Set of Six: Parental guidance recommended

Matt Elliott compares couching to raising children. Photo / Getty Images

1. Nothing to worry about

Warriors fans who are a little deflated by the fact their team are in the middle of a club-record 10-game losing streak should try to keep things in perspective. They are still well short of setting a new mark for the worst losing streak in first-grade league and don't even feature in a top-10 list. University hold the dubious distinction of a 42-game losing streak set between 1934 and 1936. It's well ahead of the 1965-67 Eastern Suburbs team who lost 25 consecutive games and Western Suburbs (1984-85) and Souths (1945-47) who lost 22 straight.

2. Parental guidance I

Matt Elliott often likes to use an analogy around coaching and raising children. Team selections, he says, is about showing players faith. "Like your kid who you've told to wash up and make your bed, they are not going to do it every time. Your job as a parent is to stick by them, tell them you love them and tell them to make the bed properly. When people ask me if I am losing the faith [in my players], absolutely not. Watch me stick with them."

3. Parental guidance II

Elliott then offered this when talking about Shaun Johnson and the goalkicking duties. "Like the kids, I'm going to stick with him. I'm looking forward to the time when he kicks a goal from the sideline to win a game and everyone says, 'how good was that?'. You have to go through it and sometimes it's tough. If you have had kids who are difficult - I have four daughters so I have a little insight into it - it's good sticking by them, keeping the faith and they come out the other side and end up being good kids." It's not known if Johnson does the washing up and makes his own bed.

4. A dingo stole my baby

Elliott, clearly on a roll, bristled when asked about the NRL drugs scandal. "It's one of those ones where you don't want to say that Lindy [Chamberlain] did it or the dingo did it because you could be wrong. I don't know why our game is being dragged through the mud. I'm not condoning what players have reputedly done but I don't understand why the whole game is being scrutinised the way it is. I'm really confused about it all and slightly peeved about the whole thing." In the end, it was decided it was the dingo but no one has ever been able to test him for drugs.

5. Call me loyal

Robbie Farah might like to use Dave Dobbyn's classic ditty Loyal as his ring-tone because the Wests Tigers hooker this week signed a new four-year deal which is likely to see him end his career at the same club he started. It's not unheard of to have one-club players in the modern professional game but it is unusual. Farah made his Tigers debut in 2003.

6. Game of the Week

Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett opined last week after their 32-0 defeat to Manly that he didn't know which team would get off the bus. Fortunately, his players won't need to take the bus for Monday night's game with North Queensland but Bennett will hope his team play like the one that beat Wests Tigers 42-10 in week one and not the side that capitulated against the Sea Eagles. The Cowboys have won four of the last five against the Knights and have made a good start to the season, even in defeat to Melbourne last weekend.