From The Couch: Round 16

From The Couch: Round 16

The Sad and Sorry Seibold Saga Ends: The sad and sorry Anthony Seibold saga at Brisbane ended just the way everyone expected … in a mist of excuses, poor PR strategy, disingenuity and confusion. It was a humiliating and confronting day for a club that is in dire straits. Seibold was a dead-man walking. Everyone including probably himself knew it. Yet this was couched as some kind of Seibold decision – despite the huge payout – based around family. The mention of the disabled boy in his farewell statement was cringeworthy. It was as bad as Paul White’s fumbling and bumbling and refusal to take any kind of blame for the need to give well over a million bucks to a coach that had to go less than two years into a six-year deal on the back of nosediving the Broncos into the worst state the club has ever been in. Anthony Seibold may know the x’s and o’s of Rugby League but the coaching is about more than that and he could not handle communication with his team, roster management or an ability to deal with the media. The refusal of anyone to own this catastrophe should worry all supporters of the club. They clearly are not prepared to accept fault and it will have ramifications for a long time. 

Parramatta Are No Good: The Parramatta Eels are getting well and truly found out now as it becomes wildly apparent that a team built around Mitchell Moses is actually not that good. The foundations of the Eels’ early-season success was nothing but sand. The Eels have had very few injuries this season, losing just 11 games from their best 13. They don’t have a single spine player with an Origin jersey. Their representative winger doesn’t have a single try. It is all about to come crumbling down for the Eels.  

Blake Green Signing Says It All: Don’t mind the fact that Blake Green has done his ACL and will miss a good portion of next season. He is a terrible signing. Strong tip: a half who has played at nine clubs is not that valuable. At 34, he brings nothing to the Bulldogs other than a body. He has had very little team success over the course of his career. Whoever thought signing him was a good idea should not only be sacked from Canterbury but taken out behind the Belmore sheds and publicly whipped. 

Ranking The Wingers: Ranking the Top 20 wingers in 2020:

Brett Morris
Josh Addo-Carr
Maika Sivo
Daniel Tupou
David Nofoaluma
Alex Johnston
Nick Cotric
Brent Naden
Sione Katoa
Josh Mansour
Ken Maumalo
Brian To’o
Jordan Pereira
Hymel Hunt
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow
Jordan Rapana
Mikaele Ravalawa
Ronaldo Mulitalo
Dane Gagai
Anthony Don

Another Officiating Masterclass: To the surprise of nobody, Henry Perenara and The Bunker managed to combine for one of the great clusterfucks of the season when denying Brian Kelly and the Titans the opening try. The touch judge rightly ruled that the Dragons player dropped the ball in the field of play with Kelly tapping down. Denied because Henry is an idiot and The Bunker is filled with belligerent fools.

The Art of Class War: Anyone who has not read Lech Blaine’s outstanding piece on Peter V’Landys in The Monthly needs to do so immediately. There has been no better assessment of PVL’s ability to win the trust of Rugby League fans while skewering the like of Peter Fitzsimons, Melbourne, elitists and general idiots. Read it here in the Melbourne elitist magazine. 

2020 Field Goal Update – 14: Has the field goal been made illegal? Another week and no more field goals. It is sickening. 

Fun Fact #1: Only five teams have won a premiership in the season that encapsulated the club’s longest winning streak. 

Fun Fact #2: Steve, Brett and Josh Morris have a combined 432 premiership tries. 

Fun Fact #3: Only four pre-World War II players scored 100-plus tries: Frank Burge, Benny Wearing, Sid Goodwin and Jack Lindwall. 

Betting Market of the Week: The chances that the Blake Green signing works out for Canterbury:

$1.00: No
$501.00: Yes

Rumour Mill: Cameron Smith is expected to make a decision on his future next week and a move to a Queensland club has been strongly rumoured. Anthony Seibold is expected to join the Knights staff in 2021 as a replacement for David Furner, who will join Trent Barrett’s staff at the Bulldogs. Jacob Saab has been linked with a move to the Wests Tigers. Wayne Bennett has been linked to a return to the Broncos for a third stint in charge but there is not a lot of substance to them. 

Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Newcastle have suffered plenty of injuries in key positions this year but playing Kurt Mann at hooker seems the height of stupidity from Adam O’Brien. Mann is a plodder. His slow disposal gave the Knights little chance against the Warriors. It is particularly concerning with Chris Randall available. The Knights are now out of the hunt for the Top 4. 

The Coaching Crosshairs: The three clubs without a coach are all zeroing in on their hirings. The Cowboys will almost certainly announce Todd Payten as their next coach. The Dragons are attempting to put an attractive enough offer to Craig Fitzgibbon to prize him from the Roosters. And the Broncos will put on a big song and dance and will flirt with a Wayne Bennett return but the club is weak and will hire Kevin Walters if the hiring is done before Ben Ikin is appointed CEO. 

Beard Watch: Not many players debut with such a full and fine beard as Storm winger Isaac Lumelume. It was and is magnificent.

Watch It: The most infamous missed kick in English Rugby League was that of Don Fox in the 1968 Challenge Cup final. Wakefield Trinity scored under the posts on full-time and trailed 11-10 with the kick to come. Fox could have thrown it over. He sliced it though and Wakefield Trinity have not won a Challenge Cup or any major title since. Watch it here.