Dessie in dire straits
Bulldogs coach Des Hasler is severely under the pump. Canterbury were smashed 42-12 by Brisbane and they sit in 13th position on the ladder. They are going to miss the semis and the knives are out for Hasler. A front-runner for the job, if he is punted, is Canberra assistant coach Dean Pay. Hasler is a great coach and has made four grand finals in his coaching career, winning two in his time at Manly. But the former halfback seems to have lost his mojo at Belmore right now.
His game-plan isn’t working, his side is floundering and his players don’t seem to be responding. After nearly six years with the Doggies, maybe it is time for him to move on? The Bulldogs will be a different side next year, with Kieran Foran and Aaron Woods joining them, but it remains to be seen if Hasler will see the year out.
Soliola shocker
Sia Soliola was the luckiest man alive not to be sent from the field after he took off Billy Slater’s head on Saturday night. Soliola hit Slater late and high to the head during Melbourne’s 20-14 win over Canberra. It was shocking to see and the Raiders forward should have been off for it. Soliola is a not a dirty player, he plays it hard and fair, but this was a big error and deserves punishment. The question remains though what do have to do to get sent off in the NRL now?
There hasn’t been a send-off in two years. This was as blatant a sending off offence you will ever see, but the referee did nothing. All he did was blow for a penalty and put him on report. Yes Soliola will be receive a big ban for it, rightly, but the officials erred in not giving him his marching orders. Terrible.
Ref bashing
Both Canberra coach Ricky Stuart and Dogs coach Des Hasler took aim at the referees this weekend. Hasler has been vociferous in his criticism of officials in recent weeks as Canterbury’s season goes from bad to worse. Stuart is also well-known for his trenchant attacks on refs, with the Raiders enduring a poor run in 2017. Stuart outburst went like this: "Coaches have to come in here and own up to every question you blokes want to throw at us and we do it week in and week out," he said in his post-match press conference. “We just keep on aiming up, coming in here having to answer your questions after our week, season of hard work and yet … why don't the NRL get the referees in here to come in and answer some of these questions too? Or Tony Archer?
“When do they ever have to face any accountability? The best thing the NRL have done is just keep fining me and fining me and fining me and whacking the hell out of me so I don't say anything. Why doesn't the NRL come out and make public some of the communications between the referees and the bunker and the actual linesmen? Then we'll start fixing some things in regards to what's going on in interpretations, inconsistencies. Let's make everybody accountable. I'm accountable — I've got to sit here every friggin' week and answer questions. Let's make everybody in the game accountable.”
Both Hasler and Stuart are under huge pressure and are deflecting away from themselves and their poorly performing. While referees boss Tony Archer should be more accountable and available to media scrutiny, putting every referee under the spotlight after every game is pure nonsense. That would just drive officials away from the sport.
Dragons take flight
St George Illawarra breathed life into their stuttering finals campaign with a 52-22 thrashing of Manly. It was a weird old game at Brookvale – with the Dragons going out to a 30-0 half-time lead, before the Sea Eagles roared back to score four tries in a 12-minute second half spell. But St George Illawarra retired fire with four more tries in the final 20 minutes to blow Manly away completely. Gareth Widdop had a field day, kicking eight goals, a 40-20 and scoring a try. Don’t write off the Dragons just yet, there’s still life in them.
