Season 2010: Round 6

From The Couch

Gus Sinks the Slipper into the Rugby League Terrorist: Phil Gould is spot on the money with this Click Here deserved attack on referees boss Robert Finch. As I so eloquently noted last week, Robert Finch is a rugby league terrorist. He has taken it upon himself to change the very nature of rugby league. It was another embarrassing weekend for the officials with Gerard Sutton and Ben Cummins turning the last twenty minutes of the Eels-Rabbitohs game into a farce by sending Nathan Cayless and Beau Champion to the sin bin. Cayless was sent for stripping a ball he didn’t steal. And Champion was sent for a high shot, an offence which is not sin-binable. It was a shambles. Since Finch has taken charge, the standards of refereeing have fallen through the floor. This is no rose coloured glasses scenario. There has always been angst about refereeing but at least there seemed to be some clear pecking order and a number of referees who were respected. There is no such thing these days. Referees are backed into corners by Finch’s ridiculous interpretations of the rules. They are given no latitude to get a sense of the match. They have to abide by ridiculous “key indicators” such as calling out captains after five penalties and using the sin bin when the total count reaches 20. Don’t tell me there isn’t a degree of evening up the penalty counts as well. Referees speak down to players. Those looking to keep their job simply follow the key indicators with complete disregard for the match, players, fans or spectacle.

The current system is a complete disaster and Robert Finch is responsible. And Gould is right in going after him. He makes a valid point that it isn’t Gould’s job or anyone else’s job to fix the problem. It is Finch’s. And Finch isn’t only unable to fix the problems, he is creating them. He is supposedly accountable to David Gallop but Finch seems a power unto himself. Worse, he embarrasses the game and the job by aggressively going after his critics like he was Himmler. Only a public campaign to end Finch’s reign of terror will stop this madness. It is time to email the NRL, the Daily Telegraph, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Prime Minister, the Pope and whoever else may be of use. Robert Finch can no longer be allowed to terrorise our beloved sport anymore. Phil Gould, Phil Rothfield and I all agree. This may never happen again. That is how unanimous the support for Finch’s dismissal is.

Big Love: There was plenty of angst after last Friday’s match between the Bulldogs and the Wests Tigers when Ben Hannant and Bryce Gibbs went at it after the match after Gibbs allegedly sledged Hannant over his devoutness to the Mormon religion and had been doing so all night. The way I see it and usually do is footy is a hard game and what happens on the field stays on the field when it comes to sledging, particularly if the sledging wasn’t over the top. Hannant should toughen up. Gibbs is a grub and renowned as one, having been before the judiciary five times already in his career and sin binned a further three times. Hannant should concentrate on mending bridges with his Bulldogs teammates rather than letting a dirty grub get under his skin. Just point to the scoreboard and let it go.

Shane Webcke, Stop Being a Little Bitch: Shane Webcke is one of the finest props to ever play rugby league. He was hard and tough and totally uncompromising. He excelled at every level of the game and sits alongside Petero Civoniceva, Steve Price and Glenn Lazarus as the best prop forwards the modern game has seen. He once played with a broken arm and was renowned for pushing his body to its limits. So it is quite sad to see such a warrior on the field become such a snivelling little bitch in front of the television cameras. As co-host on The Matthew Johns Show, he seems to find it necessary to suck up to every one of the guests on the show. This is particularly annoying on Controversy Corner where he seems to act as the bodyguard to the guest, stepping in between the bulldogging Paul Kent and the man he is paid to nail. Webcke certainly had a few more opinions when he was hiding behind a computer screen and a ghost writer. I don’t care if Webcke doesn’t want to have a dip if he is too scared of putting someone offside. I do have an issue with him interrupting like Rebecca Wilson in a clearly transparent way to get onside with the guest. It is making one of the best segments on television painful to watch.

The Pac-Man: It was most disappointing to see one of From The Couch’s favourites, Russell Packer, dropped to the New South Wales Cup for seemingly no reason at all by Warriors coach Ivan Cleary. The Warriors have already been decimated by injuries to key personnel including forwards Steve Price, Simon Mannering and Micheal Luck. Cleary then decides to drop Packer and replace him with centre Jerome Ropati. Against one of the biggest packs in the NRL, the move was bordering on criminal. Packer is making 23.6 tackles and 92.6 metres per game in a touch over 44 minutes of game play. Ivan Cleary has no idea. It is obvious he is from the Tony Kemp school of coaching.

