Speaker 1: Well, welcome back to another episode of Code NRL Monday's podcast.
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of stories coming from the weekend, including
Speaker 1: some embarrassing matches and some disastrous floggings. Were also going
Speaker 1: to analyze today the state of the game. There were
Speaker 1: some weird things that happened on the weekend. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you've noticed them. I'm joined today by Fatima Kadoo. How
Speaker 1: are you, Fatima good? How are you very good?
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 1: I rushed straight over to Dean Bulldog Ritchie, how are
Speaker 1: you Bulldog good?
Speaker 2: Buddy you, I'm very good.
Speaker 1: I'm Alex also known as nrol Soapbox. We're going to
Speaker 1: get straight into it. There's been some huge news regarding
Speaker 1: Lorie Daily's coaching tenure and perhaps a strong standout candidate
Speaker 1: has emerged for the new South Wales coach. Bulldog. What
Speaker 1: do you make of it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's big story.
Speaker 3: This morning, Loriie finally officially and formally decided that he
Speaker 3: would announce that he is stepping down as Blues coach.
Speaker 3: Obviously it was on Laurie's horizon during the series, but
Speaker 3: I think the fact that they won Game three so well,
Speaker 3: so convincingly, so emphatically and against all odds. Yeah, at
Speaker 3: Lourie thought, you know what this is it? This is
Speaker 3: my perfect way to leave. It's an ideal exit for him.
Speaker 3: He goes out with one win, my loss in the
Speaker 3: last two years since his return, and it does leave
Speaker 3: the door open for Matt King to take over as
Speaker 3: Blues coach. Matt's been an assistant there for at least
Speaker 3: the last two years. Everyone's got a huge rap on
Speaker 3: Matt King. Boyd Cord is another candidate, as is Brett White,
Speaker 3: but I think you'll find.
Speaker 2: That it will be Matt King's job.
Speaker 3: So huge news to come out of the Blues that
Speaker 3: Matt King, the former winger, terrific player, great football brain,
Speaker 3: well respected inside the New South Wales camp and certainly
Speaker 3: a bloke that Laurie endorsed get the job, will be
Speaker 3: the next new South Wales coach.
Speaker 1: So many New South Wales fans might not know about
Speaker 1: Matt King as a coach. He's been in the assistant
Speaker 1: system a long time. What kind of his credentials or
Speaker 1: why would New South Wales Rugby League be so keen
Speaker 1: on him.
Speaker 2: Well, he's been in the camp.
Speaker 3: He obviously knows the structures, he knows the systems, he
Speaker 3: knows the players. He's at the Roosters, where, of course
Speaker 3: you don't get much better grounding than that. He's been
Speaker 3: at the Melbourne Storm. There is a better ground in
Speaker 3: than the Roosters. It's Melbourne Storm. So he's come through
Speaker 3: the right channels to be a great coach. He's a
Speaker 3: first grade coach in waiting. I think Matt's just at
Speaker 3: the point now where waiting for the next vagacy to
Speaker 3: come up. His name will no doubt come come forth,
Speaker 3: will be put forth and you'll find if king E
Speaker 3: can pull off an Origin victory next year, then he stops.
Speaker 3: Just go right through that very roof with sits above us,
Speaker 3: and he will be coaching I would imagine in the
Speaker 3: inner or for the next two to three years.
Speaker 1: Well that's what I was going to consider, because some
Speaker 1: fans out there, particularly New South Wales ones and Penrith ones,
Speaker 1: are really lobbying for Ivan Cleary to step into that role.
Speaker 1: Does this create attention for Teama? So if Matt king
Speaker 1: gets the job and does well, what will happen to
Speaker 1: Ivan Cleary's prospects of coaching New South Wales.
Speaker 2: Do you think this.
Speaker 1: Creates a difficult situation? What's your virble on that one.
Speaker 4: Well, now, I was going to ask, all, dog, do
Speaker 4: we know how long you know Matt King is going
Speaker 4: to get if he is the guy who is given
Speaker 4: the job.
Speaker 3: No, it's a good question note for TIMA because there
Speaker 3: is this awkward gap year next year, yes, where if
Speaker 3: the coach who we think will be Matt King wins it,
Speaker 3: it's going to be very hard to say, oh, Matt,
Speaker 3: you've done a great job, but you're out because Ivan
Speaker 3: wants to coach.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean I haven't made it quite clear the day
Speaker 3: he announced he was leaving Penrith after next year that
Speaker 3: he wanted to coach. Representing football, there's only two jobs.
Speaker 3: It's either Australia or the Blues. It'll be the Blues.
