Speaker 1: Well hello and welcome to the Code NRL Monday Show.
Speaker 1: I'm joined by Fatima Cadou and of course Alex from
Speaker 1: NRL Soapbox. Welcome troops, thank you. What do we make
Speaker 1: of yesterday? What an amazing performance up there by the
Speaker 1: Eastern George ill at Warret Dragons toppling Brisbane after two
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five days for goodness, say, can you
Speaker 1: believe that? An amazing victory? Fatima?
Speaker 2: What did you make of it? No one gave him
Speaker 2: a chance. In fact, I think everyone.
Speaker 1: Thought that they would get beaten by forty or fifty
Speaker 1: and Dean Young's Red VEV come out and shocked Ruglar league.
Speaker 3: They have. I think they completely ambushed the Broncos. Oh,
Speaker 3: it wasn't a good performance by the Broncos at all.
Speaker 3: You know, headlines this morning that it was rock bottom
Speaker 3: for them. Maybe this is the loss that they need
Speaker 3: to have. But yeah, the Broncos I think showed very
Speaker 3: little respect to the Dragons in a way, just out enthused,
Speaker 3: you know, zero respect for the ball, especially in that
Speaker 3: first half, and the Dragons made them pay. I think
Speaker 3: what fifteen straight losses, eleven straight losses this year? If
Speaker 3: you look at their draw, you think, when is their
Speaker 3: next win coming? But Dean Young pulled it off and
Speaker 3: against the reigning premieres Alex.
Speaker 1: I think most that watched yesterday thought the Broncos looked
Speaker 1: old and slow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not particularly in that order either.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, and like it was more like they decided,
Speaker 4: finally we're going to try and scoring points, like when
Speaker 4: we get down into the twenty, because they were alway
Speaker 4: getting down. They were always getting field position, but they
Speaker 4: weren't creating opportunities. They threw in so many offloads it
Speaker 4: looked actually exciting halves are running around.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know when that happened, Sophie, which is to
Speaker 3: me a worrying sign is when Madge went from the
Speaker 3: coach's boss down to the sideline. Yeah, that's when all
Speaker 3: of a sudden things clicked, all of a sudden. Rees
Speaker 3: Walsh was invested involved. Like you said, they were, you know,
Speaker 3: looked like the Broncos of old. But if I'm Madge,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking, well, what did the players think? Did they
Speaker 3: not know I was there for the first sixty minutes
Speaker 3: or whatever it is? You know that they needed to
Speaker 3: see the coach on the sideline before he was able
Speaker 3: to elicit a response from them against the team coming last.
Speaker 3: So yeah, they did finish fast, but yeah, I think
Speaker 3: that's because they looked to the sideline and there was
Speaker 3: Madge sort of stalking the sideline.
Speaker 2: Well that's the.
Speaker 4: Thing, right, it didn't look like a Michael maguire coach
Speaker 4: team for most of that game. I think Madge did
Speaker 4: Madge even come out and say we didn't respect the
Speaker 4: opposition and they paid the price for that, like they
Speaker 4: should have respected the Dragons because the Dragons came to play.
Speaker 1: I think there's a level of complacency there, There's no
Speaker 1: doubt about that, the way they came out and by
Speaker 1: the time they pulled their fingers out it was far
Speaker 1: too late, which was a diabolical loss for the Broncos.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, though, alex Reyese Walsh, his
Speaker 1: performance gain yesterday was average at best.
Speaker 2: Where's he at?
Speaker 1: He certainly hasn't attained the levels he got to last
Speaker 1: year when he virtually drove Brisbane single handley through those
Speaker 1: finals and to the premiership.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he did run, he did time, He's run late
Speaker 4: last year. My suspicion this is uninformed though, but my
Speaker 4: suspicion is that he's still carrying a little bit of
Speaker 4: that injury or that tentatives from what's happened. Takes him
Speaker 4: a while to find his flow, and he does work
Speaker 4: better when his teammates are running straight, they're getting meters,
Speaker 4: and it just hasn't been working for them. I reckon,
Speaker 4: he'll turn it up. That's Reese Walsch. She's a superstar,
Speaker 4: but he's looking pretty poor right now.
Speaker 1: Fatima, the Broncos, they're on the same spot now as
Speaker 1: they were last year. We know what happened last year.
