Roach, Parker, Smith and especially Gasnier are all woeful.
The only thing worse than Fox’s commentators are Triple M’s
as long as its not ray hadley im happy!
Great to have you back, mate! I agree that Ben Hunt’s 2016 didn’t live up to the lofty standards of 2015, and his confidence certainly seems dented from his Grand Final drop. That said, he’s still in the top 5 halfbacks in the game and he was still a front runner in most of the key metrics that we judge halves on, particularly try assists and line break assists, not to mention his ability to tackle. As a Broncos fan, the biggest frustration is his 5th tackle kicking choices. Milford isn’t much of a long kicker, so it puts a lot of pressure on Hunt to come up with that play, particularly when he’s caught out of position on tackle four, as was the case a few times against the Sharks last week. Time will tell whether the Dragons have paid too much, but demand for decent halfbacks certainly outweighs the supply. I know I’ll be sorry to see him leave the club. It’ll be interesting to see how Bennett handles Hunt, Nikorima and Benji later on in the season.
For all of the hype about the Fox League channel I think that it’s absolutely ridiculous that Andrew Voss isn’t hosting or featuring on any of their panel shows.
agreed!
The gov’t banned smoking advertisements but allow time slots and social media to be flooded with gambling ads.
I have never had a bet on rugby, wouldn’t even know how too. However, a total ban isn’t required but surely curb the advertising. Every time I click a link on something I have to watch a 15 second ad and it gives me the shits!
Maybe put the advertising dollars aside and see if NRL is reliant on it. If not, tell them to piss off and stop them from showing their markets all through out the game.
If you’re serious about improving the integrity of the game ban betting completely. Gambling agency parasites shouldnt be anywhere near the great game. It’s a disease of no benefit to society and destroys families, unfortunately the ones most affected are the ones who can least afford it.
I’m not sure how you expect the NRL to ban betting. The NRL doesn’t have the power to pass gambling laws. The government could ban it but that would drive it underground and make it even more difficult protect the integrity of the game. Plus you would still have overseas bookmakers.
Welcome back mate. Like all past and future off seasons, it has been long. Keep up the pressure on the insane, mundane and those without a brain who seem to be ingrained in our great game.