You and Alan are right on the money dogluva. Logic says There had to be some dirty linen that the NRL didn’t want to be aired.

For sure. There won’t be any North London Derbies next year. Many fans left at half time. LOVE IT.

Spurs dumb and dumber. Ridiculous penalty to give away and now down to ten men.

Good call CD. Those words have been edited in the two posts. Any further use of them will be a holiday from this site.

No doubt about that.

I was responding to another post about the rule. I just clarified it for him.

Hopefully sionara.

Sutton hasn’t got a game this week. Been reffing in the Pre Season. Dropped or rested?

I’ll also add that I am led to believe the seven tackle set rule has been modified which I am happy with. Seven tackles was introduced to stop players deliberately kicking the ball dead to nullify the kick return of great fullbacks like Slater. Yet for years we had a situation where a try is...

The downtown offside rule was introduced about 20 years ago, to stop players being in front of the play the ball when their team are about to kick downfield near the end of the tackle count. An unfortunate sidelight of that is when a team receives a kick from the opposition his team mates have...

Let‘s hope the Kings and Queen of negativity stay out of this thread.

I know from experience that it is impossible for a referee to see absolutely everything. Players can get in your line of vision at times. It’s even more difficult if the touch judges don‘t see it and help you out by making a call.

That rule has been around for a few years. I think it was introduced around the turn of the century. It was basically because players were in front of the play the ball as it was about to be kicked downfield. Atkins‘ decision to penalise us was correct. I remember a World Cup game in England...

Bubbagump has been advised by PM re the use of that word, and has responded.

A sensible well constructed post.

Every game has 50/50’s. To me did a player lose the ball or was it stripped is the most difficult call to make.

Agree about DCE. He’s a jersey grabber now. He will get targeted unless Robinson has a solid defender positioned just inside him. If you re watch us playing Manly at Allianz last year we sent a lot of traffic at him and Turbo, who was in the centres that day.

Charge downs can help or hinder a team. He has pulled off a few good ones that have led to tries, when we have had territorial advantage. . However doing them in your own red zone is dumb and dumber stuff. Very low percentage. Agree CC has to address this.

It was a 50/50 that went our way.

The Kiks charge down gave them six again for their second try.

Yep, and he never seems to get fined.

That can often be the case. The closer to the try line the defence may not have to be back ten metres. 20 to 25 metres is the best distance to be out. I agree with other posters a proper seven like SOS would have taken control. Galvin has to learn that. Mind you in Golden Point I think in the...

100%.

As I said earlier, that was a 50/50 call. Most stripping penalties are.

If we scored from that play, it’s absolutely certain it would have been sent to the bunker. I think Connor wasn’t sure if it was a knock on or not, so being tackled and play on was probably to our advantage.

Been saying it for years Atkins is the best ref in the comp. He did the GF last year. There was one penalty in Golden Point, it was a 50/50 call and it ultimately decided the game. I can’t imagine for the life of me, if that penalty would have been given if G.Sutton had the whistle.

I think the key to an Aussie side winning the World Club Championship in the UK is having a warm up game in the UK the week prior to adapt to the conditions. Unfortunately a lot of UK clubs refuse to play such games.

Second game is at Allianz.

No Sutton’s involved in our game.

I don’t think the arm carrying the football touched the ground. Shoulder probably did. I was a bit dubious about the grounding,

Fair call.

Best way to create space on a slightly narrow field.

Amateurish.

Two quick adds on Fox.

I know it’s unlikely, but Spurs are in a position where they could win the Champions League and get relegated from the Premier League in the same season. Unlikely but possible,

That‘s a good point about right arm carry. I remember when Alomoti played left centre for us and carried the ball in his right arm. When you’re in the clear on the left side and the defence is coming at you from the inside, you can’t fend off the defence. If you watch a Sharks game when...

That’s because most of the people involved in rubber stamping the rule changes that I think are recommended by a committee of coaches, have never been involved as a player, coach or referee at the elite level.

Agree with that too.