Speaker 1: We saw it unfold before her very eyes. I just
Speaker 1: can't see it happening again. Every season is different.
Speaker 2: Just because it.
Speaker 1: Happened last year, I think it would be wrong to
Speaker 1: fall into that lalla of thinking it can happen again.
Speaker 2: I think they're gone.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I think they were guilty of being complacent
Speaker 3: last year, even before they went on their run, and
Speaker 3: they're guilty of it again, probably thinking in the back
Speaker 3: of their minds, Okay, we were in the same spot
Speaker 3: last year, but look at us. We went on to
Speaker 3: become premier. So that's another thing that Michael maguire has
Speaker 3: to address. But you know, I still think they absolutely
Speaker 3: have the star power to do it. You know, pain
Speaker 3: Haas is bad, you know people. He looked sometimes a
Speaker 3: little bit tentative, but still managed to knock out two
Speaker 3: hundred plus meters Reese Walsh. I agree Sopie will get
Speaker 3: to his best as the season goes on. They still
Speaker 3: have a couple of guys injured, like Dean Maroner Jordan
Speaker 3: Ricky I think is now out with an extended period
Speaker 3: with a full injury. But I still think they have
Speaker 3: enough star power to if they scrape through, especially the
Speaker 3: top four, that they're going to be their late September.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 4: They've got to reach top four though, so if they
Speaker 4: want to defend their premiership, it's not scraping into finals.
Speaker 4: They've got to find form quick because they've got to
Speaker 4: make top four to really make a title defense.
Speaker 1: Let's flip onto a positive. The Dragons we touched on
Speaker 1: at the top of the show. An extraordinary win. I
Speaker 1: can't remember the last five ten years that we've seen
Speaker 1: it upset quite like that. What did you make of it?
Speaker 1: How do they win?
Speaker 2: Good on them? Well, it was fantastic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's great for the game, and the Dragons actually
Speaker 4: always put themselves in positions in games two score tries
Speaker 4: and then did nothing with the ball in that final twenty.
Speaker 2: But you just watched that game.
Speaker 4: I think there was at one point they had more
Speaker 4: than double even triple the offloads of the Broncos. So
Speaker 4: they were starting to play a bit more chaotic and
Speaker 4: manic footy. And in this era of the rules that
Speaker 4: we have, that's what's kind of working.
Speaker 2: You do.
Speaker 4: You need structure, you need strategy, but you also just
Speaker 4: need to do some chaotic stuff and they did that
Speaker 4: very well, Like even just Cayle Flanagan, Like there's one
Speaker 4: play where he's running left, there's nothing there and he's
Speaker 4: running back over.
Speaker 2: He's not done that this season.
Speaker 4: So that kind of style of it's more this chaotic,
Speaker 4: spontaneous footy, that's what worked for the Dragons. That's been
Speaker 4: the missing ingredient for them. So they could actually get
Speaker 4: a few more wins if they adopt that playing style again.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting in watching Dean Young in
Speaker 1: the coaching box.
Speaker 2: He wasn't excited.
Speaker 1: Sure inside he was incredibly relief, but there was no
Speaker 1: banging on the glass, there was no hugging. It was
Speaker 1: just very controlled, very measured. For Black that just bowled
Speaker 1: over Brisbane.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that sometimes a bit of self respect
Speaker 4: of like, well we should win games rather than like
Speaker 4: celebrating like you've won a Grand Final. Well it's been
Speaker 4: one win this I reckon he's setting a new standard
Speaker 4: of like, no, this is the standard we want to play.
Speaker 3: He did celebrate like they had won a finals. The players,
Speaker 3: you know, especially the young players. There was this shot
Speaker 3: of one of the Couchmen brothers, I don't know which
Speaker 3: one and like a Pacificatongua and I think Kamie Stewart
Speaker 3: and they're just embracing and the smile on their faces.
Speaker 3: I felt so happy for them because, especially because their
Speaker 3: forward pack in that first half in particular, did lay
Speaker 3: that platform for them to be able to attack the
Speaker 3: way they did. So, Yeah, Den Young kept it cool
Speaker 3: and probably because he knows what's coming in the next
Speaker 3: couple of weeks for them. It's not an easy month.
Speaker 3: But the players definitely the monkey was off the back
Speaker 3: and you can definitely see it.
Speaker 1: They've got Cornella away this week, putting you on the spot.
