LATE MAIL: Dolphins delve deep into hooking stocks
Jeremy Marshall-King was already missing, now Max Plath has succumbed to a foot injury, meaning Ray Stone has been named as starting dummy half, with halfback Sean O’Sullivan on the bench.
After five try assists last week in the shock win over Melbourne, Isaiya Katoa says the lack of an influential #9 will put more focus on him to be a leader.
“If I can be a bit more clear with my comms and steering the boys around the park I feel it could go a long way towards getting a result,” he tells Fox.
Francis Molo makes his Dolphins debut at prop.
The Raiders are 1-17 with Josh Papali’i on the bench.
High-tackle crackdown ‘spoils the game’
With 12 sin-bins in the six games played this round, the coaches are starting to get frustrated.
The Titans had Jaimin Jolliffe and Brock Gray binned in their 50-18 loss to North Queensland, and Gold Coast coach Des Hasler said the harsh punishments for high tackles are spoiling the game.
“We played three quarters of the game with 12 men. [I’m] not saying they’re not deserved but … it spoils the game of footy doesn’t it?” he said.
“The sin bins, I think it’s inconsistent but there’s nothing we can do to control that. It spoils the game of footy.”
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary echoed his sentiment and said after two Panthers were binned in their 26-10 loss to Manly that officials had over-corrected.
“It’s not the way, I don’t think, we want the game as a whole to look like but it’s just how it is at the moment,” he said.
“But there’s certainly some things in there that we contributed to, which is what we need to be concerned about.”
And it wasn’t just the teams on the wrong side of results being sore losers. Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold, who had prop Siosua Taukeiaho binned in the second half, said it was time to rethink the current crackdown.
“It’s a really tough job for the referees, I’ve got to say,” he said.
“They’re only trying to officiate to the directives they’re given from above. It’s really difficult for them but I think there does needs to be some sort of correction or looking at it.”
It’s Sunday footy time
Hello and welcome to Sunday’s NRL action. I’m Jon Healy and I’ll be keeping you company for two intriguing showdowns.
First up, from 2pm AEST, we’ve got the Raiders hosting the Dolphins. Canberra has shown it can match it with the best teams in the league and could climb as high as second with a win today, and the Dolphins have beaten both last year’s grand finalists in successive weeks.
Then, from 4pm AEST, Lachlan Galvin is back for the Tigers’ clash with the Sharks at Leichhardt Oval. Who knows what that will look like?
So stay tuned!
