People feared the Chiefs would be a joke. The NRL might have created a monster instead

The PNG Chiefs’ recruitment strategy, with Joey Manu as signing No.7, is canny on
some levels.

Go for high-profile playmakers and outside backs first, to establish the brand as an NRL glamour club (thank you, Australian taxpayers). Then fill in the gaps – the workhorses, the middle forwards – later.

It’s pretty much the opposite of the patient, ground-up strategy that Wayne Bennett used at the Dolphins. We’ll see whether it leads to on-field success, but the PR intention is clear.

If the long-term PNG plan is going to work – getting through the first years while building recruitment from the local population – the short-term sugar hit of signing seasoned big names will grab attention.

As an unforeseen consequence of PNG’s tax-free salary advantage, however, the club is also playing one of the oldest tricks in the NRL book – inflating the market to damage their opponents.

If the Roosters are to keep Sam Walker and the Raiders to retain Hudson Young, for instance, they have to match the Chiefs’ offers.

This hurts those clubs and has ramifications throughout their salary cap. If the Chiefs want to inflict pain on a rival club, all they have to do is invite a star player for a visit.

After the initial doubts about whether the Chiefs would be viable, the fear now is that the NRL and Australian government have created a monster happily swinging a wrecking ball through the entire league, a year and a half before they make their first tackle.

Big Papa, big metres

Thirty-seven kilometres. That’s how far Josh Papalii’s frame has rolled forward, with ball in
hand, during his time with the Raiders. Papalii is up with Corey Parker and Petero Civoniceva, who
both ran for a little less than 40 kilometres.

It is difficult to compare them with fullbacks such as Billy Slater and Anthony Minichiello, who have similar records but gained cheaper metres by running back kicks.

But it also puts into perspective the record of Paul Gallen, the Bradman of running metres, who in his 348 games for Cronulla ran the ball for more than 50 kilometres, 25 per cent more than any other player.

Changes to the rules, speed and style of the game might wipe out these records, but there’s one word for the metre-eating middle forwards: respect. And another word in retirement: look after your brain health.

Scorch not the mascot solution for Dragons

The wooden spoon is the least of the Dragons’ problems. What has happened to their
mascot?

After decades of service, the Happy Dragon, with his green-clawed legs, was replaced in 2025 by a character called Scorch, who leads the team onto the field wearing figure-hugging red tights.

Results have gone downhill since. It’s unseemly, and it’s wrong.

Illawarra’s Stanley the Steel Avenger, who holds the honour of being the only mascot to be sent from the field after he got involved in a brawl between Steelers and Tigers players in 1995, must be spinning in his grave and waiting for his resurrection.

Won’t somebody think of the goalkickers

This will sound like NRL bugbear #365, but I want to scream whenever I see a try-scorer not
trying to get closer to the goalposts.

Every goalkicker can do with help. When a try-scorer starts running away from the posts, as Tony Sukkar did for the Tigers on Sunday, you wonder if these guys have ever been coached.

They should be forced to watch videos of Tom Mooney, the former Souths and Manly winger who used to take on tacklers in the in-goal in his determination to get closer to the posts.

Maybe Sukkar, scoring his first NRL try, was just too excited to think. Jock Madden duly missed the conversion, and it could have cost the Tigers their famous win over the Roosters (bearing in mind that every action affects every subsequent action, and if Madden had converted, the Tigers might have won by 30, or lost by 30).

Later in the game, Api Koroisau was smart enough to improve his position when he crossed the line – he was on conversion duties by then – and Madden was in the background, pointing him towards the sticks.

A rare misstep from V’landys

It was unfortunate timing that a week after the NRL’s plan to crack down on conflicts of interest in the media was revealed, Peter V’landys should appear on Mark Bouris’ podcast. Bouris is a director of the Sydney Roosters.

For the chairman and interim chief executive of the governing body to be giving a helping hand to a club office holder, at this pointy end of the year when favouritism towards some clubs arouses hostility, suspicion and distrust, was a rare misstep.

V’landys has successfully maintained an image of neutrality. Would you know if he goes for any club? No, and that’s a good thing.

But the Roosters are the perennial prime suspect when it comes to clubs escaping close NRL scrutiny of their salary cap, and you don’t want any hint of favouritism at this sensitive time.

It made it difficult to interpret which media conflicts of interest are OK and which are not. But hey, the podcast’s coverage of the game was positive, so maybe that’s what matters.