If this is play on, then the NRL need their heads read

Bloody hell. Does the NRL have rocks in its head?

I refer to the head-to-head “tackle” by Victor Radley on Pat Carrigan last Saturday. Radley, owner of a long and troubled past when it comes to dangerous tackles, launched himself like an Exocet missile at the Broncos skipper, head foremost. The top of Radley’s head connected flush with Carrigan’s jaw, and he went down like a sack of spuds.

Watching the slo-mo replay, Fox Sports commentator Warren Smith was struck dumb: “Here’s the tackle here, Victor Radley on Pat Carrigan ... well that’s ... that’s ... well, it’s irrelevant now.”

He said that because – unbelievably – Radley had only been put on report for his trouble. But surely, having had a look at it, the bunker would step in? Nuh. As you were. Carry on camping. And so they did. The NRL Match Review Committee, then, the body that assesses on-field incidents after games and decides whether players should be charged or referred to the judiciary?

They had no problem either. (One presumes Radley had already taken up a fair bit of their time that day, as he’d already been put on report three times during the match for other incidents.)

The person most surprised at the lack of action was Radley himself, asking, when told during a Fox Sports panel show that he was free to go: “Really? Is this April Fools? I thought for sure something was coming.”

Ah, how they all laughed.

Radley thought, as I thought, as we all thought, that in the new age of concussion awareness, the protocols had changed, and if you made dangerous high contact with an opponent, then – pretty much no questions asked – you were in deep shit. And this was about as dangerous as it got, from a player with a long history of playing dangerously.

And the NRL cannot escape responsibility. Somehow, in this instance, we are told that head-on-head contact – direct, forceful, avoidable – did not meet their threshold for meaningful sanction. One is left to wonder: if a head-to-head-high tackle doesn’t mean instant send-off and suspension, what exactly does it take? And ...

… And STOP PRESS! Nine minutes into Friday night’s game against the Titans, Radley was again placed on report. What for? High contact. Umm, does anyone else see a pattern emerging?

Around the world, contact sports are being forced to reckon with what they knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it. The science on brain trauma is no longer emerging – it is established. If governing bodies fail to act decisively in the face of repeated, preventable head contact, they are not merely negligent; they are exposed.

I do not suggest Radley is malicious. But in my view he is reckless – and perilously close to being celebrated for that recklessness.

Cue James Tedesco, Roosters captain: “The way Victor plays, with his aggression and intensity, he’ll always tread that fine line, but if we’re going to nitpick every tackle where the head is involved, there will be a lot of incidents.”

Nup. When he continues to play like that without sanction, he risks causing a lot of brain injury, including his own.

It’s very bloody simple. If a player can’t adjust his tackling technique, cannot stay within the parameters designed to protect both other players and himself, then the game must step in where the player will not.

Because if things don’t change – if the NRL continues to shrug at tackles like that – then the day will come when it won’t be a referee or a match review committee, or even me, passing judgment.

It will be a court.

Dylan display was pure poetry

For once, just for once, can I be the exemplar of a journalistic species I usually sneer unpleasantly at? Stay with me for the new few pars, as I turn into a Fan With A Typewriter . . .

We’re talking Dylan Pietsch’s performance on the wing for the Western Force against the NSW Waratahs last Friday evening! It wasn’t just good. It wasn’t just great. It wasn’t just Man of the Match material. It was nothing short of staggering.

I kid you not, he was everywhere at once! He ran like a bull bitten by a bumblebee – all horns, elbows and knees. He tackled as if every Waratah ball-carrier had personally insulted his mother. And he consistently leapt for the high ball like a salmon in the high jump at the Fish Olympics.

Who knew he could play like that? After watching him against the Lions last year, I thought he was good, and sometimes great. But this was at another level. One moment this former junior player for the mighty Leeton Phantoms was pinned on the touchline with nowhere to go but into the welcoming embrace of half-a-dozen defenders; next moment he’s burst his bonds, indeed like a bull bursting through a rotten wooden fence, leaving grasping hands clutching nothing but the wisps of winds in his wake.

What marked Pietsch out was his physicality, the malicious mongrel in him as he hit the wilting Waratahs line, his sheer, unrelenting refusal to be stopped. The stats tell some of the story, but not all. While his opponent Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii touched the ball just three times in the entire match for a gain of – no, really – seven metres, Pietsch scored two tries, made three line-breaks, six tackle busts and had 19 carries for 106 metres.

Oh, and three times – count them, THREE times – he hurled himself into collisions he had no earthly right to win, and emerged with ball in hand and defenders strewn about him like fallen idols. On the other wing for the Force, the new lad Zac Lomax, did alright with ten carries for 50.2 metres, made one line break, and made five tackles.

