Quote Sutton has matured, he's ready for rep footyThe Single Worst Play of the Season
Last Wednesday, the South Sydney Rabbitohs announced that John Sutton had extended his contract with the club until the end of the 2014 season. Oft-criticised for his lackadaisical approach to the game, Saturday's match against the Bulldogs was Sutton's chance to repay the faith shown in him by Souths management and silence his many critics.
And five minutes in, he looked to be on pace for a decent showing after he put Dave Taylor over with a nice pass at the line to put the Bunnies in front early.
However we should expect this by now from Sutton, who since beginning his first grade career as a 19-year-old in 2004 has been Rugby League's ultimate tease.
The man just oozes with potential. His ability to free his arms and offload is rivaled by only a select few in the modern era. He possesses a monstrous left boot capable of raking off huge metres with little effort. And he flashes the ability to ball-play at the line when every so often he throws a ball that makes your jaw drop.
But for his vast oceans of promise, time and time again he has failed to deliver. He is renowned for disappearing for long stretches. He always seems to play best when his team is either far ahead or far behind. To sum him up, he's consistently inconsistent.
Every year, around this time, the inevitable "Sutton has matured, he's ready for rep footy" articles pop up in the media. But, like the Bunnies team he plays for, these stories are far more style than substance. There is a very good reason why Sutton has never achieved representative honours: his obvious lack of burning desire would be blatantly exposed in the cauldron of Origin/Test football.
So it was wholly unsurprising when Sutton decided his night was effectively over after 5 minutes and turned in an abhorrent, shameful performance that not even a Mother could love.
The horror started in the 12th minute. Canterbury half Trent Hodkinson had the ball 10 metres out from the Rabbitohs line and threw a dummy to Jamal Idris. The hulking centre was easily covered by his opposite man, Greg Inglis, yet Sutton chose to keep sliding away from the ballcarrier towards Idris until a large enough gap had been created between himself and inside man Sam Burgess for the nippy halfback to step through and level the scores.
Later in the 25th minute, Sutton's defensive ill-discipline cost him again. As the lone marker on a play-the-ball 45 metres out, his job was to patiently react to the dummy-half's movement. However, as Steve Turner scooped up the pill, Sutton couldn't resist making a futile lunge at the 'Dogs winger.
This left Turner an easy passage to scoot around the flailing five-eighth, behind the ruck in between the two A-defenders and make a simple draw-and-pass to Ben Barba for the Bulldogs' 2nd try.
Then in the 30th minute, Sutton spilled an Issac Luke pass that was slightly out in front of him, but should have been reeled in all the same. Straight off the back of this, Canterbury advanced to Souths' 25 metre line on the 3rd tackle.
Michael Ennis chose to attack the short-side (the Rabbitoh's left side) and passed to David Stagg, who turned the ball back inside to Idris. Sutton, who as marker was covering from the inside, got a face-full of palm from Jamal and slipped off the tackle.
After Idris shook off two more would-be tacklers, Sutton came back for a second bite at the cherry. His pathetic grab was met by another Idris fend, this time straight to his chest.
At this point, Idris offloaded infield to his support. With the play obviously centralising, Sutton dawdled towards the middle, being overtaken by two teammates in the process. He eventually arrived near the posts, but it was too late to stop Grant Millington who broke Sutton's weak tackle attempt to cross for Canterbury's 3rd try of the half.
Three Bulldogs tries; on all three, Sutton was directly responsible. The latter try was particularly obscene; on Fox's Super Saturday halftime show, Gordon Tallis couldn't help but snicker while describing the play as "as pretty soft from John".
Pretty soft was a pretty big understatement. It was by far the worst individual play of the season to-date. Three of Sutton's nine missed-tackles occurred on that play alone. And it epitomised his woeful lack of effort throughout his career.
It's public knowledge that Brad Fittler has reached out to Sutton on multiple occasions offering to help the talented footballer improve his overall game. Yet has this generous offer ever been accepted? No. Fittler's made it clear that all Sutton has to do is pick up the phone, yet the Fittler-clone refuses to take advantage of what would be undoubtedly beneficial to him.
That the "Bra Boy" turns down such a golden opportunity from one of the all-time greats of our game speaks volumes about Sutton's approach to Rugby League. To him, it is nothing more than a job, a way to make ends meet. And that's okay, if he's content with a career destined to never rise above the mediocre. Hell, I'm sure when his latest contract expires he'll bolt off to Super League and do better for himself than he has in the NRL.
But don't think for one second that he'll EVER get to pull on a jumper for state or country. There's no place at the highest level for those who don't love the Greatest Game of All, and it's blindingly apparent he doesn't.'"
Sounds terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[urlhttp://www.rleague.com/db/player/s/sutton_john/index.php[/url
