"In Te Maire Martin We Trust"

Welcome along to the Mad Monday Podcast, brought to you by four and twenty pis. It's the perfect at home snack for watching rugby league. You got me here the Pantsman Joel Harrison and I'm joined with Ben Hurley.

Welcome Ben.

How's it going great mate?

What a round of rugby league? You can definitely tell it was post Origin. There was some big margins, but none more so than the It was beating the Cows.

Yeah, no, it was a great time.

I was lucky enough to join Die in the Export B studio to commentate the game on Saturday night.

It was fun.

I feel like it was probably the most the most well rounded Warriors performance of the yesfr.

Yeah, incredible. We talked about it. I commentated that Origin game one and the Cowboys had more players involved in Origin than any other single club. So I think we counted seven because it was as a couple and obviously there's most of them for the Maroons, but a couple for the Blues as well. So most of those players

Yeah, especially at home in North Queensland, which is normally a pretty tough trip. I feel like Ruben Cotter, he's normally one of the biggest impact of their team as well. He made thirty two tackles in the first half and after playing a grueling Origin game as well.

It would be pretty tough for that.

And then your likes of Val Holmes dead and they didn't really fire to the Warriors. We were lucky for that one. What did you reckon of, like Dylan Walker moving into the Star lineup instead of Toho Harris.

Yeah, really interesting. I feel like I love to who Harris. He is the mighty taught to and I won't have a bad word said about him, but he's definitely slower off the mark than he used to be. He gets big post contact meters, but I yeah, I guess they're just easing him back in right after his injury. And Dylan Walker is he's just the fix it man. He just goes wherever you need him.

He was so good and I think it was for Mitch Barnett's try. We're talking about it off here as well. That was your your punt of the week last week and it brought home about three hundred bucks to the ACC kiddy. But yeah, just the way he straightens up the ball in the middle, fed it to Marty Martin. Then yeah, Martin just put Bunnett over it. It was good to see Walker plane like that.

Yeah, it was beautiful. And let's talk about Tomati Martin too, because I think we saw the best of him finally in the Warriors Jersey. He's just such a solid half. He's not flashy, but he you don't what he's going to do. And I think sometimes with SJ, you kind of know he's not going to run at the line this year. He did last year. This year he's had that niggling injury. He's currently out with that injury. So it does become a little bit predictable that he is

Ball in his hand.

It's crazy because when Tomighty Martin has come to the Warriors for the last two years, he's sort of been a bit injury prone and kind of been behind Metcalf. He was good at started last year and he hasn't really shown them in his last three weeks. He's almost been like the standout seven and the competition and then Johnson, I think it's supposed to be back this week after his peck injury. So would you bring him back into the LINEU would you leave him the bench?

No? I think you bring him back in and put Tomighty back to Sex because unfortunately, and I'm a massive fan of the man, but Chanel Harris Devita did not have the best game obviously. He was ten in the bin for arguably the most a schoolboy kind of childish ball throw that Chad Townsend didn't even notice and he got ten in the bin for it. The ball literally hit him in the back of the head and he didn't turn around, didn't say anything, and he gets ten

Yeah, he was probably one of the only Warriors who didn't almost perform to their best ability in the weekend as well. It was so good to see across the park everyone was doing it. I feel like we're be needs to find a way that he can get to mighty in there at Sex, but also still give him a bit.

More management as well. D you can, that's a doable thing.

Yeah, I think.

I think probably what I hope is that given that he's in some really good form, that Sean and him will share that management bit better and it's not just down to s J on the last play, you know, on the fifth tackle every time that it could go to either one because Tomoighty's kicking game pretty great as well.

Yeah.

Die was having a field day on the commentary on the weekend with Chad Towns and he's saying he's the Chris Lily of the NRL. Well, it seems like there's a bit of bad blood between him and the Warriors.

It really does, doesn't it.

There.

I mean, he is an ex Warrior for those he even caught up, but you know, I always vote Chadtowns in at the Warriors. I thought he gave it his best, and then he moved away and he became I think one year he was the most penalized player in the competition when he went to the Did he go straight to the Cows or did he go somewhere else?

First?

Did you go to the Sharks?

And then he came back to the Warriors and then he went to the Cowboys?

I think?

All right, so well, yeah, you know, he's probably just getting a little bit older now. He definitely looks reader in the face and angrier than he used to be. He has at his discipline a little bit. But yeah, it did seem a little bit of niggle there between them, and I wonder if in particularly some of the older Warrior players that would have been there while he was there, like Marcelo Montoya.

