The Tip Sheet is also available on Spotify and iTunes!
It wasn’t so much a game of two halves as a game of two edges as the North Queensland Cowboys eviscerated a dysfunctional Parramatta left edge. By contrast Bryce Cartwright and Will Penisini lit up the second half down the right side of the field but it proved to be barely too little too late.
Sixties and Forty20 jump into a tough instant reaction podcast as they dissect a costly first half. Injury was added to insult as well as Shaun Lane rounded out a nightmare season of injuries with a brutal elbow dislocation to go with a broken jaw and a torn hamstring.
Valiant efforts from Clinton Gutherson, Bryce Cartwright and Will Penisini not only mitigated a potentially ugly hit to the team’s points differential but somehow put the Eels into an unlikely position to win the game. The boys look at how much more time Parramatta needed to get over the line and whether they made the right call to not take a shot at goal in the closing exchanges of the game.
Another indictment on recruitment and retention – the fact that waqa Blake is still required for first grade duties such is our limited depth. Such a shame. We over achieved last year and rested on our laurels. So many poor performances being dragged up by Moses and gutho week in week out. Something has to change. Someone give BA some good players to work with.
Its Arthur’s team, why are you blaming others on what players he has signed or released?
The real problem is dill brown , what hes done to our season is unforgivable , he hasnt learnt a lesson !! 20,000 fine by club , big deal , he would be laughing his head off , mr hot n cold overpaid !! Let his team mates down and couldnt care less undeneath !!!!
Matterson also. His decision started the rot. What a joke even to not talk him out of it
Chief, you always give yourself away at some stage. Research how the recruitment and retention works.
I don’t always agree with you Ron but in this instance you have a good point.
No R & R group can overcome the suspensions and injuries we have been through this season.
Whilst I am happy with the spine the backline, Will Penisini aside,is a bit average and needs some upgrade.
I think BA probably has forwards he can work with and there seems to be a few good forwards coming through the Pathways as well.
However my thoughts are that we need to be looking for a strike centre or winger or both
Regrettably, none of that is news to most parra fans John. We have the depth of a swamp (particularly in spine and backline). We have known this since 2018 (and even before that with takrangi). Our unwillingness and/or inability to address these fatal deficiencies and the horrific decision to go into the year with 27/30 top line players contracted (noting long term injuries to some of that 27) has really cost us. There really needs to be some accountability in this regard. We will slide down the ladder if we don’t rejuvenate the backline and move off from players that have shown their chronic inconsistency over the years. But I suspect mark O’Neil and the other blokrs in r and r will probably hand BA a bunch of fringe older reserve graders to somehow develop snd address these longstanding issues. Forget about juniors or a well established nrl talent coming to parra.
Brad arthur has the final say on recruitment genius
There’s a recruitment and retention team. BA does not, and could not, have time to coach and manage an nrl team and also be negotiating/selling the vision to the various potential recruits they probably have on a list (which ba no doubt has important input on). I understand that once BA identifies people it’s up to mark O’Neil and others to get the deal done (something they haven’t done well in signings and resignings re: ice, reed, Oregon etc). So sure, your comment might be correct in a general sense but ultimately lacking in any substance re: point your making “genius” (which is to apportion most of the blame to BA)
Correct Ron
Chief, enough!
I turned the game off at about 60 mins, so missed the makings of a comeback. The 60 mins I watched was infuriating. The left edge defence was comically bad. Lane looked under done on match fitness (no surprise with the amount of game time he’s missed) and Asi, Bailey and Waqa looked aimless. It was one-way traffic and could have easily been 36-4 rather than 24-4.
I guess the good news is our left edge is so make-shift, it will only get better on the run into the finals. The bad news is it may not happen in time to helps us limp into the 8.
Totally agree with 60s sentiment on our approach to discipline. The strategy couldn’t be more obviously wrong with the stats being entirely upside-down. The 10 minutes the cows had Holmes in the bin, they couldn’t have spoilt more – they should have had another player sent off for infringing with professional fouls it was so bad. Yet we ended up spending 8 of the 10 mins defending.
The Holmes sin bin was clear cut, it was as bad if not worse than Sivo (if anything Sivo was more upright and less dangerous in the tackle). The bloke Sivo hit didn’t go off for an HIA so I didn’t understand why the commentators banged on about Moses not going off. Holmes also lined him up 10m out, so had every chance to make lower contact. He should expect 3-4 weeks on the sideline if there is any semblance of consistency.