Speaker 3: But I think it's unfair to say to Matt King,
Speaker 3: if you happen to win three Neil next year, you're out.
Speaker 5: So, yes, it's an awkward situation.
Speaker 4: I guess, yeah, it's a Yeah, it is an awkward one.
Speaker 4: But you know, I think I'm with Panthers fans. I
Speaker 4: really would like to see what Ivan Cleary could do
Speaker 4: in the Origin Arena, and it is going to be
Speaker 4: tough on Matt King, especially if he does, you know,
Speaker 4: win next to you series and all of a sudden
Speaker 4: they've gone, oh, you know, we've got Ivan who wants
Speaker 4: to come in. But I agree with Bulldog, like, if
Speaker 4: he does come in as head coach and he does
Speaker 4: win a series, all of a sudden, his stocks rise.
Speaker 4: He is sort of that next crop of up and
Speaker 4: coming coach. Like we've seen guys like Jason Ryles, like
Speaker 4: Josh Hannay, like Sero come through. You know, Matt King
Speaker 4: is sort of that next in line. Yeah, I would
Speaker 4: still if Ivan wants to do it, I would give
Speaker 4: the job to Ivan when he's ready to do it.
Speaker 4: It's interesting. I remember talking to Nathan Cleary during Origin
Speaker 4: camp about whether he had a better idea of what
Speaker 4: his father wanted to do post Penrith, and he did
Speaker 4: joke saying, you know, the Pacific Nations are on the rise,
Speaker 4: so you know, maybe that's an option. So who knows
Speaker 4: in what capacity we see Ivan Cleary in, but I
Speaker 4: would love to see him as Blues coach.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how the rugby league narrative changes so quickly, right,
Speaker 1: so not six weeks ago people were hammering Laurie Daily.
Speaker 1: I was certainly one of them, and Laurie gets the
Speaker 1: flowers there. He totally embarrassed a lot of us that
Speaker 1: criticized him, But there was talk about how new sois
Speaker 1: Rugby League, But who's going to coach the Blues? Where
Speaker 1: are the options going to come from? Now They've not
Speaker 1: only won the series that was meant to be unlosable
Speaker 1: for Queensland, Laurie gets to retire or move on from
Speaker 1: this role as a champion, and now not only have
Speaker 1: they possibly got an assistant coach in the wings ready
Speaker 1: to be appointed, they've also got one of the greatest
Speaker 1: coaches ever in Ivan clearly on the Raider. It's pretty
Speaker 1: crazy how it changes.
Speaker 2: It's a funny one that.
Speaker 3: Look, we all know clearly how good coach Ivan Cleary is.
Speaker 3: He's one of the greatest of all time, and he's
Speaker 3: won four and he's looking at winning a potential fifth.
Speaker 2: This year and he's still got next year.
Speaker 3: So if you want to dream on, you can think
Speaker 3: he's looking at six. But does it give him the
Speaker 3: god given right just to sort of bullock his way
Speaker 3: into that job if Matt King wins next year? Credentially,
Speaker 3: of course, Ivan's a better coach than Matt King, but
Speaker 3: I just don't know whether it's right for him to
Speaker 3: and Ivan won't push his way. He'll apply and no
Speaker 3: doubt he would get the job. All I'm suggesting that
Speaker 3: is if King he does a good job. Is it
Speaker 3: unfair that Ivan just goes bang smack and he's straight in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it probably is unfair. It's really tough though, are
Speaker 1: you going to pass back or knock back one of
Speaker 1: the greatest coaches of all time? Absolutely the one series win.
Speaker 1: And also Ivan's not going to want to coach another club,
Speaker 1: So Matt Kings, as far as I know, would have
Speaker 1: head coaching aspirations. He'd want to have a more permanent
Speaker 1: role in leading a club, bringing Ivan Cleary. And Ivan's
Speaker 1: got no other prospects, not because he's untalented, but because
Speaker 1: he doesn't want them. So I feel like there's a
Speaker 1: sure bet if you get Ivan Cleary and he ends
Speaker 1: up being a great origin coach new so also the
Speaker 1: potential to actually build a dynasty there.
Speaker 3: And what if there's a sneaky clause in the contract
Speaker 3: and I'm unaware of this, if there's a sneaky clause
Speaker 3: that if a coach has suddenly given the heave ho
Speaker 3: in the NRL, it probably won't happen, but rugby leagu's
Speaker 3: a strange game.
Speaker 2: Matt King goes into that position.
Speaker 3: Then I'd imagine you have to stand down as origin coach.
