Robbo reads riot act to Roosters enforcer; why brutal Dogs punishment is fair game — Jimmy Brings
THE Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs player who was 12 minutes late to training was made to wrestle against eight different players over the course of a four minute window.
Too strenuous? Not the way we see it.
Professional footballers are elite athletes and we’ve never encountered a champion athlete who didn’t train hard.
It’s like the old line about what comes first – talent or confidence? The answer is hard work.
We’re old enough to remember going to Canterbury-Bankstown headquarters when Steve Folkes was steering the Bulldogs to the club’s last premiership in 2004.
Back then the three staples of the way the Bulldogs did business were train hard, play hard and party hard.
We can still recall watching Mark O’Meley, Willie Mason, Braith Anasta, Andrew Ryan, Sonny Bill Williams and Johnathan Thurston running coathangers around Belmore Oval in the pre-season.
It was a brutal culture built around hard work and winning was simply part of their DNA.
Today Canterbury-Bankstown is a very pale imitation of what the club stood for 20 years ago.
You get the feeling head coach Cameron Ciraldo and general manager of football Phil Gould will be making some major changes over the course of the off-season as the Bulldogs look to rediscover what the club stands for.
The old saying about defence being an attitude rings true.
The Dogs of War forward packs of the 1980s coached by Warren Ryan were some of the most brutal defensive sides in the history of the game.
Today the Bulldogs’ defence is simply embarrassing, leaking an average of 32 points per game.
In the NRL it’s simply not good enough.
ROBBO’S STERN WORD TO JWH AFTER BRAIN SNAP
WHEN you talk about the greatest front row forwards of the last 40 years names like Steve Roach, Glenn Lazarus, Petero Civoniceva, Shane Webcke, Paul Harragon, Ian Roberts, Sam Burgess, David Gillespie, Mark Carroll and Matt Scott inevitably enter the conversation.
That’s our top 10 in no particular order of the best of the best who plied their trade in the toughest position on the field.
After 15 years in the rough and tumble of the middle of the field Sydney Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has earned the right to enter this discussion.
Three premierships, 298 NRL matches, 33 Tests for New Zealand, Jared’s never taken a backward step.
As much as we’ve long been big fans of the way the Roosters enforcer plays his brain snap in round 26 against Wests Tigers was unforgivable.
Which explains why Roosters coach Trent Robinson called JWH in on Monday for a sit down and a debrief about how it’s unacceptable for the alpha forward at the Roosters to let the red mist descend and allow his head to fall off so spectacularly.
Robinson and JWH share an extremely tight-knit rapport but the Roosters coach has every right to be fuming about Waerea-Hargreaves failing to put the team first leading into the pointy end of the season.
The Roosters showed how much they respect Jared by granting him a one-year extension to suit up for a 16th straight season in the NRL earlier this year.
But JWH let the club, his coach and his teammates down badly by losing his cool against the Tigers.
Instead of playing in one of the grudge matches of the season against arch rivals South Sydney on Friday night when the Roosters need him, JWH will be serving the first game of a seven match suspension.
Jared got this one horribly wrong.
HERE’S TO A GREAT PLAYER – AND AN EVEN BETTER BLOKE
MANLY champion Jake Trbojevic continues to buck the trend about nice guys finishing last in the NRL.
Preparing to notch his 200th NRL appearance on Friday night at Four Pines Park otherwise known as Brookvale Oval, Jurbo is one of the best modern day role models the game has seen.
Whether he’s cooking the barbecue at a Mona Vale Raiders game or Manly training or cutting an opponent in half with his copybook tackle technique, Jake always does it with a smile on his face.
To the point where he has been known to apologise to opposition players after putting a big shot on.
One of our favourite Jake stories was from a Kangaroo tour in England when Trbojevic first cracked it into the green and gold arena.
With the Kangaroos all out celebrating a great win the night wore on with the players rightfully enjoying themselves.
Jake being Jake had a couple of beers then turned security guard and chaperone and made sure all the players made it back to the team hotel in one piece.
Outstanding. Champion player and a champion bloke.
SILLY REASON RAIDERS’ DIE-HARD MISSES COWBOYS BATTLES
HOW good is the Canberra Raiders drummer known as Simon from Bass Hill who follows the Green Machine around rain, hail or shine.
There he was at the NRL judiciary on Tuesday night to support big Red Corey Horsburgh fresh from travelling to the national capital for the Raiders showdown with the Brisbane Broncos last Saturday.
A boiler maker and welder by trade, Simon had to ask for time off work on Tuesday night to make it to NRL headquarters from Bass Hill by 5pm to wish Horsburgh good luck on the way in.
Unfortunately the Raiders failed in their bid to get Horsburgh exonerated but Simon will still suit up and make the trip to Shark Park for the Green Machine’s season-defining game on Sunday.
He’s been to every game this year except for the North Queensland Cowboys fixture in round one because for some reason he’s not allowed to bring his drum into Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
Surely the NRL can have a word so Simon gets the green light to make the road trip to Townsville as well.
CHOOKS YOUNG GUNS DO IT AGAIN
CONGRATULATIONS to the Sydney Roosters on becoming back-to-back minor premiers in the under 21s Jersey Flegg competition.
While the Roosters NRL side trains at the swish new $10 million Nick Politis Centre of Excellence at Allianz Stadium the Tricolours Jersey Flegg side still has a far more blue collar theme to it.
The majority of field sessions are held at Rowland Park in Daceyville, the gym they train in is a Colorbond shed at Daceyville PCYC and they use the Malabar rock pool if players need to rehab in an ice bath.
Western Sydney arch rivals Penrith and Parramatta will face off in week one of the Jersey Flegg finals on Saturday while the Bulldogs will play Cronulla on Sunday.
The Roosters, as minor premiers, have earned the week off.
The Tricolours success has all happened under the watchful eye of popular head coach Dean “Uncle Fester” Feeney and strength and conditioning guru Steve Driscoll.
The 17 club CEO’s all gathered at South Sydney’s flash new training centre at Heffron Park on Wednesday to go over all the big ticket issues facing the game.
Congratulations to Tales from Tiger Town star Justin Pascoe for turning up after being unable to attend the State Leagues briefing at the NSW Blues Centre of Excellence earlier this month.
Also congratulations to Pascoe for his new Miami Vice-themed outfit on the latest Wests Tigers podcast and for the Wests Tigers officially collecting back-to-back wooden spoons.
It’s been exemplary leadership.
JUDICIARY LOTTERY THANKFULLY OVER
CREDIT where credit’s due, the NRL Judiciary has now got to a stage where the system seems to be working.
While we didn’t agree with Raiders cult figure Corey Horsburgh getting a four-week suspension for a grade one shoulder charge there’s clearly been an edict go around about players who opt to fight charges needing to present a compelling case.
Since the beginning of last season there’s been 22 players fight match review committee charges at NRL headquarters with a strike rate of 16 found guilty, only three found not guilty and three successfully winning down grades.
The days of the Powerball lottery numbers often being produced appear over.
Simplifying the system to only having two judiciary panel members with NRL judiciary chairman Geoff Bellew having a casting vote if the panel fails to reach a unanimous decision is working.
We did have to laugh on Wednesday night when it appeared one person in attendance was shocked Horsburgh was suspended for four weeks.
We would have thought everyone knew the scenario. Surely it’s in the brief.
