Coaching Crisis/Circus
Bulldogs
Dean Pay is the second coach to have parted ways with their club this season. In Dean’s case, the Club made him aware he was not in their plans for 2021.
Coach Pay was brought in to return the famous “Dogs of War” mentality from his playing days. Coaching is results based and he was always on a hiding to nothing when he inherited a poorly managed roster and salary cap, seeing him let go of players and unable to recruit talent.
It has been known 2021 would be when the Club’s books were back in order and $3M available to spend.
Broncos
No coach has been under more pressure in the past fortnight than Broncos coach, Anthony Seibold.
But as other underfire teams have shown, it only takes a couple wins to change the season.
The Broncos now join the Dragons, Cowboys, Warriors and Titans in a log jam of teams one win (two if you include for/against) outside a semi-final berth.
Storm Shenanigans
There is something frustrating about watching the Storm in action. I can’t remember the last time I watched a full game with the Storm involved.
Fact – Whenever the NRL brings in new rules, coaches will find ways to manipulate this for their own team’s advantage.
And the Storm are in a class of their own. Against the Raiders, we witnessed the Storm try and circumvent the 40 second shot clock for goal line dropouts with Storm players going down lame with injury. The second time this occurred, the shot clock had already started and the injured player was ordered off the field. The theatrics that followed from Cam Smith then Coach Bellamy was pure pantomime.
Some called this gamesmanship. I call this as un-Australian as diving in soccer.
From The Sideline
I was lucky to win tickets in the RedV members ballot and watched the Dragons v Sea Eagles in action. For a crowd of only 1571 allowed into the ground, the players enjoyed the supporters’ voice as much as we did. The atmosphere felt like thousands more. I highly recommend you take any opportunity to attend a match this season.
