NSW Legend casts doubts over 'Penrith Connection' in Origin: Immortal Behaviour - Ep06

Hello and welcome to Immortal Behaviour for this week. Many ways to win a game, Get your team home. That’s a half pack. He won the game with his kicking game. Andrew kicks back and across. It has been a freaky kick by Andrew. John thought he made me retire but far. Forgive me father, for I have said maybe God has come the marathon. Hello and welcome to Immortal Behaviour. Zach Bailey stepping in for Danica Mason. The great Joey Johns joins me. Thank God for that. Do you know where Danica is right now? No. She’s up north escaping the cold on a jet ski in a sunny state. A lot of Danica’s fans will be happy you’re in. I’m sure they are. I think 3/4. I’m just getting to watch Danica. How how many comments on their eyebrows do you think? Don’t read the comments. Just don’t read the I just. I could imagine I could or I couldn’t imagine what’s said no, you don’t want to go there. Don’t look at it. Don’t listen to it. John Howard Junior, apparently. Or Mel Meninga for that matter. Big news this week. In the last 48 hours or so, Jason Demetrio let go by the by the Bunnies and then yesterday Wayne Bennett. Confirmation from him that he’s spoken to SAS about a return. You you don’t think it’s the right fit? No, it’s not the right fit. He’d do a great job. I just, I’ve got worries around whether Wayne wants to go there and do a rebuild and it’s it’s not a huge rebuild but the club needs a big shake up and a change. None of their junior teams made the semi finals in Harold Matthews S tube ball jersey fleet, which is unheard of. They’re always really strong and we know the dramas that are going on in the NRL team and their their salary cap, a lot of money in players over 30. So so Walker, Cook, Walker getting, well, that’s Jack Jack’s 3132. He’s got four years. Cook’s his mid 30s. He’s got another couple of years. Cody’s coming to the end, although I I still think he’s been playing OK, Cody and then can you get the best out of the trail? Will Latrell go to the centre? Will he keep him at fullback? I just, I don’t know whether he wants to go there for a rebuild anyway. That’s only my conspiracy theory. And so everyone at SAS says they don’t need a rebuild given some of the big names that are there and taller and they’re coming last and their differential is is 136 points by my memory’s not always great but they need a rebuild. They need a rebuild for sure if they’ve got money in the cap. I know Tom Burgess is finishing up this year. I need to buy a couple of forwards, two or three forwards, and there aren’t many good ones on the market. That’s the issue. Like look at Gus has been going on about the whole world saying look I I I want to sign some, but they’re not there. What are the, you know, whoever is going for players, they’re going to have to bid against the Roosters, who have 4:00 and a half million or over $4 million to spend. So if there’s a quality player the Roosters get and they need Jarrett’s finishing up, so they need a front rower, they probably need a half because Kiri’s finishing up and then Manu Suuli, maybe Daniel Tupo. So there’s no way outside backs, they’re going to get them all. So there’s going to be a bidding frenzy, but they they need a mini rebuild for sure. Speaking of Benning frenzies, Wayne Bennett’s confirmed interest in Souths, does that put more pressure on Brad Arthur and the Eels to make that? No, I don’t think so. If if Wayne’s going to safe, he says I want to go to Souths. I think it eases pressure on Brad Arthur. Jeez, it’s it’s just the soap opera. Who’d be the nails Just keeps giving the soap opera of rugby league. So initially Wayne went to Queensland and coached the Dolphins, set them up and he’s done a pretty fair job so far. Yep, the succession plan was always to have Christian Wolf take over and since yesterday, that’s now pretty much confirmed that Wayne has expressed interest to come back to Sydney. If he was to head back to the Eels or Souths, who’s more likely to win a premiership faster under Wayne? I think maybe Parramatta because of the the age of Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown both coming into that real sweet spot of their career. I’ve got Zach Lomax going there, Clint Gutherson’s there, You know you’re going to get off Clint Gutherson. It’s a 7 or an 8 out of 10 every time. Junior Barlow. Regan Campbell, Gillard. Still strong team, So I’d say it’ll be the Eels, right? Arthur under plenty of pressure at the moment. Obviously they’ve had some big injuries. Clint Gutherson’s now out for four or five weeks. Mitch Moses could be back early from a from a