Speaker 1: How many more wins do you think that can get
Speaker 1: this year? I mean, it was a wonderful performance. Take
Speaker 1: but if they only finished the season with one or
Speaker 1: two wins or three, it's still an abomination of a year.
Speaker 1: And the second part of the question is was it
Speaker 1: enough yesterday for the Draggings to say, right, Dean Young
Speaker 1: is our man on.
Speaker 3: How many more games they're going to win? Just looking
Speaker 3: at the next month, it's Karanulla Knights, Raiders Tigers. None
Speaker 3: of those games going to be easy. The Raiders have
Speaker 3: been up and down Tigers as well, quite plucky teams.
Speaker 3: So you know then they have the buye after that,
Speaker 3: So I don't I can't. Yeah, I don't want to
Speaker 3: say they're not going to win another game because who knows,
Speaker 3: they might ambush another team and then the lead up
Speaker 3: to that Broncos win. They were pretty good against Kenrith
Speaker 3: and they were pretty good against the Warriors before they
Speaker 3: finally knocked over Brisbane, so there might be another sneaky
Speaker 3: winning there.
Speaker 2: Dean Young, we're thinking he's the man.
Speaker 4: I think it's really hard. He would have to get
Speaker 4: more wins For me. I feel like he's this is
Speaker 4: my kind of thing at the moment. I think it's
Speaker 4: a poison chalice that Dragons Gig is an interim coach
Speaker 4: because his body of work that he'll be presenting to
Speaker 4: the board to be hired might only be one win,
Speaker 4: and that's really hard to make a decision if you're
Speaker 4: looking at statistics and how the team's performed. He would
Speaker 4: have to get some more wins to feel like that
Speaker 4: he secured that job.
Speaker 2: I feel a bit sorry for Din. He's such a
Speaker 2: great Dragons person. His father was a great Dragons person.
Speaker 1: He's come in when the club desperately needed him, and
Speaker 1: he's done the right thing, and it could end up
Speaker 1: resulting in him missing out on the top job. So
Speaker 1: I feel a bit sorry for him. Do you think
Speaker 1: he's the man to take them forward?
Speaker 3: I'm with Sophie. I'd probably like to see a few
Speaker 3: more wins. Having said that, I love the way every
Speaker 3: time he's been in front of the media, how he
Speaker 3: speaks about the job he's got to do, how much
Speaker 3: he cares about the club. Before the Broncos game, he said,
Speaker 3: we lost the physical battle against the Warriors, and our
Speaker 3: focus this week has been to win the physical battle.
Speaker 3: And his young forward pack responded to that so clearly.
Speaker 3: You know, and even guys that haven't been playing well
Speaker 3: like vour Homes, you know, finally, delivered. So he might
Speaker 3: not have the wins on the resume, but if he's
Speaker 3: got the backing of the players, then you know, maybe
Speaker 3: he is the right guy to take them forward.
Speaker 4: It's also not going to get harder, Like next year
Speaker 4: is coming in with a great spine. They've got some
Speaker 4: great recruits coming in. This is the hardest it's going
Speaker 4: to be for him for the next eighteen months if
Speaker 4: he to get the gig. Like, it is really tough
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 1: All right, it seems like every week we get stuck
Speaker 1: into the same topic. Winch comes out of Bellmore, another loss,
Speaker 1: a very cranky Cameron Serrelo at full time over a
Speaker 1: couple of on field rulings.
Speaker 2: Alex, what did you make of.
Speaker 1: The two decisions that Sorello was cranky about the no
Speaker 1: try to Stephen Crydon and of course the big one
Speaker 1: was the charge down by Josh Curran.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's unfortunate, but that is the rule that
Speaker 4: the player charging down can't hit a player's leg, and
Speaker 4: there's been If you want to win about that one,
Speaker 4: then there's about twenty teams that get to wings as
Speaker 4: well where there's been nominal contact. Making the argument that
Speaker 4: will Jerome just turned around and run, So it wasn't
Speaker 4: that big a deal that shouldn't come into play.
Speaker 2: The will is the rule.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter a player gets a head knock and
Speaker 4: they get up and keep running, They've still had a
Speaker 4: head knock. So the a lot of argument that Surroundo
Speaker 4: was using there doesn't work. It's the rule. You might
Speaker 4: want to change the rule, but that's the rule. The
Speaker 4: other one is the collision with Kiraz and.
