I dub thee, Qobbo
Like Billy Slater, the devil does good work
Welcome to The Maroon Observer, a weekly newsletter about rugby league, Queensland and rugby league in Queensland.
You win some, you lose some…
“…BUT NOT FOR ME” - Billy Slater
I have to say that I thought the vibes were rancid heading into this one. A Vlandoball Blunami could be the worst thing to happen to the sport since V’landys himself. With Flegler dropping a ball inside the first ten minutes, leading directly to a try and undermining the fast start that all the pundits had told me was Queensland’s lone advantage against a Blues side with too much strike and class, only confirmed this. Cleary and Moses? Oh no!
An important lesson from the second game of the 2026 State of Origin series was the identification of this category error. To confuse Slater’s overarching strategy with the team’s in-game tactics and zero in on the latter as the path to victory was shown for the false premise we should have all understood it to be. Slater has at least the minimal chops as a coach to pick a side that he wants, that will play for him and play his style of footy: assertive in the ruck, effective on the attack, quick quick quick while having a near perfect completion rate (95%!).
In something of a rarity in recent years, Queensland looked like the superior team from start to finish. At half time, down by only four thanks to the aforementioned Flegler error, the result was clearly in reach. It wasn’t until late in the game that it was clear just how badly it had gotten out of hand for the Blues. The Maroons finished up by 20 points, ran for 300 more metres and had the ball for an additional five minutes.
Queensland under Slater has shown itself to be inventive and flexible, capable of finding myriad paths to victory. There are limits - refer the outcome of the first game - but when the margins are this fine, this strategy has shown itself capable of trumping on-paper talent, albeit horribly mismanaged, time and time again.
For the record, my failure of analysis was that I’m a huge bitch and I reserve that right forevermore, so a second important lesson that is as applicable to footy as it is to life in general: no one cares what you think. What you feel does not matter. It does not matter what you personally think of Billy Slater or his ideas. It does not matter what you think of the lineups. It does not matter how badly you took the Ash Klein penis explosion/send off debacle. None of that has any impact on the game. The irony of writing this in my newsletter is not lost on me.
From two games, totalling 160 minutes of play, the Maroons have been the better team for around 130 of them. The balance of that 30 was the Origin coronation of “King” Cleary, aided and abetted by a man-advantage that everyone seems to have conveniently overlooked and was the deciding factor in their favour at that time.
We should have known New South Wales would fail as soon as “Cleary is undefeated against every player on the Queensland roster this year*” was pumped out on social media, a companion to the very relevant “the Panthers have won 93 million day time games” from last season. Dude should just hit the ice in his veins again and then retire. Spare us all the second hand embarrassment created by your biggest defenders.
Despite this dominance, the Maroons return to Brisbane in three weeks needing to win a decider. Given the absolute disasterclass that Laurie Daley represents for the Blues and the well-established home ground advantage of Suncorp Stadium, it almost seems a foregone conclusion. Let’s hope the Blues believe that and that Slater does enough to keep the Maroons focussed.
There are other lessons. Kotoni Staggs is, unfortunately for him, not going to be an Origin mainstay. This is welcome news for the Broncos and the fanbase, not least because we are only allowed one (1) walk-up starter for the Blues on the roster. Glenn Lazarus, Mick De Vere and Payne Haas represent a tradition of permitting one cockroach on the team and no more. Mitch Barnett seems poised to take Haas’ place.
In stark contrast, Selwyn Cobbo has picked up the Origin Gagai mantle. I dub thee, Qobbo. Perhaps more importantly, he took care of Staggs. This bodes well for one of the Dolphins’ three key wins and I am willing to sacrifice the second Conflict on Caxton of 2026 for the greater good of propelling the Dolphins deep into September. It is for the benefit of the greater capital city statistical area.
It is curious that when Ponga is hit in the head, that's just a sin bin, but when Ponga does the head hitting, Klein invokes his DUTY OF CARE and sends him off. Strange! Another important lesson appears to be that the concept of duty of care is very malleable? I don’t think the hierarchy of controls suggests the identity of a person is a potential control measure. Perhaps a lawyer had a word with Klein about not admitting the obvious vis-a-vis the head-mushing nature of rugby league in a medium that is discoverable. I’m sure our Sydney-based media apparatus will be all over this.
Speaking of Strange, are we going to keep ignoring this?
C’mon man, no one even knows who Charlie Chaplin is anymore.
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Around the grounds
Rabbitohs 48 defeated Broncos 6. Not sure the Broncos will win another game this season. Do not ask for whom the mean regresses, it regress for thee.
