Coop the decision ahead for Delia tree Evans where it's almost certain that you know he's going to play on he's leaving a club he's with for a long time. You're in a situation Coop, you're the Meltom's toom for a long long time. You can be one club man and then right at the back end in your last couple of years, you chose to go somewhere else, like he's got a couple of options available.
I think my situation is a little bit different. Reason for me to leave Melbourne was pure because my family and future in Sydney, So my decision was based around family first and then football ended up being second. Whereas I think Day sort of said that, you know, financially and still wanting to play and compete. There's a guy that hasn't played in a Grand Final since twenty thirteen, so I dare say his next sort of decision we're
based around. For me, Look, there was a couple of clubs involved, a few in the bottom mate, but with that been rude like it didn't want to go at thirty four years of age and spend the majority of my time tackling. So the desire to a couple of teams at the top eight approached and put it down. I foundly based in Sydney, the Roosters were Cherry right for the picking. They had played in three or four prelim finals in the leader and didn't need a I didn't need a half back to how can I explain this?
Didn't need a half back the set up more tries or score more tries. They needed someone who they could rely on and come up with good decisions at the right time. So it all fixed up. But I was a couple of weeks away from retiring until the Rousters came very very late. It just ticked all the boxes for me. So if I was guessing about Cherry Evans, look he's going to go to a club that he
was going to chance to win a Grand Final. Okay, thirty six years of age, hasn't played one for twelve years, only one one in his first year of first grade, so most things in the game.
So if we sit there right and there's Dolphins to a certain extent, Titans, but that would really surprise. You've got the Roosters, who I still think are the favorites, and you've got the Dogs who Guss has come out and said no, no, no, But Gus is very clever and he's shrewd and there's no way in the world. And I said this on the show last night. He's not going to stand up and to clear mate, we're going for him. And that just intensifies this whole process.
Well again that we're only speculating here, but guy at thirty six y years of age, he's very considered in the way he goes about it, very professional. The longer he leaves is the less opportunity for maximum money comes into play because people start signing. So look it can right.
I'll ask you, you're daily Cherry Evans. You've got the Titans, the Dolphins, throwing, the Dogs and the Roosters. Where does he go?
And he's staying here in Sydney, Dogs and the Roosters. Of a chance that would come.
Where would you go if I had all those options available, I gather dogs. That's where I go. I think the Dogs are on the up, they're looking it's early in the season, but they're four from four, they're defending like a top four side. I think he'd be pretty obvious.
But are the dogs if it's those two? Right? And I was making a decision around whether to go for Daily, I would like to see how he delivers in the next four to six weeks. Now he was great the other day, terrific, He handled the media, played well and then did another media opportunity afterwards. If he can galvanize merely the way the mainly is fractured at the moment and win the majority of his game, I think he's got Melbourne this week, got Penrith are in there somewhere,
and win the majority of his six games. That's leadership and that's a team. That's a player who can take your team to a Grand Final.
I've always been of the mind Cooper that these sort of things are an experienced player leaving our club legend leaving at the end of the year has Although it can be a little bit of distraction, footballer is just get on with stuff. But this one, up until probably when I went home last night and sat and watched the whole press conference, I sort of thought I made players would just get on with this. This won't be a distraction. But it's getting particularly nasty and.
That's why I think it's up to Daily to galvanize. He's the one because if they beat Melbourne. I think Penrith are in there that maybe someone else that's in the top four. If they can win. The majority of those are at home, by the way too, So if they can galvanize and play because their team is on the cusp of potentially finishing the top four and winning something this year, that's down to Daily bring that group together.
If they play lack luster football, it's because Daily hasn't been able to authentically get that group to focus on what's recorded.
Ok, let's talk about the football yesterday and so far this year. When we talk about Manly, we say this inc insistencies and that you know, we oftentimes see them get away me and Miles now particularly sometimes at home, and suddenly you think, you think yourself, they're going to put thirty or forty points. It's going to be a big win, and then everything sort of comes to a bit of a stop or they subside. Now, yesterday it was eighteen minutes gone something like that. They fourteen from
fourteen sets. They're completely at one hundred percent. They're playing great football. Their opponents are on the ropes and they're leading twelve nil. At that point I sat and not third right, boys, what are you going to do with this, and again they just pulled back there.
