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Reserve Grader
I'm sorry but this is really hard work with you Ricky. What kind of ground breaking Origin coaching, not to mention surly post match behaviour do you call that?
Jennings - hopelessly disinterested in his club to the point of being banished to NSW Cup but good enough to play the biggest game of the year? No Ricky you got that very wrong. Yes he had a few nice touches in the game, but the beyond idiotic punch he threw and the justified 10 in the bin was a critical lethal blow to the team and the score. In fact beyond critical. Yes it was Jennings who ran into the fight but the point here is this guy is obviously not mentally up to club footy so why was he on the biggest stage?
Hayne - can anyone point to one good game he's had for Parra in the last 12 months? Sure he in truth played quite well, but it's not as though he scored 3 tries. This was clearly a selection on past glory not present form. The Morris boys are MADE to play together but the best Morris was back at Saints training.
Carney - sure it's not your fault that a crucial penalty didn't find touch, but what about the one that practically decided the match. We get a critically huge penalty in massive try scoring position and yet nobody knows what to do, for ages, so Gallen decides to go for goal. The cameras cut to you in the coaches box and you clearly show disgust at the decision. In other words your decision to press for the try which might win us the match has NOT reached the players. Why not Ricky? Is your two way radio not working or did the players simply ignore you and make their own (idiot) decision to go for the two points? Carney of course so nervous he botched the kick anyway. The play of the game Ricky and the wrong decision is made. Why? How do these things go so wrong?
Pearce - was he out there? Oh yeah one really nice pass which Brett so nearly scored off. So that's one pass in 80 minutes, does that really cut it?
Bird - sorry but does anyone remember which year he was actually a threat in the NRL? But hey Ricky don't tell us, he's a real great bloke and terrific fun to have a beer with, for sure you need him in the camp to tell jokes and bond with the boys. Ha remember that time Birdy kneed that Souths guy in the back, wasn't that hilarious! (For mine he was unlucky with the dumping penalty though).
Creagh - better than Anthony Watmough? Blind freddy could see that was yet another appalling mistake Ricky and one that reeks beyond belief of blatant bias against Choc. Creagh is at least 3 seasons past his best and everyone knows it and admits it except you. And what was with the lies last Sunday about Choc being injured an unable to train when we all knew he was fine and would play a blinder for Manly? And then you admitted you rang him and said "we're going in another direction". So why didn't you say that in the first place? We needed Choc out there simple as that and you're going to have to admit it for game II.
Glenn Stewart - everyone knows he's a right edge 2nd 5/8 ball playing terrier - but no Ricky you decide to play him up the middle as a second rower. Result 77 metres and no impact. Another coaching blunder any 11 year old could have picked.
T Rex - the enforcer, the wrecking ball, the game destroyer. Except Ricky you decided to hold him back until the 2nd half where he had little chance to do anything at all, standing out on the left edge like it was his first day at school, too shy to ask any of the other kids if he can play with them. If this guy was billed by you as a game breaking impact player just what were you expecting him to do in just 23 minutes? And I guess we shouldn't even start on the wisdom of picking a player who's not played a single game in 2 months. Oh lordy.
Buhrer - reeked all week of the DCE test selection and hey presto guess what? You give him a ridiculous SEVEN minutes off the bench at dummy half. Notice how Cameron Smith played 80 minutes? Another bizarre selection Ricky and a complete and utter waste of a critical bench spot that should have been someone like Choc's to create match winning impact.
And then there's your press conference.
The biggest game of the year and some of the biggest referee decisions that we all need to hear from you about. A full analysis, a full discussion, answering every question. But no Ricky you announce with that cats bum look that you won't be answering ANY questions about the referees? None apparently. We will all have to watch your dire 6 minute non press conference while you give us, dot 2 carry 3, absolutely nothing at all. What the?
There were massively critical decisions out there Ricky and you are the head coach. Closed shop is not an option you HAVE to speak about them. It doesn't mean you have to swear, ridicule or cop a 10k fine, it just means you have to answer the questions, talk about the game and the decisions, give us something. Sitting there refusing to comment is just unacceptable sore loser behaviour, yet again.
In fact it wasn't just the referee decisions, it was the whole match analysis. Carney clearly not at his best Ricky? No you refuse to answer that too throwing in the excruciatingly annoying "he'll be better for the experience" cliche. What about you Gallen? No hang on he can't speak either.
And what's with the ok I've had enough this is over I'm getting up and leaving thing? What about asking "are there any more questions?" No Ricky you just get up in the now infamous Hasler style, abruptly terminating the inaptly named press conference when you've decided it's over. Is that professional? It's such a pity there's not a moderator to run these press conferences who's decision it is to decide when it's over. But then again it's a bigger pity the journo's are not intimated from asking the hard questions and pressing for the real answers.
The greatest irony out of all this being the fact the one and only thing you did comment on was the Inglis try decision, stating that you did in fact think it was a try. (For what it's worth my opinion is that as freakishly unlucky as it was, Farah's boot is clearly what dislodges the ball, and in the rules that's play on and a try, as quietly agreed by Sterlo before Gould's somewhat embarrassing NSW bias took over the commentary, but hey we've all got an opinion and it was always going to be a close call).
But back to you Ricky what do you think of the try decision? You say it was a try but is that what you really think or was that just sarcasm? Nope we don't know, and I guess we never will.
Ricky we all desperately want our NSW boys to win, and god knows we'd even like to like you, but you've got to give us something to work on.
