From The Couch: Round 9

Zero Care Factor in Newcastle: Newcastle may have ended a long try-less drought in Townsville but their lack of effort or care in the humiliating loss to the Cowboys should stand long in the minds of Knights fans. There has not been a game this year where more tries could have been saved with just a small modicum of effort. Tiny Tom Dearden had three defenders on him yet overpowered his way to the line. Murray Taulagi scored a try off a miskick that saw some lazy chasing from David Klemmer among others. Helium Luki scored catching a bomb uncontested while Lachlan Fitzgibbon stood there looking. It was embarrassing. 

Cody Walker Needs Help: The departure of Adam Reynolds was always going to have a negative effect on Cody Walker but few could have seen how large. Walker has been dreadful for much of the season because he is getting no help at all from his halfback. Walker needs an organiser to allow him to play his natural running/creating game. At the moment the Rabbitohs are without an organising half and have now lost their creative half as he tries to organise. It would be stunning if Lachlan Ilias or Blake Taafe are long-term first graders and neither complement Walker well. If Souths are to save their season they need to find an organising half and now. 

Kennedy Had To Go: Will Kennedy may be a fair player but he had to be sent off and young referee Todd Smith did the right thing in giving him his marching orders. It was an old fashioned coat-hanger. It has been a sendoff for most of the history of the game. There was nothing deliberate in it but it was reckless and nearly decapitated Reece Walsh. Strong officiating. 

Utter Absurdity with Penalty Try: There is nothing more frustrating than the random implementation of rules by officials or the stretching of an accepted interpretation. The decision of Gerard Sutton and Ashley Klein – surprise, surprise these two were at the centre of it – to contrive a penalty try for Reed Mahoney on Friday night was completely absurd. Mahoney was no question held back. The Eels should have been awarded a penalty. There is a case that the defender should have been sent to the sin bin. There was no case for a penalty try and if there is we should be seeing 6-10 penalty tries per game going forward. The logic is ridiculous. Any high tackle close to the line theoretically stopped a try – penalty try. Offside on your own line – illegal action that stopped a try, penalty try. Mahoney should not have been awarded a penalty try because Dylan Edwards was still in front of him and the defender holding Mahoney theoretically could have made a tackle if a foul didn’t exist – the same logic that stops high tackles a metre out not being a penalty try.  

Good Luck, Gold Coast: The Gold Coast Titans have been heavily criticised for their recruitment the last few years, notably paying $1.2m per season for David Fifita. However that is working out, it is nothing compared to the lack of return the club will get from having a 32yo Kieran Foran join the club next season for the next two years. Foran was busted when he joined the Bulldogs in 2018. His performances away from Des Hasler have been abhorrent. This is going to be an unmitigated disaster for the Titans. 

Dufty a Disaster: I was thrilled when Canterbury signed Matt Dufty. Nine weeks in and I cannot wait for him to go. He has been a disaster. He has tremendous speed but his defensive softness and horrendous hands have done more damage than any benefits his speed have brought. His knock on after winning the chase on a kick was just horrific but allowing Matt Frawley to dummy past him to score was an all-time horrific play. It followed up a few weeks back when he got balled out by Josh Jackson for shirking the task on a backup opportunity. Dufty’s lack of toughness should ensure he is moved on from the Bulldogs in 2023. 

Dally M Atrocities – Round 9: All the terrible Dally M Medal voting decisions from Round 9:

• Nathan Hindmarsh giving Matt Burton 3 on a team beaten by double digits was interesting though not horrendous. Leaving out Josh Papalii, who ran for 198m and had four offloads, was horrendous. 
• Roy Masters is one of the best judges in the game but Kalyn Ponga did not deserve two votes in a Knights team that was well beaten. 

2022 Field Goal Update – 15: Nicho Hynes made a bird of the Sharks win over the Warriors with a late drop goal to extend the margin beyond two converted tries. 

Fun Fact #1: The three players sent off this season are as many as were sent off from 2014-19. 

Fun Fact #2: Two players have been sent off three times during the NRL Era: John Hopoate, who was suspended for a total of 20 matches, and Ali Laui’titi, who was suspended for a total of two. 

Fun Fact #3: Matt Hewitt sent five plates off in 1998-99 and they received a total of two matches. 

Fun Fact #4: Paul Simpkins leads the NRL Era in send offs with 11. Ashley Klein leads current officials with four. 

Betting Market of the Week: Gerard Sutton and Ashley Klein’s next desperate cry for attention after awarding a ridiculous penalty try to Parramatta will be: 

$101: Providing a nationally aired interview where both admit they crave attention
$501: Winning the new series of Tag Team Mastermind
$1.02: Randomly plucking out some rule to enforce on any given week when roundly ignored by the rest of the officiating ranks, Sutton and Klein themselves and the game as a whole

Rumour Mill: Despite assurances from Phil Gould, Kristian Wolff has been unofficially approached by Canterbury to garner his interest. Cameron Munster has not inked a new deal yet and has been linked to the Dragons, though that is surely 100-1. Stephen Crichton has become one of the main targets for the Dolphins with Chanel Harris-Tavita also likely to ink with the new franchise. Matt Dufty will not be offered a new deal by the Bulldogs, who are eyeing Tigers custodian Daine Laurie.    

Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Not so much a decision but a quote from Souths coach Jason Demetriou that suggests he may not be cut out for the top grade. At half time with Souths looking disjointed, devoid of creativity and seeing a major underperformance from all of their best players, Demetriou reportedly spent the break talking about completion rates and that the result would turn with an improvement in that. Completion rate discussion is the realm of the moron. It means so little and is such a meaningless stat. Any coach worth their salt would be ignoring the stat and focussing on the myriad actual problems. 

The Coaching Crosshairs: Nathan Brown has been at the helm for two of the most humiliating defeats of the season and with a team that looks terribly put together, the Warriors’ patience with their coach has surely reached its endpoint. The 70-10 loss to the Storm was bad but it was the Storm. Losing 29-10 to a Sharks team that had 12 men for 63 minutes – and 11 men for 10 of those – was an utter embarrassment. The Warriors are a complete shemozzle, just as every side Brown coaches are. He should not have got the job in the first place and the longer the Warriors keep him the further the club is going to end up from finals football.  

Watch It: The first televised game of Rugby League in Australia took place in 1962 when South Sydney and Canterbury-Bankstown met. It was a fierce game with not a lot in common with today’s game other than Canterbury’s inability to find points. Watch it here.