Field Goal Update: Jamie Soward has once again proven himself as the master exponent of the field goal, taking three shots on Friday night. Soward took two before half-time, hitting the post with one before taking a wild hack from 45 out with another. Both those missed shots were made up for close to full-time, however, when Soward kicked an amusing drop goal. It all started when Neville Costigan ran wildly out of dummy half for 10 metres before throwing a huge lob almost directly backwards to Darius Boyd who in turn handed it to Jamie Soward. It was a great field goal.

Happy 200th: It was remiss of me to make note of John Morris’s milestone against Manly last week when Morris became a 200 game player. In honour of Morris’s monumental achievement here is a team of the worst 200 gamers in NRL history.

1. Julian O’Neill (228-Brisbane, Western Reds, Cowboys, Souths)

2. John Davidson (204-Balmain, Cronulla)

3. Michael Buettner (263-Parramatta, Norths, Northern Eagles, Tigers)

4. Luke Williamson (218-Adelaide, Canberra, Northern Eagles, Manly)

5. Paul Mellor (221- Souths, Bulldogs, Cronulla)

6. Adam Dykes (221-Cronulla, Parramatta)

7. John Morris –c- (201*-Newcastle, Parramatta, Tigers, Cronulla)

13. Daniel Wagon (232-Dragons, Parramatta)

12. Paul Marquet (231-Newcastle, Hunter, Melbourne)

11. David Kidwell (209-Adelaide, Parramatta, Roosters, Melbourne, Souths)

10. Danny Williams (212-Norths, Melbourne)

9. Corey Hughes (234-Bulldogs, Cronulla)

8. Todd Payten (229*-Canberra, Roosters, Tigers)

14. Jason Death (201-Canberra, Cowboys, Warriors, Souths)

15. Mark O’Neill (223-Balmain, Tigers)

16. Darren Senter (226-Bulldogs, Balmain, Tigers)

17. Jason Taylor (276-Wests, Norths, Northern Eagles, Parramatta)

Coach: Ricky Stuart (229*-Roosters, Cronulla)

Power Rankings:

Rank	Team	Record	Last Week	High	Low
1	Dragons	5-1	2	1	2
2	Melbourne	4-2	1	1	2
3	Manly	4-2	4	3	10
4	West Tigers	4-2	3	3	6
5	Gold Coast	4-2	5	4	5
6	Penrith	4-2	8	6	11
7	Roosters	4-1	9	4	9
8	Souths	3-3	6	6	16
9	Canterbury	2-4	10	5	10
10	Parramatta	2-4	13	3	13
11	Warriors	3-3	7	7	13
12	Canberra	2-4	11	11	15
13	Newcastle	2-4	14	10	14
14	Cowboys	2-4	12	12	14
15	Brisbane	2-4	15	7	15
16	Cronulla	1-5	16	13	16

 

Rumours of the Week: Fringe Dragons first grader Jarrod Saffy has signed a deal to play with rah-rah with the Melbourne Rebels. Word has it that Wayne Bennett is none too pleased. Don’t expect to see much more of Saffy in first grade for the remainder of the year. As mentioned here last week, the Scott Prince saga is far from over. The NRL has reopened its investigation. The League is hoping the issue will go away but salary cap auditor Ian Schubert has no choice but to investigate further after he embarrassingly refused to question a number of key witnesses. While on the salary cap, it is believed another non-Sydney club may also be in plenty of trouble with one source suggesting it could blow up to be as big as the Bulldogs in 2002. Apparently the NRL has all the evidence required but are weighing up the collateral damage prosecuting the team would cause. Politics, as they say. Parramatta three-quarter Krisnan Inu is a moral to be at the Warriors in 2011. Parramatta likely won’t even tender an offer. Carl Webb is absolutely no hope of being at the Cowboys next year. Neil Henry went as far as publicly calling him out after another inept performance for North Queensland. The word out of the Tigers camp is that Taniela Tuiaki’s injury could be even worse than suspected after his second operation. He could be out for the year. The Daily Telegraph reported that one club has lost interest in Luke O’Donnell due to his persistent on-field antics of thuggery, cattishness and bully boy ill discipline. That club is believed to be the Newcastle Knights, according to the rumour mill.

Interesting Betting Notes: Punters could not get enough of Parramatta over the weekend. The Eels were smashed from an opening quote of 2.15 into around the 1.7 mark with plenty of punters not caring what price they got. The Bunnies had lost Ben Lowe to suspension and Roy Asotasi and Michael Crocker to injury but this go seemed a lot more confident than a movement based on injuries. One betting industry source said he “was hearing from some blokes for the first time since David Fairleigh won the Rothman’s Medal.” Fairleigh famously won the 1994 Rothman’s Medal after being backed from 33’s to even money when the result was leaked by someone close to the refereeing ranks. Souths had 52% of possession and all the field position in the first half but only led 8-2 at the break when they should have been up by plenty. Make of that what you will.

