Set of Six: Year of the Rabbitoh?

Top guns ... can Souths break their title drought? Source: Colin Whelan / AAP

The rampaging Rabbitohs, the much-maligned shoulder charge, dodgy food and Jarryd Hayne's five-eighth credentials all feature in this week's Set of Six.

All times are listed in EST

First Tackle

Souths? Souths are killing ‘em. Coach Maguire has a talented team playing tight, controlled, physical, effective rugby league. They have three guys doing tricky stuff – Isaac Luke, Adam Reynolds and John Sutton – and 16 others whose job description is, effectively, run as quick as you can straight at the other mob. And then there’s Greg Inglis, that rarest of things, a fast mountain. With a step, a swerve, a fend and a way of human movement scientists of the future will write learned thesis about. Rabbitohs fans have been hurt before. To be a Souths fan is to know hurt. But my, they must be fairly tingling. This year?

Second Tackle

The latest in shoulder charge news is that is seems that if you don’t hurt an opponent in terms of a head clash and/or whiplash effect – as Rene Maitua and Sam Kasiano didn't over the weekend – then you won’t be made to stand trial. That seems right to me. There’ll be incidental shoulder-to-shoulder bumps in every game. It’s the nature of the game - there are collisions from minute one to 80. Maybe it’ll sort itself out and players will realise it’s illegal, and change. Maybe they should change the rule and also beef up penalties for contact with the head. If you shoulder charge and concuss a bloke then 10 weeks. You’d get that for an elbow.

Third Tackle

This column and it’s cousin, Complete Set, aren't into boasting, much. But we were a golden point in the Knights Sharks game from that rarest of birds, eight-from-eight. Raiders? Oh yes, Raiders! Clap-clap-clap. Raiders. That is all.

		W	L	D	B	PD	Pts
1	Storm	7	1	0	0	79	14
2	Rabbitohs	7	1	0	0	54	14
3	Roosters	6	2	0	0	126	12
4	Sea Eagles	6	2	0	0	83	12
5	Knights	5	3	0	0	66	10
6	Titans	4	4	0	0	15	8
7	Broncos	4	4	0	0	12	8
8	Cowboys	4	4	0	0	10	8
9	Raiders	4	4	0	0	-69	8
10	Bulldogs	3	5	0	0	-17	6
11	Sharks	3	5	0	0	-18	6
12	Dragons	3	5	0	0	-62	6
13	Panthers	2	6	0	0	-42	4
14	Warriors	2	6	0	0	-69	4
15	Eels	2	6	0	0	-72	4
16	Tigers	2	6	0	0	-96	4

Fourth Tackle

I went to Parramatta Stadium on Saturday night for the match between Eels and Cowboys. All the elements of a top night at the footy were in place. A purpose-built, well-lit stadium with a billiard table surface. Fair view from any seat. One team coming off a hiding and wanting to impress home ground fans; the other in enemy territory but full of  rep stars. A cool, dry night. But the food was riot material. Can’t pies be crusty anymore? Can’t hot dogs have onions and/or cheese? Can’t the makers of the multi-cultural food western Sydney is so known for set-up a food court of sorts, give punters some variety? Hot cinnamon donuts? It’s all so generic, and ordinary, and $4.80 for a coffee that tastes like volcano is bad.

Fifth Tackle

Jarryd Hayne in the five-eighth jumper for NSW? I say: yes. Big, athletic, fast, steppy, tricky, smart. How about him flinging that groovy no-look pass of his? How about him hunting holes, sniping, pronking about? That’s what five-eighths are there for, to do that stuff, to provide a threat running or passing or kicking. Hayne hasn’t had the greatest season thus far. But you try competing in the NRL with 13 clubmen from Windsor Wolves. But Hayne on the end of slick ball from Mitchell Pearce, with Greg Bird and Glenn Stewart doing the dirty work, and the fabulous Moz Bros, Nathan Merritt and Hayne’s mate Mick Jennings outside him. Well, upon my command, unleash the Hayne Train. Loz? Make it happen.

Last Tackle

Manly? Best halves in the comp. Yes, there’s Cronk and Thurston and Benji, and two boys called Reynolds. And they’re all very good. But Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans are footballers to their bootstraps. Young and keen and so very good. Foran’s like Laurie Daley but more a nut. Cherry-Evans is Des Hasler but with more game. They’re beauties. And fit, Manly is a top-four moral.

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