Tackle 1: Moore Had to Go
The Canterbury board had little choice but to fire coach Kevin Moore. Coaching is a game of results and regardless of his bloodlines, Moore was guiding Canterbury to a second straight season of failure, pushing the Bulldogs to their first set of consecutive seasons without finals football since 1992. Players simply weren't responding to Moore, who was not sharp enough tactically and didn't have the reputation to overcome losing the locker room. It is a sad finale for the son of a club icon and one the players must take full responsibility for. There are severe attitude problems at the club with the likes of Jamal Idris, Michael Ennis, Frank Pritchard and Greg Eastwood embarrassing themselves at club level this season with their poor play and shameful attitude. The board had to dump Moore but it was the players who forced their hand.

Tackle 2: Ricky Stuart is not the answer
Ricky Stuart may be favourite for the Canterbury head coaching gig but he is a candidate not suited to the job and his appointment would hurt both the Bulldogs and New South Wales. Stuart is a very good coach for a short series where he has the requisite help in terms of tactics and strategy. Stuart is a fire-and-brimstone talker, a wonderful motivator who made a tremendous impression with the Blues this year. That intensity doesn't translate to club level though, where teams cannot play at that level every week without a toll being taken, while his lack of tactical nous is apparent to anyone who understands rugby league. Stuart has a club record of 116-104-1 but since Brad Fittler retired, that record drops to an astounding 57-82 with his teams consistently ranking in the last couple in key attacking indicators. With the Dogs' attack needing to be overhauled, Stuart would be a disaster coaching Canterbury.

Tackle 3: Mark Gasnier will be back
The rugby league world was in shock when St George-Illawarra centre Mark Gasnier announced his retirement only days before his 30^th birthday. Unlike his famous uncle Reg, though, who retired at 28 due to a torn ACL, Gasnier is giving the game away for motivational reasons. By all reports, he is besotted with his new child and decided he didn't have the desire to play anymore. All this less than two years after a long and protracted negotiation to get Gasnier back in the Red V after a stint in French rugby. A break can do funny things to an athlete, though, and after a year out of the game, he may get that desire back and, at his age, there would remain plenty of time for a comeback.

Tackle 4: McLennan gets his chance
The New Zealand Warriors are this week expected to announce Brian McLennan as the successor to Ivan Cleary as the club's head coach. McLennan has an outstanding resume and is the perfect choice to build on the groundwork Cleary has laid over the last six years. McLennan guided the New Zealand national team to the 2005 Tri-Nations title, handing Australia its first tournament defeat in 27 years before guiding Leeds to the Super League title in his first two years in charge of the Rhinos, leaving the club with a 73% win record. He would also be only the fourth Kiwi national to coach the Warriors. The Warriors need a strong disciplinarian for a coach and McLennan is just that.

Tackle 5: Nine does the right thing, for once
Channel Nine has done the right thing for once by deciding to show the NRL semi-final on its primary channel ahead of the Australia-Ireland World Cup rugby union match. Nine, admittedly, did this completely out of commercial pragmatism with rugby league ratings for the match sure to be at least double that of the near-irrelevant (in this country) rugby union and the anticipated savage backlash if Nine did abandon rugby league. Nine are also aware of how they are perceived in the game by the current administration and are attempting to do less to marginalise the league bosses by preferring the NRL to the rugby union match. It is pleasing to see Nine not take league for granted, a real rarity at the network that continually treats the game like a second-class citizen.

Tackle 6: Meninga has made his bed, now he must sleep in it
Mal Meninga's unprovoked attack on the match review committee and judiciary, suggesting there was an organised conspiracy against Queensland was as stupid as it was defamatory and he fully deserves to face the full wrath of the law. There is no doubt Meninga did not pen the column under his own name but he clearly signed off on it and his refusal to apologise to those he slandered shows Meninga has little remorse. The Queensland coach was clearly upset at Daily Telegraph sports editor Phil Rothfield's column that suggested Meninga was not the coach of Queensland at all. He then drew a very long bow between that and the charge of Johnathan Thurston and the suspension of Dave Taylor, failing to recognise that Queensland legend Bob Lindner was on the judiciary and that Taylor got five weeks due to loading. Meninga deserves the public embarrassment and financial hit that his belligerent remarks will eventually lead to.