broken foot. But do they have to make finals for Brad Arthur to be the coach then next year? Not not just purely because because they made a a grand final couple years ago, but it’s the a lot of the criticism is he’s been there for 11 years, the longest serving coach in Parramatta history in terms of seasons on end and a lot of people saying they’ve reached the ceiling. They might just need that new voice. Well, maybe someone within elbow. People within the club can see that from the outside looking, you know I think he’s still doing a really good job and I like Brad, I think he’s a really good coach but he has to make the same issue simple as that. What do they say? It’s a performance based job or something? Is that something? It’s a keyword they’re using now. Eyes up, footy. Don’t know what his KP eyes would KP eyes just So bet you you think BA is doing a good job. Yeah, I think he’s doing really good. OK, So what is it? Because Moses is such a dominant player. Yeah, and Dylan. They tried Dylan Brown at halfback. I thought the young Ethan Sanders. I thought he, he did a really good job. Swings and roundabouts against Manly. Micah. Elbows. AI don’t know who you elbowed. Reuben. Garrick. Reuben Garrick. It’s like 69th minute, 69 points behind two points. Will Panasini goes to the SIM min for a professional fail on Turbo Turbo’s offside. From the kick, you know, it’s all these swings and roundabouts. I I thought they were the better team against Manly. It’s just Micah goes off and they scored two tries down that edge. It’s just you know it’d be so frustrating for him and I guess we’re getting we’re getting off topic here with with Moses. It looks like they got a steal with Moses in the end of the Eels in the sense that like we’ve seen in the last four or five weeks, how important Mitch Moses is to parallel. He’s a representative player. He’s one of those dominant players. He’s got probably the longest kicking game in the competition with those skinny little legs he’s got. I can say that because I’m friends with Mitchell, So what happens there? He can rescue a bad set. Their forwards aren’t doing their job or the outside. Backs to dummy half and yeah, cramped down. They need scans up, stands up and kicks at 60 meters. Kicking game is so important in the hour of the kicking game and that’s what Mitchell, when he’s not there, they really suffer. I thought Ethan Sanders on the weekend showed he’s a long term NRL halfback. Some really good signs, good signs. OK, obviously a tough week. It’s been a tough few weeks really for Jason and Demetrio. The club said yesterday that he’s coaching style or management of players is essentially what led him down in the end and there was a player LED coaching style that was from the club. You found that unique team unique. Just we’re not going to go, we’re not going to go back into that. But from what you saw from JD as a head coach, do you think he can make it in the future as a head coach in the NRL? Yeah, I think so. He’ll have to do his time again as an assistant or go back to the UK and go over there and, you know, get some fresh ideas. But I don’t know unless you’re in there, you know, under, you know, in there all the time and listening to the tone of meetings and how hard, how big the stick is and who he waxed with the stick and who he gives freedom to. And you know, there’s so much exterior noise coming out of the way. He managed the trail but then you look at the way Wayne managed the trails, he wine probably gave him more freedom. You you don’t know unless you’re in there. We’re just speculating, which isn’t fair on anyone within S let alone Jason Demetrio, but I think he’ll be back. Seems like a really good fella. I don’t know Jason but I feel really sorry for him after that. It was a mid year last year, felt like the turning point was that game against Cronulla in Perth where they were just legless. They were awful and they got rolled by 30 or 40 and I think the next week is when Sam sort of stood up, Sam and John Morris and just said look this isn’t the standards aren’t acceptable. And then from there it’s just been a shitstorm, an absolute shitstorm. Have you ever seen a slide like it from the big club like they were? I think it was after 11 rounds last year they were first they re signed JD to a new three-year contract. They were flying at that stage. Everyone had them as are they the team that’s going to stop Penrith. I’m just trying and since then they have, just like I’m just trying to think of a team that has just imploded so bad. Look, in Newcastle we had a really bad year, 2000, so we were 2001 premiers in the semis 2002, 2000 and three 2004 did the