Speaker 3: These are all hypotheticals, of course, but rugby leag's a
Speaker 3: very strange game. When you think it's going along smoothly,
Speaker 3: that's when it's at its most dangerous. I don't think
Speaker 3: there's any vacancies coming up, and then all I don't
Speaker 3: think there's any coach under pressure necessarily, but I'm just
Speaker 3: saying if it did happen, I guess I'd have to
Speaker 3: go back to the drawing board and see if they
Speaker 3: can find a new coach.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure anyone watching or listening won't be reading
Speaker 1: in between the lines there from Bulldog trying to figure
Speaker 1: out the cryptic clues on what he's suggesting. Well, it
Speaker 1: was a tough going for New South Wales fans about
Speaker 1: two months ago and now we're talking high and mighty,
Speaker 1: So it's always good to be beat in Queensland and
Speaker 1: feeling in control. I've not been around a long time
Speaker 1: on this earth, but that was the greatest flogging thrashing
Speaker 1: diabolical performance from the Roosters. They absolutely destroyed the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: North Queensland fans are trying to get away from this
Speaker 1: news right now. Well I'm going to pile on even more.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just that the Cowboys were horrendous, It's that
Speaker 1: the Roosters were elite. This is the team that we've
Speaker 1: been kind of waiting for the last six weeks. They've
Speaker 1: been playing okay footy and just winning, but this week
Speaker 1: they just dominated. They made a statement in that game,
Speaker 1: but it was also a statement for the Cowboys. How
Speaker 1: terrible were they for Tima?
Speaker 4: Like you said, not in our lifetime and lots of
Speaker 4: other people's lifetimes. I think it's been ninety years since,
Speaker 4: you know, there's been a slaughter that bad. I just
Speaker 4: don't get the Cowboys. You know, the week before, you
Speaker 4: know they're flying high, they're playing their best footy, which
Speaker 4: is like you know, big forwards, being physical. You know,
Speaker 4: they've got all this talent, this like strike in the
Speaker 4: outside backs, and then all of a sudden they deliver that.
Speaker 4: It's really strange, Like if you talk about Jekkel and Hyde,
Speaker 4: they are that team in the NRL, Like you just
Speaker 4: cannot trust them like I would have said, oh, maybe
Speaker 4: they might, you know, obviously the Roosters were red hot,
Speaker 4: you think maybe they might challenge. But they pretty much
Speaker 4: waved the white flag almost after twenty minutes. And what
Speaker 4: I thought was really interesting. And I know they're still
Speaker 4: what five games to go, and Todd Payton is probably
Speaker 4: sitting in the coaching coaching box going, Okay, this game's done,
Speaker 4: so maybe I will you know, rest guys like Jason Tomlolo,
Speaker 4: like Riboncotto, who I think both played their least amount
Speaker 4: of minutes on the weekend. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: that's almost like, I don't know, I don't want to
Speaker 4: say the coach is waving the white flag on the game,
Speaker 4: but considering where they lacked was in that physical presence,
Speaker 4: in that physicality, they're their two most physical guys to
Speaker 4: take them off the field, to me, just it was
Speaker 4: a really weird option by Todd Payden. But yeah, I
Speaker 4: feel sorry for Cowboys fans because you know, where do
Speaker 4: you go for from here? Having said that, I think
Speaker 4: they play the Titans this week, and if there is
Speaker 4: one team that can somehow have a miraculous bounce back,
Speaker 4: it is the Cowboys. But they are by far the
Speaker 4: most untrustworthy team in the NRL at the moment.
Speaker 3: You touched in that Broncos game for team. And this
Speaker 3: is not making an excuse because what we saw was
Speaker 3: just abysmal and embarrassing, humiliating.
Speaker 2: You can use any adjective you.
Speaker 3: Like, but I just wonder how much stock they put
Speaker 3: into that Brisbane game of the week before.
Speaker 2: That was a tough game. Was eighteen and ten.
Speaker 3: I think it was at full time and maybe it
Speaker 3: had an impact. But again, please don't misguide what I've
Speaker 3: said as an excuse, because it's not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know where they go from here, though, I don't know
Speaker 3: how emotionally and mentally you can come back from that.
Speaker 3: This will really test what's belief that emblem on the
Speaker 3: Cowboys jumping this week yep, because those wins stick with
Speaker 3: you for life.
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about the season.
Speaker 3: That's a loss that they will remember for the rest
Speaker 3: of their lives because it was utter humiliation and I
Speaker 3: just don't know whether they have what it takes to
Speaker 3: bounce back from that.