What comeback, the cows obviously put the cue in the rack, the game was done and dusted. Nothing should be said about a few novelty tries by parra
Of course you’d say that Chief.
Just bar the imbecile mate !
He is banned Rocky. He is obsessed with TCT and uses a VPN or similar to get around blocks on IP addresses.
John, you’d expect that if there was any consistency. We know what will happen next.
Matterson said he had the support of the club in making the decision. “I just feel $4000 is pretty hefty considering I have already paid nearly $4000 in fines already this year for things that are absurd,” Matterson said.5 Oct 2022
This is the real problem that the club supported this. This was the start of the rot which broke comradery and Imo led to players like Dylan not adhering to club rules when other players take 3 weeks holiday for a mars bar fine
How do you know that the club supported this? How do you know whether or not they didn’t try to talk him out of it?
The club offered to pay it and matto declined on principle , so as usual chief youve embarrassed yourself,🦃🦃🦃🦃
Why couldn’t Matterson pay the fine? Isn’t he on 700k or something seems like a small amount for someone on his wages Rocky
It does doesn’t it Chief
Is it just me that can’t work out why Townsend stays on after a kick to dislocate Lanes elbow with a follow through knee to his jaw while on the ground
Well it was obviously an accident, why else would he not have been put on report,?
It’s not just you Gary.
If Lane was scoring a try it would have been a different story
I thought the same initially, but didn’t want to re-watch it to figure it out. It was a bit gruesome for my liking!
It was ugly!
Just watched it again…Atkins called out ‘he dived into his knee’. Well watch it again Grant. Lane’s head was above the ball first, the knee came second. Why didn’t the bunker call it? No way did Lane ‘dive into his knee’ It was marginal, but careless at minimum. Accidental is no longer a defence, or ‘he’s not that sort of player’.
BDon I wouldn’t expect any different.
So much there,great discussion. Yeah, the left edge looked like it was not engaging, waiting for the Cows to do something and they did. A few observations:
Moses and Hopgood were penalised for slowing the ruck when both times the tackled player milked it and contributed and the ruck was barely slowed anyway.
Moretti the same, but the tackled player(standing)had continued pushing forward near the line and Moretti was entitled to hold him until stationery.
The forward pass was a metre forward, not caused by momentum but Waqa made Hiku throw it quickly and forward, it should be pulled up when that happens, but Cows rewarded and Waqa on
report.
On KAYO, Ennis & co ranted on about a falling forearm/elbow by Carty, then the replay showed it was across the chest/shoulder, rather than just say ‘no, that’s OK’ they ranted about how close to the wind Carty had sailed. They spent forever defending Holmes. To me first contact was top of shoulder, which probably saved Moses from HIA ,then into head, All year that’s penalty and or sin bin. If Holmes wants to cut it so fine then it’s at minimum careless. Menínga was sensible enough to come up with a theory that first contact OK but as Moses’s head whiplashed back towards Holmes, secondary contact was made, the others seemed to see no contact with the head. So with Carty, they saw non-existent head contact but with Moses nothing. And I didn’t see a whiplash either, just Moses’ head going one way, but if big Mal wanted to sit on the fence, that’s OK.
Hands and Hopgood made near 90 tackles between them, again, with Carty chiming in this week.
The Cows had only 15 players after half time, made only 290 tackles. The penalty/error count was 14-23 in their favour. They barely fell over the line. A couple more penalties or a couple less errors probably sees us nail them, even after a poor first half.
In a word ATKINS,!!!
We don’t seem to play a brand of footy that he likes.
It’s frustrating and there’s a reason why we are established as the team receiving the fewest penalties this season. The 4 penalties we received was even less than the 4.4 season average! We don’t even take umbrage with being penalised, certainly not as much as opposing teams being adjudged cleanskins against us.
The positives are that in what seems to be a season from hell Parra are still in the eight and Waqa is on report. If I was Parra I would be contesting the charge.
I’m disappointed in Daejarn. He has shown he has talent but at the moment in both attack and defence he is just not getting it done. And yes, the decline of Waqa is genuinely sad. But he cannot be picked for first grade again. Haze, even with issues re speed, is safer in defense.
