Source :- THE AGE NEWS
The last bastion of blame-free booing is for the club traitor. Some booing from crowds is prejudiced, misdirected, boorish or simply unfair, but on Saturday, 12 months to the day since Lachlan Galvin left Wests Tigers, he copped it.
Loud booing filled Parramatta Stadium every time he touched the ball for the Bulldogs. Given his high level of involvement in the match, the question was whether Tigers fans could maintain their rage. Eighty minutes is a long time, considering the 83 times Galvin touched the ball.
His crime? All he’d done was break his contract and walk out on the struggling club that had given him his chance, mid-season, to scarper to a high-placed team where he thought he might win a premiership.
Yes, he’s very young and probably prone to all sorts of seductions and influences, and he tries his guts out every week to make it right, but even if you feel sorry for him, there’s a special place in rugby league hell for the deserter.
What is a little odd, given the Tigers’ and Bulldogs’ trajectories since Galvin’s move, is that Tigers fans would be angry. Shouldn’t they be happy?
Again on Saturday, Galvin was busy and ambitious, but repeatedly, when the crunch came, not quite good enough. The lesson from these 12 months is that Galvin isn’t the player he was thought to be, or not yet anyway, maybe never was or will be, and none of that is his fault.
His arrival upset the good thing the Bulldogs had going until last June; if anyone should be booing, it might be them.
The booing on Saturday did fall silent, late in an entertaining game, when the Bulldogs attacked and the Tigers’ fans couldn’t boo because their mouths had their hearts in them. But Galvin and the Dogs fluffed their last-tackle options again. The Tigers’ supporters ought to have been quietly gloating, but that doesn’t make much of a noise.
A Strange world
Over-praised and over-pressured, Galvin and his dramas diverted focus from how the NRL is producing some genuine wunderkind playmakers in their early twenties.
Isaiya Katoa (Dolphins), Ethan Strange (Canberra), Joey Walsh (Manly) and Liam Sutton (Cowboys) are among the rising tide of young playmakers, not to mention Sam Walker (Roosters), at the top of the game and still only 23.
Strange’s performances in Origin I and for the Raiders on Sunday confirm what he’s shown during the past year: he’s not a potential star, he’s already there. NSW coach Laurie Daley will probably do the stodgy thing for Origin II, reinstating Mitchell Moses and playing Strange off the bench. He’ll do so at his peril.
Stat’s amazing
Incredible as the Dragons’ win was over Brisbane on Sunday, more exciting for stats nerds was the scoreline. The 30-26 result was the same as in 2025 and in 2024. All three games were at Suncorp Stadium. All were upsets. There’s probably a four-leaf clover growing on halfway.
Once we’re over that thrill, a couple of things stood out in the premiers’ performance.
They were not so much flat as uncoordinated, with individuals all trying their own thing with little team cohesion. Reece Walsh was one of the worst offenders, which is why he’s not being picked for Origin.
And Payne Haas played out of this world. Back from injury, he was on the field for 80 minutes, ran 23 times, gained 281 metres and made 33 tackles. And yet, like every other Bronco, he seemed to be out there doing his own thing, trying to win a game all by himself.
Tedesco the right man at the wrong time
Watching Penrith’s courageous win over the Warriors on Sunday, possibly a grand final preview, combined with the Roosters’ loss to Melbourne on Saturday, you could feel that Laurie Daley is just out of synch with the universe.
A year ago, when James Tedesco was in scintillating form and Dylan Edwards was banged up, Daley picked Edwards. This month, Tedesco’s form for the Roosters has tailed off, and his late moment of magic for NSW distracted from an otherwise ordinary game.
Meanwhile, Edwards is in career-best form. On Sunday, without Nathan Cleary or Isaah Yeo, Edwards steered the game like a maestro. But Daley will pick Tedesco. For the second year running, he’s got the right player but in the wrong sequence.
Round 13 was simply the best
Of the seven NRL games on the weekend, five were decided by six points or fewer.
What’s going on? What happened to touch footy and boring blowouts? Maybe, just maybe, the teams have reached peak mid-season fitness, adjusted to the new rules and the sky that fell in has been put back where it was.
Whatever the reason, the games in round 13, coming after the thriller of Origin I, looked a lot more like the NRL we know and love. Just in time for a new TV deal. Sweet.
Malcolm Knox is a journalist, author and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.