Speaker 2: Was it Truba. Yeah, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4: Understand what the big why everyone's so upset. It just
Speaker 4: seemed like a genuine contest and you can't stop momentum
Speaker 4: physics is going to happen.
Speaker 2: It didn't look like an illegal play. I look, corraz
Speaker 2: actually was the instagrator. He ran into Taruva another way around. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and like him.
Speaker 4: Some Bulldogs fans are saying, oh, he was offside, it
Speaker 4: should never have happened, but they review that, and again,
Speaker 4: offsides are very difficult to review. So there wasn't like
Speaker 4: special significant mistreatment of the Bulldogs. You could argue they
Speaker 4: were unlucky, but it wasn't undeserved.
Speaker 1: I think so Alos just I think he's frustrated the
Speaker 1: year that he wanted to have is just not happening.
Speaker 1: Another one we talked about was the Crichton no try
Speaker 1: he grounded the ball on someone's leg. I think it
Speaker 1: was you could see straight away that he was anxious
Speaker 1: because he tried to roll over very quickly to get
Speaker 1: it down, which indicated that he knew straight away that
Speaker 1: it wasn't a try. So I think as much as
Speaker 1: I irritated the dogs, I think both those decisions were
Speaker 1: right now for Timmy, you wrote about this this morning,
Speaker 1: the Stephen Crichton decision not to challenge a fumble from
Speaker 1: Lachland Gown and when Galvin did say, please challenge it,
Speaker 1: what did.
Speaker 2: You make of it?
Speaker 3: It was definitely an interesting and in the commentary it
Speaker 3: was just described as a bit of a flashpoint. I
Speaker 3: don't think in the grand scheme of things, it's probably
Speaker 3: a bit of a storm in a teacup. But when
Speaker 3: you think about the fact that Galvin is the number
Speaker 3: seven and the general you know when he might not
Speaker 3: be the captain, but when your number seven is saying
Speaker 3: to the captain, oh, you know, look, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 3: this wasn't a fumble, And if you look at the replay,
Speaker 3: it wasn't a fumble, Kaypeerspoort does make a raking motion
Speaker 3: at the ball. You know, it makes you think, okay,
Speaker 3: is there there's Critter, the captain not fully trust his
Speaker 3: number seven, and again is that problematic? In real time?
Speaker 3: To Crutter's defense and the ref's defense, it did look
Speaker 3: like it was a knock on. It wasn't until it
Speaker 3: was slowed down. Eventually Critter said, okay, let's challenge it.
Speaker 3: By that point it was too late. So yeah, look,
Speaker 3: it was something that Canonbury fans I got copped a
Speaker 3: bit of heat on social media about bringing that up,
Speaker 3: sort of like stirring the pot. But Cannaber fans did
Speaker 3: notice it as well, and pretty instantly. Bulldogs insiders have
Speaker 3: almost immediately knocked back the suggestion that there's some sort
Speaker 3: of you know, distrust or issue between Galvin and Crichton
Speaker 3: crighton to me and in a lead up to last
Speaker 3: his final series like launched an impassioned defense of Galvin.
Speaker 3: So I don't think there's any kind of personal issues
Speaker 3: between them, but you know, on the surface, it did
Speaker 3: seem like that the captain doesn't trust his number seven,
Speaker 3: which you know could be problematic.
Speaker 1: What did you make with a body language Alex with
Speaker 1: Crochton and Galvin, did you see anything in there? Without
Speaker 1: being body language experts, clearly yeah, did you see something
Speaker 1: there that you thought or something's.
Speaker 2: Just not quite right here?
Speaker 4: No, I honestly, like I'm not a body language expert,
Speaker 4: so it just looked like he was like distrusting. It
Speaker 4: looked like a strip, and then it didn't look like
Speaker 4: a strip for Crichton, and then he's made the decision
Speaker 4: as challes but it's too little, too late. But for me,
Speaker 4: I think and maybe Bulldogs fans can speak into this,
Speaker 4: but gascutters come out and said that we're taking responsible,
Speaker 4: we're taking this on the chin. This is all good,
Speaker 4: but I keep seeing a lack of responsibility and ownership
Speaker 4: from the Bulldog's leadership, particularly Surrealdough, like he's blaming that,
Speaker 4: he's blaming that they didn't get the call on the rake. Well,
Speaker 4: they should take responsibility on what we're talking about and
Speaker 4: use the captain's challenge. And this is not the first
Speaker 4: time there's been discussion about referees. There's been other times
Speaker 4: where it's like hints, it wasn't so volatile and passionate,
Speaker 4: but he's very very regularly throughout the season.