knee. I don’t know if they made the semis 2005. We came last, we lost thirteen in a row. Obviously one of their players was out injured for most of it, broken jaw, knee, but that was, yeah, we fell off the Cliff that year, definitely. It’s just been stunning even from from the, yeah, a lot of injuries that year. It’s just you know Parramatta, it’s hard to win without your best players. You look at the injuries to see us. Campbell Graham hasn’t played La Trolle’s Mr. Stack of footy. Junior Tatol has been out, Junior Tatol has been in and out. Lachlan Ilius Jayara that. There’s been excuses but it’s the nature of the job. Who’d want to be a first grade coach? What a shit job. Well apparently someone that’s done it in another code. Michael Checker wants to do it in the NRL. He’s expressed interest. I think he’d have success if the World Cup. He coached Lebanon to 1/4 final and all the players within that group love. He’s a man’s man. I don’t know if you’ve met check and he’s on the other side of the camera so he’s a bit different. He’s got, he’s got presence and he’s just got that leadership, those qualities where you know you just what he says goes. I think he’d be, I think he’d be a great idea. He could bring other ideas from rugby union, other training ideas, different things, the way they play. I haven’t watched rugby for a long time, like a lot of people, but I think he’d be good with the right people around him too, the right assistants, you know, it’s especially around the halves play and and all that sort of stuff. But I think you’d be successful be the right team. So some of those clubs that recycle coaches regularly or they they keep going to people that have done it in the past, do they need to take a gamble? I know a few years ago that the Walker brothers were thrown up, but that that I’d love to see them given an opportunity because everyone plays pretty much similar. The the only turn that plays a little bit different is Parramatta. I love watching Parramatta play because they offload the ball, although I think the game is going in another cycle. When Melbourne was so dominant there for a lot of years, you know they played very robotic construction and then a lot of teams copied them. But I think the game’s going now where it’s gone more ad Lib and a lot more offloads and a lot more attacking footy. But pretty much they all played the same. I’d love to some, the Walker brothers to come in and shake it up. For instance, the short drop out, they were doing that 1015 years ago. Every time they they did a short kick off and they had great success. They had stats and what they did and and without boring people. For them it wasn’t about completion rates. It was time with the ball. So they’d get the ball and play the touch footy. They’d just pass the ball around laterally and then someone would skip into space and they’d play off that. It was so good to watch and they had great success with it. I’d love to see a team or a club. I didn’t see us would benefit from having the Walker brothers because they got the players who love ad Lib footy, Cody Luttrell, Jack Wyden, these sort of Joey Gray at the back. I think they’d love that open style footy and you think that can be transferred from the Cup into? I think so for sure. I think they’d have to bring some things back and I think there’d be some teething problems, but I think it’s worth a shot. I’d love to see him get an opportunity. I’d love to see the Walker boys get a shot as long as Chris is in there. Although Chris is on the straight and narrow, You know, I’m Mary Jack, Chris. I love his Instagram account. It’s always good entertainment. Is it? Yeah. Well, it used to be better than if he’s on the Yeah, well, Mary’s, he’s, he’s all fit and healthy. He’s all fit and healthy. The last day doing months he’s been sober. So well done, Chris. Not long now until Origin One and I I I guess the the formal injuries from the potential Blues playmakers means that it’s it’s almost a wide open race. Of course if Nathan Cleary is fit then he’s the 7th right? But again, late scratching for this week. Is Nico Hines a player that was there last year in Adelaide? Has he done enough? Is he doing enough at the right time of the year? I think so for sure The next four weeks, off the top of my head they think they they got to they got Dragons and then they play Brisbane Roosters Penrith. So that three-week block or that four week block, whoever they play after Penrith, if Nico shoots the lights out for sure. But that’s the big test not only for Nico, it’s a big test for Cronulla because everyone knows the knock on Cronulla is they can’t beat those top teams, the three