Speaker 2: I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: Todd Payton said it it was the darkest day for
Speaker 4: the club. So that's now they're you're rightfull like now
Speaker 4: those you know players are tainted with that for the
Speaker 4: rest of the season that you know, they were part
Speaker 4: of the darkest day in the life of the Cowboys.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I don't know. And it's it's strange because
Speaker 4: a week before I wrote how you know Todd Payden
Speaker 4: was initially his tenure was, you know under the spotlight
Speaker 4: people were talking about, you know, would he be is
Speaker 4: he the right guy to take them forward? They re
Speaker 4: sign him, you know they're going, okay, they're in the finals.
Speaker 4: Heart they have that incredible performance against the Broncos. I write,
Speaker 4: oh my god, look at the look at the turnaround
Speaker 4: under Todd Payden. You know he's got guys like Braden
Speaker 4: Burn's playing their best footy, you know, their physical clearly responding,
Speaker 4: and then they deliver that. So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Like I said, if there's one team that can bounce
Speaker 4: back from out, I feel like it's the Cowboy. But
Speaker 4: you don't trust that they have the energy or I
Speaker 4: don't know, the consistency to actually genuinely be a finals content.
Speaker 3: Now we have the fifty point rule. If you lose
Speaker 3: by fifty you can't win, so.
Speaker 5: That's a light win now or next year as well.
Speaker 1: It's like for the Cowboys, it's tough. It's like they've
Speaker 1: just been involved in the most horrific car crash known
Speaker 1: to man and now they have to front up next
Speaker 1: week and deliver. There's going to be some demons there.
Speaker 1: I think it's hard to flush a game like that.
Speaker 1: You can flush a game where you make thirty errors
Speaker 1: or a bunch of stupid mistakes, but to get absolutely destroyed.
Speaker 1: It was embarrassing for them. It's going to be tough
Speaker 1: for them to come back. What I will say in
Speaker 1: their defense, the Roosters in that first twenty minutes were insane.
Speaker 1: It was it was dead and buried by then. They
Speaker 1: looked on another level. This is the performance that a
Speaker 1: lot of fans have been wanting from the Roosters to
Speaker 1: determine their Premiership credentials, and it's in the middle. They
Speaker 1: were just lethal. Their line speed was so fast, they
Speaker 1: were running hard, they were dominating the game. Their backs
Speaker 1: were throwing all the classic Rooster's ball where it's just
Speaker 1: try and make a try, try and make attack happen.
Speaker 1: Errors be damned, and they really were respectable it doesn't
Speaker 1: justify a seventy point loss. But the Roosters have turned
Speaker 1: up and made a real exclamation points to the competition
Speaker 1: that they're going to be contenders. So then it begs
Speaker 1: the question who can challenge Penrith Bulldog? Who do you reckon?
Speaker 1: Who do you reckon that most likely to challenge Penrith
Speaker 1: for the title?
Speaker 2: I think you just answered it. Okay, I think you
Speaker 2: just danced it.
Speaker 3: I've done Bulldogs by this week on saying it's a
Speaker 3: two horse race. I don't think there's any side out
Speaker 3: there who can reach the elite levels at Penrith and
Speaker 3: the Roosters have achieved in recent times. They've got eighteen
Speaker 3: start of origin players between them. Yeah, that doesn't make
Speaker 3: or break this season. I'm just saying that that gives
Speaker 3: you an idea of the rosters that these two clubs
Speaker 3: are putting forward. Yes, the Bulldogs are going well and yes.
Speaker 2: Cronulla is on fire. I think they might have won
Speaker 2: nine from ten.
Speaker 3: However, I just see when it comes to the crunch
Speaker 3: the Premium finals, that's when your big guns are looked
Speaker 3: upon to go to another level, and they are the
Speaker 3: two clubs that will do it.
Speaker 2: They are elite rugby league.
Speaker 3: Clubs, big players, big rosters, win big moments.
Speaker 4: I was sorry, I'm going to ask you, bull dog.
Speaker 4: So it sounds like you're still not sold on Cronulla completely.
Speaker 1: No, well that's yeah, that's my because they're going fantastic.
Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong, and I'm not denigrating the Sharks,
Speaker 3: but we've been down this path before with Pala.
Speaker 2: The only way they're going to.
Speaker 3: Convince me and probably another MIDI rugby league fans out
Speaker 3: there is to win the comp but just getting to
Speaker 3: a prelim again and falling over and they've done it
Speaker 3: year after year.
Speaker 5: Fitzi knows it and they get the shits.
Speaker 1: He gets pretty shitty about when they've talked.
Speaker 2: About and remind of it. But there's only one might
Speaker 2: have fixed it. That's winning.
