Round 1 Discussion

[Alec]

Has this been the worst opening round in the NRL in a long time? Only team with an 80% completion rate was Manly.

 

[Porthoz]

Those are the rules mate. Feki was being a grubby thug all match.

He was, but if people were punished for being grubs, Gallen, Bird and Reynolds would have life bans...

Re the rules, you can't have the offender getting the same punishment as the guy defending himself. Wighton should have enough self control not to let Feki get under his skin.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Canberra did well to hold on tonight. I expected the Sharks forward pack to roll over the Raiders but to their credit they defended quite well. The Sharks were very ordinary in the first half. The pommy hooker Hodgson looked pretty good. Seemed to provide good spark out of dummy half for the Raiders.

 

[Tera]

I haven't seen what Thurston did yet. Is there a video?

Not so sure about a video but he chased one his own kicks and got stepped by RTS. He threw his leg out like Reynolds did in an attempt to bring him down.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Terrible game as expected. Barba was awful as well. I think Wayne made the right call.

 

[CaptainHook]

No players should be sin binned for reacting to a punch. Are we seriously expecting them to offer the other cheek?

Agreed and good point. You can't expect a player to stand there and get his block knocked off. Maybe a 5 minute sin bin is the answer? 10 for the bloke who threw the first one and only 5 for the one who retaliated.

 

[Big Pete]

Milford who?

Jack Wighton really stood up and was the difference between both teams. He let himself down with that stupid punch, I'm sure Ricky will get into him about that but I don't think anyone is going to be too disappointed in him standing up for himself.

Watching the Raiders, I didn't get the sense at all that they're going to be a wooden spoon side like a lot of people predicted. If anything, they looked as patchy as ever with moments of brilliance followed by moments of disappointment.

I expected that of the Raiders, what I didn't expect was the Sharks to be so disappointing. I thought after such a tumultuous year they'd be well drilled and really up for this contest but they commited some of the dumbest errors I've seen of any team this weekend. That last ten minutes in particular was so poor by them...and if I'm going to throw a name under the bus, let it be Wade Graham who gave away not one but two dumb penalties and threw a loose pass that killed whatever chance they had at the death. I've never seen a more frustrating player. Wade should be a top player by now, he really should be playing Origin but he keeps letting himself down with these schoolboy mistakes and he lacks the maturity to advance.

Next week is going to be very interesting. A lot of people rated the Broncos and Sharks as Top 8 sides but both really struggled in Round 1 and paralleled the other. It's going to be a close one but I'd dare say this early that the loser won't be in the 8 come season's end.

 

[CaptainHook]

It's going to be a close one but I'd dare say this early that the loser won't be in the 8 come season's end.

Very comprehensive post, Pete. I don't like plucking quotes out of context but I suspect you're absolutely right on this point. I hope the boys can dig deep and get a win.

 

[Broncoman]

Barba had an shocker in his first Sharks match. Barely ran the ball or got involved, kicking was poor and defence was poor. The Sharks were very ordinary and seemingly weren't communicating at all at the back as they let kicks from the Raiders bounce when they should've easily taken them.

The Raiders looked a lot better than last year. Cornish might finally be the halfback they've been looking for, he is a confident and talented young player and he played well tonight although he could've made some better options like his kick at the end which Kearney knocked on.

The one punch and you're off rule is so stupid and just makes the game a farce. I'm not encouraging violence but Feiki had to defend himself and what else was he going to do, a sin bin for standing up for yourself is stupid. Every game this round (i've seen) has been filled with AFL type niggles and players should be able to blow off steam and get the frustrations out of their system. The NRL needs to come up with a system that punished violence but keeps the outcome of the game fair.

 

[Super Freak]

 

[ivanhungryjak]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=786218371466126

Moses gets off for his coat hanger ... With an early guilty plea, that is.

 

[BroncosAlways]

Paulo facing a 9 week suspension for a dangerous throw on Ballin, 7 weeks if pleads guilty. Can't help thinking that's a bit harsh

 

[Unbreakable]

That's actually disgracefully harsh for that tackle.. he flung him to the ground, there was little to no intent, it just got a bit awkward positionally, it was no worse than what Gavet did

 

[Porthoz]

MRC at their usual best... :tsk:

 

[mitch222]

Amazingly they got the Paulo charge pretty much what I thought they would with the grading. It was a simular tackle to what TRex got done with two years ago when he was at Manly and he missed like 8 weeks to. Basically he was punished because he had no control what so ever in the tackle and Ballin could have landed on his head if it wasn't for luck.

 

[broncos4life]

I actually think the MRC have done a good job this round. Especially with Paulo. They seem to finally be punishing on the damage that could potentially happen from illegal acts rather than waiting for the illegal act to cause damage and then punish

 

[Alec]

I reckon it's time to promote Segeyaro to the QLD squad bench. He could Craig Wing it up from there, he's genuinely getting better and better, and still hasn't reached his peak. Could be the next great supersub IMO.

 

[Unbreakable]

I reckon it's time to promote Segeyaro to the QLD squad bench. He could Craig Wing it up from there, he's genuinely getting better and better, and still hasn't reached his peak. Could be the next great supersub IMO.

I'd say he's first in line after Smith retires for the starting gig atm, he's way better than Friend