0:00

Better than the Lego. Better than the

0:02

Lego. Matthew Johns

0:04

is in position for a long-range shot. He's with

0:06

it now, Matthew Johns. Here goes the kick

0:08

from Johns.

0:09

Coops, it's been a long time since the

0:12

Nathan Cleary clutch play, but I'll

0:14

ask you, is it the best you've seen as far

0:16

as?

0:18

Very close. Yeah,

0:21

when we were talking about clutch plays, you

0:23

always talk about sort of field goals and

0:25

kicks and things like that.

0:27

But I just remember

0:30

Thurston standing up in big origin moments.

0:32

I think he's clutch. I've seen Greg

0:34

Englethst do it at Origin Clutch.

0:37

But that right there, where he had a couple

0:39

of minutes to think about it, there was

0:41

only one option, and he had to

0:43

get it right. The improvement,

0:46

or maybe

0:47

something to think about, is next

0:50

time that is the play

0:52

for someone to draw a game, right? Instead

0:55

of kicking it out on the 40 metre line and

0:57

taking the shot, you're giving the defence

1:00

11 metres run to charge down and Campbell Gillard

1:02

almost got there. Kick it

1:04

further, say to the 25 metre

1:06

line and get two passes

1:09

back to the spot. You've been thinking about this.

1:11

And give it you extra few more seconds.

1:13

That's interesting.

1:15

Interesting. Well, it was

1:17

a great play, Coops, because I've

1:20

seen you kick great field guard in the state of origin,

1:22

but that's clear in focus,

1:24

we'll go there, set up for it, nail

1:27

the kick. For him, in a very

1:29

quick space of time, had to calculate

1:31

all these different factors and then get

1:33

the kick to touch right, positioning himself right,

1:36

quick, get it to me, all those things and nailed

1:38

everyone. Sometimes when you're in clutch moments,

1:40

less thinking is the better, just do. And

1:43

he had moments to think about that because of the penalty

1:45

and everything that was going on and he got

1:47

sin-bin too. So yeah, I'll

1:49

leave, it was so good. And then on the flip

1:51

side, I love that Moses responded. I

1:54

do. In the week that his

1:56

name was around, he did. He stood up.

1:58

He looked relaxed.

1:59

Like he's obviously, you can see he's,

2:02

someone's given him or he's worked on the tools

2:05

to make that happen. Because when they cut him, you can do, you

2:08

actually see his like just relaxing.

2:10

He does. Breaks it out. Yes. And

2:12

one sort of lesson through, you know,

2:15

winning in clutch moments is,

2:17

I think you've got to be OK with losing, because

2:20

I think a lot of people stand over the ball and

2:22

go, please don't miss, please don't miss, please don't miss. Spray

2:24

it, spray it. But if you sit there and relax

2:27

and go, you know what, Jordan's lost

2:29

more than his one, right? If you can sit there and

2:31

sort of compute it, take the

2:33

emotion out of it a little bit, it gives

2:36

it a lot of reason why you can go and

2:38

be successful in that moment. Kirsten, I was gonna

2:40

talk a little bit about Penrith

2:43

without their nine chorus out and how it's manifested

2:45

itself a little bit. I was saying a really dominant

2:47

nine keeps aside

2:51

operating through the middle and playing north-south

2:53

and the fact that less, But we've

2:55

spoken a little bit about that. Let's shift a little bit.

2:57

I'm interested. Dylan Brown, right?

3:00

I'm a huge fan of young Dylan.

3:02

Seen him a little bit this year. There's something that's crept into

3:04

his game. And I've seen it with a few players, the

3:07

No-Lock Pass. And I've

3:09

got no doubt that Brad Arthur and

3:11

himself, there's

3:12

no more of that to stop it. But it's funny,

3:15

isn't it? As playmakers, we work

3:17

on things that training to embed

3:19

them into our game that they come out instinctively.