Speaker 1: And now I've hammered the Sharks this year for that
Speaker 1: same narrative that they haven't delivered on that on those
Speaker 1: big the big stage. However it fitz is right. Making
Speaker 1: a prelim isn't easy. And then if you look at
Speaker 1: the Roosters, okay, they're looking amazing. They're going to contend
Speaker 1: with Penrith, but there Ivan Cleary is Trent robinson'skryptonite. I
Speaker 1: think they might have had one win recently, but out
Speaker 1: of that, the Roosters just cannot beat Penrith, whereas the Sharks.
Speaker 1: I actually think the two best teams in the comp
Speaker 1: right now are the Sharks and the Roosters. The Sharks,
Speaker 1: the stats say that they're play the ball speed is
Speaker 1: three and a half seconds, you know, the average. I
Speaker 1: call bullshit. I swear they're more often than not getting
Speaker 1: two second play the balls. Brayley's picking it up from
Speaker 1: the ruck and sprinting through. They look absolutely dynamite. I
Speaker 1: genuinely think the Sharks need to be in contention for that.
Speaker 1: I know you said that they've got a soft run home,
Speaker 1: but a lot of their players are confidence players, so
Speaker 1: the fact that they're going to get more and more momentum,
Speaker 1: I generally think the Sharks are more of a title
Speaker 1: threat than the Roosters, and that's saying something because the
Speaker 1: Roosters look amazing.
Speaker 4: You know, there's been a lot of pressure in the
Speaker 4: last couple of seasons on Nicko Heinz and his combination
Speaker 4: with Braidon Trindle one. He's got this ridiculous goal kicking streets,
Speaker 4: so I might just take you back to your bugbear
Speaker 4: about goal kickers. I think it's what thirty one, thirty.
Speaker 1: Two, thirty two, I think it any no right.
Speaker 4: But him and braidon Trindle And this was correct the
Speaker 4: last time I checked. Actually, in terms of creating opportunities,
Speaker 4: are the most effective halves pairing in the game. They
Speaker 4: have the between them, have the most triasist than any
Speaker 4: other halves combination.
Speaker 3: Kennedy's been brilliant, Bradley's brilliant. I think Heines is playing
Speaker 3: better than when he won the delim a few years ago.
Speaker 3: Trindle is running the show, Niko's running more. They're just
Speaker 3: chock full of confidence.
Speaker 1: Fitz's got them. Really, they're dialing in. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like this Last Dance scenario. A bunch of players are
Speaker 1: off contract. They look like they're playing for each other.
Speaker 1: And then another thing that's become much more prominent it's
Speaker 1: always been around, is the Heines trendle dynamics sometimes that
Speaker 1: they found that hard to manage. Who was Numero Uno?
Speaker 1: Who is the general? And a lot of attention and
Speaker 1: scrutiny's gone on the Bulldogs on who they call the
Speaker 1: seven and who they call a six but the Sharks absolutely.
Speaker 1: The halfback's actually Braden Trindle. His kicking meters are more
Speaker 1: than double, maybe even triple. Nico Hines and Niko's runs
Speaker 1: are more than double than Trindle's. So they've worked it out.
Speaker 1: I think that that key issue of making Heinz the
Speaker 1: center of attention, putting it all on him, I think
Speaker 1: that's been equalized by how well Bradley's playing, Trindle's playing,
Speaker 1: Kennedy's playing. And again they always get overlook. But the
Speaker 1: forwards a massive, running, fast, hitting hard I genuinely think
Speaker 1: they're the number one chance to beat to top of
Speaker 1: the Panthers. Moving on from the weekend, and there was
Speaker 1: some real peculiarities that were occurring within the officiating and
Speaker 1: the interpretation of the rules. We had a sinbin for
Speaker 1: a hairpool. We had two players going off for essentially
Speaker 1: touching each other. We had a misconversion from right in front,
Speaker 1: well actually it was a conversion, it was called a miss.
Speaker 1: And then there's been big news about the trialing of
Speaker 1: the new kickoff rules. Where the heck do we start, bulldog?
Speaker 2: Let's start with Rhyce Walsh.
Speaker 1: Okay, yep, the hair pool, yes, oh no, it was ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know why he did it. While she
Speaker 3: decided in his wisdom to come charging into a melee.
Speaker 3: He wasn't needed in there in the very first place.
Speaker 3: He should stay back at fullback where he belongs, and
Speaker 3: then decides he wants to grab dom young hair. Look, clearly,
Speaker 3: Dom Young's got long hair.
