NRL Repeat Set: Round 9
We’re almost at the halfway point of this strange NRL season and a sense of normality is returning as constructed controversy reenters the headlines.
On the field, the Warriors had a shocker, Reed Mahoney forced me into becoming a fan, Charlie Staines announced himself to the competition, and Api Koroisau produced another beauty.
What Are You Doing To Me, Warriors?
The Warriors being a little fragile mentally is understandable given their situation, but it doesn’t excuse their performance on Friday night.
Up 12–0 after ten minutes against a Titans side that wouldn’t complete their first set of the game for another five minutes before finishing up with 20 errors, the Warriors gave up a chance to win back-to-back games for the first time since May 2019 (Round 10).
Embarrassing was the only way to describe it on the night.
Now, two of their back-three, perhaps the only shining light in a dire 70 minutes over the weekend, are preparing to go home following their Round 10 clash against the Sharks. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is all on his own.
The Warriors have never been left holding the wooden spoon at the end of an NRL season. They’ve been a chance, but always ended up doing enough to avoid the unwanted culinary tool. Much of that had to do with picking up regular enough wins at Mt Smart Stadium — something that is almost no chance of happening in 2020.
Games like Sunday — handed to them on a plate — is where the Warriors can avoid the spoon this season. Instead, the loss to the Titans on Friday leaves this long-time fan of the club more nervous about finishing 16th than any season before.
Forgive me, Mahoney
I…
I…
I never thought Reed Mahoney deserved the sort of hype and early Origin chat he received…
There, I said it.
He’s a tiny little man that I’ve seen ran over on the goal line too often and as the shift to the more attack-minded hooker takes place, it looked as though Mahoney might miss the boat.
Yet on Sunday afternoon as his teammates failed to execute in one of Parramatta’s worst performances of the season, Mahoney took control and steered the ship.
The lack of experience in the halves was a lot more evident this week. Their good ball sets left a lot to be desired overall. However, and cool, calm and collected Mahoney managed to save a couple of sets at the end.
Junior Paulo ends up with the ball at first-receiver on the last in this one. Shovelling it onto Mahoney, the young hooker puts in a perfect grubber to force a repeat set.
Mahoney uses that repeat set to send Ryan Matterson over for Parramatta’s first points of the afternoon.
Later, Mahoney became more involved earlier in the set. He turned one quick play-the-ball into another to get the Eels downhill with Clint Gutherson able to put Brad Takairangi through a hole on the next tackle.
Mahoney also went on to make 66 tackles throughout the 80 minutes.
He has a bit of the Jake Friend’s about him. Friend isn’t everybody’s favourite player, but the Eels would surely settle for a similar career that will eventually span across 300+ games, a Kangaroos appearance and possibly a Queensland cameo by the end of it.
It was a round to remember for…
Take a bow, Charlie Staines.
In the most wholesome of NRL experiences, the 19-year-old debutant scored four on debut as the Panthers put 54 points on a hapless Sharks side.
The young winger claimed his first in the 23rd minute — a simple catch and put down after Bryson Goodwin failed to affect the shift inside Staines.
His second and third tries were similar in their simplicity; he kept wide and made the Sharks inside defence pay for poor reads. The fourth and final required a little more from the young fella as he broke a Goodwin tackle before dotting down.
While scoring four tries is nice, it’s this pass Staines throws here that suggests he’s got a long future in this game.
Using his lightning-quick speed to get on the outside and beat Wade Graham, Staines holds it up just long enough to draw Josh Dugan and throw a perfect pass at close to full speed. It can’t be understated how difficult that pass is to throw let alone the poise to assess the situation at speed, on debut, and as a 19-year-old kid.
It feels like every young player to ever come through the Panthers system is considered the next big thing. They might be on to one here.
It was a round to forget for…
The Bunker is one of the best video referral systems in world sport, if not the best.
But, they’ve had a shocker in there this weekend.
People call for common sense in the Bunker all of the time. The truth is, common sense doesn’t exist in rugby league. It never has and it never will.
The closest the NRL can get to applying common sense is having former players in the Bunker to guide the by-the-book officials through decisions. A 152-game former first-grader Ben Galea sat beside Steve Chiddy on Saturday night to offer “a football feel” — as Graham Annesley put it — to in-game decisions and help remove the black and white interpretations that frustrate so many.
But somehow, Bailey Simonsson was allowed to be penalised and subsequently sin-binned for getting tangled up with an opposition player while trying to reel the ball in.
It was a rugby league play. Not dangerous or an accident that put another player in a compromising position. Simonsson only had eyes for the ball while on the ground and a rugby league collision occurred.
Naturally, the $2 million a year aspect of the Bunker makes headlines. Technology isn’t the issue, though. This is human error. It happens. But as a Bunker apologist, not even I can sign off on this one being anything short of a howler.
Play Of The Round
So many of us thought the speedy hooker would dominate the game following the introduction of the six-again rule. While the likes of Damien Cook are doing just fine, it’s the crafty dummy-half that is really succeeding.
He’s been here before, and will no doubt be here again to produce another Play of the Round down the track.
Api Koroisau.
It’s simple, yet so effective.
The gap between Wade Graham and Chad Townsend is too big as it is, but Koroisau will have been confident in Townsend shooting out. A little fake to the left sends Blayke Brailey the wrong way, Townsend is at sixes and sevens, and Liam Martin goes over untouched.
Beautiful.
Graham Annseley’s Briefing Review
Graham Annesley quite clearly stated that the decision late in the Manly v Newcastle game in Round 8 was “a difference in opinion.”
He then went on to spend five minutes dissecting the video to highlight how the Bunker made the decision they did despite disagreeing with the 50/50 call himself.
The response: “Dudded”, “Robbed”, “The NRL admits they got the call wrong.”
Always on the fence over the use of these briefings and whether or not they do more harm than good, last week produced a big tick in the harm column. So, as one of the few people silly enough to tune in every week and not in the ‘get clicks’ industry (although, hitting subscribe would be appreciated if you haven’t already), I’ll cover his briefings without the desperate lean towards creating a crisis here and see how we go.
Round 9 Briefing
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- In regards to the decision to allow Josh Reynolds and Mitchell to stay on the field:
“These are judgement calls the referees have to make.”
“I think they should have been sent to the sin-bin. That’s my opinion.”
- Annesley signed off on Clint Gutherson’s quick tap and also used the opportunity to highlight the rules around taking one.
- Apparently, the broadcast wasn’t happy with Reed Mahoney being disallowed a try despite the clear poor play-the-ball in the buildup. Annesley again presented a shot of the rule book to prove the decision was correct.
- Jack Hetherington had a try denied after the Bunker ruled he interfered with Jamal Fogarty. Annesley sat on the fence saying, “I think there are arguments both ways on this one.”
- He had already addressed the Bailey Simonsson sin-bin earlier in the week. As have I already in this column. It was a howler.
“When we come to these type of judgement calls, I think they’re putting too much focus on individual aspects rather than looking at the incident in real-time and also as most fans would look at them.”
“They’re looking for too much in these incidents.”
- Those officials are unlikely to be dropped for any errors at the moment.
To put it simply: The NRL doesn’t have the numbers to replace them. On-field referees that would otherwise replace Bunker officials are confined to the same ‘bubble’ setup as the players.
- Lastly, referees will be reminded that it is a captains challenge and not a referees challenge after Gerard Sutton put a little bit of mustard on Clint Gutherson’s challenge on Sunday night.
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