You want to put foot down and go for it.
You want to go for it. I mean, if it's Melbourne or Penrith at full strength, when they're in that, you hand them that situation, what are they going to do well?
I think they did that against the Raiders and the Cowboys at different stages. Yes, the Eels, I'm going to give them a bit of slack there. The one thing I always have question mark around Manly this year and last year was can their four pack dominate a good, strong opposition forward pack and can they defend for long enough against good attacking teams their attack stands up. I'm not dismissing that, but that's going to be the question mark.
They were playing Paramount with all due respect yesterday. They just did what they had to do to get the victory. But when Paramatta scored late in the second half, Cherry Evans stood up, Brooks went to the game. They scored those two tries to put it.
I just think it's bad practice coups. I mean, we're going to talk about Carnal a little late.
Maybe nine and a half out of ten every week, but I'm with you.
Yeah, you can't, you can't. You can't beat the best sides when when you get used to playing forty minute football. We saw that with last week. We spoke about the Caronal like that, that lack of killer instinct and you know against our sidior and you go here we go. It could be a forty point victory and their second half was terrible and that carried on into the Dog's game.
I know it's only week five, but with Cherry Evans's situation, they play Melbourne this week Melbourne lost to the Dragons, they will be up and about contest. We will work out what Cherry Evans mainly are this weekend if they can put a good victory in against Melbourne.
Yesterday he saw something around Lomax.
Yeah, so there's a lot of talk around Lomax, winger, center, whatever went to the Eels to place center. His performances on the wing at rep level and different stages have been top shelf. But defensively, if you want to be a dominant center in this competition, you need to defend ber than Zach. I don't think he's a center. Look at this against round one verse Melbourne going to the outside just tunnel vision for his off center and create space for Munster. Now they didn't get hurt there, But
you can't have tunnel vision. You to have your head on a swivel and make multiple decisions at center position. And again on the weekend against Manly, he did exactly the same. He only had eyes for Turbo. Here goes out of the line, completely opens up a passageway for Ben Trovoyvitch to come through. Now, I know he wants to play center, but you don't play center making defensive decisions like that.
It's interesting like that coups because when he defends at center, like he's pushing himself out of the line of trying to make those decisions. When he's playing on the wing, if he's got a fault, it's just he's disconnected. He's a little bit too far back.
So to explain, the center is the decision maker defensively whether they go up or out, and the winger follows. So the reason why he's much better on the wing is because he follows what someone else does in terms of making decisions. Here he's gone for Turbo completely out of the line and just towed Ben Trovoyvitch through the whole he's showing me things that he just is a winger every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
At the moment, Yeah, Dolphins are still the Dolphins. For a second. They played, of course, the Broncos, and our knock has been a little bit like their attack has been very, very sideways. Outside outside of Isaiah Katowa, some of their formations have been awful. And again the other night, and I'll show an example here. You know they're on the attack. This is early in the game, but Herbie
Farnworth is almost almost at the far post. Now I can understand sometimes you have you set these little trick plays up and whatnot, but this this can be the exception. But it's it's it's basically the rule where they're in there and that is just setting up for sideways, sideways ball movement. The attorney scat Stags all night defended inside out in a slide formation. As you know, that's the easiest way to tackle.
If you're going to beat anyone one on one, you have to have the thread of going inside or outside. Here, if Herbie Farmers only got one way to go one way, and the flip side of that is that's good defense from Catoni stags. It doesn't come out of the line, doesn't create space exact climax on the other side.
But as you know, when you're defending, for people to actually go up and defend from the inside out, that's a really comfortable tackle. It's when someone comes spearing at your inside childer, We're going to make the decision like am I going to slide or I'm going to go in and make that tackle. And they got it right once the Dolphins, Yep, Tom Gilber, look at this. This
is an example. Catoni wants to slide straight through, straight through on the inside shoulder there because Katoni wants to defend inside out, and they got it right and never went back there.