Back when I had a whistle(over 35 years ago now), the main kpi we were taught to look for was the ball coming away from the tackle with spin on it and landing a couple of metres away. Modern players in possession sometimes get away with getting a penalty when it is clearly obvious it was a loose...

There is a place where you can post political stuff. Keep it out of the game day threads Thank you.

I wouldn’t be surprised either. Parra are taking on one of the “protected species clubs”, in the eyes of the NRL Admin.

Ok.

If we play them, Hincapie will miss the games as he is on loan from them.

Who’s your preference CD. Atalanta are 7th in Serie A.

Agree. dortmund are second in the Bundesliga, Leverkusen are sixth. Bayern will play the one that we don’t.

As Arteta has said many times, “There are no easy games in the Premier League.”

God chance when they go to Elland Road on the weekend. Leeds are not easy beats and have drawn a lot of games,

Pretty close to the mark I suspect. My concern would be if two teams played each other the week after one had played Thursday and one had played Monday the previous week. An extra four days rest and preparation time for the team that played earlier the previous week would be totally unfair...

Since its inception I’d say the English teams have won about 80% of them.

Please stick to the subject folks. The subject is Matt Utai not political stuff which belongs in other threads. Line in the sand. From this moment Anyone who posts political stuff in this thread, will be permanently thread banned from the Utai thread. Stick to the subject.

I’d love to see the Roosters get the spoon, but it won’t happen.

Don‘t know, but it’s been happening for a while in early season games.

At the start of the season, NRL will have to get creative as daylight saving generally doesn’t finish until the first Sunday in April, so the 2pm Sunday game generally doesn’t happen in the current draw. Thus the 6:15 Sunday time slot will happen during March. I would say during that period...

Many of the top coaches were not up to representative level. Gibson, Ryan, Bellamy, Sheens, Bennett were decent but not outstanding first graders. Playing and coaching require different skill sets. Bennett played one test match for Australia in the 1970's. In those Pre SOO days the test team...

To the best of my knowledge there is a clause in the CBA where the AFLPA have agreed quite a while ago not to challenge the draft in court. Ongoing CBA's have not seen that clause removed. While I'm a fan of the draft I can't see it happening because the RLPA won't play ball with it, and a...

I regularly go to that Woolies, as it’s the closest one to home. Shire people are very protective of the area and have been since the Cronulla riots. I’ve seen JJ and Bronson in that store from time to time.

The main protagonist is very easy to identify.

Keon would be on less money than Payne, so yeah I can see how Cody retiring would be the key to this.

I’d say there might be a South’s player or two squeezed out by fhe Cap at the end of 2026.

I would also start Salmon at 13, and move Kurt Mann to the bench in place of Turpin. Sean O’Sullivan has played a few games off the bench at dummy half for the Dolphin, so he could fill a role at 6,7 or 9 if needed. What we need to be careful about is not using our fourth bench player too...

After working at Sydney Uni for 25 and a bit years I can safely say you are 110% correct.

My best wishes, Sarge. Prove em wrong big fella.

We signed a young Academy midfielder from St.Mirren.

To the best of my knowledge, no one got the sack.

I agree. Before he passed away ”Hollywood” Warne made the comment that in T20 cricket you don’t need an anchor player. I didn’t agree with him then and still don’t now. Since then Smith has seemed to be excess baggage in the eyes of the selectors and when we won it in 2022 I think he played...

Teams in the Champions League are all trying to score goals to win games, which exposes their defence at times. As for low blocks, Arsenal have struggled for thirty or more years against that tactic.

Arteta has been saying for a few years now, that any team on it‘s best day, can beat any other team,

Yes true, but I think DCE has played at least one season too many. I’m sure he’ll be a target in defence like he was last season at Manly. Watch our game against them at the SFS, when he was defending alongside Turbo. Robinson will need to put a “minder“ alongside him in the line.

Has played off the bench as hooker a few times with the Dolphins. I remember he kicked a long range field goal to win a game at Suncorp.

Thread has now been re-opened. Let‘s keep replies sensible and not disrespectful. Anyone who wants to return to the episodes of this morning with name calling and or insults will find themselves reply banned from this thread. The ball is in your court.