teams. Are they Brisbane? I’m just looking at Dicky Knee over here. I’m sure they get Brisbane, Storm, Storm, Roosters, Panthers. The big one I want to watch is I’ll play the Storm and Roosters, but that third game when they play Penrith, that’s the one I want to watch because to win a comp at the end of the year you need to win four tough games back-to-back to back. So the 1st, 2:00, I’m going to be watching, but the big one is going to be when Cronulla play Penrith, that’s the one I’m going to be watching and he’ll be likely to square off against Nathan. Nathan, yeah, so good. We’re set the standard as the best playmaker, best half in the game for the last four or five years. So I think they’ve played well together. Him and Nick are. Is there a limitation given Nico, where’s the seven at club land So he’d easily, yeah, yeah, he’d easily go to 5/8 and just play off Nathan. But also it depends how Match wants to play, whether they want Nathan on the advantage line or they want Isaiah to be dictating to the halves. We’ll see. Do you think, do you think Madge will stick with the the Penrith connection that Freddy and I don’t know. Once again, it’s depends how Madge wants to to attack because we’ve seen that Penrith style at club level doesn’t dominate at club level like it does at Origin football. So when you’re at Origin football you’re playing against the best players, the absolute elite, so they don’t bludgeon defence, they don’t make stupid decisions defensively, they’re fit as anything, so they’re up and back. Yeah, it’s it’s interesting because from the outside just being you know, like obviously I love the game but I’m, I’m not a an immortal like yourself. But when Queensland got up in Yowie’s face it disrupted the Blues. That’s the game plan. But when the when the Blues were on the front foot, it looked like Penrith playing at a level because to awe and the likes were even. I mean Steven, frightened. He’s with the Dogs now. But when when when those players in the middle or when the Blues are on the front foot, that works. Yeah, it totally works. But at Origin it’s all about kick reception, footy so you don’t get many penalties. So it’s very hard to get that structure on. I don’t know. I don’t know how magic’s going to play. I don’t know the the two positions up for grabs are obviously 5/8. That’s the big one. But also dummy half Moses is the wild card. If Moses comes back and has two games and plays well, I think that game well actually, I don’t know. I really don’t know. I look, I like Cody and I’ve been quite vocal. I love Cody as a player. Game three came in last year and if you have a look at all the tries, they’ll score down the left. Fox schools that try and kicks over Bradman scores one. In the second-half they scored another one down the left side. In the first half it was all off Cody Cody’s side of the field, the left side. I know he’s not going well, Cody, but he’s playing in a team which is struggling. He’s playing in a team with a four Packers and dominating. I I think he’s still having really good touches, but between now and Origin he needs to show a match, sort of more more grit, more of those effort areas. So they’re the players. You got Nico, Cody, Jerome, Lui and Mitch Moses. Moses is the wild card. If he gets back and plays well, I think they’ll go with Moses purely from because of what we’ve seen at Clubland earlier this year. And now we know what he brings to Parramatta or what we’ve seen from him at Origin level in the past. I think he’s played or he’s played well at Origin level. I just think it’s that time in his career where you know we talk about all the time the game slows up everything you’ve been working for sort of you know you take the blinkers off. But I’m still such a Cody Walker fan looking forward to seeing you guys tonight. Cody do you think just back to Cody do you think South struggles could cost him? Yeah definitely. Definitely because he. But he’s one player I know Cody is a big match player and you get him in there and he’ll lift. And one thing about Cody he doesn’t die wondering he’ll get the he’ll he’ll want to play he’ll he’ll he’ll open up that left side attack. You know still you look at seas they’re struggling but still he he has I don’t have been up the stats where I mean his stats are pretty good. He’s putting tries on all time down that left side. It’s interesting just what what role does confidence play for a playmaker going into an origin scene? Huge. But you have some players who can just get there and flick the switch knowing they’re around, knowing they’re there the best in the business and just give me the ball and that’s that’s what