3:21

We can also do that with negative stuff. And

3:24

I've seen in the last couple of weeks, at times

3:26

he's caught the ball, where it's just a normal

3:28

pass and he's done the no look. It's like it's

3:30

got him to his game and he can't get it out. Yeah, I

3:32

think you become guilty of it. I became

3:34

guilty of it at different stages, but it's almost

3:37

a play that you should go to after

3:40

you've dissected the opposition. What

3:43

I mean by that is, it shouldn't be your option

3:45

one. You should

3:45

not go into the game with a no looker straight away. You

3:48

should play a couple of short balls to your back row.

3:50

And if you feel like that defensive

3:53

player is going to slide off and come back 25

3:55

minutes later, give exactly the same look, but then

3:57

and give an outlook pass.

3:59

make it your first option because

4:02

what that tells me is it's a shortcut.

4:04

It's looking too cute, it's going for a

4:07

pretty play as opposed to the fundamentals

4:09

and fundamentals are always

4:11

the first stop. And that's what we're saying with Schuster. The

4:14

difference between Schuster and the two games

4:16

this year and last year. Last year he was doing

4:18

no lookers and stutters simply for

4:21

aesthetics when now

4:23

you can actually see there is a purpose for this.

4:25

And you watch, not Death

4:28

Rider and and shooze to anything, but a couple weeks

4:30

time, he'll go straight to no lookers, he'll

4:32

forget about the fundamentals. Ball hit

4:34

the deck, ball hit the back. So you just

4:36

need to reset sometimes. Dylan Brown, you

4:39

lit up the competition last year with

4:41

that big left footstep back and inside shoulders.

4:44

Start with that.

4:45

Always start with your strengths. And then if you can

4:47

do that, you do the old one two step right. Big

4:49

left foot, another right foot, and then play

4:51

to the outside. Build your game on that. And

4:54

don't go with the no look pass straight up.

4:56

said before about the importance of a nine, the

4:59

scoop and run nine. It

5:01

is such an important part of the game these

5:03

days.

5:05

We saw it with Cook the other night. Cook

5:07

now, the other night, been able to consistently

5:10

get out and away from the markers and what that did

5:12

for Cody Walker. Cook

5:14

getting out, you see Cody, the style

5:17

of how he presents himself just changes. Where

5:19

Cody sort of got into the trap sometimes, was

5:23

standing there in his heels a little bit going, Right,

5:25

I set up a far post from

5:27

left side shapes, but when Cook's getting

5:30

out, you see Cody, which I think

5:32

is Cody's best, where he's up on the

5:34

flat line

5:35

and he's pushing forward and he's hunting. Yep,

5:38

Cook became the best dummy half in the competition

5:40

through his running end. Did you know he's a beach-bitter? He's

5:42

a beach-bitter. Yeah, he's a beach-bitter.

5:45

Unbelievable.

5:45

Yeah, unbelievable. Anyway, he

5:47

took off by, you know, he accelerated

5:50

through the middle third, and then

5:52

dummy half position because you make 50 tackles

5:54

a game. It's an easy position to fall off the

5:57

cliff and stop doing those things. and

5:59

I don't think you'll ever say this, Damien Cook, but I think

6:02

not making the World Cup team has really

6:05

refreshed the batteries. Definitely. And

6:07

he is running more now than he has in the last

6:09

couple of years. And the byproduct of him running is

6:12

Cody Walker. And the thing about Cody Walker and

6:14

that connection with the dummy half, a

6:16

lot of play right now for halves

6:19

is sit behind a couple of front rolls or

6:21

a ball play middle, right? And if the dummy

6:23

half goes, you're gonna be six

6:25

metres back from where you should be. So

6:28

if you've got a half or a dummy half that likes to

6:30

run, stand up in front of those more

6:32

forwards. Definitely. And then you're going to be three

6:34

metres closer, reaction time gone, because

6:37

he is a very good indicator for Cody Walker

6:39

because he almost drags Cody into the

6:41

contest. I'm a traditionalist. I

6:43

do not like my halves sitting behind

6:46

front rowers. I like my halves right

6:48

up near Vantage

6:49

line. I see Nathan sometimes

6:51

get too comfortable sitting

6:54

behind and coming on sweep shapes,

6:56

but half's up on the outline.

