NRL Game of the week: Bulldogs v Sea Eagles

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE: Kieran Foran is rumoured to be following Des Hasler down the road to Canterbury. Photo / Getty Images

1. Game of the week
Bulldogs v Sea Eagles
Tonight 9.35

Set against the backdrop of Manly star Kieran Foran's (vehemently denied) negotiations with the Bulldogs over following Des Hasler down the road to Canterbury, this match has more subplots than an Agatha Christie novel.

Actually, it's more like an episode of Neighbours - perhaps the one where Scott leaves Charlene for the slightly more attractive girl who works at the coffee shop and then Charlene turns up and there's a bit of a scene but Geoff Toovey puts a brave face on it and pretends everything's sweet.

The Sea Eagles have been all over the place of late, losing to the Eels (wow) and Titans (holy hector) but tonking the Panthers 30-0 in between. Both Stewarts, Brett and Glenn, and Foran have been slated to return for Manly, however the T-Rex is still banned for another three matches.

Hasler has added David Stagg to the Bulldogs' squad, dropping Greg Eastwood to the bench.

2. Willie of the week
Nothing was more certain than at some point this season a team would get desperate enough to take a punt on Willie Mason.

For a while it looked as if the struggling Tigers would be the ones to give in to temptation, however when the Tigers got cold paws the honour eventually fell to the Knights. Supercoach Wayne Bennett obviously believes he can get some value out of the "Human Headline" but, with Mason not having played NRL since being decidedly average for the Cowboys in 2010, and having played just six games for Hull in the interval, Bennett appears to be taking a significant gamble.

Still, nothing ventured and all that. With Bennett having so far failed to weave much magic in the Coal City, the 3-4 Knights could certainly do with a boost.

Mason will make his no-doubt-subdued entrance against the Panthers on Monday night.

3. To Inu or not to Inu
Not the greatest week for the "how in the hell can Krisnan Inu not be in the Warriors' team?" lobby.

Inu's stat line from Wednesday night's match was a less-than-horrible 15 carries, 128m (the most in the team), three tackles (one missed), three tackle breaks, an offload and two errors. Sometimes stats don't tell the full story. Talk around the water cooler in the Herald office was that Inu's display was the most calamitous individual effort since Manu Vatuvei played like a multiple amputee against the Eels a couple of years ago. In fairness to Inu, he was asked to switch from centre to fullback after five minutes when Kevin Locke went down injured. In fairness to coach Brian McClennan, his decision not to play Inu all that much this season now looks less baffling.

4. They said it
"David will definitely be the coach next year. The only way that would not be the case is if David made a decision in his own mind not to be the coach, but he is not under any pressure to do that and I've had no indication that he is planning to give the job away."

Raiders chairman John McIntyre hands out the first dreaded "full backing" to an NRL coach this season, insisting David Furner's contract will be honoured.

"We've got a proud history of never having sacked a coach - we make our bed and we lie in it."

Not exactly "we're absolutely certain we've got the right man" stuff is it? Watch this space then.

5. Jungle footy
Anyone slightly shocked by Brett Kimmorley's use of the term "jungle ball" to describe the Warriors' style of play during commentary on Wednesday probably shouldn't have been.

"Warriors back to jungle-ball" was the headline the Australian newspaper used for Kimmorley's round-six match review.

The halfback-turned-pundit wrote: "The Warriors have won just two of six now and I think that's a huge concern. There's been a change of coach and a change of direction in their focus and it certainly looks like they're back to that jungle-ball type of football."

Ummm, Brett, a moment of your time please mate ...

6. Justice for the Storm four
No, not the star quartet of players who were horribly victimised when their double-dip salaries were exposed when the Storm salary cap rort blew up.

Those players have all been tried in the court of public opinion (ie, got off scott free). Here we're talking Isaac Moses, David Riolo, George Mimis and Allan Gainey - the high-powered player agents who were this week slapped all over the shop with a wet bus ticket for their parts in orchestrating the various rorts.

Moses, Riolo and Mimis have all been suspended for six months by the Player Agent Accreditation Committee. Gainey, who admitted his offences, received a caution.

Ouch.