I am locking this thread for a while, so that everyone settles down.

Arguments like this that end up with two or more parties involved in name calling and insults, i would recommend they be taken into PM mode.

Absolutely correct.

All valid points TT.

Did you enjoy the game this morning CD? I thought we played well for most of the game. A few moments where Inter caused us some problems.

The only change I would make in defence is saliba starting, and Mosquera to come on about 70 minutes in. If Inter score first, they’ll park the bus and we struggle with at type of structure. Hope Nwaneri gets a start. He seems to be out of favour at present. Rice, Zubimendi, Odegaard and...

How many would you rotate for the Inter game tomorrow morning CD? Got Stan put on over the weekend, (my wife wanted it for the Aus Open Tennis). Ill be watching my first game of the Season.

Offloads also have a tendency to bring outside defenders closer to the middle, which then opens up space out wide. It’s then up to the six and seven to see that and make the correct decisions.

Agree with you Chris. If an offload finds its mark to A support player on the fly, then all we have to beat is the fullback. If there‘s another player in support it’s try time. That‘s how Preston scored our only try from an outside/inside ball against Penrith at Commbank last season,

HSC students often bring illegal calculators that you can programme or use the internet on, thinking they can get away with it. We check them at the entrance to the exam hall. Thus we have some spare ones handy to cover any scenario.

Good point. When I’m rounding up papers after a HSC exam finishes at my local school, i flick through them occasionally and wonder if some teenagers actually pay attention at school.

Yep.

I regularly look at articles on the Fox Sports web site, written by people who are allegedly professional journalists, and see a lot of examples of poor grammar and spelling.

It‘s quite likely. A virtual Merry Go Round of Managers at the Spuds for the last few years.

Do you think that's why he was hooked at half time CD?

Well before the NRL era, The Roosters lost every game in 1966. It was a 10 team competition back then , so that would have been 18 games. Jack Gibson coached them to the semis in 4th positron in 1967, when “The Berries” as we were called then, knocked them out.

There is more to being a good front rower than just run metres. After we signed Leo in the middle of last season I made a point of watching his games for Newcastle. He has a pretty good offload which is probably just as important or more important as run metres. Good teams with good defensive...

Agree 100% Alan. In two successive years Lomax has been released by Saints and then Parramatta. He needs to learn like initially Tallis and later $BW that when you sign a contract you should honour it. I think his manager could also be part of the problem too.

Gunners at home v Wigan Athletic in 4th Round of the FA Cup. Good game to rest some key players after we‘re away at Brentford in the PL mid week, and away at Spuds the following weekend.

At my age parties are well and truly in the past tense.

Going back many years, A lot of teams have been ”Parking the Bus” when playing against Arsenal. For years Arsenal would lose or draw against less talented teams who adopted this tactic. Teams like Stoke, Swansea and Southampton

I think there could be room for both Webster and Green, in that order of priority.

I watch a lot of NZ’s test matches live on Fox. They are a tough side to beat. Batting is solid and fairly deep and they have a good squad of fast bowlers. Spin is a bit light on though, particularly if Santner doesn’t play,

Lyon indicated a year or so ago that he wants to play the 2027 Ashes, when I believe he will be 40. Bailey needs to move one or two on before that series.

Hazlewood would be the most difficult to face IMHO.

Two of the venues for the 2027 Ashes have changed from the ones used in 2023. No Headingley or Old Trafford. Replaced by Trent Bridge and the Ageas Bowl at Southampton.

A great ”utility player“. A couple of years ago he was the leading run scorer in Shield Cricket, and in the top five wicket takers, in the same season. Good bat, handy medium fast, handy off spin and can catch in the slips. Definitely should have been picked instead of Inglis, and Green’s...

I’ve been wanting Webster in the side from Adelaide onwards, instead of Green or Inglis.

This Aussie team does know how to throw wickets away. Marnus run out a classic example. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. The gap between Smith’s bat and pad was much wider than the Fox commentators suggested.

I can’t recall McGill playing there but I’ll take your word for it.