Cody does. But for Nico, that three-week period, who’d we say? Storm Roosters? Penrith, but especially that Penrith game. I’ll be watching that one. If he plays well on that then he deserves his spot. I found it really interesting last week he said that the lessons he’s learned over the last 12 months, Nico’s one of those players that speaks more openly about the mindset and his approach to footy than probably any other player we’ve ever interviewed. And he’s happy to be. He’s right into that so mental side of that, has a notepad and he’s got a mental coach. A mental coach, but he’s happy like even off camera, like like he’s like he’s a fascinating person to chat, just chat with. But in a recent interview, he said, like, he still has those doubts that I don’t know if I’m ready for it again. Does does he have to. He can’t have that. Yeah, he’s got to. He’s got to blank that out and he’s got to write. This is this is my team. I’m going in, give me the ball. And that’s why those three games, you know, and those. We’ve spoke about when the game’s on the line with fifteen, 1015 minutes to go is give me the ball, I’m going to win it. So that’s what we need to see. Bring on Origin. How good is it? Not long away, not long now. I know, I know. First game in Sydney, got to win that one, So important to win the first one because you’re down to go up there in game three when they’re hanging out of trees and doing cartwheels at the Caxton and should they bring back the bus down Caxton? No. Oh, it was always fun. But they were. They can’t do it now. You know, I don’t think the police would let it happen. It was actually fun watching people go under the bus and get run over. That never happened. Cut, cut, cut. That never happened. Were you had this scared for your safety? Nah, I I used to sit up the front so he’d go down and just throw on cans. And so he’d come down there. I’ve told this story. Come down the hill and that’s the lights. Second, last lights before you go left into the stadium and there’s a lady who was walking across her old older lady. She’s really been in her late 70s and she’s walking across and she’s like looking up and waving. So I wave like, hey, and then she and then a mouth while she was mouthing, I was like, welcome to Queensland. Oh, how good is it? And then we went out and beat him by 30. Oh, other days, A big week coming up for yourself. 50 in three weeks 50. Yeah. You know those tui’s admits they said you never make it. You might be a bit young for that. Yes. You didn’t think you’d make 50. Well, I did. A lot of people didn’t. Well we’re all at the oh, you’re you’re about to. What day is it? 19th of May. The 19th of May. Well what about. Yeah. 2 1/2 weeks. OK. So you’re you’re off to a holiday. On a holiday. I’m going to Yeah. I’m going away for a week because I don’t want to have my 50th in Australia. Oh, you’re avoiding it. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t want to wake up in handcuffs. No, those days are gone. Those. So I thought I’d go away. Me and the bride. Me and the Mrs. Cook Islands. Yeah, go away. How much Surfing? A lot. OK. But you can only surf there at high tide. So longing for two hours a day, I’ll be missing long. It’s OK. We’ll be very happy about that. She’ll have you for most of the day out of the place. Go and burn some energy. All right, so that’s obviously your romantic 50th away. But if if you had your ideal 50th. If you couldn’t escape to the Cook Islands dream team, Your dream team. I want 3 current players, three former players, 3 randoms from all time so we could start and the venue, that’s, it’s always important, a good venue. We start Friday off though, and look, I’m a pub man, I’m a nightclub and I like pubs, I like pubs where my feet stick to the floor. You got to go, you got to know your safe pubs to go to. I’ve probably just got to go down to Chloe Friday, Friday night. I don’t know what time to close back to someone’s place, Bit of a kick on and then shut it down maybe. And then lunchtime Saturday, go somewhere for lunch, have a steak back on it on the punt, get the tips cheering some horses on. Ride on a Saturday night and then Sunday go for some counselling. Have a cry, have a cuddle and then back on a Sunday. Laid arbour. Swim at the beach on Sunday. Late breakfast. Bloody Mary. The kids do it responsibly. You got to finish with that. Do it responsibly. So that’s just the that’s just the venue in the itinerary. We haven’t even gotten started. Your dream team, now the dream team we’re going to go through. So modern players, 3 modern players, we’ll go Victor for obvious reasons. Monster. So we can go into Monsters world which should