Speaker 2: Put some blame on the refs.
Speaker 1: I think the six agains two were seven nil to
Speaker 1: the bull Yeah, so they got the rubber of the grain.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but there was also you know, Sitily Chupreneur was
Speaker 3: lucky that he didn't get SimBin for that shot shoulder
Speaker 3: touch charge on m I C. Macasini. There was I
Speaker 3: think the was it the Galvan try as well, where
Speaker 3: when that was slowed down it looks like the river
Speaker 3: got his hand in between the ball. Looked like a
Speaker 3: bit of separation. So yeah, it's you know, we're not
Speaker 3: used to seeing coaches who lose say they didn't get
Speaker 3: the rubb of the green, but there was just as
Speaker 3: many that could have gone the Tiger's way they didn't.
Speaker 1: I'll ask you a question, put you on the spot, Alex.
Speaker 1: Do the Bulldogs play finals football this year?
Speaker 4: I generally thought whoever won this game, whoever lost this
Speaker 4: game is kind of said goodbye to finals. I think
Speaker 4: there's still space for that. They could do it, but
Speaker 4: that's the kind of game they need to win. And
Speaker 4: I've been piling on the Bulldogs here, but I actually
Speaker 4: thought they played well. I thought they were aggressive, Setilli
Speaker 4: was like insane. He looked illlegal to run that hard
Speaker 4: and fast, so they had.
Speaker 2: They have the hunger.
Speaker 4: They've just got a similar problem to the Dragons where
Speaker 4: they can't convert their opportunities into points. So because of that,
Speaker 4: because they just can't, it's just clunky. They almost never
Speaker 4: go left. I don't see them making finals.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: I think we saw one of, if not the games
Speaker 1: of the year out there at Combak Stadium on Sunday night,
Speaker 1: the Panthers against the Warriors, even with five State of
Speaker 1: Origin players rested. It was a classic game, high quality
Speaker 1: elite footy. Alex, what did you make of it? It was unbelievable.
Speaker 4: If I was like, hey, we want an advertisement for
Speaker 4: the game, and I wanted to bring someone new to
Speaker 4: get into footy, that's the I take them to. The
Speaker 4: discipline from both teams was amazing. The collision was so good.
Speaker 4: There was argie bargie, there was getting in people's faces.
Speaker 4: It was tight down to the last minute. You didn't
Speaker 4: know what the result would be. And the atmosphere I
Speaker 4: was there at the stadium, the atmosphere was insane. The
Speaker 4: Warriors fans turned out and sometimes it felt like we
Speaker 4: were at a Warrior's home game. It was electric energy,
Speaker 4: players played phenomenally. The refereeing was very decent, like you
Speaker 4: couldn't really criticize the refee.
Speaker 2: Just an unbelievable spectacle determined.
Speaker 1: Do you think we saw the Grand Final in late
Speaker 1: May or should I say the Grand final teams.
Speaker 2: May? Yes?
Speaker 3: I think so far we're almost at the halfway point
Speaker 3: of this season. There's no doubt that Penrith and the
Speaker 3: Warriors have been the two best teams and most consistent
Speaker 3: teams all year. Can you imagine a Panthers Warriors Grand Final,
Speaker 3: I mean, just the Warriors against anybody in a Grand Final,
Speaker 3: considering this surge of support that they have in the
Speaker 3: last couple of years. It'd be amazing, talk about, you know,
Speaker 3: a spectacle the game, It'd be absolutely amazing. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I still think, I mean, there is definitely now at
Speaker 3: a point in the season where we can see there
Speaker 3: is a gap between Penrith and the Warriors and everyone else.
