Jillaroos coach Brad Donald quits after NRL investigation

Kernick’s omission raised eyebrows at League HQ at the time and was widely questioned around the game.

“The Australian Rugby League Commission acknowledges and thanks Brad for his extensive efforts in coaching and elevating the Jillaroos to the position they are in as the number one-ranked team in the world and World Cup champions,” an NRL statement said on Friday.

The Jillaroos squad to travel to Las Vegas is: Kezie Apps and Ali Brigginshaw (co-captains), Tarryn Aitken, Lauren Brown, Yasmin Clydsdale, Keeley Davis, Quincy Dodd, Jessika Elliston, Olivia Higgins, Keilee Joseph, Isabelle Kelly, Olivia Kernick, Shannon Mato, Mahalia Murphy, Tiana Penitani, Julia Robinson, Jessica Sergis, Simaima Taufa, Sarah Togatuki, Tamika Upton, Jakiya Whitfield.

The Shark who’s keeping Braydon Trindall on his toes

Cronulla playmaker Braydon Trindall is confident he will be fit for the season-opening clash with Penrith in Las Vegas after recovering from a shoulder reconstruction, but admits Daniel Atkinson is keeping him honest in the race to partner Nicho Hynes.

Trindall will sit out the Sharks’ opening pre-season trial match, against the Warriors at Shark Park on Friday night, as a precaution after he underwent major surgery last October. He has resumed full-contact training and intends to prove his fitness for the trip to Vegas by playing in next week’s hit-out against Canberra.

During the countless hours the 25-year-old has spent in the physio’s room over the summer, he has noted that Atkinson has gone to a new level in training.

“He’ll keep me honest,” Trindall said. “He’s an awesome player and he’s had a really good pre-season. He’ll keep me on my toes for sure.“

Atkinson, who played a one-off NRL game for Melbourne in 2021, emerged as a genuine top-grader for the Sharks last year, making 19 appearances.

The 24-year-old has since signed a three-season deal with St George Illawarra from 2026, but for now his presence at Cronulla ensures coach Craig Fitzgibbon will have two viable options to partner Hynes at the scrumbase.

In the absence of Hynes, Atkinson will line up alongside rookie Niwhai Puru against the Warriors.

A number of Atkinson’s appearances came last year when Trindall was stood down after a much-publicised incident in which he failed a roadside drugs test.

Trindall returned from the chastening experience to produce arguably the best form of his career, convincing the club to extend his contract by three years.

“Obviously with what happened, I just wanted to come back and put my best foot forward,” he said. “So I got my prep right and zoned in on the business that I had to do and I finished the year pretty strong.

“I obviously missed some games with what happened off the field there, but I picked myself up and went again and we got to the prelim final. So it was a bit of a rollercoaster but it was good to finish how we did.”

Trindall hopes Cronulla’s trial against Canberra next Thursday will confirm his ticket on the flight to America. “Coming off a shoulder reconstruction at the end of last season, I’ve spent the last three or four weeks integrating back into the team,” he said.

“It’s coming along well … I got it done straight after the season, so it’s been nearly five months now. I started contact training two or three weeks ago, but it’s all good now.”

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Trindall dismissed speculation there would be a scrumbase shuffle this season, resulting in him playing halfback and Hynes switching to second receiver.

“I don’t think it really matters too much,” he said. “Six and seven are just on different sides of the field, so we’ll go out and play a similar style of footy to last year. I don’t think much will change.”

Having visited Vegas “when I was 15 or 16”, Trindall was eager to return as an adult but stressed that the priority was to secure a first-round victory.

“Everyone’s pretty excited and looking forward to it. It’s coming around quick,” he said.

‘Outstanding technique’: The Rabbitoh who most impressed Graham Arnold

Christian Nicolussi

Former Socceroos coach Graham Arnold made a surprise cameo at South Sydney training on Tuesday, spending time working with the Rabbitohs’ goalkickers including Latrell Mitchell.

Arnold is good friends with Souths coach Wayne Bennett, and was only too happy to accept an invite from the supercoach to give his feedback.

The 61-year-old Australian soccer legend worked with half a dozen NRL clubs 20 years ago, including Wests Tigers trio Benji Marshall, Brett Hodgson and Pat Richards, Penrith’s Ryan Girdler, St George Illawarra’s Ben Hornby – now a Souths assistant – and Manly’s Ben Walker. Arnold was also flown to Brisbane by Bennett to work with Darren Lockyer.