be entertaining. We can go between Joey’s world and Monster’s World into Victor’s world. And the last one would be Reese Walsh. Just to make us look six out of 10s into 8 out of 10. They’re looking over at Reese Walsh. Who’s that? Just stand there, Reese. Let everyone smile and look over. Apart from Reese there, there’s a common theme. Yeah, lunatics. I don’t know, Reese. It’s pretty quiet in me. It’s pretty. I don’t know. Anyway, Reese, you’re invited. Three legends anywhere in the world. I got Tommy Lee, the drummer from Mötley Crüe. We’ve all seen his videos. You have to keep his gear on because he tower over us, if you know what I mean. I got John Belushi. I dig him up. He died 30 years ago. If you want to read a good book, read Wired, John Belushi and we’ll get Mike Tyson. He’d be good. He’s Tiger. He’s Tiger, not Tiger Woods. Mike Tyson. He can be security and from past players I’d go a couple of Newcastle mates, Ben Kennedy, because him and Mike Tyson together after that 10 beers would be really entertaining. Matt Parsons, big Parso, because he’s great company and also he he used to grab me and slow up. Come on, settle down. And my former roommate on a Kangaroo tour was Robbie Kearns. Because Kernsey just talks talks the whole time. But when we’re away, if there was any big nights, the next day he would actually cancel me. Give me cuddles. So, Kernsey, you’re in. I used to say to Kernsey every morning we wake up and I go, Rada, you got five questions because you’re just constantly asking questions. You got five questions. Use them sparingly. Buy breakfast. They’ll be all gone. All gone. What are you doing? Where’d you go last night? We going for breakfast? You want to go for a coffee? Kernsey, you’ve done them no more. It’s just zip. Well, that is that is an all Time Team now. There is some some headlines in those. I’m just trying to think who would go there. I’d love to see Munster and Ben Kennedy together. That’d just that’d be hilarious. You know what it’s like to get there. Everyone would be so excited trying to do each other. Friday night would be the best. Everyone coming in hot. Everyone coming in fresh. Any of those guys? Would any of them not make Saturday? Oh no, it’s no. They’re up and running. Sad day. I don’t know the ones I know. I don’t know Munster back up or Reese anyway. Well, Cook Islands instead of that. Yeah, you ever know, I might have a stray 50th somewhere, but I’ll be enjoying the sun, going surfing and try not to get into trouble. Well said, Bunnies, Panthers. I think it’d be close to what people think without Nathan. You know what they get the they get the weather. It’s going to be wet and slippery. You coach. You know what? Just go out and tackle yourself to victory. Go out and rip in. Go and tackle yourself to victory. Wise words from one of the best ever and I’m looking forward to Brisbane Roosters. I can’t wait for this one. We’re going up for it, flying up, but I don’t know when. We go up for the Broncos games, but only the big ones. I can’t see the Roosters getting near Brisbane. They if they’re fully fit towards the end of the year they just win. God, they’re a good team. They’re going to be right up there for the next 3-4 five years. Young players coming through frightening and flano. Flannel against the shark. Yeah, the Shark on Sunday. After that sledge, it’ll be close. It was a great diversion. He’s too good. I loved it though, from a medal. They got rolled by 60. And then he talks about that. No one talks about the. The best thing was he said that. Oh, they. I don’t think they won a trophy since then. And then the follow up he goes, hang on guys. It’s not all about me. Yeah, it’s not all about me. Like you just made it about you. I imagine the next day at training all the Cronulla bikes for you. Did you hear what flan I said the other day? Yeah, it is good. It is good. It’s going to be on and I’ll be caralo. I think it’ll be a close one. I think they’ll win by a trial or two. But the Broncos Roosters are on. Wow. Cancel, cancel dinner with the misses and the family. Just get home and sit and watch this one live and free. Right here. Right here. Wide world of Sports. Well said. Thanks for joining us Danica. We’ll be back next week, hopefully this year. NRL on 9 is your one stop shop for all food. That’s right, Freddy. Not about the highlights. Action, seven days a week. Billion Gust podcasts together when you drive on the way home. Immortal Behaviour Forever Certainly couch for that. And of course, my favorite Fred. In the end. The best footy brains, the biggest games. Don’t trust the algorithm. Subscribe to NRL on 9 and get all your entertainment there.