This isn’t going to be one of those ‘Who is going to be the first NRL coach sacked this season?’ columns.
The answer to that is too obvious.
The only question is how long Michael Maguire is going to last before Wests Tigers pull the pin.
Two games in, and it’s clear the Tigers aren’t as bad as they were last season. Incredibly, they’re worse.
There is no enthusiasm, no urgency. Apart from five-eighth Jackson Hastings, no nothing. As Fox commentator Greg Alexander put it late in their 26-4 loss to the Knights, ‘They look like they’re on a training session.’
And a pretty ordinary one at that.
Maguire’s frown won’t be getting turned upside down anytime soon. The Tigers’ shocking effort against Newcastle on Sunday proves they’ve actually gone backwards this year
Tyrone Peachey summed up the state of the team when he was sin-binned for a blatant professional foul against the Knights. It’s the opposite of what’s expected from one of their five – yes, five – captains
To say that Maguire is on shaky ground is an understatement the size of Payne Haas. He only held on to his job by the skin of his teeth at the end of last season after the players held an unsuccessful coup and given the effort they put in against the Knights, they don’t seem to like him any better now.
The club brought in their only premiership-winning coach Tim Sheens to ride shotgun over him, but if the Tigers’ performances in the first two games is any indication, the partnership isn’t exactly working.
If it comes down to one of them being shown the door you can bet it’s not going to be Sheens.
Madge won’t beat the record of inaugural South Queensland Crushers’ coach Bill Gardner, who was sacked before the first game of the season, but the way things are looking, he won’t be far off it.
On the other side of the field the Knights looked like they could have been on a training session too, with the Tigers playing the role of the witches’ hats.
In contrast to Maguire, Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien looks like he’s got a team that can really make an impression on the competition this year.
With impressive wins over the Roosters and Tigers under their belts, Newcastle are stamping themselves as one of the comp’s most improved teams
Dane Gagai returned to the side after four years at Souths and is the signing of the season so far. The Rabbits miss him almost as much as Adam Reynolds
His big worry coming into the season was the halves, with the club unable to find a big-name replacement for Mitchell Pearce. Adam Clune might not be a big-name yet, but his combination with Jake Clifford is shaping up as something special – and unlike Pearce he doesn’t mind running to the defensive line.
But a real key to Newcastle’s early ladder-topping form is the return of Dane Gagai after four years at Souths.
The difference that his experience, awareness and all-round game have made to the Knights have skyrocketed him in the early running for the Best Signing of the Season Award (if such a thing existed) along with former Melbourne utility Nicho Hynes and ex-Rabbitoh Adam Reynolds.
Hynes was dynamic for the Sharks in their 18-16 win over the more favoured Eels, just as Reynolds was inspirational for Brisbane.
Nicho Hynes has also been a top performer since shifting clubs to Cronulla. He sent the Shark Park crowd into raptures (pictured) when he slotted a conversion after the siren to get them home over Parramatta
The Broncos were looking for someone to hold them together in tight contests when they threw a motza at Reynolds. Based on his cool performance in the 16-10 win over the Bulldogs, it was money well spent.
There was plenty of speculation in the off-season about how much Souths would miss Reynolds. The answer, after their winless start to the season, is, of course, a lot.
A more pertinent question might have been: how much will they miss Gagai? Two games in, with their once renowned left-side attack virtually non-existent, the answer to that one might be: just as much.
Just ask Bunnies five-eighth Cody Walker, who has spent the past two weeks wandering around looking like a kid lost in a shopping centre.
Adam Reynolds impressed in his first game for Brisbane – and without him, Souths star Cody Walker is ‘wandering around looking like a kid lost in a shopping centre’
But at NRL headquarters this week the questions won’t be about the future of Michael Maguire or who Russell Crowe will be wishing he didn’t let go the most.
It will be: how do we fix this head injury assessment mess?
For the second week running, the introduction of the doctor into the bunker will be the major talking point.
In the past the decision on whether a player should be taken from the field after a head-knock was up to the team trainer after an on-field Head Injury Assessment. The players would then be examined by the club doctor in the dressing room to determine whether he should be allowed to return.
This season the NRL has installed a doctor in the bunker who, after viewing the player’s condition on a video screen, can decide that he must leave the field.
In theory it might sound good, in practice it hasn’t been universally embraced by the clubs, coaches, players or fans.
Of course, it didn’t help that Dolphins coach-in-waiting Wayne Bennett blew the whistle on his former colleagues in the coaching fraternity this week.
The NRL will be keen to rein Wayne Bennett in after he accused coaches of abusing the concussion rule to give their teams a leg-up
Speaking on air to Brisbane FM radio commentator Ben Dobbin, he accused coaches of rorting the HIA system, either by keeping players on the field when they are concussed, or stopping play for an unnecessary assessment when the team needs a breather or a free replacement.
‘Are you suggesting that clubs are manipulating the head knock rule?’ Dobbin asked.
‘I’m not suggesting it,’ Bennett replied. ‘I’m telling you.’
No doubt the NRL will be counting down the days until the Dolphins play their first game next season and they can reassert control over what Bennett says to the media.
In the meantime, he has free rein to weigh in on whatever upsets him in the game, and knowing Wayne Bennett, that’s going to be plenty.
On Friday night Manly’s Morgan Harper (pictured) clutched his head after being hit in a tackle, then began grabbing his shoulder when the trainer got to him. The trainer’s verdict? Nothing to see here and no trip to the head bin
Not that the NRL bosses had to look too far this weekend to see that Bennett was right.
Midway through the first half in the Roosters-Sea Eagles game, Manly centre Morgan Harper was hit in a tackle by Roosters’ backrower Sitili Tupouniua and he lay on the ground clutching the top of his head.
But by the time the Manly trainer reached his player’s side, the most incredible thing happened. The injury had moved, with Harper ceasing to rub the top of his head and starting to grasp his shoulder.
The trainer ruled: nothing to see here, there was no HIA, no chance for the doctor to intervene, and the game went on.
No-one is suggesting that Harper was concussed, and that the system was rorted in this instance, but you would have to think that any coach worth his salt would tell his players not to give the doctor in the bunker an opportunity to get involved if they could possibly help it.
After all, give a doctor looking at a TV screen up to 1000kms away from the game the chance to diagnose a possible head injury, and anything could happen.
An incident in the Dragons-Panthers game at Jubilee Oval on Friday was a case in point.
The NRL’s independent doctor ruled the Dragons’ Jack Bird had to go off to be checked for concussion even though he showed no symptoms other than a bleeding nose
When Dragons backrower Jack Bird copped a bleeding nose, to the untrained eye it appeared that there were no signs that he had suffered concussion, but the doctor in the bunker thought differently and the word came through to Kogarah from Eveleigh that he had to be replaced – much to the dismay of his coach and club supporters.
It is a tricky situation, but the NRL must find someone to sort out it out, and quickly.
Perhaps what is needed is the appointment of a recently unemployed coach who knows first-hand the intricacies of the issue from both sides of the fence.
Someone like say, Michael Maguire, perhaps.