Round 20
Bulldogs 25 d. Roosters 0

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Morley pleads guilty to striking
Tue July 25, 2006
Warrington-bound Sydney Rooster Adrian Morley has pleaded guilty to striking and will face the judiciary to learn his fate after kneeing Bulldog Corey Hughes in Saturday night's 0-25 shutdown.

In the 68th minute, Morley came out of the line and drove his knee into Hughes' abdomen after the Bulldogs hooker was involved in a bit of shoving with Roosters marker Ashley Harrison whilst Hughes was trying to play the ball. Morley was sent off for the second time in as many years against the Bulldogs at Telstra and it is likely to be the last we see of him in the NRL.

Morley has a fairly checkered record since coming to the NRL, missing 19 weeks of football since 2001 through suspension. Whilst plenty have pleaded for leniency, a precedent was set earlier when Greg Bird was outed for 10 weeks for kneeing Shane Marteene after a tackle was completed. Bird was involved in the tackle and had a clean record, neither of which Morley can claim.

Roosters legend Arthur Beetson has come out and claimed Hughes took a soccer-like dive after impact in an interview about the incident, and Roosters stalwart Luke Ricketson said he hoped Morley was going for the ball. However, both are poor attempts at playing down the incident.

Morley will find out his fate at the judiciary later on.


Bulldogs demoralise unhappy Roosters
Sun July 23, 2006
Last night's game between the Bulldogs and Roosters will go down as one of the most demoralising and unhappiest night's in the Roosters history with the Bulldogs winning 25-0.

It was the first time in 312 premiership matches that the Roosters were kept scoreless in an amazing statistic. Their attack never threatened the Bulldogs defence until the last 30 seconds.

The Bulldogs were in cruise control the whole game and just played simple football completing their sets and aiming up in defence. Melbourne lifted the defensive bar on Friday night and the Bulldogs returned serve keeping the once mighty Roosters pointless.

The build up to the match was very tense with the Roosters buying Nate Myles during the week for $330,000 a season for three years and Willie Mason's article in Friday's newspaper 'The Australian' attracted plenty of interest and was supposedly meant to fire up the Roosters. In another twist to the tensions between both clubs, the Roosters were reported to already be talking turking with Mark O'Meley for the 2008 season, which his Manager has denied but the interest from the Roosters would be there either now or in the future.

Adrian Morley was sent off in the 68th minute for kneeing Corey Hughes in an incident that is going to be spoken about fo the next few days, which has almost certainly ended his NRL career and put him out of the Tri Nations series. The moment of frustration from Morley summed up the Roosters and Morley's season in many ways.

Morley was the enforcer of the Roosters pack during their three successive Grand Final appearances between 2002-04 and in the last two years has carried the Roosters pack on his own back. Morley's reward for his efforts in bringing substance to the Roosters pack was a token one-year contract deal, not even a two-year offer was made. Instead the Roosters go all out to sign Roy Asotasi and show interest in a few good young Dragons forwards to only end up with Myles. Morley has been playing injured for most of this season and the effort of the players around him was diabolical.

What Morley did was disgraceful but his treatment from the Roosters this year has been worse.

The Bulldogs were barely in a training run and the Roosters offered absolutely nothing in attack and it was a game of misery for the Bondi men.

Canterbury led 10-0 at half-time thanks to an Andrew Emilio try and three penalty goals from Hazem El Masri.

The second half opened up a bit more for the Bulldogs with Sonny Bill Williams and captain Andrew Ryan with El Masri converting both of them for a 22-0 lead. The Morley incident allowed El Masri to boot the Bulldogs clear at 24-0 and Brent Sherwin sealed it with a drop-goal in the final stages of the match.

Young Bulldogs props Jarrad Hickey and Chris Armit were both outstanding and both are going to be fine players for the Bulldogs in the years to come. Armit has been the Bulldogs most under-rated performer in the last two years only missing two matches since coming across from the Parramatta Premier League side and Hickey has rose through the Junior ranks at the Bulldogs.

Steve Folkes will have a big selection headache when everyone is back on deck as both Armit and Hickey are impressing, Corey Hughes is there as the second hooker and Sonny Bill Williams and Reni Maitua will fill the lock and interchange positions. Folkes is basically left to a decision of choosing between Hickey, Armit and Myles with the latter on club form the one that could miss out.

The Roosters performance was depressing and they offered absolutely nothing out there with Anthony Tupou trying extremely hard and Morley doing his best until the brain explosion.

Former Bulldog Braith Anasta who said many things when he signed for the Roosters last night had a very disappointing game and has been close to the worst buy of the season with team-mate Ashley Harrison his main competitor for that title. Anasta when signing for the Roosters said that Ricky Stuart is the best coach he has ever had and that the Bulldogs are a club going stale where the Roosters can advance his career. The Roosters sit in 13th position and the Bulldogs are very healthy in 2nd position.

The Bulldogs copped plenty of criticism for keeping Mason over Anasta last year and 12 months down the track their decision has been one that has been much more than jusitified. The Bulldogs have a good eye for talent and knew which player would be better value for the club on and off the field. Mason has really grown into a leader this year and his efforts on a weekly basis for the Bulldogs have been outstanding. Folkes and David Gillespie were named as second-rowers in the Bulldogs 70-year side but came 80 or even 75 years, Mason will be in the side.

Anasta was bought by the Roosters to fill Brad Fittler's role when he was always a lock forward playing in the No.6 jumper. He got away with it at the Bulldogs because of the glut of ball playing back-rowers and also the fact Sherwin is a genuine organiser of play. At the Roosters Anasta has been caught out due to the style of players there and their halfback where it is Brett Finch or Josh Lewis isn't as commanding or creative as Sherwin.

Former Bulldogs and Magpies legend Terry Lamb did comment earlier in the year that Anasta had a habit of playing well around contract time. Anasta hit a purple patch for the Bulldogs last year when he was being chased by the Roosters, Rabbitohs and rugby union. Prior to that Anasta's best period of form was in 2001 before signing a lucrative four-year deal to remain at Belmore. Anasta didn't produce in the second half of last year and hasn't had a strong 80 minute game all season.

The Roosters played like there are problems on and off the field and the aftermath to this result should be interesting. Chairman Nick Politis has on many occasions said that Stuart is safe as coach, however there will be question marks rapidly going against his name.

Stuart has proved he can coach but his style of coaching is more or less along the lines of Warren Ryan and Jack Gibson where he's a 3-4 year coach before switching clubs and not a coach like Folkes or Wayne Bennett who have stayed at the one club for a long-time. Ryan and Gibson are two of the finest coaches the game has produced and maybe both the Roosters and Stuart need a change for the better.

The Roosters performance was nothing short of diabolical and clueless against a Bulldogs outfit that barely raised a sweat.

One banner at the ground also summed things up - "If you can't beat them, buy them" and the Roosters will need to buy a lot more than Anasta, Myles and possibly O'Meley to get themselves out of the hole they are currently in.

Sat July 22, 2006
• Has Morley played his last NRL game?
  

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