The biggest weekend in rugby league is hitting Brisbane, and the man under the most pressure is Anthony Seibold. It has been almost three years since the Sea Eagles coach parted ways with the Broncos after the worst losing streak in the club’s history, and he would love to be making his first trip back to Suncorp Stadium riding a wave of good results and positive media coverage. Not so much. His team isn’t firing, one of his highest-paid players has attitude problems and just belted a team-mate at training, his biggest star is under an injury cloud and there is talk of disharmony behind the scenes. Sound familiar Broncos fans? As the late great Rex Mossop would have said, it’s like déjà vu all over again. Oh, and then there is the added spice that this is all making headlines in the lead-up to the Magic Round opening night blockbuster in which the Sea Eagles are playing, you guessed it, the Broncos.
To say that Seibold is hoping for a big turn-around from his team on Friday night is the understatement of the decade. They have hardly been impressive so far this season and sit in the top eight only by virtue of two points from the bye. Their loss to the Titans at home last weekend was their worst performance so far, magnified by the gutsy display by Titans playmaker Kieran Foran who the Sea Eagles off-loaded so they could throw buckets of cash at whiz-kid Josh Schuster. That’s the same Josh Schuster who is currently earning $800,000 a season to sit on the sideline because he doesn’t have the required fitness or, according to his captain Daly Cherry-Evans, right mental attitude, to play first-grade football. Meanwhile the injury woes that have plagued the Sea Eagles marquee player Tom Trbojevic for the past two seasons continue to follow him around like a lost dog.
Seibold and his team are facing a Broncos side that, while leading the competition, are coming off their own thumping at the hands of the Rabbitohs. Manly fans might say that’s a good thing, but the return of Broncos’ wrecking ball Payne Haas with something to prove suggests otherwise. Haas is one of numerous players who have fallen foul of the NRL’s crackdown on the hip drop tackle in recent weeks.
The question of exactly what constitutes a hip drop has become the biggest mystery in rugby league. I’ve watched the video of the NRL’s Graham Annesley trying to explain it several times and I’m none the wiser. Listening to the likes of Pat Carrigan, Ivan Cleary and TV commentators calling the games, I’m not alone. Let’s hope every player and coach in the NRL has got it all sorted by the weekend. The last thing we need is a repeat of the blitz on head-high tackles that was the biggest talking point of Magic Round 2021 – although at least it would take the spotlight off Anthony Seibold for a few days.