The Armchair Expert – Round 1

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In this weekly feature for LeagueUnlimited, our Armchair Expert runs his lazy eye over the weekend that was. Each round he'll look at the happenings of the previous weekend, and keep you up to date with the big issues like refereeing, social media and the current controversies.

This week, Sam looks at the highs and lows of week one of the competition, and also introduces a new medal for the WTF Moment of the Week. Let's get into it...

Performance of the Round
How good are the premiers? After winning every trophy known to man in the past six months, Michael Maguire has not let his charges ease up. They rolled into Brisbane on Thursday night to play in the 'Return of the King' game for Wayne Bennett. I guess the script never made its way into the hands of Greg Inglis and co, because they didn't give the Broncos a sniff.

Although Souths lost their grand final hero and the games premier back rower in Sam Burgess, new recruit Glenn Stewart had a solid debut and if he can continue to improve look out. This is the man that was THE cornerstone in Manly's era of excellence; you only have to look at the fallout at his former club since his departure. His ex-teammates will never forgive the club for releasing one of their favourite sons. His link up play with Jamie Lyon was one of the most deadly combinations of the past five years. Can you imagine if he can strike up something similar with the explosive Dylan Walker? Wow.

The Paul Carige Award for the Worst Performance of the Round
The easy kill for this category would be to select the Broncos or Manly after a highly disappointing round one. But I can't go past the Dragons for turning in such an uninspired performance against the Storm. With a packed hill at Kogarah, the majority of possession and field position, the Dragons offered nothing. It's as if the Big Red V spent all summer working on attacking plays that wouldn't even break through a Luke Brooks' tackle.

Surprise Packet
In one hell of a tough week for footy tippers across the country, surely if one favourite was going to pull through it would have been the highly fancied Sharks at home… nup! The Raiders are expected to be in the running for the wooden spoon, but if they continue to put in tough, spirited performances like they did on Sunday, most teams will be in for one hell of a contest if they want two points.

Russell Packer Medal for WTF Moment of the Week
A new section named in the honour of former inmate and Warrior Russell Packer. For those of you who forget what Packer did to become a global Internet sensation, here's a little 'refresher'….

The inaugural winner of the award of goes to an ex-teammate of Packer's, Shaun Johnson. In the second half of the Warriors loss to the Knights, Johnson missed a tackle (even though he really attempted to trip him) on Tyrone Roberts, who managed to scramble 15 metres cross field before being taken down by Konrad Hurrell. As the tackle is being completed Johnson runs all the way across to kick debutant Solomone Kata out of second marker. It was a very ordinary play by Johnson. What forward would want to make the hard yards and tackle himself to a standstill for a halfback who shirks his defensive duties? The 'Golden Boot' winner needs to grit his teeth before his teammates bare theirs towards him.

Ref Watch
Ahhh Des Hasler. It didn't take long for the Bulldogs mastermind to push the boundaries on the NRL's new rule regarding the discussion, or non-discussion, of ref's in the post match press conference. Doing his best to hold his tongue, Des suggested that ref's should also front the media after the game to explain their decisions. The NRL is considering whether to take action on Hasler's comments. Strike one Dessie.

In other news, Super League referee Tim Roby will fly down under in the coming weeks to join the NRL's ref ranks. Roby has officiated over 75 Super League matches and is already viewed as one of England's premier refs. Let's hope he doesn't draw the Bulldogs in his first game…

Around the Social Media Traps
This week we hear from an injured Sea Eagle and a proud owner.

Short and sweet...

As always, come back next time for more analysis from the seat of my pants.

- The Armchair Expert

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