South Sydney chief executive of football Shane Richardson has conceded "attitudes after we won the grand final" contributed to their fall from grace. After Sunday's shocking 54-4 loss to Canberra, he said: "There's a whole lot of little contributing factors, there's not one big factor, [from] attitudes after we won the grand final to recruitment to performance. In the world of the NRL, you only have to slip slightly and you go backwards quickly." Asked to expand on his "attitudes" comment, he said: "I just think sometimes you have to have a want factor, to continue on. You've got to go to the next level. You can't stay where you are. We did and we didn't, we lost a couple of key players ... look, I don't think there's any one person, one problem, one thing ... we let letting things slide and we've got to get them back. They're not big things and I don't believe it will be that hard to turn it around."
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Jersey swapping causing confusion
Fans on social media over the weekend were in a tizz over two issues: the Cowboys wearing Melbourne-like jerseys against Melbourne, and why there were few retro jerseys during retro round. To answer the second question first, retro round was a Fox Sports promotion, not an official NRL initiative. Here at Set of Six, we'd like to see the governing body take it on. A Cowboys spokesman explained the jerseys worn on Saturday night were for the Women In League round. "That's next week but we are away next week," he explained. "Our jersey launch was at the start of the year and we unveiled the Women In League jersey then." Unfortunately, Melbourne was the worst possible game in which to wear it. The Warriors also celebrated W.I.L. a week early. Why? One motivation is to be able to sell the merchandise at a home game.
In my humble opinion ...
Set of Six has no problem with Tyson Frizell getting one week and Josh Reynolds none — provided zero tolerance for any contact with match officials is observed consistently. It currently is not consistent. Reynolds' action did not look malicious. Secondly, St George Illawarra players who protested the suspension of Tim Lafai and Siliva Havili need to learn it is part of their job to walk away from every single off-field conflict regardless of provocation. And the publishing on Sunday of an interview with Kieran Foran damaged the public perception of the media and how news is gathered.
Had it Cummins
After calling into question the bedside manner of referee Ben Cummins following Saturday night's game, North Queensland coach Paul Green maintained the rage on radio. "I don't blame refs, I hate blaming refs," he told the ABC. "But the 50-50 calls around the ruck, I call them soft ruck penalties. You can find them whenever you want so if they're going to find them against you, they've got to find a couple for you and I thought the Jimmy Tamou one in particular, that was a soft penalty every day of the week … those little things make a big difference. I didn't feel like those 50-50 calls were even tonight." The NRL had no comment on Cummins' dealings with players.
It's true
Sydney Roosters centre Dale Copley played one of the great straight bats after giving the club that punted him, and the player who got his job, a bath on Thursday night. "It's not about revenge, that's not me," he said, in several different ways. Wayne Bennett also dealt out his customary "he was always going to play well against us tonight", a cover-all which basically precludes the judgement of the person saying it from ever being proven wrong. So are we wrong when we write about players "proving a point" to their former club? "It does work like that," says Roosters coach Trent Robinson. "Dale, I'm sure he loves the Broncos and has got lots of good mates up there but it's always a bit of a motivation."
Shaun can see Cleary now
Warriors match-winner Shaun Johnson says he found it "weird" playing against the son of the man who gave him his start in first grade, Ivan Cleary. "It was pretty surreal," Johnson said when asked by an in-house reporter about 18-year-old Nathan Cleary. "He's a chip off the old block, isn't he? He looks exactly like him. It's pretty weird. I had a good chat with him after the game and asked him how it was to be back (in Auckland). It's pretty cool to see, from when he was here as a kid, to playing first grade."
