Canterbury Bulldogs poach Canberra Raiders wrestling coach on eve of NRL season

Raiders Lim! · Post by **Raiders Lim!** » March 8, 2019, 10:19 am

Quite an interesting one considering it's been the pre-season of defence.

Canterbury Bulldogs poach Canberra Raiders wrestling coach on eve of NRL season

Canterbury has poached respected wrestling coach Steve Babic from Canberra on the eve of the NRL season.

Babic worked at the Raiders for nine years and was one of Ricky Stuart’s most respected and important staff members. He was named the Clubman of the Year in 2015.

Read more: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-pr ... 3cfe677b0c[/url]

The Nickman · Post by **The Nickman** » March 8, 2019, 10:20 am

If he's largely responsible for our defence in the last nine years it's absolutely no big loss.

Rickmando · Post by **Rickmando** » March 8, 2019, 10:59 am

Wouldn’t have said the wrestle was much of strength for us - I trust Rick to make the right call on personnel though, so I’m 100% behind this move.

Post by **greeneyed** » March 8, 2019, 11:11 am

The Raiders were wrestling much more effectively in the second half of 2016. Then the Raiders started getting heavily penalised for it. Not a real strength in the past two years. Probably not a bad thing to have a bit of a shake up.

Rickmando · Post by **Rickmando** » March 8, 2019, 11:14 am

I do think our defensive line’s refusal to come up and meet opposition attackers until they’ve run at least 10m severely limits our opportunity to wrestle, put the players on their backs, or do anything other than get carried another 5m+ after contact... and would certainly provide a challenge to any wrestling coach aspiring to work with us

Northern Raider · Post by **Northern Raider** » March 8, 2019, 11:18 am

Man I hate wrestiling as part of rugby league. As soon as a player is off his feet it should be a penalty if any wrestling takes place.

gerg · Post by **gerg** » March 8, 2019, 11:32 am

Northern Raider wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 11:18 am Man I hate wrestiling as part of rugby league. As soon as a player is off his feet it should be a penalty if any wrestling takes place.

I hate it too. Every side does it in every single tackle. Watching the WCC it was blatant the differences between the NRL and superleague.

BJ · Post by BJ » March 8, 2019, 11:39 am

The refs seem unable to understand when and when not to penalise wrestling.

So inconsistently managed.

Sid · Post by **Sid** » March 8, 2019, 11:42 am

One of the things I like about watching Superleague or Women's Rugby League is that there is much less wrestling compared to any NRL game. But yes, under the current structure any NRL club would be mad not to invest time and resources into it.

edwahu · Post by **edwahu** » March 8, 2019, 12:31 pm

BJ wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 11:39 am The refs seem unable to understand when and when not to penalise wrestling.

So inconsistently managed.

Oh they understand.

FuiFui BradBrad · Post by **FuiFui BradBrad** » March 8, 2019, 1:36 pm

Northern Raider wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 11:18 am Man I hate wrestiling as part of rugby league. As soon as a player is off his feet it should be a penalty if any wrestling takes place.

I love that someone with the Macho Man Randy Savage as their avatar hates wrestling in Rugby League

Northern Raider · Post by **Northern Raider** » March 8, 2019, 2:18 pm

Fuifui Bradbrad wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 1:36 pm
Northern Raider wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 11:18 am Man I hate wrestiling as part of rugby league. As soon as a player is off his feet it should be a penalty if any wrestling takes place.
I love that someone with the Macho Man Randy Savage as their avatar hates wrestling in Rugby League

Leave wrestling for wrestling.

Come to think of it, maybe we can recruit Brock Lesnar as our new wrestling coach.

LastRaider · Post by **LastRaider** » March 8, 2019, 2:44 pm

Wrestling is part of the game. Glad we got rid of Babic, he did nothing for our defense over the last 3 years. What I don’t get though, why he wasn’t sacked after our in-depth season review? All defensive coaches and staff should have been the focus to shuffle around or remove

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Bay53 · Post by **Bay53** » March 8, 2019, 3:17 pm

He was working for the Brumbies at their last home game.

Obviously Dean Pay and Steve Antonelli were impressed with him.