As for the Storm, Harry Grant is on report for a knee in the back. But, you know, it is not a dog act as he is “not that type of player.”
Shaun, there won’t be any witch hunt with Harry. We know how it works
Can we still make the finals in your opinion. Every team has runs with injuries
While acknowledging Will and Bryce who looked really dangerous and put in so much effort, I hate to think what would have happened without Gutho and Moses last night. At the end it was almost like watching a junior team play with the two best players in attack taking the ball and everyone standing around watching them play a game. We must, no excuses with this, address our outside back depth next year. We don’t need an X factor we simply need replacement centres and wingers who can catch the ball and tackle. We don’t have that. When we bring in replacement they make errors that cost us games. It is not good enough. I still don’t know who we replaced Tom Opacic with. My guess is no one. Our outside depth was a problem last year and it has got worse this year. The recruitment guy must be made to answer for this.
On suspensions and media click bait in the game proceeding ours Harry Grant was put on report for kneeing a player in the back. He was chasing a kick and a Knights players slid to pick up the ball. Harry drop his knee in his back. Not glanced it but straight in his back. Bunker came in but no sin bin just report. Immediately the Fox commentary jumped to his defense, after all he is a Fox favourite and QLD star, with the old ‘ that is not his go it was an accident’ no intent there’ and then the Fox lacky’s back at the studio actually said he had no option but to knee him because his choice was to go down with his knees or step on him ( like jumping over him is no option). They actually praised his decision making because he did the thing that would hurt the Knights player less. You can see it, he will get a slap on the wrist as will Holmes. The NRL expects us to accept it and move on but something is very rotten at the moment with the NRL.
This is my wish for this week but I know we won’t do this. I get it and in many ways respect it from BA but I am so sick to death of coping it each week from the MRC and referees. My wish;
What I want this coming week is for our boys to force the NRL hand. Hold down Melbourne all night. Their play the ball speed in rd one was 2.98 ours of course was 3.8. For us to have a chance we must win the ruck. This week hold them down and shine a light on the NRL. Friday night national televised game see if they have the courage to heavily penalise us. And then if we do get penalised out of the game I want BA to let rip after the game and come with the stats that are there and obvious but have been ignored by the media. At least if you are going to be officiated out of games go down swinging.
It seems that a lot of people are in denial with regard to us being thrashed last night by a team playing better than us, yes there are the never ending stream of reffing errors but the reality is our defensive commitment was not good enough.
I am bemused by the perception of the R&R team being in trouble with supporters when you consider how we have seemingly and repeatedly pulled players out of our backside this year.
Yes we have a problem on the wing but we didn’t know that Waqa would have the complete downfall he has had. Our young backs have failed to measure up, but I believe Simmo and Peni are potentially a long term answer to the centres, with the pathways ultimately delivering in this area.Peni’s brother being one of the answers!
The result is that we cannot replace Dyllan and I am sick of hearing about his indiscretions. We know it, he knows it but morons like Chief will always harp on the negatives. Same goes for Matto, it is also history…..look forward, the rearview mirror is nothing to be guided by once the milk has been spilt,
Optimism is still the best course for us, Cowboys are not the type of team we will handle well. We needed to get them in the wrestle to have a chance, you can’t do that dropping the ball and missing tackles, you need to force the opposition to do that!
As harsh as the post-game analysis (including mine) has been on Waqa I do feel sorry for him. His belief in his ability has evaporated and it is sad. Maybe he can resurrect his career in Super League as did Bevan French.
He’s a genuinely nice bloke Shaun. It too feel for him.
Poppa, the problem as I see it with R & R is a matter of numbers. We have available spots in the top 30, have done all year. We just don’t have the troops in outside backs. Are there options in the market we could have targeted? Hats probably the debatable component
Lindner seems to hold sway at the MRC. Grant will be OK. No case to answer.
Of course
I’m on the same page Shelley. As I said in the podcast. Training to be clean, giving up play the ball speed every week, no longer provides any advantage. If we are the same speed getting off our opponents as they are, we look slow and cop a penalty or a set restart against us. Time to push the boundaries
https://www.nrl.com/news/2023/01/01/judiciary-report-latest-judiciary-charges-suspension-news-updates-details/
Expected!