BY DAN

An intriguing addendum to last night’s victory was Ricky Stuart seemingly calling out his bench in the after match press conference.

In answering a question as to why Tom Starling played 80 minutes, unusual for modern hookers, Stuart answered:

There were some individuals not up to standard tonight and I had to take them off the field. And that disrupted my interchange.

This, according to Stuart, stopped him from getting Danny Levi on the field.

It was an intriguing assertion. This is especially the case given that his rotation did not seem to change dramatically. Papa came off after about twenty minutes (23 to be precise), replaced by Trey Mooney as has been the case for a few weeks now. Handsome Joey Taps came off near the thirty minute mark (27 this time around) replaced by Ata Mariota. Elliott Whitehead came off just after and was replaced by Zac Hosking who, as expected finished the game on the right edge. Whitehead then came back with about 15 to go to replace Morgan Smithies at 13.

Stuart ended the night with two interchanges in the bank, meaning the swap of Starling for Levi remained available to him. He would normally swap Levi in around the fifty minute mark, instead taking the opportunity to bring back Papa and Taps for Mooney and Mariota. So what gives? Is this an elaborate story to excuse leaving Levi out? Is the favourite hooker of the club on the outer so to speak? Was the performance of the bench players so poor that it ruled out bringing Levi on.

Taking Stuart at face value is an intriguing thought experiment. Mooney and Mariota were the only players who had stints different to what we would have anticipated, both playing slightly shorter rotations than they have in recent weeks. Mooney got through 32 minutes of work, Ata 26. Before the game I would have banked on them to play about five or so minutes more each. So it’s not a massive demotion but given what Stuart said it’s probably the only variation from expectation we can find.

Canberra unquestionably struggled while Mooney and Mariota were on the field. As we noted in the review, the Raiders had two periods, from the 25th to the 37th minute, and from the start of the second half to the 64th minute, where they barely conducted a set in the way they would have wanted. They conceded three tries during this period and generally played crud football.

This was primarily the period that Mooney and Mariota manned the middle with Morgan Smithies.

How much of this should fall at the feet of Mariota and Mooney? Not as much one might expect given Stuart’s rare public criticism of his players. The Raiders had a host of errors in this period, handling, kicking, and otherwise, but none of these came from the hands of Mooney or Mariota. They gave away four penalties, only one of which came from Trey Mooney (an offside penalty in the 27th minute). While neither cranked the metres this is as much to do with the fact the Green Machine kept giving extra possession to their opposition. Mooney still averaged near ten metres a carry. Mariota didn’t have the same success in limited opportunities.

Suggesting that these two were to blame seems wrong based on this information. While it wasn’t eithers best outing, plenty of other players contributed more (or less, depending on how you think about it) to the trouble of the period. Even the returning messiah Jamal Fogarty kicked a ball out-on-the-full, dropped a kick, and got caught on the last, in this period.

If there’s a way to square the circle of Stuart’s statement it’s probably in looking on the other side of the ball. Mooney and Mariota weren’t directly responsible for any of the line breaks or tries. But as Stuart pointed out the problems that led to obvious defensive errors on the edges were born through the imperfect control of those insides. It’s not beyond the pale to think that Stuart wanted better defence from his bench forwards.

If there’s a challenge for Mooney and Mariota in the transition to top line players it’s less in the carry and more in the tackle. For a dude built like he was fashioned from a building Mooney can sometimes be forgiving in defence. Mariota too can get dominated. Canberra were conceding big metres through the middle in this period, and it didn’t help that Addin Fonua-Blake was tearing holes in the defence for basically the entirety of their respective stints.

And one can see how this less-than-stellar performance may have transferred to Danny Levi. Without wanting to start another internecine debate over his worth, Levi’s weakness this season has unquestionably been in his defence. As we’ve noted previously he’s got one of the worst defensive records of any nine in the competition, almost the complete opposite of what Tom Starling offers.

It’s not beyond ridiculous to think that Stuart thought he needed to regain defensive control in the middle. It could have been the driver for Joey Taps coming back slightly early in the second half, and Morgan Smithies being replaced by Elliott Whitehead late. It also could have driven Stuart’s preference for Starling in the second half, a choice determined by the relative strengths of his available nines in the circumstances of the game.

As for the outcome of this I’m not sure there’s much here for Mooney and Mariota other than a lesson about expectations in their continued growth. For Levi it also seems an isolated incident. But if we’re wrong, and this happens again, it is the closest thing to an opening to get Hohepa Puru into first grade. He again stood out in the Raiders NSW Cup game on Saturday. There seems little reason to carry Levi on the bench if you’re not going to put him in the game.

But the club has been clear about their love for Levi. Sticky even went as far as to say he apologised to the bench hooker after not getting him on the field. So despite the pointed and unusual nature of the comments it’s unlikely to have a material impact any time soon. Still, worth noting should it lead to change in the future.

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