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Tense NRL 360 moment exposes NRL’s ‘protected species’
An awkward live TV moment involved NRL legend Gorden Tallis has exposed a “protected species” in the game no one wants to talk about.
Dane Eldridge
3 min read
April 24, 2024 - 10:54AM
Because rugby league is all about diversity, this week it’s Brad Arthur’s turn to be grilled like a bratwurst. And after the hideous events of Saturday night against the Dolphins, he really can’t complain. As we know, any coach will endure an indefinite public endoscopy after his team spends a second half tackling like matadors.
And it’s a simple fact this will continue unchallenged until he’s either victorious, sacked, or until Souths play again. Yep, the rugby league rotisserie is no mystery to a po-faced realist like Arthur, a man commonly tagged as the NRL’s Julian Assange. As the coach of a circus like Parramatta, some believe he is a lone hero fighting against a corrupt system, while others want him locked away in an Ecuadorean embassy. But whether he’s been unfairly treated or you wanted him sacked yesterday, one fact remains inescapable: The Eels coach is only one atomic result away from the blowtorch at all times, whereas some of his contemporaries live permanently behind double-glaze.
Even allowing for all the complimentary brickbats that come with coaching the Eels, why is this so? It’s because there’s a special firewall in rugby league saved for the game’s privileged, and he isn’t one of them. While big black birds circle above the Eels on a loop, Trent Robinson has an envious roster and nothing to show for it since 2019, and he lives in tranquillity on a proverbial island without 3G. Yep, despite a record comparable to the Eels mentor in recent times, the punitive measures subjected to the Roosters coach are somewhat contrasting, i.e. there are none.
This was highlighted by Gorden Tallis on NRL360, with the former Maroon leaping to Arthur’s defence when Phil Rothfield bayed for the coach’s head following the disastrous loss in Darwin. With the panel highlighting the impressive roster that remained at Arthur’s disposal despite the loss of Mitchell Moses, Tallis fired back: “You look at the Roosters and look at their roster and the way they’re performing. “And that coach (Robinson) is never under the pump.”
Gorden Tallis called out Roosters coach Trent Robinson during a discussion about Brad Arthur's future. The awkward silence in response was emblematic of a wider public and its wishy washy standards. Whether we irrationally fear this sleeping giant will “turn it around” or just irrationally fear Nick Politis, we‘re under the Roosters spell like it’s Scientology. Our narrative is brainwashed, we’re intimidated by their cult of celebrities, and much like committing to the movement, we assume Robinson is on a billion year contract. It’s a bum steer for guys like Arthur, especially when the numbers reveal he isn’t the only one who should be claiming the 10c refund on all those empty Mt Franklins.
Of course, Robinson has three premierships to boast of, an achievement not to be sniffed at. But bar the odd burst of imposing footy since, the majority has been a farrago of vibeless rot belying their reputation as a top four monolith.
Since 2019, both coaches have built a comparable win rate (Robinson 60%, Arthur 59%), with the Roosters’ only wins in finals being cliffhangers against an eighth place Gold Coast side in 2021, and even less impressive, the Sharks in 2023. On the other hand, Arthur has three finals victories in this time including a Grand Final appearance in 2022, a far more admirable achievement than the multiple GF’s the Roosters have made on paper.
But the real injustice exists in the detail. While Arthur is hardly going hungry with the talent at his disposal, his playing list is a pack of plumbers compared to a squad at Easts which is barely street legal. Even with injuries, Robinson still has loads of internationals running around- and that’s just in reserve grade. Arthur even pips Robinson at tax time, with their respective records against perennial auditors Melbourne and Penrith like night and day.
The Roosters aren’t living up to the billing. The Eel has triumphed in four of his last seven against Ivan Cleary and five of eight against Melbourne, whereas Robinson has overcome Craig Bellamy once in his last 10 clashes, and lost nine straight to Penrith. In short, Arthur is dealing with no Moses and 37 years of suffocating history, yet somewhere at a subatomic level, rugby league does not respect him. On the other hand, Robinson is a protected species, and if his last five years were scaled to Wests Tigers standards, he would’ve been stripped of his accreditation and forced to build orphanages in Guinea.
Dane Eldridge may well be a warped cynic, but there is a strong element of truth in the above.
Always a Bulldog