Dolphins 48 defeated Roosters 10. Chalk up a victory for the Redcliffe Dolphins over the Coogee Dolphins. Redcliffe were missing a stack of players but didn't appear to suffer for the absence. It speaks to the depth of the squad, which is surprising for the newest team in the league but also has a great deal of resilience built in after three seasons of injury crisis. Katoa and his team have dialled in the time signature.
Tigers 36 defeated Titans 28. While dog walking off my disappointment, yet again, with Gold Coast, it occurred to me that, statistically, the last thing at least a few people watch before they die is the Titans play football. I can't think of many more tragic things than that. Jarome Luai retains the most punchable face in the NRL and has shown no capacity for humility or self-reflection, as demonstrated by celebrating the try Phillip Sami handed him, as Sami’s brain collapsed into itself like a black hole. The hype man act has its limits. The Tigers limping into the finals, a great success by their standards, is evidence enough of that.
Super League highlight sprint, round 14. Rubbish weekend of footy and even the good stuff was bad. One of the Warrington players scored an 80 metre try and by the end of the chase, the ref had overhauled three Saints chasers, all alleged professional athletes. Toulouse if nothing else, and between terrible defence and awful kick defusals, there is very little else, will put up the gloves. Down 30-6, they narrowed to 30-24 before Leeds pulled away again. Continue to be disappointed no one prised Junior Nsemba away from Wigan. York scored a try directly from a line drop out and no other points in a thrashing thanks to Rovers. Catalans had mud puddles in their goal areas.
U19 Queensland 22 defeated New South Wales 18 (W). Queensland haven’t won this fixture since the Emily Bella game in 2023. A scrappy match, particularly for the Maroons, but it opened up in the last ten. Queensland looked like the more resilient and coherent team, even if it took some time for that to come to the fore, and dug themselves out of an eight point hole - true Maroons stuff. Enah Desic and Lilianah Lewis absolutely look the goods, the former for her skill, the latter for her running and both for their leadership. I’m already a Paitai guy, Deleni in this case, but Pollock showed some of the promise from her junior rep stint last year.
U19 Queensland 28 defeated New South Wales 14 (M). Queensland have never won the junior double (NSW have in ‘19, ‘22 and ‘24) and have not won back-to-back since the introduction of under 20s Origin in 2012 (it took until 2018 to even win one), so a controlled demolition of the Blues junior representatives was a pleasant surprise. It is with great pain that we acknowledge Alize Clarke looks the goods and is of course signed to the Melbourne Storm and Lateo had a solid outing but this win belongs to forwards, who collectively, brought the game to heel, starved the Blues of oxygen and space and, as the saying goes, laid a platform. Two try Tupou Francis is signed to the Broncos, in case you were wondering.
Ashley Klein hat ein großes Problem (mit der Gamblor)
NRL’s number one referee had $400k gambling problem:
An investigation by the Herald can reveal the NRL knew of Klein’s gambling issues for four years but let him continue to referee matches at the top level….
But away from the bright lights of packed stadiums, it can be revealed that Klein had a gambling habit that became the subject of an NRL investigation.
According to sources with knowledge of the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, he lost more than $400,000 punting on horse racing and greyhound racing with corporate bookmakers before closing his accounts and placing himself on BetStop, the national self-exclusion register, in 2023.
To quote Matt Bungard, “there’s no evidence that any of it had anything to do with rugby league, but what if it did?”
This is the rational, objective response. Like many people, I had an irrational response. That a response is irrational doesn’t necessarily make it wrong - what else is intuition but an instinctive irrationality? - but some work needs to be done to justify it.
I don’t like the smell of it. It would have been better if this was out in the open in 2019, Klein had gone into rehab and then come back for the next season. Instead, we’re finding out about this years after the fact. That it has taken this route suggests someone has something to hide.
Is it any of our business? I think so, for perception’s sake if nothing else. Do you need to know Ezra Mam is an unlicenced-driving, drug-addled child-murderer? It is plainly not the same thing, as Klein hasn’t committed a crime and there is plenty of unethical behaviour that is not illegal, but it’s in the same constellation of consideration. A high profile executive at a public company with an addiction would put under a similar scrutiny. Why were we not owed a carefully worded press release and Klein owed some paid time off?
And then what is the purpose of this story dropping here and now? Maybe there are some more clues:
In another twist to the scandal that has rocked the NRL, it has now emerged that Klein has been doing career training at Racing NSW. Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys, who is also chief executive of Racing NSW, declined to comment.