Am I done yet? No, I am not. If this is my day to be a FWT, let me make the most of it. This was a bloke who went looking for work, who clearly loved every single moment of being out there, who never stopped smiling the entire time, whose sheer presence on the field was nothing short of mesmerising. It’s not quite that he beat the Waratahs 20-17 on his own, but it was like he was Man of the Minute, every minute, and his team-mates were clearly inspired by him.

If rugby is sporting theatre - and on a good day, there is none better – then let the record show that Pietsch delivered a command performance. With him on one Wallaby wing for next year’s World Cup, and Max Jorgensen on the other, we will have two world-class operators who are simply fantastic to watch. What’s needed is a game plan to get them the ball often.

Joke’s on laughing Dragons

I knew I’d get heaps of flak, and I didn’t. After opining a fortnight ago that the Dragons are a “team without a soul”, I was fairly sure that my weekend would be filled with ignoring angry tweets and emails. Instead, not a single one.

Rather, I received heaps of agreement, including from Dragons fans – most particularly after they lost to the Roosters by 62-16, with most of their back line turning into human turnstiles as their opponents ran through.

The most instructive thing for me at the end of the game was watching closely their highest-paid player, Valentine Holmes. Not a worry in the world. Laughing and joking with his opponents, like he’d just won Lotto.

Mate, you’ve just copped 60 points in the mush, you’ve lost 11 matches in a row, and your last win was in AUGUST. I have mates who still grieve Wallaby Test losses from 37 years ago. You, clearly, couldn’t care less. When the Dragons rebuild their roster, their starting point has to be: pick blokes who give a shit.

What They Said

An image published on a fans’ Facebook group showed a whiteboard in the Brisbane Lions dressing room listing the strengths and weaknesses of their Essendon opponents. Under “strengths”, one word was listed next to the name of Jaxon Prior: “Bronte”. That is the first name of his partner, Bronte Thompson, a model.

Essendon coach Brad Scott on the Brisbane Lions whiteboard breaking down their players: “We prefer a little detail, maybe better handwriting.”

Lions coach Chris Fagan: “I’m not going to comment about what was written on that whiteboard. From our perspective, it’s private information. Somebody illegally took photos of information that was on a whiteboard and decided to make a hero of themselves and put it out in the public domain.”

Cameron Smith on what assurances he had been given about the future of LIV Golf after this year: “Every assurance. Absolutely. That’s the goal, 100 per cent.” You tell him. I can’t with a straight face.

Smith: “Early in my career, I hung my hat on how I performed in the majors. And it’s just not good enough. I am making a few changes and trying to get back to where I was and better. I can promise you, the fire is in the belly, it’s just a matter of time. I don’t think time is running out on my major career by any means.” Has any golfer, ever, had his game collapse so totally – from world No.2, to somewhere lost and bleeding behind Uluru – all in the space of three or four years?

A piece in The Athletic, on what it’s like to be a fan of the New York Jets, who have a 30 per cent winning record since 2016, quoted a five-year-old girl telling her father the difference between baseball and football: “Baseball is the one where they hit the ball with the bat and run around bases. And football is the one where you stare at the TV and yell, ‘F---!’”

Waratahs coach Dan McKellar on what is fast becoming yet another forgettable season: “The gap between our best and not our best is too big at the moment and that’s where we get inconsistencies in and around performance. It’s frustrating, we’ve got to have a look at what we’re doing.” This is not working. Get Cheika, and tell him all is forgiven.

West Tigers coach Benji Marshall on the thumping loss to the Sharks: “Today was, I don’t know what team was out there, but that wasn’t the team that we’ve played like and prepared like, it was actually the opposite. That wasn’t there before, so we just have got to get back to playing the footy that works for us on both sides of the ball and defensively, that’s the most disappointing thing because that’s not us.”

Speaking of which, Melbourne Demons coach Steven King after their close loss to the Swans thinks they can match it with the best: “It’s us just trying to chase the best version of us.”

Ryan Reynolds, co-owner of Wrexham, after they just missed out on the English Premier League promotion playoffs: “I am completely gutted by today’s result but incredibly proud of our season.”

Victor Radley told on TV that he wouldn’t have to go the judiciary: “I was going to keep this suit for judiciary, but I don’t need it any more. I might keep it for the races.” [See rant.]

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan will allow Socceroos World Cup matches to be shown at Federation Square after all: “There’s always a risk of bad behaviour from a few dickheads at every public gathering, but police and security will be on-site. There’ll be zero tolerance for it. The World Cup should bring us together, not keep us apart.”

Team of the week

Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt. The Australian curlers put the devastation of missing the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics behind them by winning the world championships!

Travis Bazzana. The Australian baseball star got his first hit in the MLB.

Montreal. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of their Olympics and about the 20th anniversary of finally paying it off!

Dylan Pietsch. Wow. Just wow. [See paean.]

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