Speaker 1: It must be nice, don It does get in the way,
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: But it was a good old fashioned grab and wrench.
Speaker 3: He deserved to go the sinbin he ultimately got charged
Speaker 3: to with. I think it was contry conduct. He faces
Speaker 3: a thousand dollars fine. It was silly, but to me
Speaker 3: it was indicative of the Broncos season, ill disciplined, unnecessary, stupid, silly.
Speaker 3: And this is what the Broncos have had to compete
Speaker 3: with all year. They just kill themselves.
Speaker 1: See, I saw it a bit differently, Bulldog. I thought.
Speaker 1: I thought Reese had a good argument of a player
Speaker 1: was attacking his player and he was trying to get
Speaker 1: him off him. Should you pull hair?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: But what made it annoying to me is that also
Speaker 1: McEwen from the Knights went off as well. He was
Speaker 1: SimBin as well. And this is definitely one of My
Speaker 1: most frustrating things that happens within the officiating is that
Speaker 1: when there's a melee, we can't just have one. We
Speaker 1: can't have one person do worse. So out of those
Speaker 1: two things, absolutely pulling the hand from Reese Walsh was
Speaker 1: the worst act. Why are both players going to the
Speaker 1: SimBin because.
Speaker 3: You're not supposed to go into a melee, but you
Speaker 3: leave it alone. It's none of your business, stay out.
Speaker 3: But they all try to be tough guys and they're
Speaker 3: all tired by their coach. If there's a melee, I
Speaker 3: don't want everyone in there. They all come charging in.
Speaker 3: Then the it's hand bags at ten. Just stay out,
Speaker 3: it's none of your business.
Speaker 2: Move on, stop trying to be tough.
Speaker 5: Guys, piece off, back to your positions.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's it's always been the guy that runs
Speaker 4: in and escalates it. And I think you hear the
Speaker 4: referee saying, you know, I saw you Jumaine. He pretty much,
Speaker 4: you know, ran halfway across the field to get involved
Speaker 4: in this melee, which is probably you know what got
Speaker 4: him SimBin, just the fact that he went out of
Speaker 4: his way to get involved. But that's always been the rule, right,
Speaker 4: like if you rush in, the third man, the fourth man, whatever,
Speaker 4: you're the one who escalates it, then no, I'm going
Speaker 4: to get in trouble for it.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. Third man in. That's the punish. That's
Speaker 1: how I always understood the punishment before the last decade.
Speaker 1: The third man in. You've escalated the situation, you should
Speaker 1: go to the bin. But when we're taking both players,
Speaker 1: we're not saying third man. We're saying third man, and
Speaker 1: whoever the third man is for the other team, they
Speaker 1: go to the bin. I think it's inconsistent the one,
Speaker 1: the one that was.
Speaker 4: I think you have to like, I get it's not punishment.
Speaker 4: I get Reses Walsh pulled the hair as part of
Speaker 4: the melee, But when you sort of see in isolation,
Speaker 4: I tend to agree with Bulldog that of all the
Speaker 4: things that happened, Recee pulling the hair was probably the
Speaker 4: worst thing to happen in that melee. Like, I'm not
Speaker 4: going to say it's the same as punching somebody, will
Speaker 4: you know they're stuck in a mela. But he did
Speaker 4: go out of his way again to find I know
Speaker 4: Dom Young has a lot of hair, find his hair
Speaker 4: and pull it, like he didn't have to do that.
Speaker 1: Well, the most agreed. If we're in agreement the most egregients,
Speaker 1: egregious actors hair pulling, then re should go. So my
Speaker 1: point is like if we go back to the finals
Speaker 1: last year with the Raiders and Broncos and it was
Speaker 1: a Hudson Young and Reese Welsh, and all Hudson Young.
Speaker 2: Did was say some mean words, whereas Reese.
Speaker 1: Weld put his head into it right. So I absolutely
Speaker 1: and I reckon a bunch of fans will find this
Speaker 1: soone or happens in origin all the time. It's not
Speaker 1: really a punishment if both teams are punished.
Speaker 4: Yeah, are you saying it's done sort of to square
Speaker 4: the ledger? So you know it's one of those situations
Speaker 4: where you know you're taking too much of a risk
Speaker 4: as a ref just to send one off. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: to appease everybody you send.
Speaker 1: Because a man down changes the entire dynamic of the game.
Speaker 1: When you take a man from each side it means nothing.
Speaker 1: You might as well leave them on, is my point.
Speaker 1: Blow penalty to Newcastle for Reese's hairpool move on. I
Speaker 1: just hate when they try and make it even and
Speaker 1: level when both both the incidents were not the same anyway.