6:58

And then that adds to what else happened in South's

7:01

game too, is that combination with Cam Murray

7:03

and Katie Walker, right? So you've

7:05

got Katie Walker standing out the back

7:07

of Cam Murray and Cherry Evans

7:10

sees it.

7:11

He exposed himself too much there, Katie

7:13

Walker and Cherry Evans takes it. I

7:16

wanted to say that because on the surface of things,

7:18

you go, geez, Cam Murray had a difficult

7:20

night with his passing. But

7:23

that was like, where Cody ran what

7:25

I would say, it

7:28

was a poor shape on

7:31

his sweep lines. So when he's sweeping behind,

7:33

I'm just trying to get the right picture here. So if you're

7:35

standing here and you want to feed, you

7:37

want to go up there like Keir Murray is looking for himself,

7:39

he's looking short. The man like

7:41

Cody on the sweep, you almost want to pass it

7:44

out of your hip pocket. Just

7:47

boomp like that. And it's an easy pass. And

7:49

it doesn't allow the defender to come flying

7:51

outside in. He's got to really pull himself out of

7:53

line. But if you watch it the other night,

7:56

Cody put himself past 45 degrees. So,

7:59

Kim...

7:59

He's going up and he's looking short and he's almost got

8:02

to pull back to get the ball to him. And that's where that

8:04

gap invited Dali Cherry

8:06

Evans to go and pinch him off. And the reason why

8:08

Cody likes to get the ball sort of exposed

8:11

to the outside of that lead runner is

8:13

his acceleration to skip defenders. So he's trying

8:15

to get a head start. And when you get too

8:18

much of a head start,

8:19

it's a hard pass for that and for

8:21

a ball play lock. The other part I really

8:24

like from Cherry Evans, he

8:26

sits there defensively, he sees Cam Murray

8:28

and he sees Cody Walker and he sees

8:30

Cody Walker expose himself. There's only

8:33

two passes that Cam Murray can make in that moment.

8:36

A short pass to the other middle forward running, always

8:39

going to hit the ball and try and hit Cody Walker.

8:41

Cherry Evans just went, you know what, I'm going

8:43

for it. And he accelerates. So Cherry Evans'

8:46

awareness of the play in front of him was

8:48

high, high IQ. And it's funny, Cooper,

8:50

like someone like you said with Cody, it

8:53

was Cody, because

8:53

of Cody's speed, he knew where

8:55

he wanted to go. He just had to be more patient.

8:58

It's like me and you were standing there and we're

9:00

both running a really like a double

9:02

slant. Straighten it and straighten again. We

9:05

in fact bring the space to

9:07

Cody. Do you know what I mean? It's a lot

9:10

easier to play four on three

9:12

around the back in 30 metres

9:14

than 20 metres. And

9:17

that's a strength and a

9:19

weakness in this

9:20

instance of Cody because for

9:23

Cody to do his thing, he tries to

9:25

get outside the fourth defender. That

9:27

way he puts other defenders, particularly

9:29

the center defending, under a lot of pressure. To

9:31

do that, he needs to hit the accelerator before

9:33

the ball's in his hand to get outside the four. If

9:36

he doesn't, if he starts playing slow, he's

9:39

not gonna skip that fourth defender. So,

9:42

I thought it was one, obviously

9:44

a good read from Cherry Evans, but two,

9:47

I don't think Cam Murray, oh wait, that

9:49

mistake again, he's

9:50

a good player, Cam, a very, very good player.

9:53

But show the benefit of Cody. So

9:55

Cody, again, we talk

9:57

about Cody up on the advantage line hunting the

9:59

other

9:59

side of Cody is be able to get a

10:02

set piece, a pre choreographed

10:06

sequence

10:07

and make it work. Standing his second

10:09

try, standing up on

10:11

the left first receiver and then

10:13

suddenly swinging the other way to the extent

10:16

that he ends up the right

10:18

side centre. And

10:20

what complemented that is Coot's from what

10:22

we're just talking about is the fact that that right

10:25

side played so direct that

10:27

allowed Cody to sweep around the other side.