Yeah, Montoya was fired up. I know he has.

He had an incident a few years ago against the Cowboys as well that led to a bit of a band so I think there's a bit of bad blood between him and the Cowboys as well. So yeah, he was fired up, and when you put he could have got sent off for that push on Chad Townsend as well a Montoya.

Yeah, that's right. Look, I'm a Cowboys fan that they are my other team. I love watching them play. They are a little bit like the Warriors, and that they are massively up and down, and you know, particularly this year, they're almost heavy identical season. So yeah, I'm not sure what the what the water under the bridge is there, but look, forty two points to twelve, what a performance. Just tries galore and we should probably talk about the back back.

Oh yes, that was vintage DWZ there. When I was commentating, I said it was Ben barber ESQ. But it was actually like Greg Anglis in two thousand and eight heading it back to Gasnia. Probably one of the best tries I've seen in a long time, especially from the Warriors.

Yeah, and it was I love just the bare back was so casual, like he just thought he'd roll the dice. I might as we have a little swipe at this and willow and behold.

And his foot was like centimeters away from the white line. I know they train, especially as a winger, he trains to stay in the field of playing stuff, but surely there was some element of a fluke there as well.

Yeah, no doubt.

I mean, you're gonna have a little bit of luck the way the baldest yet popped up at the end on that last bounce. But you know what, you're going to take the opportunities. And the Warriors certainly have had this year of bad luck over the years, so let's take them. So currently the Warriors six wins, six losses and a drawer. You can't have more of an even split of a season than that.

Yeah, and especially after was it four or five losses in a row and now we've turned it into three wins in a bye. So we're sitting at ninth on the table, one point outside of that eight. The eight is pretty it's pretty even though at the moment it goes up to sixteen points with the Ruses and six and then storm at the top with the Sharks on twenty two points.

So the Warriors a.

Few more wins away, we could easily cement ourself in the top eight for the season.

Yeah, absolutely, and you just kind of you kind of don't want to be seventh or eighth. I mean, I'm not sure if we can get higher than that. I think we'd have to go on a hell of a run now, but you know seventh and eighth. If you're losing that, you know you've got to play. It will be Cranala or Brisbane or something in the Storm in that first round of the finals and you're basically gone.

Yeah, there was a different the setup this year. It really favors the top four teams. We we do have kind of an interesting draw coming up. We gave the Storm, Titans, Broncos and Builder. Obviously Storm and Broncos at home, probably two of the hardest teams of the competition.

Yeah. Absolutely, And but just remember we almost beat the Storm earlier this year and that was my sliding doors moment. But since since I mentioned that sliding doors moment, we've won every game. So hope, let's hope we just can you know, contain Zavier Coats pulling off America in the last minute and and and bag two points against the Storm, who, by the way, looked very good.

Yeah, that was it was a good game yesterday. They they kind of loot the Nights back in there at the end. I think without Cameron Munster. They're definitely, definitely beatable, but they're still the classic Storm.

Craig Bellamy, he.

Looked depressed after a win after the game yesterday. It was as a vintage Craig Bellamy moved there.

Yeah, they just look like they can score from anywhere and and it's massively dangerous.

There's one key point that's been talked about quite a lot in all the Warriors fan pages, that moment when Artis come back, comes back, where do you reckon?

He's in a.

Gus interesting, isn't it. I mean, do you put him? I mean, when we had our hearts problems and charms went to sex like there was Actually he did pretty well there and immediately I thought, well, you know, if we're so bad injuries, when Artis comes back, then he goes straight into fallback.

Right Yeah.

Yeah, otherwise he just a Rocko Berry played so well on the weekend, like such a good defensive center now, so I don't know. And Adam Pompey's playing well and kicking really well as well. So yeah, it's I mean, do you have a back on the bench, like it almost never happens anymore, but Artie is coming off the bench as an impact player is a pretty awesome luxury to have.

Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like probably over the weekend it was the best bench rotation that Webi's done all season as well, because you had toahu coming on played about sixty minutes. Cape well played forty I think, but it was probably some of his best minutes of the season. To Vanga only played twenty eight minutes, but he was he was clinical and then lassic for the last twenty three. So I don't know, it feels like it's a good problem for Weaby to have.

Yeah.

I mean Montoya had a couple of rough games. He even dropped out of the side for a game, but I think he's played pretty well since then. So for a little while there, I was thinking maybe maybe just put Antis on the wing and and dropped Montoya, but I don't think you can at the moment.

