This past weekend may have been the most frustrating round of rugby league I've ever endured.
I apologise in advance but the tone today is going to be overwhelmingly negative.
Do not get me wrong, I love rugby league. I plan my weekends around it. That said, the current product is just not good.
Let's get right into it. I promise to be more positive next week.
Here are 20 thoughts from an incredibly difficult Round 6.
1. Rugby league is difficult to watch in 2026. It is seriously at the point where I cringe just waiting to hear the six-again bell. You can no longer celebrate scoring tries until two minutes after the ball has been put down and the "try confirmed" graphic flashes up. I know ratings are great but I don't care; the product right now is not good.
2. There was one good game this past week. The Bulldogs' shock win was fun but the game was terrible. One good game, one decent game, and a series of blowouts. The one good game was decided by the bunker. That Gehamat Shibasaki "disruptor" was embarrassing. No one in the world, outside of one person, thought that was anything even close to a penalty. Games are being decided on the whim and mood of an official sitting in a room, hundreds, in this case a thousand, kilometres away. Pass!
3. For the record, I thought the Shibasaki decision was the worst I'd ever seen. I stand by that. Less than 24 hours later, there was a worse decision made as Robert Toai's fingertip brushed the forearm of Sam Stonestreet, evidently causing him to drop a chest mark. The worst thing I ever did was praise Adam Gee as a decision maker. That was gross!
4. How's about the NRL wheeling out Graham Annesley to throw the referees under the bus? The NRL introduced a series of laughable rules and ordered a crackdown on enforcement. Now that the reaction has been negative, they have come out and said, "oh not like that!" I don't blame the referees for getting it wrong. They don't even know the rules they're supposed to enforce. They change every eight seconds anyway!