10:29

Yeah, I would almost say that Jason

10:31

Dimitriou in the off-season has spoken

10:34

about

10:34

becoming a little bit more right side

10:37

dominant or effective. Yep. Has to have been,

10:39

because last year they were so

10:42

good, but it was so left-sided. Yeah. We

10:44

saw Elias carve up in round one

10:46

against the Sharks four tries down the right, and now

10:48

we're starting to see Cody, who traditionally

10:51

stays on the left side, becoming

10:53

an

10:53

option out the back of shape. So there's

10:56

no doubt that South are working on strategies

10:58

to become a bit more right-side dominant. And

11:00

Chloe Matunga scored a couple this year. Jeez, he

11:02

was good. Campbell Graham is one

11:05

of the best defensive centres, but he's a

11:07

good triskorrer as well. It's a great threat right across

11:09

the field because with Cook getting out of dummy half,

11:11

it's reignited their centre field. And they

11:13

did a nice

11:16

little trick play in the second

11:18

half where they sort of, I

11:20

think, the dummy that way went, and he turned the ball

11:23

inside for Latrell, who came charging

11:25

through the middle.

11:25

And I thought, I want to see that more. I

11:29

want to see Cody and Cookie fiddling

11:31

around with some little tricks and freeing up

11:33

the troll through that middle. The other part too,

11:35

seeing fullbacks

11:37

in the play off the dummy half

11:39

late in sets, it's two-pronged. One,

11:41

they

11:42

probably end up taking the fifth tackle

11:45

on a carry, so the kick comes into play, they get a full

11:47

line chase. The other part too,

11:49

as the set goes on, more fatigue

11:51

traditionally comes in the set. Damian

11:53

Cook is a fourth-player runner. And

11:56

on that last one, if they can get a

11:58

big guy like Latrell with spin...

11:59

work to get through a retreating

12:02

defence. I think that's more of a play.

12:04

But Latrell's not like a 20 run

12:08

per game type of guy. So he's going to have to time his

12:10

run perfectly. Pick and choose. Yeah, we'll take a

12:12

quick break and be back with Coops and Mount.

12:15

I'm Andrew Rule. I try

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get your fix.

12:38

The Battle of Brisbane,

12:41

the Dolphins, Coops, incredibly

12:44

gutsy, considering

12:46

the suspensions to key men, the

12:48

injuries to key men before the game, Sean

12:50

O'Sullivan, Torn Peck during the game and they

12:53

almost pulled it off and won.

12:55

But how long can they continue

12:58

to graft and grind

13:00

like they are at the moment?

13:03

Yeah, that game delivered. I thoroughly

13:06

enjoyed it. But

13:09

watching it and when

13:11

Brisbane got in front late, like

13:14

I really worried about where the Dolphins

13:16

points were going to come from.

13:18

Sean O'Sullivan is solid.

13:20

He's a good director. move the team around,

13:23

but he's not going to break open the game with speed

13:26

or right foot. He's probably going to come through intelligence.

13:29

Milford I thought if there was ever going to be a game

13:31

where he could reignite something, it was going to be

13:33

that game. And while he set up that kick

13:35

for Hammer, first half

13:38

he was okay. He did a couple of good things, but

13:40

towards the game fatigue kicked in. Fatigue, yeah.

13:43

Mate, Hammersodt W. Ifedo was about the only

13:45

athletic guy with footwork

13:48

and genuine speed that can become

13:50

a game breaker. And we've

13:52

spoken about this before on the show. Their grit, their

13:55

defense, their effort, it'll

13:57

be the cornerstone for the dolphins the rest of the year

13:59

button.

14:00

losing a Sullivan, their points

14:03

may even drive even more because he

14:05

was a guy that got them into positions and

14:07

fed Tabby Wifido. Yep. But

14:10

I don't know. Yeah, Kital was a genuine half,

14:13

like, I've seen glimpses of him, but,

14:16

yeah, yeah. Milford, couple of nice touches.