This was early on in the game of the Dolphins, and I thought, oh, look out, first couple of sets, they're up and about for this contest. But as the game went on, tough conditions in the weent sideways movement, no sort forward thrust from the play the ball, and they just got caught out big time. And that's one of my issues with the Dolphins is I know about you,
but I actually give a cart a pass mark. Definitely no wins four losses and you're giving a half back a tick shows to me that I know they're in the conversation for going for Cherry Evans, but they need someone explosive in the middle of the field to create ruck speed. I think they've got a half back that might deliver them a premiership, but they need some forward thrust, some big bodies like Finnifiularki is the only real athletic guy.
They've got workers, real good guys, but mix it up a little bit and go after old Glas at paying Harts.
For someone like that to create be handy. Having a really experienced top line half pack around Isaiah tow it's really mentoring. You know, someone who's thirty six and there's one competitions a long time ago, someone who's played for Australia and State of Origin. Do you know anyone let's.
Be down for four that can bend the line and Correctuick play the balls for him.
We'll talked about Kato last week, some beautiful little bit pieces of ballplaying, old school ball playing where he went up, he looked in and then played to the outside. The other night he's added to this he does a little bit of what Jason Smith used to do this a little bit, show out, show in, back out again. It's almost like, you know, it's a double cross play.
It's like a game of poker. It is tiding his guards and telling a little lie with a look and a shape. But then he's doing the flip side of defenders out everything the Dolphins are doing right now, has Cartea doing something good?
Yeah?
You know at some ballplayer scored a try, he's set up a couple. There's just not enough around him.
That's right. And we said before in that instance it was like a third movement rather than just look in play out. It was one, two three. Now this one we're about to see now is more subtle. Now, this is very Jason Smith. He goes to the line, he looks short, then he feigns like he's going to go around the back, and then goes back short again. Just
it's only a subtle thing. But that man who's the decision maker on the outside, you know, that's that's really that's a really it's like you see pain just turned in there. When you used to play against Jason Smith, he dawed loved the line. Then he just pause and you'd pause and it was it was unnerving, and Kato has got a bit of that in here.
I think if you play at one speed, you don't you're not a threat to the defensive line. And if you play it once, you've got to show multiple deception with your eyes, your hips, or the way that you fake a pass. And Carto then did it perfectly because he did the double pump and then when he went accelerated paint hussment, Oh, actually I need to lean into you, and that crowded the one on one last week.
Talking about the Dolphins and their sideways ball movement, we said to really strip the defense short. You've got that initially on the first receiver play. It really helps if it's a really tight, fast play, you know, and not not a play where there's lag like one past two past a shape that you go up there. There's lots of bodies of motion and the shape sort of unfurls at the last second, and that's what really unnerves the defense and makes some clothes in. Adam Rends is very
very good and he showed it the other night. Just a little one here, one past two pass, three bodies of emotion and that's how you're stripped short.
So long field position, big elaborate play. The halfback whose first receiver needs that can a lot of players in the middle of the field. Way you do that is either play arrow, straight and direct with a lot of support around you, or if you're doing the crossfield movement. But when he goes across here, he hides the ball with his rotation of his body, and that thinks Mark
Nichols turns in because he thinks the ball's gone. So the fact that he went slow hid the ball from vision of the defenders, then quickly turned a corner made the Dolphins defense collapse, and that created the space outside.
Defense. Defense wins competitions, and defense is a little bit attitude. And the Dogs are defending like the top four side. They've got the best defense in the competition at the moment. Do you think they finished top four if well, it's a lot way out. But if you say to me, Maddie, I'll give you a four to one about the Dogs finishing top four, I take it he saw all of that money well here, handsome over there, But yeah, I would, Yeah, I agree with you.