Yeah, And like he was safe under the high ball kind of cut their era out of the game.

Which was sort of hindering him at the start of the season.

So I don't know, it's yeah, i'd be disappointed Montoya got dropped as well.

Are the Blues still in beck and like are they still in Super Rugby? Like Yeah, just put him on loan, so back to rugby union for a week.

It seems weird because the Blues are kind of thriving at the moment as well when he's he's dropped out of the system.

I just I hate this.

I hate talking anything but wonderful things about Roger two Vas this year.

He's such a good player.

Pretty much every game this season when he's played, he's made a massive impact as well. It's just been he's been unlucky.

Yeah, I think he's kind of forgotten how to pass. He's obviously got the best feet in the game, but I'd like to see him pass a little bit more. And yeah, he's very very solid defender, but yeah, a little bit more distribution from him. If if I'm going to you know, if I have to have a critical eye on it.

Yeah, yeah, Oh well, these are problems that Andrew WIBs is going to run into in the next few weeks.

Anything else from you and the Warriors over the weekend.

No, that's that's me just it just gives you great confidence. And I know they were a tired side, but you know, you're still you're still gonna win. And it wasn't close and as you say it was up in Townsville where it was, I know, probably early thirty degrees and you know, place like towns will winter.

Yeah, yeah, and it was full of Bogans in the crowd as well. There's a couple of times one of the guys was standing real close to the studio, sorry, the stadium, Mike, so we get to hear a lot of his calls and he was not a big gene pulled up in Townsville.

This're saying, no, no, Yeah. I love the Cowboys.

I'd like to see them play one day at home, but hopefully it's one of those games where it's not in Townsville. Although that stadium looks pretty cold, I got to say it does.

It reminds me of sort of like an Amy Park or Kombank Stadium in Sydney. We need one of those over here in New Zealand. But that's a discussion for another time. The Foreign twenty Prize Pack each month being the Mad Monday Team, we're giving away four tickets to the next home game and four and twenty pie vouchers. Just to enter, you can text the keyword to three two three six, listen to the podcast episodes and find the keywords out for every month. The keyword for this

Yeah?

I did, actually tries galore and and what was amazing about it? I think every single try was scored by a winger. So Tommy Telo got four, Brian Or got three, Sania Taruba got two. He also had a shocka defensively in the first half of hints why Tommy Telo got four? But yeah, unbelievable. Every single every single try was scored was scored out wide, so they've obviously got some very good wingers that are good at attack and not defense.

Yeah, even sub He scored a consolation try there for Manly and it was an awesome try, like twinkled Tod down the sideline somehow found a bit of space. But yeah, Tommy Tallao, he was kind of an average player last year at best at the Tigers. Now he's sort of made a revival.

Yeah, I think everyone becomes an average player when they go to the Tigers. I fell for Benji just to get off check a little bit, because man, every week he's going to go and defend his team at that press conference, and I think he's a naturally quite an optimistic guy, and it's difficult when every single week you're having a lost pretty much.

There's all these rumors about Lachlan Galvin as well, like the one sort of shining light coming out of the Tigers this season. Apparently he's saying he wanted an early release in the changing rooms and they've denied it. Now they've got a meeting the hit of the Tigers, who's a meeting with his mum and dad this week because he's only eighteen of course.

Oh right, Yeah, look what I've learned about at the NRL is generally the rumors are true. Yeah, but no, this is a great a great game of rugby league on a Sunday afternoon, a real Sydney derby. People who don't know the kind of history of the NRL may not know that Manly was sort of like the Melbourne

Yeah, it was a clinical Penrith performance as well. I saw thirty seven out of thirty eight sets completed from the game, and the second half they didn't drop a ball but you could tell there was feeling in there because Jerome Lay there was one time where he shoved down the young Travoyevitch as well Berbo. He didn't have his brothers to back him up, but he was just like it was a massive grub move face into the dirt. And then Luke Brooks kind of cost Manly a try

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean there's a pretty clear top four, isn't there. But I wanted to give a shout out though to Daily Cherry Evans, who played a really good game despite the loss, after having a mammoth game for Queensland in the first staut of Origin.

So you know, I know it's.

He's a half and it's not quite as physical as being a front railer or even a fullback, you know, but the guy's thirty five years old and has played two fantastic games in a week.

Yeah.

