Canterbury coach Des Hasler has taken aim at the NRL scheduling and NSW Origin medical staff after Josh Morris's recall into the Blues team forced him to take drastic measures to get a team on the paddock against Canberra on Sunday.
Reimis Smith, the 19-year-old son of former NRL player Tyran Smith, was recovering at his Beaconsfield home on Sunday following a NSW Cup game at Belmore the day before when he received a phone call notifying him that he would be making his debut in Canberra in seven hours' time.
The Bulldogs were fuming and were forced to call on the teenager after they were left stranded in the nation's capital without a replacement for Morris, who boarded a plane from Canberra to Sydney just six hours before kick off to cover for the omission of Josh Dugan.
Smith was a standout player on his NRL debut, scoring two tries in 20 minutes, but Hasler was livid after his team's 32-20 loss, questioning the relevance of the NRL competition during the Origin period, calling for an end to what he said was the clubs playing second fiddle to representative football while having a crack at the proficiency of the Blues medical staff.
"The day didn't get off to a really good start did it really," Hasler said. "It's just a total breakdown in the process there. A multi-million-dollar sport, it wasn't very well handled. The professionalism wasn't adequate enough. We've then had to have a player back up less than 24 hours. You probably can't run two competitions at once. Standalone weekend? If they don't learn anything out of today - whether that's the processes from the Origin side of things or whether the medical staff wasn't proficient enough?
"It's a tough one on an NRL side, and this is for anybody because they could have been in the same boat as we were. In this day and age, in an NRL competition, it's almost as if it's second fiddle isn't it. It's almost as if you're playing second fiddle to what Origin is about, which is not a good a thing. There's too much investment of money and time for this to happen."
At 10am on Sunday morning, Smith made his way to Picnic Point to link with club media manager David Spaul, making the three-hour trek to GIO Stadium in the passenger seat of Spaul's Mitsubishi Lancer and arriving three hours before kick off to take his place in the Bulldogs line-up.
Morris was originally named in a 19-man squad last Monday and was on standby for Dugan (elbow) but was later released from camp on Thursday night to rejoin the Dogs ahead of their clash with Canberra.
But a knock at training on Saturday saw Dugan rule himself out of Origin I after pulling up sore the next morning, with Hasler critical of the communication process undertaken by the NSWRL.
"Two competition points in NRL are vital. But the players shouldn't have to do it," Hasler said. "A player shouldn't have to back up less than 12 hours playing the day before. It's like going back to the 80's isn't it. Let's hope they learn something out of it.
"There's a breakdown there in the communication process that went on [with NSWRL] - or none of it. Not only did he play the day before on a full match, he found out at 10 o'clock this morning. We've then had to get a driver to drive him down two-and-a-half hours. Don't start me. Do not start me please."
NSWRL boss Dave Trodden was sympathetic towards the Dogs and understood their frustrations, but he believes Hasler's criticism of the Blues medical staff was out of line.
"There appears to be a little bit of confusion on the part of the the Bulldogs as to the circumstances behind what happened to Josh Dugan," Trodden said. "The difficulty that caused him to be ruled out on Wednesday didn't manifest itself until this morning and was communicated to them as soon as it became apparent to us. We totally understand why Canterbury would be upset about their plans being thrown into disarray because of the late withdrawal of Josh Morris, but when they reflect on the comments made of the professionalism of the NSW medical staff, they may think those comments are unjustified.
"These comments are about people who are leaders in their profession who have been involved in rugby league for many, many years and don't deserve to have their professional standards questioned."
Canterbury boss Raelene Castle has called on the NRL to implement concise rules around when representative teams can pinch players
"Des is extremely supportive of our players playing Origin, but there needs to be some formal rules put in place around taking players and timing under which they can be taken away from teams," Castle said. "It just doesn't make any sense to take a player away the morning of the game. We're a professional multi-billion-dollar sport and we all recognise that representing your country and your state is really important, but so is the NRL."