14:19

He still had his fast feet. Still

14:21

working. Created a bit of a threat there.

14:24

The drama with Milford was

14:26

defensively. Adam Reynolds

14:28

you see when he was named Adam

14:30

Reynolds just went, thank you very much.

14:33

And

14:33

from the first time he was just relentlessly

14:36

going to Milford.

14:37

Didn't work it a couple of times, got a few things

14:40

wrong, but then in the second half. And

14:42

Milford, not just making

14:45

tackles

14:46

Anthony Milford, but having to make decisions

14:49

tied. This is a very

14:51

good insight and example of

14:54

spotting a weakness or highlighting a weakness

14:56

in the opposition and coming up with a plan,

14:59

attacking it and sticking

15:01

at it and when it hums it works

15:03

for you. So in the first attacking

15:05

set I think it was for the Broncos, they

15:07

went over to the right hand side, their

15:10

first shift was to come back to the left and it was targeting

15:12

the hole between Milford and

15:14

Branko Lee. It was a nice little sort of out

15:17

lead line from Kate Will.

15:19

Pass was behind, hit the deck and it was an error.

15:22

And I sat there thinking okay this is This is where Adam

15:24

Reynolds thinks he can get the Dolphins. Seventy

15:27

minutes later, when the game is on the line,

15:30

Adam Reynolds does exactly the same thing. Crabs

15:32

across field, slows up the play, Branko

15:35

Lee comes up past Milford and

15:37

just sort of toes Capewell into the

15:39

hole. And that was the game basically.

15:41

So it's a good example of seeing

15:44

someone or a halfback or a team identify

15:46

a weakness, try it first up,

15:48

didn't get success but kept going, kept

15:50

going ultimately. That's the

15:52

homework right there. I'm loving

15:55

what the warriors at the moment. They

15:58

just, at Shawn Johnson.

15:59

Sean Johnson watching him

16:02

play yesterday, like Sean Johnson still got

16:04

the ability to pull the trigger and go low when he scored

16:06

that try. But the thing I'm loving about Sean,

16:09

is Sean has hit a point in his career and

16:11

Benji Marshall had a little spike at the back

16:13

end of his career when he finally let go

16:16

of that 21 year old and said, I'm never gonna

16:18

believe that. And Sean, you can see at the

16:20

moment, has worked out, okay, I

16:22

can dictate the terms of a contract without

16:25

of a contest, without my athleticism,

16:27

without my athletic gifts. I've still got it there,

16:29

but you can see he's taken the

16:32

foot off the pedal a little bit. He's playing a

16:34

step slower. It's helped with his composure.

16:37

It's given him time. His kick options are better.

16:39

And he's producing far less errors in

16:42

and around his teammates, which has just

16:45

led to them grinding teams into the ground. Yeah,

16:47

I'm going to give Sean a huge wrap because

16:50

what they've done in the first month, three wins,

16:52

terrific. And you know what?

16:55

They're more conservative, they're more consistent,

16:58

And Sean is at the forefront of that, as you said,

17:01

he's making tackles, but his king game is high

17:04

percentage, less errors.

17:06

And I really hope that stays the same

17:08

for the rest of you. Because Sean

17:11

historically hasn't been able to be that

17:14

game manager controller

17:16

throughout his career. And what

17:18

the Warriors have started for the first month, I hope

17:20

it continues, but I'm still gonna watch

17:23

this space. Sean showed some

17:25

glimpses of that when he was at

17:28

the Sharks. I thought the football he played

17:30

at the Sharks was, I thought it was outstanding,

17:32

some of the football. And then he tore

17:34

the Achilles. Last year was a difficult injury

17:37

when you got the Achilles tear to come back, particularly

17:39

at his age. But this year, as I

17:41

said before, it's that there's not

17:43

many blokes who can, I think, dominate

17:45

playing. Playing slow is not the

17:48

right word, but taking a step off and being more effective.