There was a classic moment as well when he didn't kick the ball off the mark, so the referee gave Tom the Mark, he kicked it out and then three times he moved about eight meters forward while kicking the ball. It was I saw it up in the n Our Instagram as well. It's a good moment. But Reuben Garrick's kicking there was a couple of clips as well up there.

Penrith, Yeah, I guess it did, actually didn't it. Yeah, you know, I love the beautiful scar faced reubend Garrett, but he was I think they got in his head, the crowd.

Yeah. Yeah.

And another good player from the game as well was Dane Lourie, who has come over from the Tigers. It was one of the best players for the Tigers last year and I think he bet Dylan Edwards record for running meters this year at fullback. Took twenty five carries for like two hundred and seventy meters, had a Mammoth supercoach game as well of anyone's following along with that. So yeah, he looks like definitely a first grade prayer there, Dan Lowry.

Yeah, but with that mustache, she's not anywhere near a school.

Yeah, one hundred percent. And besides that game, there was pretty much blowouts for the rest of the weekend.

Did you catch much of the much of the action?

Yeah, bits and pieces. I think the Bunnies will be very happy with their blowout because they're not obviously. Was that their first win?

I think that's his second win in a row.

Yeah, right right, Yes, Well Latrell is well and truly bad so that you know, talk about a single player team, but you know, the Bunnies without Latrell is well, it's not worth talking about really. But yeah, he had a huge game, one hundred and fifty super coach points, so yeah, big meters and big presence.

You'd have to assume that he will be back in Origin for game two as well, probably replacing Sole.

Oh mate.

If Mage knows anything about the game of rugby league, he needs to make wholesale changes and put back in his game breakers.

Yeah, who else do you reckon the game breakers to bring in?

Do you know what I've said this before, I'll say it again, Scott Drinkwater. I I don't know where, but I bring him into the side.

Yeah, he is. He's a good player. He's sure and pockets against the Warriors.

He was lethal.

Well, he ran well, he ran eighty meters like he's got expector. And I just think that that Origin game by the Blues, that's what it lacked. It lacked any kind of you know, spark.

Yeah.

And if there were any doubts of Zach Lomac's getting dropped as well, he's probably he had a great game, to be fair, in his Origin debut. But he scored thirty two points two nights after playing his first of a game of Origin. I think it was a Dragon's record as well for the most points ever scored in a game.

Look, I don't know what it is about him, but he rubs everybody up the wrong way. No, I don't think he's anyone's favorite player, but the effect remains he's actually pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then probably the last point of the round for me was the Sharks going over to the Broncos and what was pretty much like a top of the table clash game. No Nico Hines trindle back from his drink driving allegedly cocaine abuse allegation. I don't know what it was, but he looked like he was a great player, and the Sharks looked like they're definitely still a team to beat this year.

Yeah.

Absolutely, And obviously Broncos with a lot of players backing up from Origin.

Yeah yeah, yeah, well, yeah, it was a good round. Anything else to add from you for the rest of the round.

No, I this round generally happens at some point, this type of round where it's just basically all blowouts, and it is during this weird time. My only concern is as a long term Warriors fan, this used to be what happened every single season, was that we'd win through the Origin period and then when you know that was over, then things would go back to normal, being a bit up and down. I just hope we can take confidence

We just really looked we would look like a great team.

So yeah, that's my only concern is I'm hoping this isn't just a history repeating itself. Yeah.

No, that is a's a good point and it will be huge if we can take these good wins over the last few weeks, take it back to Mount Smart this weekend. It's Saturday, seven thirty. Keezy and Andni they're going to be back from there. Feels like a two week bender in Bali, and they'll be back commentating the game on sky Sport nine, Skyports nine or sky Sports seven, one of the two. And yeah, fingers cross the Warriors can get up and make a good round.

Yeah, I'm going to Japan tomorrow. Oh, no, a week so I'm gonna I don't know that how big the NRL is in Japan, so I'll just be on a dodgy VPN bouncing off a satellite via North Korea or something to get the game.

But I'll get it.

You'll get it.

Yeah, make sure you can probably even find a way to get Keyesy and Mania calling calling the game over there and join a few asas over there.

Yeah, yeah, well I think Keasy and I look they have an e pray love tattoo mentioning lower back tattoos, So looking forward to seeing that.

Yeah, we'll enjoy your trip over to Japan. I'm sure we'll see you back after that. And that was all for us today and the Mad Monday have a good week. Upperwise, he's not Australia,