Speaker 1: Well, I wrote Bulldogs bite today on Lourie Daily, and
Speaker 1: how I think that the state of New South Wales
Speaker 1: or many people aren't showing him the full respect. New
Speaker 1: South Wales into Queensland on Queensland. They won in the
Speaker 1: final minute. Yes, Carlin Ponger was sent off. I understand
Speaker 1: that thoroughly, but we had six debutantes and I think
Speaker 1: ultimately Lourie isn't getting the respect that he deserves. We
Speaker 1: won as in New South Wales, yet the way he's
Speaker 1: been chastised it's like we got beaten. So I just
Speaker 1: think Lurie deserves a bit more credit for what he did.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that
Speaker 1: will disagree, Alex.
Speaker 2: What did you make it look? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I disagree and I love Laurie. Think he's a respectable,
Speaker 4: likable guy. But you'll get respect when you get a
Speaker 4: series win, and that's what it's going to come down to. Yes,
Speaker 4: they've won, and there were some parts of his decision
Speaker 4: made that we're very astute, Like the Bradley one, We're
Speaker 4: all like, what's going on?
Speaker 2: That was great, But the pack that he.
Speaker 4: Chose, not starting with Murray, how the team actually played,
Speaker 4: they couldn't get it to the edges. There's a lot
Speaker 4: going on there that I think is questionable and we
Speaker 4: must remember, yes we won, to be proud of the win,
Speaker 4: but if Queenslanders were claiming that if they played like
Speaker 4: we played and were claiming a win, I'd be calling
Speaker 4: them diluted like we were insipid for the first sixty minutes.
Speaker 4: It took a major game breaking moment for us to
Speaker 4: click into gear. And yes we clicked into gear, we
Speaker 4: stayed present. We won, but there's still so we will
Speaker 4: get smoked if we played like game one and Queensland
Speaker 4: have thirteen players for Game two.
Speaker 2: What did you make of it? Tim? Do you think
Speaker 2: we're not giving the Blues enough credit for the victory? Yes?
Speaker 1: As I said before, it was extenuating circumstances that New
Speaker 1: South Wales won and we literally run inside the final minute.
Speaker 2: But a win's a win. Yeah. Origin comes down to.
Speaker 1: Big moments and we own the big moments.
Speaker 2: Yep, Am I being unfair toward Cooinsland?
Speaker 3: Umm? Look, I agree, a win's a win. In a
Speaker 3: three game series, a win is a win, so you
Speaker 3: take it. But there's no doubt because we got that
Speaker 3: win against twelve men that it is slightly tainted. And
Speaker 3: like Soapie said, we weren't great like especially in that
Speaker 3: first half. And my fear is that if we start
Speaker 3: patting ourselves on the back, then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: you know, there's this we're convincing ourselves that we don't
Speaker 3: need to make any changes when.
Speaker 2: Clearly we do.
Speaker 3: Like there was a lot of criticism about Lurie's forward pack.
Speaker 3: I thought it was interesting that some of the first
Speaker 3: changes he made midway through the first half. I thought, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, Adam f Noah Blake and Mitch Barnett were
Speaker 3: clearly gassed. You're going to go to sidh Feedi for
Speaker 3: another big man, especially because we weren't getting that go forward.
Speaker 3: But he went with the two small men in Cam
Speaker 3: Murray and Victor Radley, and to be honest, that was
Speaker 3: a pretty good move because all of a sudden they
Speaker 3: sort of changed the energy of the game for the Blues.
Speaker 3: I think Laurie was brave to pick players like Ethan Strange,
Speaker 3: to pick players like Casey McLean. I'm a Ratus fan
Speaker 3: and even I thought, oh, like, this is he's not
Speaker 3: picking that Ethan Strange of last year where the Raiders
Speaker 3: were the minor premiers. The Raiders have been struggling and
Speaker 3: he hasn't been at his best, but he goes out
Speaker 3: there and plays like his yeah, being playing origin his
Speaker 3: whole life and then he backs it up on the
Speaker 3: weekend with an incredible performance against the Cowboys. Same thing
Speaker 3: with Casey McLean. So in terms of that, I think
Speaker 3: Laurie deserves his Jews because he has added some fresh
Speaker 3: blood and I think we reap the rewards of that,
Speaker 3: but I still think some changes need to be made.
Speaker 2: It's one of those changes.
Speaker 4: Alex Well, it's always nuanced, right, So he's clearly Laurie's
Speaker 4: done phenomenally with younger talent. The younger talent's really overperformed.