17:50

Like Alfie. Alfie, an early part

17:52

of his career, was just at the defence all the time,

17:54

relentlessly. as it went from the mid-90s

17:57

into the late

17:57

90s. You

18:00

could see Alth started to control the game

18:02

with his kicking more and of course

18:04

another example is Jason Smith. Yeah Jason

18:07

Smith. Jason Smith, the slower he played

18:09

the more effective he was. Yeah, Cameron

18:12

Smith was like that out of dummy half. He wasn't

18:14

you know, nighting speed but what he did

18:16

was

18:17

lean into defenders and they thought I'll

18:20

lean into

18:20

you and he just put someone through. But

18:22

for the Warriors, when I talk about like more consistent

18:25

and conservative, they're like

18:27

top four in completion

18:29

rates and their bottom four in off-loads. Like that

18:31

is completely different to the Warriors of Play.

18:34

Normally, when they're

18:36

on, they're the off-load Kings and they're playing flamboyant

18:39

style and maybe it's a real shift from Webster

18:42

to the new coach and yeah, well done

18:44

to them. I hope it stays the same throughout the year

18:46

because they deserve to push on up. We'll

18:48

talk about Nico Hines in a second. I just want to talk

18:50

about Luke Brooks and like, it's

18:52

easy sometimes with Brooksie

18:55

and people always get, oh, he's getting paid the big

18:57

money and all that stuff. I get that. I

18:59

get that, right? But I think in the

19:01

last two weeks, there's been clear evidence for

19:03

Luke of how he should play, what suits

19:05

his game. And interesting against the

19:07

Melbourne Storm, if you watch the first half against the

19:09

Melbourne Storm, Luke, again, is trying

19:12

to maneuver the attack by clever passing,

19:15

trying to finesse the ball. And at one

19:17

point, he's trying to find the winger and hit

19:20

the edge back rower in the chest and they dropped it.

19:22

I don't know what happened at half time. I'd say,

19:25

yeah, you might've got a bake, but I reckon he was just

19:27

fed up. And when he came onto the field

19:30

after half time, he looked pissed off. He

19:33

looked pissed off. He looked like a bloke that was

19:35

at his wits end and how that manifests

19:37

itself, he just played so much more

19:39

aggressive in the second half. He

19:41

got the ball, his first instinct was to run

19:44

and challenge the bloke in front of him and

19:46

it worked. Now I'm not saying with Luke,

19:48

it's very easy to say to a bloke, listen, you know, your

19:51

games, just get out there and run the ball. That doesn't

19:53

work. But there's certain tools you can

19:55

use to simplify your game, and

19:58

one of which is coops. you get up there.

19:59

you call the football before it hits your hands, if

20:02

you like what you see, challenge. If

20:04

they've got a set defence, catch the ball through to the early.

20:06

Yep. Right?

20:07

And that's your bread and butter. And

20:10

so my

20:11

sort of bread and butter, the way that I would

20:13

like... So this is my theory. You know when... I think I've

20:15

said this before. You and coaches or some

20:17

people say for half, just run the ball. Yeah,

20:19

yeah. I get that idea, but there's 16

20:23

other guys just to run the ball. Half should only run when

20:25

the eyes tell you to run. Yep. And I always

20:27

like to double

20:30

up on my plays. So I used to catch,

20:32

give the back rower a little early ball, quick

20:35

play the ball, go down the short side and go that way. So

20:37

I think double touches for halves

20:40

sometimes is the best play. It could easily

20:42

be, I might have a go, oh, no, it's set,

20:45

drop off a ruck foot, and then go back the other

20:47

side and then have a little crack with

20:49

some combo work. So the other thing for

20:51

Luke Brooks

20:52

is he always

20:54

looks sort of not

20:57

himself. Yes. Right? And

20:59

when you're playing at this elite level, you

21:01

can't be self-conscious. And I think Nico Hines...