That's one of the more impressive performances I've seen under their desperation, their ability to squeeze and frustrate the Sharks. A couple of individual efforts. There was one from Harry Hayes in the first half with the ball got sort of the backfield, he dived on it. Another one from Marni and Montoya really late. You can build a season
on these efforts and this cohesion. And I like the way that Sereraldo went about the game because they played the Titans, Eels and the Dragons in the first three weeks. They did the fundamentals of terms of completion, generate good kicking game, and defend well. You can beat most teams in the first month doing that, but they knew they had to go up another level against the Sharks, who at that stage were playing very good, and they delivered.
They defensively went to another level. I like what Preston did on the left edge with no kickout. Hayward was good as well. Yeah, they were very impressive. I think that was the best performance of the weekend. The Dogs.
You played with Till, I mean they brought him for his leadership, obviously in his.
Experience, presence and physicality.
He made his physicality.
He runs the ball, he pumps those legs like he's just fighting for every inn.
Some of the shots. He put that shot on.
Trindle like, yes, he's been charged and suspended and I've been in Trindle's position before. That hurts. That's not cool. But he puts the threat and the ballplayer to go close to the line. It almost thinks I'm going to play a meter and a half earlier and therefore your defense can layer off and make a better decisions. But he's intimidating people at the moment.
I'll give you three to one on the Sharks making top forty. You take it.
I like him. Do you buying or selling?
I didn't really buy at the start, so I can't sell. I'm just undecided. Coops their football so far that she has been really it's been inconsistent. There's been a couple of things to worrying me. In Vegas. They're in a position to beat Penrith that night, couldn't do it. The game against the Cowboys was very strong. They were good there got to say Cowboys at that point really struggling, but fair played. They were very very good first half against South Sydney the best half of football so far
this year. Their second half was average and they're come up against the dog site who's playing with that dogs of war mentality with physicality, and they're beating them. They've just dogs controlled the whole contest through aggression.
I thought the Sharks were up for it for forty minutes, but then came out and got sort of frustrated and didn't perform. Yes, I understand what you're saying, but I'm back in Fitzgibbon to manipulate this team the way he wants to like. They've played finals under him every year. They won a big final last year to get that monkey off their back. Adam phanil Blake brings something. Trindle and Heinz are still working, but I like where they're at.
I think they can put it together. Do they win a big prelim final playing their first grand final for a while. I don't know, but I think they're a team that we're thinking about after twenty rounds going down a chance.
Some little things he last week we spoke about halves combinations working This combination oftentimes not in the same player, but one after the other. We use an example Lucky Galvin and then lew I took the next play and complimented what he did. Good example here a J Brimston and Jayden Campbell. If you go back and have a look at the first try from the gold Coase, Campbell puts a dentinum Aj follows it straight up.
As a half, normally you pick a front rower that when they carry the ball and they create rock speed, you'll definitely follow them next. It's like you're fullback following someone who can offload. But I think for the Titans, once Campbell goes, I think Brimston needs to touch the ball the next vice versa. It's almost like when you're having sort of fullbacks in the halves position, you need to What fullbacks do better than most players on the
field is they find space. So they'll drift across field looking for space and then they'll attack it. What the Titans shouldn't do is play from confined field positions. They don't need to play from short field positions and expect Brimson and camel to do something a lot of second phase play long field positions. Let them drift across and once they find something, a show and go might break him open. If one gets tackled, the other half goes after that.
Just on tour with some of the young blows coming through at the moment. Little mention of the dragons still an egan coming off the bench. Well donder him really had an impact in the other For South Synty, Leon LeBlanc, I've seen him in the extended bench and that was first time I've really seen him have some serious time and he was really impressive. Make canbra He got a
batch of young blokes coming through camera. There's eight or nine of them that which might be behind the foggedy situation was soon at the moment, I reckon it's the best patch of young blokes Camera brought through in decades.
Yeah, they went down the England recruiting system and that got benefits. Played some prelim finals, got to a Grand Final. It seems as though they've gone and targeted, whether it's in their system or externally, the next crop who was stuck.
