{"id":826093,"date":"2026-07-27T02:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T02:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/826093\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T02:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T02:46:14","slug":"andrew-johns-scathing-take-on-the-adam-doueihi-and-tigers-drama-good-bad-ugly-of-nrl-round-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/826093\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Johns’ scathing take on the Adam Doueihi and Tigers drama: Good, bad, ugly of NRL Round 21"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ud83d\ude03 The good: Nicho Hynes performance<\/p>\n

It was a Manly old boy that delivered the goods on the club’s biggest day of the year.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately for the Sea Eagles, he was wearing the black, white and blue of Cronulla.<\/p>\n

Nicho Hynes destroyed Manly in what some are describing as a career-best performance in the Sharks’ 48-12 demolition at Brookie on Sunday. It came on an afternoon where the club’s former greats gathered for the annual Golden Eagles reunion.<\/p>\n

\"Nicho<\/p>\n

Nicho Hynes (pictured) is in career-best form for the Sharks. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hynes played a lot of his junior football at Manly, helping guide the club to an under-20s grand final alongside Tom Trbojevic in 2015. He was then shown the door on the back of a broken promise. Hynes has never forgotten that feeling of rejection, often reserving his best for games against his old club.<\/p>\n

“When I finished my under-20s career, I thought I was about to get offered a two-year deal at Manly and then they pulled the pin on it,” he explained a couple of years ago. “The coach at the time said I would never play first grade\u2026they didn’t believe in me.”<\/p>\n

After his 10 out of 10 display on Sunday, which included a try, try assists, multiple line breaks and eight from eight off the kicking tee, there are no shortage of believers. And 4 Pines Park has been temporarily renamed \u2013 online at least – 4 Hynes Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cronulla halfback couldn’t help but deliver one last crack as he exited his old home ground a winner.\u00a0 “I used to play my junior footy here at Brookie so it’s nice to get one back over them,” he said. Revenge is a dish best served cold.<\/p>\n

\"\"\ud83d\ude14 The bad: Melbourne Storm season<\/p>\n

You have to go all the way back to 2010 \u2013 when the Storm were stripped of their competition points for salary cap breaches – to find the last time both Melbourne and Brisbane failed to make the finals. Before that, the last time it happened was 2001. But after losing narrowly to Souths on Friday night, Craig Bellamy can start planning his first September off in 16 years.<\/p>\n

And the Broncos \u2013 barring a minor miracle over the final six rounds – are about to join that infamous list of premiers who missed the play-offs the following year. They will be the first club in 20 years to wear that tag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jahrome<\/p>\n

Jahrome Hughes (pictured) has struggled to lift his side in 2026. (Photo by Brendon Thorne\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

How the mighty have fallen. There’s no doubt the Storm and Broncos have been cruelled by injury this year, but it will still be a shock to the system to see neither in the eight.<\/p>\n

Michael Maguire refuses to throw the towel in despite the loss to North Queensland on Saturday night, while Bellamy seemed more resigned to his fate when told his team could “mathematically” still make it.\u00a0 “When you start using that word ‘mathematically’, you’re in trouble,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It will be what it’ll be. I don’t know if we can still make it but I’d imagine some of it (will rest on) other results. We’re not in control of that so we’re not going to concern ourselves with that.”<\/p>\n

It will be fascinating to see what unfolds with Bellamy over the summer. He has two years to run on his existing deal but there is no certainty he will remain in charge after being diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder earlier this year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Queensland coach and Storm great Billy Slater is viewed as the perfect replacement if Bellamy does stand down despite repeatedly declaring he has no interest in taking on a club role.\u00a0\u00a0We will see.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude21 The ugly: Andrew Johns calls out Doueihi drama<\/p>\n

Who needs Home and Away when you’ve got the Wests Tigers. This joint provides more drama than 10 soap operas combined.\u00a0 We now await the next episode in the Adam Doueihi saga, with the playmaker due to meet coach Benji Marshall on Monday after refusing to play on the weekend.<\/p>\n

Reportedly nursing a number of grievances, Doueihi was MIA as the Tigers were flogged 56-10 by Canberra. Old school footballers spent the weekend trying to digest how anyone could abandon teammates at their time of need at such a crucial stage of the season.<\/p>\n

\"Tigers<\/p>\n

Tigers coach Benji Marshall (pictured) held a meeting with Adam Doueihi on Monday morning. (Photo by Mark Nolan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Immortal Andrew Johns said: “If you’re not playing, go down and do 60 hours in a coalmine. See how you prefer that. “I just find it absolutely ridiculous. We all played at clubs where things weren’t happy and you were busted, you were sore and you were flat, but you’d get out there and play.\u00a0 What we’ve seen this week is nothing short of a debacle\u2026an absolute debacle.”<\/p>\n

Josh Morris, who played 325 NRL games, believes the damage is irreparable. “I don’t see how he walks in there on Monday and it being all chummy,” he said before the Canberra defeat.<\/p>\n

“If they have a loss and get flogged, they will all turn their backs on him and say, ‘we don’t want you here’. You weren’t there for us when we needed you. Are you only going to be there when it suits you or are you going to be here when we are in trouble?”<\/p>\n

It’s a fair point. However, the latest coming out of the Tigers is Doueihi will train with the club on Tuesday after an emergency meeting with Marshall.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Andrew Johns (pictured left) was critical of the Adam Doueihi (pictured right) drama and of the Wests Tigers controversy. (Images: Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\ude03 The good: Nicho Hynes performance It was a Manly old boy that delivered the goods on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[21397,48257,64,63,30195,8089,528,761,762,74672,158,4523,85,4515],"class_list":["post-826093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-adam-doueihi","tag-andrew-johns","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cameron-spencer","tag-craig-bellamy","tag-getty-images","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nicho-hynes","tag-nrl","tag-sea-eagles","tag-sports","tag-wests-tigers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}