Though footballs and rugby league balls are different shapes, Arnold said the kicking principles remained the same.

“I met with Wayne last week, and he asked me to come down and look at their goalkickers, and I was only too happy to help,” Arnold told this masthead. “It was just nice to be back out on the field. It’s what I miss about football coaching. That’s something I really want to get back into.

“But I enjoyed the morning at Souths. I’ll probably head down there again next week. If I can help them, that’s great. The balls are different, but the most important thing is your mindset, and being able to nail a kick – be it a penalty in football, or a goal in rugby league – in front of thousands of fans.”

In one drill at Heffron Park, Arnold made several players line up a kick from the corner post and aim at the upright.

While Arnold said Richards had the biggest kick he had seen, he was also impressed by the power generated by Mitchell’s left foot.

“He has an outstanding technique,” Arnold said. “But I believe he has the quality and ability to get his goalkicking percentages to 80 per cent or above.”

Mitchell has kicked 159 from 216 goal attempts during his five seasons at Souths for a strike rate of 73.6 per cent. Jamie Humphreys, Matt Humphries and Isaiah Tass also spent about an hour working with Arnold.

Damien Cook and Dean Hawkins shared the goalkicking for Souths in the final game of last season, but are no longer at the club, while Fletcher Myers also helped with the important job.

Arnold resigned as Socceroos coach last September, but is keen to return to his real love “after a good break. I’m ready to get back into it”.

The radical rule proposal to bring consistency to sin-binnings for high tackles

Christian Nicolussi

Players will be sent to the sin bin up to 15 minutes after committing a high tackle that forces an opponent out of a game with concussion under a radical proposal put forward by a handful of NRL coaches.

Hoping to achieve consistency when it comes to punishing high tackles, the coaches approached the governing body late last month to suggest testing a new rule as early as the pre-season trials, which begin on Friday.

Fans were left frustrated and confused at times last season by a perceived lack of consistency in imposing penalties on players guilty of high tackles.

One of the most controversial examples involved the New Zealand Warriors, when Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was knocked out by a high shot from Canterbury skipper Stephen Crichton, who remained on the field.

Crichton was subsequently hit with a grade-two careless high tackle charge by the match review panel, and NRL referees boss Graham Annesley later admitted the on-field officials had erred in not sending him to the sin bin.

Referees still have the option to send a player straight from the field if they deem a high tackle could have caused serious injury.

But under the new proposal put forward by select coaches, the sin bin would only be used if the tackled player failed a head injury assessment. The player will remain on the field until the HIA results are made known.

Even if a player needed the maximum 15 minutes to undergo concussion testing protocols, and failed, play would be stopped and the offender given a ten-minute time-out.

For example, if Penrith’s Nathan Cleary tackled Manly’s Tom Trbojevic high in the 20th minute, and Trbojevic failed his HIA in the 35th minute, only then would Cleary be sent to the bin.

“It’s all about trying to get more consistency in terms of what is a sin bin and what is not a sin bin when it comes to high tackles,” one club official who was aware of the situation but not authorised to speak publicly told this masthead.

Fans will question the fairness of a situation where an offending player scored a try while still on the field only to subsequently be sent to the bin when a tackled player failed an HIA, or whether referees should go as far to send a player off if the tackled player did not return.

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One NRL coach, who had not heard about the proposal late on Monday and spoke on the condition of anonymity, asked what would stop clubs trying to hit a star player with a high tackle late in a game if they knew there would be no immediate sin-binning until the HIA results were in.

The NRL were contacted but declined to comment on the proposals.

Even if the rule change is rushed in for the Pre-season Challenge, and receives positive feedback, the ARL Commission would not rubber-stamp any tweaks to the laws of the game until the start of the 2026 season because they have already committed to no rule changes for this year.

The only messaging that has been received in clubland is that referees plan to crack down on sloppy play-the-balls in the early rounds. This masthead highlighted last August that officials had failed to punish Penrith for a string of illegal play-the-balls when they steamed home late to beat Parramatta.

The obstruction rule will also be a focus, with referees told to reward good attacking play rather than poor defensive reads where a defender appears to be taken out.