Fun Fact #1: There are 106 current players who have played in an NRL Grand Final with 76 premiership winners in the NRL.

Fun Fact #2: There are 8 current players who played in an NRL Grand Final in the 1990’s with Steven Price the last active player from the 1994 and 1995 Grand Finals. Price has played in three Grand Finals but has not played in one since 1998.

Fun Fact #3: There are no remaining active players from the 1996 Grand Final with an active player in every other Grand Final between 1994 and 2009 still playing.

Fun Fact #4: Of current players, Michael Crocker (if you can call him a current player…see you in Origin I, Mick) has played in the most Grand Finals with 5 Grand Final appearances ahead of Darren Lockyer, Anthony Minichiello, Billy Slater, Steve Turner, Greg Inglis, Cooper Cronk, Jeff Lima and Brett White next with 4.

The Willie M Medal: A medal for mediocrity, named after the laziest and most selfish player of the modern era.

Gold Coast-Dragons	3-Greg Bird (GC)
	2-Preston Cambell (GC)
	1-Mark Minichiello (GC)
Tigers-Bulldogs	3-Chris Lawrence (Tig)
	2-Bryce Gibbs (Tig)
	1-Ben Roberts (Bul)
Newcastle-Cowboys	3-Antonio Kaufusi (NQ)
	2-Ty Williams (NQ)
	1-Manase Manukofoa (NQ)
Roosters-Canberra	3-Joe Picker (Can)
	2-Josh McCrone (Can)
	1-Josh Miller (Can)
Warriors-Penrith	3-Kevin Locke (War)
	2-Jeremy Latimore (War)
	1-Ben Matulino (War)
Brisbane-Sharks	3-Ben Pomeroy (Cro)
	2-Trent Barrett (Cro)
	1-Anthony Tupou (Cro)
Parramatta-Souths	3-Rhys Wesser (Sou)
	2-Dave Taylor (Sou)
	1-Nathan Merritt (Sou)
Melbourne-Manly	3-Ryan Hoffman (Mel)
	2-Steve Matai (Man)
	1-Luke MacDougall (Mel)
Leaderboard	7-Josh McCrone (Can), Ben Roberts (Bul), Chris Sandow (Sou)
	6-Greg Bird (GC), Preston Campbell (GC), Eric Grothe (Par), Albert Kelly (Cro), Ben Pomeroy (Cro), Steve Simpson (New), Peter Wallace (Brs)
	5-Braith Anasta (Roo), Denan Kemp (Brs), Michael Robertson (Man), Ty Williams (NQ)

 

Remembering the Anderson Boys: I read with great interest in Rugby League Week that Ben Anderson, son of rugby league’s greatest ever coach Chris, has taken up as head coach of the Tweed Heads Seagulls in the Queensland Cup. From The Couch wishes him all the luck in the world with this column now having a Queensland Cup team to support. Ben, of course, was a fine player in his own right as was his brother. Unfortunately, both had to deal with allegations of nepotism from those out to get Chris and as such had their careers cut short. Ben was a deft five-eighth who played 17 games for the Storm in 1998 and 1999, Melbourne going 8-5 when starting in the six jersey. His brother Jarrad was even more talented though was restricted to 14 games as a centre at the Sharks in 2003 where he scored 6 tries and 94 points and topped the scoring for the hapless Cronulla outfit. It is a great shame that the Anderson boys were strung up and lynched by the vindictive and the ignorant, particularly Jarrad, who was lambasted and beaten by the ignorant fools who call themselves Cronulla fans.

Well Done Bryan Norrie: Congratulations to Bryan Norrie, who scored his first NRL try in his 7th season and 64th NRL match. Norrie, who has played for the Dragons, Penrith, Cronulla and Melbourne finally got over the stripe for the Storm on Monday night with the big prop bullocking through the Eagles and planting the ball down under the black dot.

Beau Ryan Knows Tedeschi: It was pleasing to see Beau Ryan using Twitter to call Luke O’Donnell a cat. Ryan, a comic genius, was spot on the mark and obviously agrees with my assessment of O’Donnell in last week’s From The Couch.

