Shane Flanagan's Dragons dilemma, Dogs toothless: Good, bad and ugly of NRL round 16
Adam Lucius runs the rule over the big talking points from round 16 in the NRL.
😃 The good: 'King Gutho' reigns supreme again
😔 The bad: Shane Flanagan's huge Dragons dilemma
😡 The ugly: Bulldogs mauled in worrying scenes
Clint Gutherson's class on show again for Eels
If you're playing commentary bingo on Wednesday night, one of the first phrases you'll be able to tick off is "that's an Origin play right there". Next up will be "Origin is built on effort" followed by "he's an Origin player".
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One player who easily wears any of those descriptions will be watching Origin II from his couch. Parramatta's Clint Gutherson played three games for NSW in the 2020 series and hasn’t been sighted since.
His name hardly ever gets mentioned in selection talk, even when the Blues are hit by injury and/or poor performance. You don't need VB's hard-earned index to tell you the impact King Gutho has on a game.
He's a try-scorer, a try saver, a try assistor, a line breaker and the heartbeat of the Eels side. The difference between his best and worst is marginal and he covers just about every backline position.
On Saturday night against Manly – the club who cut the proud local junior loose five months after re-signing him in 2015 – Gutherson took it upon himself to inspire the weakened Eels to a big win. He was in everything.
Later asked about his performance, Gutho simply replied he sets those standards each week regardless of the situation. He's everything this NSW side needs but doesn’t want for some reason.
Shane Flanagan's brutal reality at Dragons
Drama has a way of finding Shane Flanagan. Even before he officially pulls on a Dragons polo as head coach at St George IlIawarra, Flanagan finds himself in an ugly stand-off with his best player, Ben Hunt.
Hunt wants out of the Red V, asking for a release from the final two years of his contract. Flanno says the Origin star is going nowhere and the club is standing firm.
It's a nightmare scenario in which there is a little upside for the new Dragons boss. If he digs his heels in and makes Hunt stay, he'll immediately be offside with his most influential player and skipper.
Let him go and Flanagan not only comes across as a soft touch but loses one of the competition's best players. Perhaps the only out for Flanagan is to cut his losses, allow Hunt to leave and use the extra cap money to chase Luke Brooks.
It's not quite a like-for-like replacement, but Brooks is five years younger than 33-year-old Hunt and is playing the best football of his career. Hard-to-please Dragons fans wouldn't take Hunt's exit well, but Brooks' arrival would halve the angry emails at the very least.
Bulldogs mauling compounds club's woes
Let's get the obvious out of the way first. Canterbury was up against a near full strength Cronulla side coming off an embarrassing flogging in Melbourne.
Nicho Hynes was out to prove a point after his Origin dumping and the house full sign was up at Shark Park. Throw in the fact the Dogs were missing several frontline players and you didn't have to be Nostradamus to predict the result.
But it’s the way the visitors were dusted that raised concerns. The Dogs were ill-disciplined with and without the ball, were soft as Camembert cheese around the ruck and offered very little in attack.
This was as one-sided a game you'll ever see in the NRL. There was a noticeable lack of fight and resistance from some players.
Canterbury's head of football, Phil Gould, couldn't contain his frustration during Channel 9's call and appeared to second guess coach Cameron Ciraldo at times. He later tweeted: "@NRL_Bulldogs completely outmuscled. Not much went their way early and got behind in the pace of the game, but clearly dominated by a more experienced, physical and skilful team. Some very disappointing efforts and poor discipline at times certainly didn’t help.
"In desperate need of the bye round to regenerate." Ciraldo may want to avoid Gus this week. It seems the boss is as frustrated as the rest of us as we await this promised Bulldogs revival.
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