Klein was pictured sitting on the Racing NSW stewards panel observing a protest hearing after a race at Royal Randwick racecourse on April 27.
According to a source with knowledge of Klein’s activities at Racing NSW, he has regularly spent one day a week with its integrity team shadowing staff.
The 46-year-old, who has been a referee in the NRL since 2009, has also done a day’s work experience with the Australian Turf Club, which operates Sydney’s racetracks, and is said to be interested in working in sport administration when he hangs up the whistle.
Klein has been a guest of Racing NSW in racecourse function rooms with his partner, Elly Howse, who was until recently policy director for NSW Racing Minister David Harris and now works for NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley.
What’s with all the cops in V’landys’ orbit? That’s super weird.
Klein hewing closely to V’landys’ set restart agenda in exchange for later career opportunities at least explains his refereeing. That’s par for the course professional corruption in Australia though, so what else is there?
Klein’s gambling was first flagged with the NRL in 2019, when Todd Greenberg was CEO and Peter Beattie was chairman of the ARL Commission…
A source with knowledge of the matter said it had been reported to the Beattie-led commission after the initial investigation seven years ago.
But Beattie, who was chairman until V’landys took over in October 2019, said the commission was not briefed at the time.
On Monday he asked the NRL company secretary to go through the minutes of board meetings to check whether Klein’s betting had come up when he was chairman.
“I checked the records and it never went to the commission,” Beattie said.
The Herald understands at least one other ARL commissioner was shocked by last week’s revelations, feeling blindsided they weren’t informed the game’s top referee had such a large gambling problem when it was known to the NRL.
The NRL has declined to answer questions about whether V’landys and the other seven members of the commission were aware of the 2019 investigation and the subsequent monitoring of Klein’s betting in the years after it.
Greenberg, who left the NRL in 2020 and was replaced by Andrew Abdo, declined to comment.
One way to read this is that the NRL conducted an internal investigation and didn’t see the need to raise it with the Commission and the unnamed source has confused the ARLC and NRL. Another way is that this is exactly the kind of thing the ARLC should be across so they can decide if and how they want to manage the risk. Neither angle is compelling.
Certainly, Greenberg knew and probably V’landys was aware, if for no other reason than a NRL referee with a gambling problem on horse racing is the kind of thing that gets gossiped about. Beattie could claim to be officially in the dark if he didn’t roll in the right circles. It adds another layer of conspiracy, for no real reason than I don't trust any of these people to be on the level.
Wiping away the patina of grime on this story, whether it matters depends on what motivation there is to reveal it. No one leaks anything this seemingly dirty for no reason. If you wanted to annoy the new god-emperor of rugby league, this might be a way to do it. If you wanted to lower the potential for broadcast rights by any means necessary, this might be a way to do it. If you wanted to fill the column inches in an otherwise quiet Origin period, this is a way to do that.
If you wanted to be a dick to Ash Klein, that seems as good a reason as any.
Intermission
Could’ve spent ages scanning for this in the game coverage but Reddit has saved me the trouble. Bless you, u/CreataceousClock.
That’s not a World Cup, this is a World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, presented by a half dozen massive multi-national corporations leveraging your patriotism into their profit margins, is underway in North America.
Yanks on the comms is awful stuff. The accent conveys no confidence that these slackjaws know what they’re talking about. Back to the Big 10 with you, bud.
It’s a time to half-remember to watch the games, a feat that easier during the WFH days than weekends, so we can get an update on who has changed their names. Once a upon a time, it would have been South Korea versus Czech Republic and now its Korea Republic against Czechia. Cabo Verde? More like Cabo Merda, amiritefolks? Oh, they drew with Spain? Nice. Good for them.
It’s a time for soccer nerds to debut their new models, without ever explaining how those models actually work or how they have been calibrated on a tournament that occurs once every four years. I think that’s something that’s changed over the time I’ve been doing this. You used to be able to expect a reasonable explanation of how a metric worked (so you could then re-appropriate it) but now it’s all anthropomorphising mathematical models with stupid backronyms. Bah!
It’s a time for rugby league nerds to get into their feelings about how our World Cup stinks and everyone else’s World Cup is better. Even rugby union has a big World Cup. Have you watched rugby union? How does that bloody happen? For a sport with two professional leagues spanning all of four countries (soon to be five), it’s amazing the RLWC exists at all. Frankly, you can keep your big crowds and worldwide attention and blue chip sponsors.
You know who’s really in their feelings? The Americans.