David Furner Hates the Raiders: The Raiders team for this week looks one of the worst ever. As predicted here a few weeks back, Adam Mogg has taken over at halfback for Josh McCrone after McCrone turned in another inept showing on Saturday night. Brett Kelly is in for James Stuart. Kelly is one of the worst Raiders in history and is almost universally disliked by Raiders fans. Troy Thompson has made the bench. Shaun Fensom can’t get in the starting side. I am starting to think David Furner is doing his best to stop the Raiders from winning.

Exchanges with Fisk: Fisk is believed lost somewhere in the Hualca Hualca in Peru. At any rate, they are unlikely to be all that familiar with Ray Warren, Gavin Badger, the obstruction rule or From The Couch in Peru.

Coaching Stocks:

Craig Bellamy [5] Two losses on the trot but both to good teams. Seems to be disappointed in senior players.

Wayne Bennett [5] Ultra courageous effort against Titans. Dragons steel in defence was something to behold.

Des Hasler [4] Huge win over Melbourne at Ethiad. Showed great flair early then plenty of grit late. Perfect.

Tim Sheens [3.5] Tigers lacked discipline. Effort reminiscent of past failed seasons. Not enough grit. Half query.

John Cartwright [3.5] Titans lacked spark and creativity with the ball. No match for an undermanned Dragons outfit.

Kevin Moore [3.5] Huge and necessary win for the Bulldogs. Some heart-to-heart talks paid dividends.

Brian Smith [3] Carney lifted Roosters above former team. Inconsistent but at their best can tangle with top dogs.

Matt Elliott [3] The Panthers are really hitting their straps. Still room for improvement but impressive with ball.

John Lang [1.5] Disappointing against Parra but excuses with three big forwards missing.

Rick Stone [1] Did the required in touching up the hapless Cowboys minus Thurston. Still major problems.

Daniel Anderson [1] Eels seemed to have turned the tide around against Souths. A lot more hustle in kick-chase.

David Furner [0.5] Failed to keep momentum of Eels win going with insipid performance.

Neil Henry [0] Needs to start making some big calls. Futures of a number of rep forwards in balance.

Ivan Cleary [0] Woeful effort at home against Penrith. No excuses.

Ivan Henjak [-1.5] Beat Cronulla. Wow. Still in the running for the spoon.

Ricky Stuart [-2.5] Had a chance against fellow dweller but were smashed. There seems little hope for Stuart/Sharks.

Game of the Year Nomination, Round 6: Melbourne-Manly, 16-18. What promised to be a bruising battle between two legitimate title contenders threatened to blow out early with Manly posting a 16-0 lead within 17 minutes thanks to some smart work by the Manly halves that led to a double for winger Michael Robertson and a try to Eagles workhorse Glenn Stewart. The Eagles then gutsed it out over the next 60-odd minutes, holding out as the Storm launched a comeback. Melbourne were disappointing with their ball handling abhorrent and attack stagnant, the latter no doubt a result of injuries to centres Greg Inglis and Dane Nielsen. Cameron Smith was unusually ordinary. Ryan Hoffman was terrible in his comeback match. Jeff Lima and Adam Blair were both disappointing. Of the Storm forwards, only Aiden Tolman, surely a lock for Origin, played to his best. For Manly, the credit should go to young halves Foran and Hodkinson for showing the composure and wherewithal of more experienced players to march into Melbourne and orchestrate a win over the defending premiers. The game was most enjoyable and the best of a solid weekend of footy.

Stats from the Penguin: The Retarded Penguin was back to his brilliant belly-aching brutal best against the Broncos, a leading contender for the worst player on the field in a match where he had plenty of challengers.

9 Runs for 79 metres, 10 tackles, 3 missed, 2 errors, 2 penalties conceded, 2 offloads

The Queanbeyan Kangaroos 2010 Campaign: The Roos had the bye over the weekend but had a big win anyway with captain-coach Aaron Gorrell escaping suspension at the judiciary. Gorrell was cited after a spiteful opening round affair with the Woden Rams, won convincingly by the mighty Roos 36-20, for a head high shot. It seemed a somewhat vindictive citing and was thrown out within 10 minutes by judiciary members, who said Gorrell had no case to answer after video of the incident showed nothing untoward. Gorrell will now be ready to rock and roll for the local derby with the Queanbeyan Blues this weekend.

Obscure Score of the Week: Siddal-Batley Bulldogs, 2-34. Championship side Batley had to fight hard to down amateur team Siddal in the fourth round of the Challenge Cup with the Bulldogs, who sit seventh on the Championship ladder, held to 12-2 at half-time by Siddal in front of nearly 2,000 rabid fans at The Shay with the Halifax amateur outfit turning in a mighty effort. Batley took the upper hand in the second half, however, running away with a 34-2 win. Siddal had turned in a mighty performance to make it so deep into the Challenge Cup, knocking out Championship team Doncaster in the third round 26-0 and finishing the Saddleworth Rangers 26-0 in the second round.

