I'm not too sure anyone is saying he doesn't put in. I'm probably his harshest critic and even I say he tries hard.
Just on the penalties situation, its more the timing and complete stupidity of the penalty that's the problem. He has a habit of doing it on the 4th tackle when we have just had a good defensive set, and it often looks completely deliberate. Take our first game this year against Canberra, we defend our line, Canberra don't look like scoring, and on 4th tackle Bateman gets up at marker and deliberately hits the ball out of the player playing the ball. It was mind boggling. They then kick the goal, and score next set after bad defence by Toa. 8 nil just like that because of brain dead stupidity. We should have had the ball coming out of our end at nil all, instead it's 8 nil.
He has costs us badly like that all year. The amount of times I've screamed "bloody 4th tackle and he does it again". They aren't 50/50 penalties, they are blatant and sell sabotaging.