Behind coops talking about young players to a state of origin and I'll talk from a new South Wales perspective. You for Queensland, give me three emerging players you reckon could break into the next couple of seasons.
I don't know if these guys will play this year, but in terms of the future, I like what Peter kur has done at Brisbane, like played a lot more football last year and the kevy and you struggling to find his spot on imagine. But when he puts it together, his physical he's intimidating. He's got leg speed. I think he's got a good engine that can play on the edge.
I think Howeth from the storm he sort of sits in that sort of like a big body who has learned the art of playing center and may move into the back right some stage, but I think playing the grand finally, him having that combination of monster, he might be something. And I'll tell you what, young rong toy from the roosters center. He's got some athleticis.
He's been good. I think might not.
Be this year, but at some stage I think those three guys that play.
Next cup mate, tell what blake for me. Jacob Preston. Firstly, he's been terrific the last two seasons, but he's gone to another level now. He's really fulfilling his potential. I think he's I actually think he's a future captain New South Wales.
What I like about him as a back rower sometimes as a half you want like a big kick out who's intimidating scary and you can use up as as a weapon. But he is so reliable, Preston, when you go to the line as a half, he is in exactly the right position at exactly the right time. And you can pick apart teams if you've got that someone who's rock solid and will be there for you. So he was.
He was tremendous, tremendous. Bronson Cherry on the same side he has been since he's come in to that side. Came in last year. He was fantastic. I would have possibly thrown him in last year. I think he's I think he's got the physique and the mentality to be a State of Origin player. Tomorrow.
I'll remind you that later in the year, Latrell Mitchell, anything.
Else, I'll throw a couple of mores. Okay, this one and the other bloke just on classes like he might be a few more years away. But Lehigh HOBBLEWARDI Lehigh has just that bit of magic about him. I heard Brandy say that yesterday when one of the players held the ball up and he said, if it was anyone other than Lehigh HOBBLEWARDI, I'd say he got it down. He's just made the hands like there was that one a couple of years ago where it was the cross kick coming across for the try. He just caught it
on the run and threw it back in. And on the weekend Coop, early in the game Paramount knock one down field in the wet and Lehigh just went caught it like that. He's phenomenal talent. Lastly, Cop, want to say this the return of well, it's an abbreviated kangaroo too. It's the Ashes series, the return in England. Coop, it'll be boy. This bring brings back some memories.
Stuart Line break tips, Melmuran Inger in.
Best Game all the Time Wembley Maybe second No, that was Second Test ninety ninety at Old Trafford, Manchester. But eighty two and eighty six coups like, there's a book written about the eighty two tour. It was called it was I think it was. It was written by English guys. It's called the Tour that changed rugby forever, not just rugby union but rugby league. You know, Si, when you look back in the history of Australia going over and touring having an Ashes series, it was always real tough,
like you know, it would be really tough. Hartford Series seventy eight was a really tough series. Then we arrived in eighty two and whatever had happened between those four years, when when the Kangaroos got there, like they were just streets of head of in England were just not prepared. I think in that time state of origin a bit invent vented, but the standard I think as far as training, as far as skill work, that eighty two side, when you watch the football they played over there, it was
just remarkable. It was incredible for the game over there. All these tours, thirty thousand registrations already for priority tickets in England, thirty thousand sold already First Test at Wembley, which for the players would just be so special. Second Test Everton's new ground in Liverpool, Third one headingly Leeds. So I urge people who love the game, like guys who are younger demographic is, go back and watch that
eighty two and eighty six tours. Have look at the test matches, you know, combinations like you know, well, I'll see you how good eighty two was?
It was that good at sight in eighty two?
Please you didn't make it, Yes, eighty two was so good that Wally lew was on the bench. You had guys like Wally Lewis eighty six mal come off the bench, so they were just powerhouse sides and yeah, very great memories. I loved it just getting up at one o'clock in the morning watching those games. Taste taste the right Backs, the reason I love the game. Put on your man