Speaker 1: That's my ramp for this episode. Okay, moving on, we
Speaker 1: saw a very very interesting conversion attempt where the touch
Speaker 1: judges actually called it a dismissed, the referee reviews it
Speaker 1: and the ball clearly went over. Fans were pretty miffed
Speaker 1: about that one.
Speaker 2: Bulldog.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well it was embarrassing for the game, wasn't It
Speaker 3: was a Royce Walsh kick from right in front.
Speaker 2: It was a low trajectory kick. Excuse me.
Speaker 3: And yeah, sometimes with the background of a crowd, you've
Speaker 3: got the led big screen there, it can be challenging.
Speaker 3: I get it, but it's a one job moment. You
Speaker 3: got one job to do the kicks from right in front.
Speaker 3: It went over.
Speaker 2: It clearly went over.
Speaker 3: It was a step up, and I think it left
Speaker 3: the game more embarrassed than anything else. Fortunately, the video referee,
Speaker 3: we can go to the video referee these days, as
Speaker 3: you just touched on and we sort it out and
Speaker 3: it got fixed.
Speaker 2: But yeah, look, I'm told that.
Speaker 3: When there's two touchies they're supposed to make up their
Speaker 3: own mind. Those are the rules. But between now and
Speaker 3: nine one hundred and eight, they've actually spoken behind the
Speaker 3: try line and one will go yes, no goal, no goal,
Speaker 3: So obviously someone's gone no goal, and the second ones
Speaker 3: waved it away.
Speaker 2: That's led to the embarrassment.
Speaker 4: It's interesting you say that. So I did watch it
Speaker 4: over a couple of times because I wrote about it.
Speaker 4: In the tackle, it looks like Reswalsh not I don't
Speaker 4: know if he trips or sort of shanks the ball
Speaker 4: a little bit, so I don't know if that distracts
Speaker 4: one of the touches seeing that you know it wasn't
Speaker 4: a clean kick from Res Walsh. But if you actually look,
Speaker 4: one of the touchies actually goes to raise the flag
Speaker 4: before then they seem to change their mind. Maybe they
Speaker 4: get the call saying it missed, and all of a
Speaker 4: sudden both of them are waving it away. But yeah,
Speaker 4: for a conversion right in front. Like you said, Bulldog,
Speaker 4: I think it shouldn't happen, and it's more embarrassing than anything.
Speaker 4: And you know, all I've seen on social media is
Speaker 4: the stereotype and the jokes about refs really can't see.
Speaker 1: Well, I hate to be contrarian, No, I love it.
Speaker 1: I thought gran Ekins, I think was the rep did
Speaker 1: a good job of explaining that it's gone so fast
Speaker 1: we can't see I can understand it. And what's more
Speaker 1: embarrassing rep one touch he putting up the flag and
Speaker 1: the other one waving away. It's an embarrassing scenario either way.
Speaker 1: Moving on to one that the refs aren't in control of,
Speaker 1: but will absolutely have significant impact on the game, It's
Speaker 1: been reported that the NRL are going to trial the
Speaker 1: team that concedes deciding who kicks off, so they're going
Speaker 1: to change that. They're going to trial it in inconsequential
Speaker 1: games for teams that can't make the eight fatima. I'll
Speaker 1: throw to you on this one. Is this a bad call?
Speaker 4: I don't like it, and I don't consider myself a
Speaker 4: purest in any sense of the word, but I just
Speaker 4: think so. The proposed rule is the team that concedes
Speaker 4: can either choose receive the ball or they can kick off, right,
Speaker 4: And the idea behind the kickoff change is to maybe
Speaker 4: hopefully reduce some of the blowout scores that we're seeing right,
Speaker 4: But to me, that feels like just another rule that
Speaker 4: is going to artificially manipulate momentum, and the reality is
Speaker 4: one of the reasons why we're seeing a lot of
Speaker 4: the blowout scores, and I know it's even doubt a
Speaker 4: bit as a season has gone on. Is the change
Speaker 4: to the set restarts, changing it from a forty meter
Speaker 4: threshold to a sixty meter threshold. So that's also sort
Speaker 4: of artificially determined momentum swings in the game. So instead
Speaker 4: of addressing that, come up with a new rule to
Speaker 4: address the blowouts. It doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 4: But also, if you're the team that's just conceded, why
Speaker 4: should you get rewarded for your bad defense? And the
Speaker 4: flaw in the rule to me is if it's about
Speaker 4: reducing blowout scores or keeping games competitive. Imagine you're on
Speaker 4: a team that you're a team mounting a comeback, You
Speaker 4: score a try, and then all of a sudden, your
Speaker 4: momentum is broken because the team that's trying to hold
Speaker 4: onto their leads going nonah nah, you know we're going
Speaker 4: to receive the ball. So none of it makes sense
Speaker 4: to me. They're going to trial it in some dead
Speaker 4: rubber games towards the end of the season. Again, why
Speaker 4: are we trialing such a significant rule change in games
Speaker 4: that don't mean anything? Like you need to be able
Speaker 4: to see what impact the rule has when there is
Speaker 4: something on the line. So I don't like it. I know,
Speaker 4: I think Wayne Bennett is one of the proponents for it.
