I was wrong about the Cowboys
Probably my boldest prediction of the preseason was that the Cowboys, led by Todd Payten, Jason Taumalolo and Scott Drinkwater, would return to finals football after three straight seasons in the bottom four. After three rounds, I am ready to apologise to anyone who has ever read anything that I have written, such is the repulse that I feel towards that take. The Cowboys have been absolutely disgraceful to start the season, executing an outstanding mix of error riddled attack with shambolic defence. Jake Clifford, a man I once gave the honour of being the next Aidan Sezer, is now looking more like the next Brock Lamb, while 2010 Shane Tronc would blush at Jordan McLean’s mobility in the middle of the field. With Michael Morgan on the cusp of medical retirement, Coen Hess showing no signs of rejuvenation and Scott Drinkwater’s reluctance to show any effort when the ball isn’t in his hand, I have no idea when this Cowboys team get its first win. The roster needs a huge overhaul and I’d like to think Payten would be on the blower to Don Furner asking about the availability of Corey Horsburgh, Emre Guler or Corey Harawira-Naera, given all three would walk into their starting pack. The only thing I have enjoyed from the Cowboys this season is watching journalists goo-feast on an incredibly honest Todd Payten after each abysmal performance. Incredible cinema.
The Bulldogs are painful
My hopes for the Bulldogs were nowhere near as high as the Cowboys but it’s still impossible not to feel incredibly underwhelmed and disappointed in their performances through three rounds. It’s crazy to me that they could add Corey Allan & Nick Cotric (unlucky champ) alongside the attacking minds of Trent Barrett and David Furner, only to be one of the worst attacking teams of all time. The decision to reject a Dylan Napa/Matt Burton player swap will have to go down as one of the most comical player retention moves in the history of the game, especially now that they’ve dropped Jake Averillo (a player they’ve seemingly invested a fair bit in) after just three games. They desperately need Luke Thompson back from suspension and they will be hoping and praying that he can be close to the player they thought that they were getting from the Super League. The move of Corey Allan to the wing this weekend makes genuinely no sense to me, he’s been quiet so far but he’s a much worse winger than fullback, while the continued Cotric hybrid wing/centre experiment is incredibly bizarre. I was hoping this team could make some progress up the ladder this year but they’re sadly looking somehow worse than last year. Grim.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is my daddy
In terms of regular season losses that I have had to endure as a Canberra Raiders fan, the weekend’s 34-31 loss to an RTS inspired Warriors was as painful as I can remember since 2017/18. With just 14 players for 68 minutes, the Raiders were as gutsy as I’ve ever seen them, but once the Warriors started coming in the second half it always felt inevitable that they’d run us down (I’ve never seen a clock tick slower in my life my god). I could sit here and cry about a costly forward pass, but Ricky Stuart has done enough of that (you’re a grown adult Ricky, just answer some damn questions), so instead I will pay some credit to one of the best individual performances that I’ve seen in recent years from Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. With his farewell tour to rugby league well and truly underway now, I can’t help but feel as though this performance will be remembered as the “Vintage Roger” game from his time in the NRL. He scored a try, made two line breaks, ten tackle breaks, had an incredible six offloads, ran for 253 metres and on top of that made one of the best try savers I’ve seen to save the game for the Warriors. A tip of the hat to you Roger, please come back to rugby league soon.
Dally M Shambles
The Dally M award has long been the worst MVP Voting system in any sport that I follow and here we are in 2021 with another case of embarrassing votes. I genuinely believed that Jack Wighton and Clint Gutherson finishing above Nathan Cleary in 2020 would be the straw that broke the camel’s back in regard to this system, but nothing changed, so here we are discussing awful votes from ex-players again. While Luke Keary receiving 0 votes for his three try assist, two line break performance in a 40-6 win over Wests is still the worst example of awful judging this season, Ben Hannant’s decision to give Herbie Farnworth 0 points against the Bulldogs is a close second. Herbie ran for a staggering 269 metres, had three line breaks, a try assist, 5 tackle busts and was the only point of attack for the Broncos in the first 60 minutes of the match. I’m not sure if Hannant is still suffering from the repercussions of hopping in the ring with Josh Papalii, but his choice to give points to Xavier Coates and Adam Elliott is genuinely mind-boggling.
The most frustrating thing about the broken Dally M system is how easily fixable it is. The MVP voting system in American sports such as the NBA and NFL isn't perfect, but it's featured far less blunders than what we have right now and would be a far better way to crown our best player each season. Judging howlers aside, the current system doesn't work because it values every game with the same importance and punishes players in sides stacked with other star players. It's incredibly frustrating that the PVL administration can seemingly rush through any rule they would like, yet regularly fail to address the game's genuine issues (do not start me on the concussion sub).