Fantasy Team of the Week:

1. Todd Carney (Roo)
2. John Williams (NQ)
3. Matt Cooper (Dra)
4. Adrian Purtell (Pen)
5. Cooper Vuna (New)
6. Brett Finch (Mel)
7. Cooper Cronk (Mel)
13. Corey Parker (Brs)
12. Sam Thaiday (Brs)
11. Liam Fulton (Tig)
10. Michael Henderson (GC)
9. Kevin Kingston (Pen)
8. Ben Hannant (Bul)

Waiver Wire Advice: Don’t get too taken by any of the high scores in the Warriors-Panthers game. Prior to yesterday 4 of the last 5 and 6 of the last 10 matches have gone over 60 points meaning fantasy scores for outside backs and halfbacks are severely inflated. Luke Walsh and Brad Tighe won’t see numbers like that again for the rest of the season. Peter Wallace has busted an ankle and will be out for at least a month meaning Ben Hunt should get a shot at the seven jersey. At $165k, he can be a good fit as a backup half, particularly if the Wallace diagnosis is worse than first thought. Russell Packer is seemingly on the outer at the Warriors because Ivan Cleary is a fool. Dump his $222,000 and find a secure starter. The same goes for Josh McCrone, who may have worn his welcome out at Canberra.

Beard Watch: Sometimes footy players really amuse you with their delusions of grandeur. Few have such a disproportionate opinion of themselves compared to reality as former Manly player and now Cronulla New South Wales Cup player Adam Cuthbertson. Cuthbertson, who has long fancied himself not only as a footballer but as a facial hair exponent with various beards and moustaches, left Manly because he felt he was unfairly disregarded by Eagles coach Des Hasler. He was frustrated at his lack of playing time and could not believe he was dropped for the 2008 Grand Final and was then astounded when he was dropped from first grade in 2009. He went to Cronulla for the chance to play first grade. Well, he got four games for the Sharks before annoying the hell out of Ricky Stuart with his lack of ball care and dumb offloading and is now playing NSW Cup for a team that is coming last and cannot even afford to pay the salary cap. As someone who has always despised Cuthbertson’s style of play, I could not find this situation anymore amusing.

Lazy Long Bay Days, Part 7: Things get a little wild at lunch. Danny is simply minding his own business, lost in his own desolate thoughts, when all of a sudden his face was driven into the slop known as stew. An all-in brawl had erupted and Wicks was drowning in the tasteless lunch. He kicked and tried to fight his way out as carnage reined supreme all around him. The guards tried to restore order but Wicks looked gone until his attacker all of a sudden released his grip. Houston had come to the rescue. He saved the life of Wicks and the two shared a moment while surrounded by terror and violence and brutality.

Watch It: The highlights of the fantastic 1985 Major Preliminary Semi Final between Canterbury and Balmain, Click Here. It was a classic match between two teams that would meet three times in four seasons in finals football, the Bulldogs coming out on top on every occasion, with this matching ending 50 seconds before the conclusion of extra-time. Balmain dominated the first half but could only take a 6-0 lead into the break after a smart Gary Schofield try. The Dogs then hit back in the second half with a brilliant team try to Terry Lamb who, backing up as always, finished off the sweet move. The teams traded penalty goals before going to extra-time. It was then up to Andrew Farrar to get the Bulldogs home. He made a bust, brushed off a John Davidson tackle and then went straight around Garry Jack. The Dogs, of course, went on to win the Grand Final later that September. Balmain would get close again in three of the next four years but would never quite get there. A few notes of interest from the game. Current Tigers CEO Stephen Humphreys started on the bench for Balmain. Warren Ryan went on to have a 14-6 dominance over opposition coach that day, Frank Stanton. The Bulldogs bench had three Origin players on it: Steve Folkes, Mick Hagan and Darryl Brohman. Hooker Billy Johnstone, backrower Brian Battese and wingers Peter Mortimer and Greg Mullane were the only players not to play representative football in that Bulldogs team of 1985.

Correspondence Corner: Matt Heyes wrote in voicing his disgust at referees boss Robert Finch. As any reader of this column will be well aware, I view Robert Finch as the biggest danger to rugby league. He has hurt the game immeasurably and fans of the code will no longer tolerate it. A revolution is beginning and the only way it will end is with Finch’s head on a stick.