2026 NRL – Prop by the Sea: You Gotta love Footy – Round 4

 

 

 

 

Round 3 Started with the match between Canberra and the Bulldogs. The game was played in poor conditions but nevertheless it was very entertaining. The Bulldogs ran out winners by 14 points to 10, and most probably deserved their win. However, the Raiders were well and truly in the match. It looks like the Bulldogs will be very solid in the competition this year and likewise the Raiders, even though they haven’t had the greatest of starts.

There were two games on Friday night, and the first game showed that the Panthers are the real deal again this year.  They were way too strong for the Roosters, putting them away at 40 points to 4. What a Super Trouper To’o is, scoring a magnificent try which is well worth another look. Clearly, there’s still some disconnect in the halves of the Roosters which needs to be sorted. The second game was a tremendous match where it looked like the Storm had control but the Broncos, especially in the first 20 minutes of the second half, muscled up to complete an amazing victory. Gone was the poor defence of the last three games, and The Name of the Game for the Broncos was certainly steel in their backs for this one. Hunt made a major difference at halfback, and Carrigan certainly is the pick of their forwards at the moment. A headache for McGuire will be what he does with Reynolds when he is due back this round as I believe Hunt is a better option.

Saturday had three games, the first of which saw the Knights at home to the Warriors. Not only was the crowd disappointing for the Knights, but so was their performance. The Warriors looked very good, and the much-maligned Boyd had another very strong game which would clearly be placing him in the top of all the medal markets. His plea to his coach to Take a Chance on Me has paid dividends. The second game saw a rampant Dolphins completely demolish the Sharks. With the Dolphins away from home, you would have thought this would be a risk match, but the Sharks’ tenure as a top eight side to me seems to be So Long. The final Saturday night game had the Rabbitohs at home to the Tigers in what was a very close and entertaining match. Mitchell’s somewhat of an enigma for Souths and was very good in patches. However, the injury to both the Tigers halves clearly affected their overall performance and must be a major worry to Tiger Coach Marshall.

There were two games on Sunday and the first saw the Eels beat most probably an unlucky Dragons with a number of questionable forward passes. See below for one of our readers’ comments about the forward pass.  A solid win for the Eels and the Dragons still have a problem with the halves. I Still Have Faith in You continues to ring out from the coach on the difficult family arrangement. The final match had the Cowboys up against the Titans, and they finally clicked to win as they had to. When All is Said and Done, Cowboys Coach Payten has reduced a little bit of pressure. The Titans were a bit disappointing, especially their big men up front. I’m not sure where the Titans will be finding their next win.

 

Round 4 starts tonight with Manly up against the Roosters. You would expect the Roosters to win this match because Manly have looked very poor. Can you hear the drums, Siebold (Fernando), as he is in a dramatic fight for his coaching career. This is further complicated by the fact that their long-term leader and heart and soul of their forward pack, Jake Trbojevic, is being seriously questioned around his role in the side. That’s most probably a family you don’t want to get offside given that three boys are in that team. This week the coaching pressure is on Seibold to find a win from somewhere and 3 straight home losses will strengthen the beat from the Sea Eagle faithful. Likewise, the Roosters need to provide a better performance and show that they are capable of matching it with the big boys higher up the ladder.

There are two games on Friday night. The first has the on-fire Warriors at home to the West Tigers. Given both Luai and Douhi are out or under a cloud, it is difficult to see Wests manufacturing a win over in Auckland. The second game should be an absolute classic with a full house at Lang Park for the Broncos and the Dolphins. The Winner Takes It All is a theme around this Derby even this early in the season. The Dolphins have marketed themselves as the team you support if you don’t like the Broncos, so it will be interesting to see the size of the two supporting crowds. Don’t forget to remember the Broncos’ 5 –1 record in these clashes. On last week’s performance, the Dolphins were very good, however, if the Broncos have found their mojo, they will be hard to beat. Apparently Teo, the defensive coach, has been sacked, which seems a little strange to me, given the best the Broncos have defended all year was in the second half last week. Obviously the Voulez Vous has gone from the Madge / Teo relationship!

There are three games on Saturday and for me they are all Gimme, Gimme, Gimme games. The Bulldogs are home to the Knights, and that should be a cakewalk for the Bulldogs. The Panthers at home to the Eels should also be an easy one for the Panthers, and the Cowboys at home with the Storm and unless the Storm fades badly in the northern heat, they should have no trouble in this game. Losses by the Knights and Cowboys could see their seasons Slippin’ Through Their Fingers. That round of games on Saturday sounds really easy, especially if you say it quickly!

Finally, on Sunday, the Raiders are at home to the Sharks. Again, given last week’s form, you would have to think the Raiders will be too strong for the Sharks, and the final game has the helpless Titans against the luckless Dragons. Mamma Mia – this game could go either way. It should be so close that I’m almost tempted to go out and watch it as I’m pretty sure it won’t be that difficult to get a seat. I’m going to take the Titans to register their first win at home for Season ’26 over the Dragons.

Last week’s embedded music cue was of Abba where I mentioned Waterloo in relation to a couple of coaches. I’m not sure if they ever heard of Rugby League, they certainly had a string of hits in the 70s and were top of the pops with the Golden Girl who loved Dancing Queen, so I have picked an ABBA team.

 

ABBA NRL First 13

1               A J  Brimson

2               Blake  Ayshford

3               Bruce  Astill

4               Arthur  Brannigan

5               Adrian  Brunker

6               Barry  Andrews

7               Blake  Austin

8               Artie  Beetson

9               Aaron Booth

10             Bob  Allison

11              Braith. Anasta

12             Anthony  Bonus

13             Albert  Burge

Coach:     Brad  Arthur

 

Round 4 Tips

Roosters, Warriors, Broncos, Bulldogs, Panthers, Storm, Raiders, Titans.