Speaker 4: I think overall a lot of coaches aren't, you know,
Speaker 4: the biggest fan of it. But I just think we're
Speaker 4: meddling with something that doesn't regular board.
Speaker 3: I think fatima in terms of the chor issue here
Speaker 3: is the set restarts, So maybe that's something that they
Speaker 3: should look at to try to prevent these momentum blowouts
Speaker 3: rather than going to the next level, which isn't the
Speaker 3: problem in the first place.
Speaker 5: Look, look, I get the theory. We don't want blowouts.
Speaker 3: Yah, Rugby Leagu's not a blowouts, and momentum these days
Speaker 3: is causing some high scores. But I think you're spot on.
Speaker 3: Let's get the core issue of determined and fixed before
Speaker 3: we start meddling with the issue that's down the track.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got to get this rant out like this
Speaker 1: has only occurred because the set, like you mentioned, the
Speaker 1: set restarts have changed, so the game's getting faster, momentum
Speaker 1: has become uncontrollable. So what's the problem That rule has
Speaker 1: created a problem. So instead of fixing the rule that
Speaker 1: didn't work, We're going to create a new rule to
Speaker 1: try and mitigate the previously dumb rule that the Neralal
Speaker 1: just needs to go back to last year's rules. We
Speaker 1: don't need to change the kickoff. We just need to
Speaker 1: go back to twenty twenty five's rules. It's killing fans,
Speaker 1: it's killing the game. We're getting to this point of
Speaker 1: philosophical pontification and scientific study to try and work out
Speaker 1: how we can get this game that we love back
Speaker 1: on track. Just go back to last year's rules. Now
Speaker 1: onto Bulldog's favorite segment of the episode, the BS Messages
Speaker 1: of the Week. This is where if something got you
Speaker 1: riled up, you've got a gripe. You're really pissed off
Speaker 1: with something that's happening in the NRL. We want to
Speaker 1: hear your messages. Go to codesport dot com DoD au
Speaker 1: and submit it. It's really easy, front and center, top
Speaker 1: of the page. We want to hear from you. We've
Speaker 1: got one from Ross in Townsville. I wonder what he's
Speaker 1: going to be talking about. Fatima my Nan could have
Speaker 1: put up a better defensive effort. Absolutely pathetic from the cowboys.
Speaker 1: Not happy jam.
Speaker 4: I reckon if you fielded thirteen NaN's from Townsville on
Speaker 4: the weekend. They probably would have put in a better
Speaker 4: defensive effort than what we got.
Speaker 1: So yep, yep, damning, scathing indictment from Fatima there, bulldog,
Speaker 1: good luck making sense of this one.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So the game introduced the six tackle rule in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties to even up possession. Now the six again
Speaker 1: or the six more rule can give aside a run
Speaker 1: of possession. That's from Glenn in Tippery in New South Wales.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that specification. So he's saying there like
Speaker 1: we had the six tackle sets came in so we
Speaker 1: could balance up possession, and now the set restarts are
Speaker 1: taking away that even contested possession.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not quite sure.
Speaker 3: What Glenn is referring to the six tackled in in
Speaker 3: the nineteen eighties. I think it came in about the sixties.
Speaker 3: So we're now trying to compare apples and origes and
Speaker 3: what's sixty five years ago. I think what Glenn's trying
Speaker 3: to say is it as the game being nullified from
Speaker 3: what we tried to establish sixty years ago.
Speaker 2: Glenn, I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to keep the sorry against Glenn,
Speaker 1: Sorry mate, Sorry bro. Thanks so much for tuning in. Folks. Again,
Speaker 1: we want to hear from you with a bit more
Speaker 1: detail from you next time, Glenn, if you want to
Speaker 1: reach out to us on cod sports dot com, Dadau,
Speaker 1: let's just hear it, guys. We want to talk about
Speaker 1: what's got you wound up. Thanks again for a great
Speaker 1: episode and we will see you next week.