-PJ- · Post by **-PJ-** » March 8, 2019, 3:27 pm

We had a wrestling coach ?

Ginga · Post by **Ginga** » March 8, 2019, 4:22 pm

Northern Raider wrote:
Fuifui Bradbrad wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 1:36 pm
Northern Raider wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 11:18 am Man I hate wrestiling as part of rugby league. As soon as a player is off his feet it should be a penalty if any wrestling takes place.
I love that someone with the Macho Man Randy Savage as their avatar hates wrestling in Rugby League
Leave wrestling for wrestling.

Come to think of it, maybe we can recruit Brock Lesnar as our new wrestling coach.

Brock would be far more suited in a pharmaceutical type role

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LimeGreenMachine · Post by **LimeGreenMachine** » March 8, 2019, 4:41 pm

Matt Hughes would be the man to get. Former UFC champion with a wrestling background.

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Northern Raider · Post by **Northern Raider** » March 8, 2019, 5:11 pm

LimeGreenMachine wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 4:41 pm Matt Hughes would be the man to get. Former UFC champion with a wrestling background.

Same with Brock Lesnar.

Green eyed Mick · Post by **Green eyed Mick** » March 8, 2019, 5:57 pm

We shouldn't have to look too far. Plenty of good wrestling coaches

Botman · Post by **Botman** » March 8, 2019, 7:39 pm

Northern Raider wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 11:18 am Man I hate wrestiling as part of rugby league. As soon as a player is off his feet it should be a penalty if any wrestling takes place.

RedRaider · Post by **RedRaider** » March 8, 2019, 7:54 pm

9 years of soft Raider defence. What did he bring to the side in terms of defensive outcomes? Sounds like another of the 'good blokes' but this is professional sport. Results should matter. I think he will enjoy an early 'mad monday' with the dogs.

zilhouse · Post by **zilhouse** » March 8, 2019, 8:12 pm

I think he's a lot better than you guys are giving him credit for

Danaman137 · Post by **Danaman137** » March 8, 2019, 8:59 pm

Actually met this bloke at a community touch game that Blake Austin organised. He said that he didn’t only handled defence from contact to play the ball. Really nice guy, seemed very intelligent. Seems like he did the full preseason here though so can’t be too much of a loss at this timing.

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Keghead · Post by **Keghead** » March 8, 2019, 9:51 pm

zilhouse wrote: ↑March 8, 2019, 8:12 pm I think he's a lot better than you guys are giving him credit for

Spot on mate Steve did a lot of work behind the scenes too that helped a lot of the players.

A lot of the comments are ill-informed.

Jackbequick · Post by **Jackbequick** » March 11, 2019, 10:16 pm

I've done some wrestling and don't think I would have the slightest clue how to adapt it to footy. I don't think you can just be any old wrestler off the street, even a good one. I'd say you'd need to know how to apply it to footy. I checked out steve babic's instagram page. From the comments left it looks like the players really respected him. But, preseason is over - moving forward and onwards- go green machine!

-PJ- · Post by **-PJ-** » March 12, 2019, 6:03 am

I taught Mrs PJ how to wrestle..

hrundi89 · Post by **hrundi89** » March 12, 2019, 8:47 am

He's the bloke I asked to speak to Russell at last year's fan day about nutrition and eating more vegetables.

Russell's still not convinced.

Logically, he deserves to be moved on.

The Nickman · Post by **The Nickman** » March 12, 2019, 9:46 am

hrundi89 wrote: ↑March 12, 2019, 8:47 am He's the bloke I asked to speak to Russell at last year's fan day about nutrition and eating more vegetables.

Russell's still not convinced.

Logically, he deserves to be moved on.

Solid reasoning

Rickmando · Post by **Rickmando** » March 12, 2019, 10:29 am

I’m surprised at the amount of support Babic is getting. He’s clearly done more than what I appreciated at face value. That’s on me for not knowing.

In saying that - it’s worth remembering that there is only one member of this coaching staff that is untouchable/irreplaceable - the great man Rick.

As long as he isn’t poached by one of the other clubs, we are in safe hands!!!