Ray Ratto put together a good post contrasting the two results so far in Group D: The USMNT Won With Flair. Can It Win A Grind? A fair and reasonable question, unless you are an American facing the void of global embarrassment, as if the Bush regime hadn’t beaten the Trump regime and the USMNT to the punch.
I’ve decided the worst sports fan is the one who responds to even analysis that isn’t unvarnished praise with OH MY GOD, JUST LET ME ENJOY THINGS.
Jesus Fucking Christ, Defector, the US just dominated in a WC game against a team they eked out a 2-1 victory against like 8 months ago, what the fuck else do they have to do? The Style Guide strikes again, my god.
I think it is cool and good that the US got to win a game in style to start things off. Will they win another game? Who knows. Will they have still won this one 4 - 1? Yeah. Enjoying things is good, especially when there are fewer and fewer things to enjoy each day for most of us
Yeah maybe it was a mirage but seeing a USMNT play like this in a World Cup was astonishing. They beat the piss out of the supposed best or second best team in the group. That was fuckin cool.
It was not. This is the second worst kind of sports fan. A country 50 times the population and 200 times the economy of Paraguay should not be celebrating victory. It is unseemly. Have some shame.
The third worst kind are the ones who think the Knicks winning represents some kind of blow against fascism. Only in Noo Yawk do teams winning championships mean something special. Spare me but at least that's contained to the contiguous 48. Let’s hear from the less deranged fans.
This is a skill issue, America. You can’t handle international sport. No one feels sorry for you and no one will celebrate your success, if any. You don’t get it.
Upcoming slate
This weekend’s club footy looks appalling. Even the statewide competition offering is poor while the NRL has some enthralling encounters, including the radioactive Knights-Dragons, toxic Bulldogs-Seagles and the sickos-only Storm-Raiders game. St Helens are playing Huddersfield, in rugby league, a game no one should watch.
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Nickelware
Read this
Campo - Why Max Plath is the latest in a long line of Queensland State of Origin cult heroes
Eye Test - Which NRL teams restrict their fullback to one side in attack?
The Sportress - Six, again: Come Together (the thing about the devil is that he does good work)
Ant’s Slant - Bears Blindsided by NRL
What You Get Is What You See - What food can teach us about footy’s changing communities
Storm Machine - S29E016 Preview – Magic Munster (the rare link to a preview)
futi - How futi rates players
Computers Are Bad - the totalisator
Notes
The Eels have lifted themselves off the bottom of the ladder in an otherwise disastrous season by beating the worst teams: Broncos, Raiders, Bulldogs, Dragons. That Parra beat the Cowboys and not the Titans is interesting.
New Zealand Warriors CEO’s stark warning to Southern Orcas over NRL expansion declaration. This is Cameron George talking his book and after his time at Bradford, we don’t really want Andrew Chalmers anywhere near the sport. Still, ‘Orcas’ is a cool name, Christchurch makes a lot of sense both from a stadium and potential catchment perspective, we are very likely to see a Dolphins-effect on the Warriors (rather than cannibalisation) but the bid suffers from the fact that the Orcas aren’t the Ipswich Jets, and would sit outside this newsletter’s remit. Challenging decision ahead.
State of Origin simulcast, Monday night football calls loom as NRL close to finalising TV rights deal. Like expansion chat, the need for a constant series of bombshells to keep senescent boomers re-upping their News subscriptions makes broadcast deal chat very tedious. None of it means anything. They’ve ruined it. We'll find out the details in due course and we have no way of affecting the outcome if it sucks, except by walking away.
Lang Park upgrade: Big screens, 1000 more seats in time for Rugby World Cup. That sounds like a waste of time and money.
Arise, Sir Kevin: Sinfield knighted in king’s birthday honours list
Championship clubs agree key Salary Cap changes for 2027. Very weird seeing my ideas from a few years ago be implemented. Hope it works!
Australia’s Queensland commits AU$3.2 billion to CopperString transmission project. Very funny that the state government came to power opposing renewables and throwing all sorts of questions out there about the future of energy that have been resolved for a long time, while now tossing another $800 million at a project whose main purpose is to create a string of renewable energy zones in North Queensland.
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I actually saw a bit of the game on Wednesday night. Two things stood out:
1. Queensland was vastly superior. It shouldn't really be possible in that format for one team to be so much better, but Qld is.
2. The commentators labouring the point that 'Origin' is, supposedly, the highest level of the sport. I'm sure it attracts the highest level of TV ratings. Other than that, it's pretty drab stuff.