NRL: On NRL 360, Paul Crawley broke down the issue with the St George Dragons following their halves swap.
The Tigers and Knights sitting in the top four after five rounds. The Raiders down near the bottom. The Storm losing three straight. There is plenty to unpack. Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports |WHAT'S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit.
For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.Shane Flanagan is under pressure. The big-money recruits are underperforming. So what is the real issue? And regardless of whether Flanagan is the coach moving forward, what actually needs to change? Every year, a certain percentage of players in the NRL — let’s call it 30 per cent — come off contract. If you’re strategic, that needs to line up with your salary cap and your roster needs at key positions. The problem is, what you need does not always match what is available in the market.So they signed Daniel Atkinson for around $500,000 because he was what was available at the time. But that kind of signing does not necessarily strengthen your roster. It just fills a hole.Compare that to Newcastle signing Dylan Brown. That deal was heavily scrutinised at the time. And now, with the benefit of recent good results, it would be easy to ask whether the Knights even needed him. Why not just play Sandon Smith at halfback and Fletcher Sharpe at five-eighth? But fans should not forget it is a very long season, and a champion player like Brown will show his worth. When the Knights signed him, they knew exactly what they were getting — an elite player, a proven performer and someone they believe will deliver for them for years to come. The point is this: Newcastle were not just filling a hole. They were securing quality in a key position, and in doing so turning what had long been a weakness into an area of strength.You do not want to fill your squad with sixes and sevens out of 10. Which brings us back to the Dragons. Their front row and back row were already areas of strength, especially with young talent like the Couchman brothers, Dylan Egan and Hamish Stewart. Now they have added Keaon Koloamatangi on a five-year deal reported to be worth around $5 million.But the Dragons know what they are getting. They are bringing in an elite, professional forward who will lift standards and help the younger players around him. Rather than spreading their money thinly across multiple positions, they have doubled down on a strength and made it even stronger. Instead, they tried to round out the squad with experienced veterans like Clint Gutherson, Valentine Holmes and Damien Cook.But you do not build a top roster by paying “good enough” money to players who are no longer elite game-breakers. Even Gutherson himself rated his own form as a seven out of 10 when his fullback spot was questioned last week.Gutherson, Holmes and Cook have all had outstanding careers, but instead of spreading the wealth across the board to make the overall squad slightly better, the Dragons — and plenty of other clubs too — should be identifying one or two key positions and going hard there.If you spread your cap too thin and pay players more than they are truly worth, you do not get the uplift you were hoping for. Instead, those players end up under even more pressure — from a leadership point of view, from a selection point of view, and from a performance point of view — simply because the money says they should be producing more than they realistically can.That is not how you build a contender. You build a contender by signing the absolute best players available, especially in positions that matter most, and then filling in the rest around them. And when you pay elite players elite money, their influence goes beyond the 80 minutes on game day.It might sound small, but of course he wants to impress Dylan Brown. He has seen him up close, not just now at Newcastle but in Kiwis camp too. Players want to impress the best players in the game. That matters. It changes standards. In Dylan’s case, just having him in the building has already improved the attention to detail and professionalism across the entire Newcastle playing group. Now, to be fair, Gutherson, Holmes and Cook would have brought some of that professionalism to the Dragons too. They have all represented at the highest level.That is hard to say because it sounds like an easy swing at the coach. But sometimes the obvious answer is the right one.I have seen first-hand the shift from Adam O’Brien to Justin Holbrook. There is more energy. More freedom. More excitement around moving the ball.Some coaches are strong leaders and motivators. Others are strong teachers. Some can read the game, understand the trends, and get their players to execute the structure. Others can read the same game and then find a different way to bring it to life.They look flat. There is no real sense of excitement, innovation or instinct in the way they play. They are tough enough. They are experienced enough. But they have to change the way they attack.He can double down on what he knows and back himself to grind his way out of it. Or he can evolve. He can lean into a style that encourages offloads, supports risk-taking and gives his players more freedom, even if it comes with more errors.What they are doing right now is not working.WHAT I’M LIKING MOST FROM THE NEW-LOOK KNIGHTSFour wins from five. I am not sure even the most optimistic Knights fans saw that coming, especially once Brown and Kalyn Ponga went down. But it speaks to the immediate impact Justin Holbrook has had, and specifically the life he has injected into their attack. What I like most is that the players being selected can pass, can move the ball, and more importantly, do it with confidence. You have seen it multiple times this year where players are summing up situations on the run and executing instinctively. Take the Bulldogs game a fortnight ago. Sandon Smith jumped into dummy-half, darted down the short side and played a quality pass to Jermaine McEwen, who then drew and passed to put Dom Young over in the corner.They opened the field up. They threw offloads. They understood exactly where the ball needed to go. They got Dane Gagai isolated one-on-one with Ethan Sanders and he ended up creating two tries. There is a real freedom and lightness to the way they are playing, especially in the way they move the ball.THE CHALLENGE FOR RAIDERS... AND REALITY WITH ROOKIE HALFBACKAlthough in some ways, while it may surprise others, it does not surprise me as much. Not enough has been made of the fact they lost Jamal Fogarty. On top of that, they are starting a rookie halfback.They also finished first last year, so every side that comes up against Canberra now is switched on. They know they are in for a serious contest. The Raiders still have plenty of quality pieces. They just have not put it together yet.Ricky Stuart seems to know that too. He has not made sweeping changes. He is backing what they are doing well and trusting that it will turn.Every year, you have to push the boulder back to the top of the hill. When things are rolling, there is rhythm in your style of play. There is confidence. A few wins stack up. The boulder starts rolling downhill and all of a sudden you feel unstoppable.And I am not questioning Canberra’s work ethic. But right now, they are back in that phase where they have to do the heavy lifting again.Ricky's blunt reaction to Raiders defeat | 04:25 For me, Ethan Strange needs to revisit the positions on the field where he was having the most success last year. And if I was Ethan Sanders, my job would be simple: get Strange the ball in those spots as often as possible. Because once Strange starts getting more touches in the right areas, Canberra will start to find confidence again. As for any suggestion that this could become a “gap year” while Sanders develops, I do not think Canberra would be viewing it that way at all.Every year, different players emerge as the point of difference — the ones who surprise you, the ones who elevate the team. Even Noah Martin is starting to show signs of doing that this year. Last season it was Kaeo Weekes and Ethan Strange who were lighting it up. Those players can improve again, but the bigger job is making sure Sanders gets them into favourable field position and that the forward pack starts working in sync again. Because Canberra have a lot of big personalities and a lot of competitors who naturally want to solve things themselves.
Please follow us on Google to support us Key Positions Ethan Sanders Jamal Fogarty Melbourne Storm Valentine Holmes Favourable Field Position Work Ethic Fullback Spot Ricky's Damien Cook Game Day What Shane Flanagan Big-Money Recruits Adam O’Brien Fletcher Sharpe Kaeo Weekes Dane Gagai Roster Needs Pack Starts Rookie Halfback Surprising Developments Wins Stack Players Elite Money Dylan Brown Selection Point Hamish Stewart Clubs Fall Multiple Times Multiple Positions Richmond Tigers Players End Daniel Atkinson Roster Issues Sides Loss Pay Players Professional Players Quality Pass Jermaine Mcewen Alex Mckinnon Halves Swap Noah Martin Elite Players Newcastle Knights Justin Holbrook Paul Crawley Rugby League Elite Game-Breakers Luke Keary Real Freedom Real Issue Leadership Point Ricky Stuart Performance Point Sandon Smith
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