Revealed: Bombshell clause puts Storm on notice as NRL feeding frenzy set to erupt<\/a><\/p>\nTrent Robinson is under pressure heading into the preliminary final.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Who knows how that will play out if Walker is not re-signed by November 1, and if the Roosters are willing to pay Walker the money he is demanding.<\/p>\n
And last but certainly not least, James Tedesco is 33 and not getting any younger.<\/p>\n
As magnificent as Teddy has been this season, even he cannot keep defying Father Time forever.<\/p>\n
While that is not downplaying the extraordinary crop of youngsters the Roosters have in the likes of Robert Toia, Salesi Foketi, Rex Bassingthwaighte and Toby Rodwell, that is still an enormous amount of talent and experience either walking out the door or facing an uncertain future.<\/p>\n
Which makes what happens over the next two weeks all the more important.<\/p>\n
Because just when all the pieces have finally come together in the seven years since Cooper Cronk led the club to back-to-back premierships in 2018\/19, the clock is already ticking on a squad that could look significantly different next season.<\/p>\n
Walker return possible risk for Roosters | 01:14<\/p>\n
And this is certainly not an attack on Robinson who already rates up alongside the great modern-day coaches with three premierships in the bag.<\/p>\n
Winning one premiership is an extraordinary achievement in itself.<\/p>\n
But winning three is something only a handful of coaches have managed in the past half-century.<\/p>\n
Wayne Bennett has seven, Jack Gibson five, Ivan Cleary and Tim Sheens four, and Craig Bellamy also three (Bellamy also had two titles stripped for salary cap cheating in 2007 and 2009).<\/p>\n
And Robinson has done it while maintaining a remarkable level of consistency.<\/p>\n
This is his 14th straight season in charge, and since taking over in 2013, the Roosters have missed the finals just once, in 2016.<\/p>\n
That is a staggering 93 per cent finals appearance record, even better than Bellamy on percentages.<\/p>\n
Yet such is the expectation that comes with coaching the Roosters that even reaching a preliminary final can be viewed as a massive underachievement if you fail to take the next step.<\/p>\n
Providing Walker is fit, this will also be the first time since their 2019 premiership that the Roosters have entered a finals match with their full-strength squad available.<\/p>\n
Blake Steep is their only current top player unavailable through injury, and with due respect to the young forward, I think it\u2019s more than fair to suggest Steep would struggle to force his way into their strongest 17.<\/p>\n
And also compare that to the Roosters\u2019 last preliminary final appearance in 2024, when Walker and Brandon Smith were two key absentees from their all-important spine.<\/p>\n
Since last season, the Roosters have also added Cherry-Evans and Reece Robson to an already formidable roster.<\/p>\n
This is not to suggest Robinson\u2019s job would be under threat if the Roosters don\u2019t advance.<\/p>\n
There is simply no chance Politis would consider moving Robinson on, regardless of what happens on Friday night.<\/p>\n
At 49, the reality is he could have at least a decade of coaching ahead of him, potentially even longer given the benchmark Bennett has set.<\/p>\n
But that does not make the pressure to deliver any less intense.<\/p>\n
“One thing they do when they win a comp” | 07:36<\/p>\n
SHOULD BRONCOS HAVE MADE A PLAY FOR WOOLF?<\/p>\n
The Brisbane Broncos would have to be looking at the relationship Kristian Woolf has with his players at the Dolphins with more than a touch of envy.<\/p>\n
Especially considering Woolf was once in their stable working as an assistant way back under Anthony Griffin at the Broncos.<\/p>\n
The reports this week are that the 51-year-old is close to agreeing to an extension that will keep Woolf at the Dolphins long term, with a deal to be ratified after the season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s obvious Woolf has a temperament and personality that the players are drawn to.<\/p>\n
You only have to look at the way Selwyn Cobbo has rediscovered his love for the game after being sent packing from the Broncos to know why Woolf commands such respect.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a different story to what we are hearing at the Broncos with Jordan Riki reportedly the latest player to have a fallout with Michael Maguire.<\/p>\n
While there are differing reports about whether Riki wants out because of Maguire, or if he just wants to test the market, it will be interesting to see how this plays out moving forward.<\/p>\n
Usually when one player is looking to get out because he can\u2019t work with the coach, there is a conga line standing behind him.<\/p>\n
The issue for the Broncos will be if they make the decision to move Maguire on next year, the coach arguably best suited to take over will by then have a new long-term deal with the club that is their greatest competitor.<\/p>\n
Assistant coach Kristian Woolf at Broncos training. Pic Darren England.Source: News Limited<\/p>\n
