By Andrew Webster
The new season of the Netflix docuseries Quarterback shadows the lives of three American football players who fill what executive producer Peyton Manning calls “the toughest position in sports”.
As a two-time Super Bowl winner, Manning would know.
In rugby league, the equivalent of the quarterback is the halfback – the commander of the ship whose fate of his team, his crew, is usually determined by his performance each week.
In the first episode, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff talks through the brutal trade that saw him land at his present club.
In 2017, he led the Los Angeles Rams to their first playoffs since 2004. The following season, he took them to the Super Bowl.
Two years later, he was traded to Detroit without a single word uttered from management.
Coach Sean McVay let him know minutes before the news broke on social media. Such is the brutality of US sports.
“You feel like you’ve been betrayed or you’re not wanted,” he said.
Canterbury halfback Toby Sexton might be feeling something similar this week after he was dumped to make way for Lachlan Galvin at halfback for Saturday’s clash against St George Illawarra at Accor Stadium.
It’s the biggest call of Cameron Ciraldo’s coaching career, moving on a player loved by the fans who has played an important role in helping the Bulldogs to the top of the heap.
The decision to sign Galvin mid-season has felt a little like letting the fox into the henhouse.
Ciraldo has struggled to find the right place for him — bench, halfback, five-eighth, out of the 17 altogether — while Galvin’s teammates have said publicly the teenager plays so instinctively they often don’t know what he’s going to do next.
Six weeks out from the finals, Ciraldo made the bold decision to pull the trigger and bring in a new halfback.
With their Origin stars, the Bulldogs have spluttered in recent weeks. They lost back-to-back matches against the Panthers and Broncos and only just scraped home against the Cowboys.
We’ll see soon enough if they’ve have blown up their own season — or made the right call.
And another thing …
Have we finished bashing up Laurie Daley and Nathan Cleary for NSW’s loss to Queensland in the State of Origin decider?
The media and fans have every right to express an opinion, to criticise, to even poke fun, but the pile-on of coach and halfback in the past week has been like nothing I have ever seen.
All the talk about Daley being sacked was a nonsense. He still has one year to run on his contract. Those saying he should never have been given the job in the first place have only said so after the series loss.
As for Cleary, he’s copping it in the neck in the same manner as Mitchell Pearce when he was trying to engineer wins against the best Queensland sides of all time.
Cleary has led his side to four premierships, won a World Cup final for Australia, and featured in NSW Origin series victories. He is 27 years old.
Everyone needs to chill.
