Opinion
We know Schuster has brilliance, but Manly need so much more than that
Andrew Johns
League columnistAs soon as Tom Trbojevic went down with his pectoral injury in the second State of Origin match, I thought Manly’s season was over. He’s that important to them.
We’re four weeks out from the finals and they’re still throwing punches trying to get into the top eight, which is a testament to coach Anthony Seibold and his players. But the next two weeks against the Panthers and Warriors will be a huge test.
I watched Josh Schuster’s chip-and-chase try against the Roosters last week and, like many people, thought it was an incredible bit of skill. He’s capable of those breathtakingly brilliant moments, but that’s not the point with him any more.
He needs to be in the game for every minute. Not just a highlight-reel play here and there, but commitment from the first to the 80th. That’s his challenge. We’re just not seeing that at the moment. If he is in the game, then the Sea Eagles are an infinitely better team than the one trying to squeeze into the finals picture at the moment.
I do have some sympathy for the Sea Eagles because their forward stocks have been decimated in the past month. Taniela Paseka, Josh Aloiai and Sean Keppie have all missed significant time recently, and Matt Lodge is out for the rest of the season. It doesn’t matter how good your creative players are, if you can’t establish a foothold in the middle of the park then it’s going to be very difficult to create anything.
Their completion rate was top-notch against the Roosters last week, but it still took them more than an hour – and for the Roosters to have Nathan Brown sent off – before they landed a blow; two of their three tries were late when the game was effectively all over.
Josh Schuster celebrates a Manly try.Credit: Getty
I expect them to really take it to the Panthers in the early stages on Thursday night, but this looks an impossible task. Penrith are just so well drilled, they have no settlers in attack and they wear your defence down, physically and mentally. There are just waves and waves of attack, and so many options.
I’ve been waiting for them to come back to the field with all the players they’ve lost from grand final teams the last few years, but it just hasn’t happened. Maybe when they lost the World Club Challenge and round one against the Broncos it seemed like there were some cracks, but that was misguided.
They will do the business again on Thursday night, even if the withdrawals of Jarome Luai and Mitch Kenny bring them back to the Sea Eagles a bit.
Joey’s tip: Panthers by 10
First try-scorer: Brian To’o
Man of the match: Nathan Cleary
Broncos have horsepower to challenge Panthers
One month out from the finals, and there’s only one team I can see stopping Penrith’s three-peat: Brisbane. Even still, they’ll have to be at their absolute very best.
But what is not in doubt is they have the best young talent in the game.
Ezra Mam has starred for the Broncos this season.Credit: Getty
I watched Ezra Mam closely last week against the Cowboys, and even though he appeared to be struggling with a knee injury, he was cutting players in half with his defence. We know he’s electric in attack, but you can build your game on that type of defence.
With so many ageing halves in the NRL, he’s going to be crucial for Brisbane in the future.
I just marvel at Payne Haas every week, Reece Walsh is a once-in-a-lifetime player and Brendan Piakura has created such a big impression so far. I think his hole-running ability is only slightly inferior to Cronulla’s Briton Nikora, who I rate as the best in the game at that skill. And this week he’s named on the bench.
They could rack up a cricket score against the Eels.
Why we need two referees again
Let me say this first: there’s no more thankless job than being a referee. But they’re deciding the result of way too many games at the moment.
Credit to Graham Annesley, who was on the front foot on Monday admitting the officials made an error on a forward pass in the Raiders’ win over the Tigers, and an incorrect no-call for a strip from Clint Gutherson in the Eels’ close win over the Dragons. Reverse those two calls and I reckon you get different results.
I remember talking to Bill Harrigan and Mick Stone about refereeing. They used to say their job was to manage a game. If Bill thought a team was encroaching a little too far, he would stand back 11 metres rather than 10 metres. It worked more often than not.
These days we are becoming more and more like rugby union. We like to scoff at how stop-start their game is and the lack of understanding of why some penalties are awarded, but we’re heading down a dangerous path. Last week’s Roosters-Manly match was unwatchable with so many penalties and six-agains. There was no fatigue, and when there’s no fatigue all your creative players are stunted.
How do we fix it? We need to go back to two referees, the second one whose sole job is to man the ruck, and they won’t have a whistle. It’s become too hard for just one person.
More importantly, the bunker should have only three people manning it on rotation, or maybe four. There are too many different interpretations from people sitting in there. You don’t know what you’re going to get from one person to the next.
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