21:04

Totally agree. ...is a very good example

21:07

of

21:08

how... It doesn't matter what

21:10

your history is, or experience, or whatever. He's

21:13

very comfortable in his own skin, Nico. He's

21:15

lived a little. He's got experience. I get that. But

21:18

he's a very good example for young hearts to

21:21

not worry about what

21:22

you and I say, or what anyone else says. Yes.

21:25

Just write down what you're good at and

21:28

deliver that every week. It doesn't matter

21:30

what you've been paid. If the Tigers are paying

21:32

him $5 million, just

21:36

play to your strengths. If they spend $5

21:38

million on a bloke that's going to finesse the ball around the

21:40

park, it's not your game, that's their fault. And for Nico

21:43

to do what he did in his comeback

21:45

game, Dallium

21:47

last year, very limited

21:49

experience with the seven on his back. But

21:52

I feel like he's lived

21:54

a lot and his experiences have taught

21:56

him that, you know what, it doesn't matter what

21:58

anyone else says to me, This is who. I am,

22:00

this is what I'm good at, and

22:02

I'm going to bring that every week.

22:04

I think he's, we said having

22:07

the tools to handle the pressure

22:09

for Mitchell Moses, you could see he's right.

22:12

There's obviously along the way, I think in the

22:14

last few years, Nico's

22:16

got the tools of how to deal with

22:19

pressure and how to bring out his

22:21

best self as a player. And

22:25

on the Brookesy situation,

22:27

that's watching the

22:29

way he was defending in the second half. You

22:31

could see he was pissed off. He was like,

22:33

fuck this. It's

22:35

almost, and that's the attitude like

22:37

you were saying before. Don't be so sensitive. Don't

22:40

worry about it. Just get out there and play. I sort

22:42

of went through a little bit in my career

22:44

where I wasn't able

22:46

to make

22:47

breaking the rep football and Thurston

22:50

was doing all this cool stuff. My key

22:52

was by far the best to half back in competition

22:55

for a long, long time. So I thought I had

22:57

to sort of try and become first and like little

22:59

show and go big dummy and get a cross

23:01

field more. But ultimately my game went

23:03

backwards because I wasn't bringing

23:05

the tools that I was good at. So

23:07

it almost takes you to say, hey, listen,

23:09

stop

23:10

trying to be someone else, focus

23:13

on what you're good at and just deliver that every

23:16

week. And all of a sudden, the football

23:18

can turn. Well, I remember Coop, you coming back from

23:20

your first tour overseas in 2006 or 2007. Yes.

23:25

Seven after you won the comp and

23:28

you came back and we were having a conversation

23:30

and I was watching it training, you sort of dummy there

23:32

and stutter. And I

23:34

was thinking, what the f*** is this?

23:37

He's just over himself. What the f*** is going on here?

23:40

Anyway, you said, and you said, I was watching

23:42

J2 all these away and I was doing

23:44

that.

23:45

And I said, yeah, but you're

23:48

Cooper Crunk. You know what I mean? And there is that

23:50

one, like, you know, we're talking about no look passes, right? And

23:52

all that stuff. It doesn't matter,

23:55

like, you know, players want to look good.

23:57

It's great to be effective, It's good to look good as

23:59

well.

23:59

You know, it's only when you get older, you realise,

24:02

it doesn't matter if your socks are down and your jersey's out

24:04

and your jersey's dirty, just get out there and

24:07

do it, but it's a trap. Yeah, and

24:09

then towards the back end

24:11

of my career, you become

24:13

really comfortable with that and you own it and

24:15

you understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. And

24:18

that's when you get people around you who have

24:20

the strengths to compliment what you do. Because,

24:23

you know, then you start playing with people

24:25

who can skip across field quicker than

24:27

you. So what's your job? Condense the middle part

24:29

of the field

24:29

and get the ball to those people. Yeah, right. We

24:33

just touched on Niko. Niko was moving

24:35

into that very elite,

24:38

that elite space, which

24:41

is, you're not just an outstanding player, but

24:43

you make people around you outstanding players.