KNIGHTS EXCEED ALL EXPECTATIONS, BUT JOB NOT FINISHED<\/p>\n
It is just extraordinary how Justin Holbrook has taken Newcastle from last year\u2019s wooden spooners to within one victory of a grand final.<\/p>\n
And he has done it without marquee signing Dylan Brown and starting front-rowers Jacob Saifiti and Trey Mooney.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Knights have Roosters offcut Sandon Smith filling in at halfback, while 20-year-old prop Cody Hopwood is leading the charge up front alongside veteran Tyson Frizell.<\/p>\n
Regardless of what happens against Penrith, Newcastle have already exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n
Yet that is not to say they are better than a puncher\u2019s chance against the wounded Panthers.<\/p>\n
Nathan Cleary\u2019s foot injury remains a huge question mark, particularly given the potential impact on his kicking game.<\/p>\n
And with Isaah Yeo still working his way back from a pectoral tear, the Panthers are hardly heading into their preliminary final without concerns.<\/p>\n
‘Closest we’ve been to our community’ | 03:38<\/p>\n
WHY DOES IVAN NEVER GET MENTIONED IN DALLY M DEBATE?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost impossible to fathom that in the salary cap era, Ivan Cleary has been able to continually rebuild this Penrith roster on a remarkable run of four premierships and five grand finals in the past six seasons.<\/p>\n
And yet again they have finished the regular season as minor premiers and are now just 80 minutes away from another grand final.<\/p>\n
Yet Cleary never seems to get mentioned in the Dally M coach of the year conversation.<\/p>\n
It is one of the game\u2019s great mysteries that Cleary has only won the Dally M coach of the year twice previously.<\/p>\n
The first was in 2014 and the last in 2020, before this run of premierships even started.<\/p>\n
TIME TO BRING BACK A SECOND REF<\/p>\n
The NRL needs to seriously consider returning to two referees next season.<\/p>\n
Because simply dropping Ashley Klein is not going to fix the problem.<\/p>\n
The fact is the game has never been faster because of the six-again restart rule, and all the referees are clearly struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n
Bunker drama: 3 controversial calls! | 01:23<\/p>\n
Although it certainly doesn\u2019t help that the three leading referees are all aged in their 40s.<\/p>\n
Gerard Sutton and Ashley Klein are both 47, while Adam Gee is 41.<\/p>\n
With the speed of the modern game, it is almost unfair to expect one referee to keep pace with everything that is happening around him.<\/p>\n
And coming up with the occasional clanger like Klein did on the Tyson Frizell no penalty ruling that cost the Warriors is unavoidable.<\/p>\n
But by at least having a second ref on the field to police the 10 metres would take some of the load off the lead ref, allowing him to concentrate on the ruck and everything else going on around the play.<\/p>\n
As for the calls to give the bunker more power, that is just insane.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s not forget the bunker was introduced to eliminate the howlers, and a fat lot of good that has done.<\/p>\n
People will argue that keeping teams onside is the job of the touch judges, but it\u2019s clearly not working as it is.<\/p>\n
Bringing back two refs would also be an opportunity to reduce the reliance on the bunker, limit the time wasted watching replay after replay that drives fans bonkers, and give more power back to the on-field officials.<\/p>\n
Webster & JFH LIVID at bunker decisions | 12:37<\/p>\n
I was told the game between the Warriors and the Knights ran for something like 98 minutes, and that did not include the halftime break.<\/p>\n
It is outrageous that there are that many stoppages so the bunker can bore us all to tears, and yet it still leads to so much confusion.<\/p>\n
The NRL scrapped the second referee when the competition resumed after the COVID shutdown in 2020, and plenty of fans supported the move at the time.<\/p>\n
It was as much about saving money as anything else.<\/p>\n
Yet with the new TV deal, surely money is no longer an issue.<\/p>\n
But the game has continued to get faster, and the demands on refs have only increased.<\/p>\n
I have no doubt that if the NRL was to poll the coaches the majority would vote in favour of a return of the second ref.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of the four coaches left standing in this year\u2019s premiership race, there are six very big reasons why…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[11480,64,63,41830,761,762,158,2733,85],"class_list":["post-903081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-art","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-defcon","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nsw","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903081","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=903081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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