 

I beat the Prop Tipping Comp Leaderboard

1 Souffs(17), 2 Smithy65, 3 Dolph Fin, Flying Mattress and others (15)

Gerry, Crabman and Banksy need to take a long hard look at themselves! At the end of Rd 3 no one has picked the perfect score.

 

My Pre Season Top Eight

2 Penrith, 3 Canterbury, 4 Melbourne, 7 Souths, 10 Cronulla, 13 Brisbane, 14 Raiders, 15 Roosters.

 

Odd Fact

Relative to the ground, the ball always travels forward in RL otherwise you would have a stationary game! So says one of our readers, ‘South of the Border’, who sent an explanation of basic RL physics during and after the Eels v Saints match which really got under his goat!

Read the following  SOTB rant:

If A is crash tackled or there is a line on the ground, the ref will see the ball going forward relative to A or to the line, and this is where the problem arises even though it was NOT a forward pass (Holmes’ Pass). I thought the rules had sorted this out but clearly not. This happens on every pass when players are moving forward and passing. The ball has to move forward relative to the ground, even if directed backwards. The difficulty is getting over the belief that if you pass sideways or backwards that that stops the forward motion of the ball (relative to the ground) and, of course, it doesn’t.  See below.

Even if running at speed, you pass the ball back over the top of your head it will probably still hit the ground forward of the spot where you passed it from. The rules stipulate that the ball must not be passed in a forward direction, ie relative to the receiver. As I say, the problem occurs when the passer is crash tackled and does not keep pace with the receiver. The ref then sees the ball travelling forward relative to the ground.

Forgive my writings on this but 40 years ago this was a topic a workmate actually raised with a leagues club. I think the rules may have been clarified at that time to reference the players and not the ground. 40 years later the experts still don’t get it!!

“RL is a game that involves carrying a ball at speed towards an opponent’s goal line. This means that the ball always shares the forward momentum of the players carrying it. When it is passed between players, it continues this forward momentum even if directed sideways by the pass. So, the very essence of the game of RL is that the ball, when passed between players moving at speed, ALWAYS TRAVELS FORWARD RELATIVE TO THE GROUND (i.e. viewed from above). This is NOT forward passing and should not be penalised.

It would only be an infringement if, RELATIVE TO THE PLAYERS, the ball travelled forward or the receiver was in front of the passer. Consider that, when passed between players running down the field at say 20kph, the ball can take up to a second to traverse the gap depending on the distance between the players. Both players will have moved forward 5 metres or so in that time.

For the receiver to get the ball, the ball must also move 5 metres forward with them RELATIVE TO THE GROUND. The ball has to keep up with the players for the receiver to catch it. It’s basic junior high school physics. The game of RL would come to a complete standstill if the ball was not allowed to travel forward relative to the ground when passed between players. The only way this could ever be achieved would be for EVERY PLAYER TO STAND STILL WHEN PASSING THE BALL.

Referees, the Bunker and ‘expert’ commentators get it wrong all too often, particularly when the player passing the ball is stopped in his tracks at the moment he passes the ball, and even more so if there is a line on the ground for reference (e.g. the Holmes pass last round) when the ref ruled the pass forward even though the ball was correctly passed sideways. The forward momentum of the passer will always carry the ball forward in an arc relative to the ground (or line on the ground) and into the hands of the receiver. If, in the Holmes case, he had kept running and not been crunched tackled, the ref would have seen the ball travelling sideways in a direct line between the players. But with one of them taken out, he sees what he believes to be a forward pass when it is not!

It might pay to have a look at the rule book. If it says passes must be directed in line with or backwards towards the supporting player and does not reference the ground at all, then the problem is in the lack of understanding by those refereeing and commenting that the ball will still travel forward relative to the ground. The rule book is ok if its trajectory focus is on player position, not the ground.

If you saw that pass of Holmes, it was NOT forward. Yes it went forward relative to the ground because Holmes and the ball were travelling forward at 30kph when Holmes was stopped, but he passed it across and back to the following player. Please address in the Almanac.

It’s fundamental to the game and it has to stop being penalised! You could give the example of 2 players passing the ball between themselves as they run at full speed down the field. If they are 10 metres apart the ball will take the best part of a second to get across that gap. In that time the receiving player and the passer will have moved forward up to 5 metres. The receiver does not stop for the second the ball takes to cover the gap. Of course, the ball travels forward relative to the ground. It is fundamental – it must, to get into the hands of the receiver! It’s basic physics of objects in motion!!

A bombardier does not drop the bomb over the target to hit it. He drops it downward from the plane at 90 degrees (same as the pass sideways) well before the target and the bomb travels both down and forward to the target (same as the football which travels both sideways and forward in an arc to the receiver). It must!! Just because it is given sideways motion does not stop its forward motion (relative to the ground).

I urge you to clear this up. I assure you your website will light up with views on this!

It could decide a grand final.

South of the border.

 

As a side note, SOTB had 2 great RL moments. Firstly, in the Rockhampton Schoolboys final of 1969, as fullback for CBC, he tackled a rampaging Rod Reddy to win the match. In 2022 prior to Origin 3 (Ben Hunt try match), he attended a function with me where food was served. Gorden Tallis was the guest speaker. After speaking, both Tallis and SOTB saw the last party pie. 70-years-old at the time, SOTB decided to put his fullback skills to use and got his shoulder in front of Tallis as they both zeroed in from 10 metres out. In the mad scramble, SOTB touched the party pie first and proudly placed the score up there with the GF win 54 years earlier!

Rugby League is no longer on Vacation – It is a Quest

 

You gotta love footy!

 

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