24:45

To be, you know,

24:48

to be one of 13 parts, but

24:50

then change the whole context and change

24:53

your team entirely, very

24:55

few players can do that. Yeah,

24:58

he's done a tremendous job and he's

25:00

basically got the game in the palm

25:03

of his hand, he's just toying with it. That's when people

25:05

are at the lead of what they do.

25:08

Do you think, and this is early in

25:10

his talk, Origin, do you think that

25:13

he is, like clear he's there, absolutely

25:16

clear he's there. But is he in

25:18

your Origin team, off the bench or six or something

25:20

else? Fourteen, yeah. Because, jeez, he was

25:22

good. Watching him play

25:25

with very little football under his belt. and just go out and produce

25:27

like that did. Dully and Winner last

25:29

year,

25:30

I would dare say that watching how he

25:32

performed Sunday night,

25:35

he's going to be a better football this season. And hard

25:38

to deny because he just keeps delivering

25:40

with, when you think, oh, he just doesn't have the

25:43

experience in managing a game, he

25:45

comes up with the right play. Incredible. He doesn't

25:47

have the experience of understanding everyone else in a team,

25:50

what

25:50

he did the other night, had people in the right place at

25:52

the right time. Incredible and handsome, got

25:54

it all, hate him. I hate those people

25:56

though. Exactly. Yeah,

25:59

we'll take a real quick break.

25:59

with Coops and be back to talk more

26:02

rugby league.

26:03

I'm Andrew Rule. I try

26:05

to shine a light in dark places and

26:08

tell honest stories about dishonest people. If

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or wherever you get your fix.

26:27

Kerbs, okay, we've got a month into the season. Just

26:29

quickly, first month of football,

26:32

who's your bronze, silver and gold

26:34

as far as players are concerned? Yeah,

26:37

I'm going to go

26:38

hammer time as bronze. I

26:41

think he's been simply outstanding. He's the

26:43

quintessential player that just thrives under a Wayne

26:45

Bennett type guy. And

26:47

he's been really good and he's going to have to be even

26:50

better if the Dolphins are going to stay

26:52

where they are. If they've got points

26:55

in them, I think he's scoring most

26:57

of them. Number two,

26:59

Britton Nickerra, he has been

27:02

outstanding. He's the best line

27:04

running edge back row we have in the game right now.

27:06

He's encouraged to just

27:09

blow off inside shoulders when he's hitting

27:11

those lines. He's just,

27:13

Nickerhines, trindly adjust to different

27:15

people, so he's been great. And

27:18

then number one, Golden Melis for me is Reece

27:20

Walsh. He's just

27:22

lighting the competition up. He's got three tries,

27:25

line break assist galore. And

27:27

I think

27:28

the yin and the yang of Reynolds and Walsh

27:31

is something to watch for the rest of the year because

27:34

the strengths of Reynolds complements

27:37

the strengths of Walsh. And after

27:39

three games, it looks very good.

27:42

My bronze, I've gone Adam

27:45

Reynolds. He's just

27:47

controlling everything, just to smidge it ahead of Reese.

27:50

Silver, Payne Haas. Payne

27:52

Haas, he and Carrigan

27:54

the other night. Carrigan was the best player in

27:56

the park in the first half, in my opinion, and

27:58

that's

27:58

the best plan to say enough. Fantastic.

28:01

My goal is Olicolatu at

28:03

Manly. He is just

28:05

so rare to have a man who is built

28:08

like a front row or a middle four, but

28:10

has the athleticism of an edge back row or even

28:12

a centre is just incredible. We

28:15

try and finesse the game a lot when

28:17

we try and score points, but if

28:19

I had Olicolatu outside

28:21

me and I had a

28:23

smallish half defending opposite me, I wouldn't

28:26

even dress it up pretty. All I do

28:28

is try and commit the defender inside

28:30

that half and just go, hot

28:33

glottis, go do what you want to do. And that try,

28:35

he scored athleticism with a catch. Just

28:37

incredible. Something off a basketball court. I know,

28:40

incredible. Good on you, Coops. Thank

28:42

you Matthew.