Speaker 4: What are those changes? Well, if paynhas is fitting ready,
Speaker 4: he's coming back in, that's got to be number one
Speaker 4: that we put back in. Outside of that, I think
Speaker 4: my opinion is that you've got to start Cameron Murray
Speaker 4: at lock and you move Yo into the front row
Speaker 4: and just get a bit more agility and mobility in
Speaker 4: that pack. They were gassed, the players that he chose
Speaker 4: were gased and we were losing that line speed within
Speaker 4: the first twenty minutes. I definitely thought the person would
Speaker 4: get gas first was flag and he outlasted the new
Speaker 4: South Wales Park. So he's got to make some changes
Speaker 4: there where they can get some more longevity minutes and
Speaker 4: energy from the middles.
Speaker 2: Mitchell Moses, Liam Martin Boughts.
Speaker 3: I don't think Liam Martin had a pretty quiet return
Speaker 3: from injury, so I don't know where he factors. That's
Speaker 3: crazy sort of saying that because you talk about players
Speaker 3: made for Origin and Liam Mardin is that guy. But
Speaker 3: you know, maybe there's a spot from on the bench
Speaker 3: because I think Hutson Young did well. Ola Kawatu. You
Speaker 3: know you're probably not dropping those guys just yet, either
Speaker 3: of them. Sorry, he was the other one, Mitch Moses.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think it all depends on how bad
Speaker 3: his hamstring injury is. The ils a hopeful he could
Speaker 3: probably play in that King's Birthday game of Monday against
Speaker 3: the Bulldogs, but today they have day off Paramatta, so
Speaker 3: they're waiting for him to come back on the Tuesday
Speaker 3: to sort of assess where he is. But you know,
Speaker 3: Ethan Strangers got to be in that team somewhere, And.
Speaker 1: Just finally on the Blues, Alex, I'll ask you the
Speaker 1: Nathan Cleary narrative. He was quiet, There's no doubting that
Speaker 1: for the first sixty old minutes. But when the crunch
Speaker 1: moments came forty twenty try and people have probably acknowledged
Speaker 1: the bomb. Yeah, I know it's only a bomb, but
Speaker 1: he landed pinpoint. Yeah, it's another meter short. Teddy doesn't
Speaker 1: fall over the line, So he owned the big moments.
Speaker 2: Nathan. Does the narrative change or does he have to
Speaker 2: win the series for it to Joe?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm gonna speak to any Queenslanders or doubters. If
Speaker 4: the New South Wales win this series, the debate over
Speaker 4: Cleary is over. He played phenomenally. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 4: they were down a man. He's the one that led
Speaker 4: them and carried the team there. When you say when
Speaker 4: we say he was quiet, of course he was quiet
Speaker 4: because his team sucked. What can I have to do
Speaker 4: if his teammates are dropping the ball all the time
Speaker 4: in their own half, you can't do anything. So what matters, though,
Speaker 4: is that when the win was on the line, he
Speaker 4: led the team to victory. And he also when we
Speaker 4: got down into Queens's territory in.
Speaker 2: The first half.
Speaker 4: We're not really talking about how believable his grubble was
Speaker 4: to set up that try. So the debate will be over.
Speaker 4: If they get the series, it's over. He led New
Speaker 4: South Wales to that victory. Doesn't matter if they were
Speaker 4: a man down. It matters if you win. And when
Speaker 4: we call that bomb a hit and hope, it totally
Speaker 4: disrespects the talent, skill composure to land that on a
Speaker 4: dime for your start full back to catch it.
Speaker 1: And just lastly, Teddy's decision, sorry Laurie's decision to pick Tedesco.
Speaker 1: Did that try justify the selection?
Speaker 2: I think it did.
Speaker 4: I think if he butchers the other try and that
Speaker 4: that's the end of the story, it's going to be
Speaker 4: a more question more controversial decision. But what did James
Speaker 4: Sidesco do wrong? In the backfield? He was catching every ball,
Speaker 4: He was safe as houses. It was a difficult game. Again,
Speaker 4: his teammates were not playing well. I think Teddy's done enough.
Speaker 4: I actually generally think Teddy established himself as an origin
Speaker 4: legend in that moment, considering from what he's overcome.
Speaker 2: He was dropped.
Speaker 4: He also botched a try, but champions step up and
Speaker 4: he called it Cleary, Hey kick it, I'm going to.
Speaker 2: Go for it. That's a champion to me.