Round 1: New Season, New Players, Same Old Issues

While Round 1 of the 2008 NRL season provided us with some examples of teams who clearly put their off-season to good use, or teams with a solid and well established structure who continue to perform at a high level, more teams seemed further away than ever from overcoming significant barriers to any form of success.

The worst offender here - which shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with early-season play since the turn of the millennium - was the St. George Illawarra Dragons.

Some Dragons' supporters pay scant attention to their team's form before Round 5 or 6 in any given season, such is their tendency to start slowly.

But their slow starts were less of an issue when they had a higher quality playing roster and better depth. The 2008 Dragons appears to be a shadow of previous Dragons' sides, but judging from Sunday's largely inept display against the Tigers, they seem to be at least a match when it comes to bone-headed play.

Mistakes were seen on both sides of the ball and throughout much of the game, giving the Tigers a significant advantage in possession, which was converted into field position and then points.

While the Tigers had the edge in quickness and ball skills in most positions (which they used to attack the size advantage of the Dragons), they showed little ability to cope with the Dragons' size during any sustained Dragons' attacking period. Fortunately for the Tigers, the Dragons' generally poor play and poor decision-making with the ball meant their patchy defence was asked few difficult questions.

Still.. the Dragons lost by just 8 points. It was an incredibly frustrating afternoon for new and old Dragons alike, as this photo of Trent Barrett as he was watching the game shows.



But it was hardly a day of celebration for the Tigers. While they did well to win despite losing Benji Marshall very early on, there was plenty of room for improvement, especially on the defensive end.

Another much-maligned team from 2007 - the Penrith Panthers - also took the field on Sunday afternoon. While the Dragons went with largely the same team from last season, Penrith made some major signings, aimed mostly at filling their rather large gulf in the areas of experience and on-field leadership. Therefore, they would have expected to be competitive with Brisbane.

While the final 48-12 scoreline in Brisbane's favour would suggest a black day for Penrith, they were very much in the game for most of the first half. A try incorrectly awarded to Brisbane's Ben Hannant (clearly offside) and an intercept return just before half time made the margin a somewhat unrepresentative 16 points to Brisbane at the half. Most teams would have surrendered to persistent Brisbane pressure like the Panthers did in the second half.

However, Penrith's tendency to concede unnecessary and ill-timed penalties - a feature of their 2007 season - was back in this game, as was their historical penchant for letting good players sign elsewhere during periods of little success.

Facing up to Penrith on Sunday afternoon was Peter Wallace, a young halfback who was very impressive for Brisbane, but also showed significant potential for Penrith in previous years. Letting Wallace and Craig Gower leave and signing only Joe Williams to replace them could ruin Penrith's season, much like allowing Brad Drew to leave in 2000 (he went on to play a pivotal role in Parramatta's attacking juggernaut in 2001) helped to consign Penrith to several years in the NRL wilderness in the early 2000s.

That said, Penrith won a premiership in 2003 and there is talk of some highly talented halves still to emerge through the junior ranks for the Panthers.

But Brisbane are surely very happy to have signed such a potentially great halfback to play next to the best five-eighth in the game and in one of the best systems in the NRL. Brisbane has always felt much wrath from supporters of other teams due to the near-monopoly they have for any players wanting to play in Qld, as well as consistent suspicions of salary cap cheating. But these feelings have eased somewhat, as other clubs have shared in top-shelf Qld talent and salary cap concerns saw a host of star players leave at the end of last season.

Despite these departures, as well as the return from injury of Darren Lockyer, the new-look Broncos played as though they had been together for many years. They may not have the depth or the quality to win the competition this year, but could 2008 finally be the year Wayne Bennett's setup in Brisbane gets the respect it deserves?

The emergence of the Cowbores and the (re)introduction of a team on the Gold Coast have played a major role in reducing the influence of the Broncos in Qld: these teams squared off in an entertaining game on Friday night. The shock return from injury of Feral Thurston saw the Cowbores almost move into favouritism for this game, but their still-patchy defence and over-reliance on Thurston for attacking spark meant they were always struggling in this game. Their porous defence from last season was seen again in this game, despite the return of their usually strong defensive back-rowers (O'Donnell and Southern).

But the Cowbores would have beaten a fair number of NRL teams with their display here: they were unfortunate to run into a Titans team close to the top of their game. The Titans were very impressive in their debut match last season and were even better in this game. Scott Prince gave Tigers' fans more 'What might have been' with a brilliant game (we can only hope the traitor's wife is happy), while the seemingly tireless Luke Bailey must be relishing every day since he left the Dragons.

While the Titans and Cowbores provided an entertaining and high-quality game, the same couldn't be said for the first game on Friday night, where the Roosters took on traditional rivals Souths. This loomed as a potentially very interesting game, with the size, size and more size of the Roosters against the defensive grit and speed of Souths. The new interchange rules and a humid night figured to give Souths an edge in the latter minutes of both halves as long as they could absorb what was bound to be an onslaught from the Roosters.

Instead the game was largely a non-event. We'll never know if Souths' lack of resistance was significantly influenced by Craig Wing's injury. Whatever the cause, the stingy Souths' defence of 2007 was a distant memory. The Roosters' forwards and some nice attacking options were impressive, but their match-winning lead came far too easy.

On Saturday afternoon, also at Homebush, Bulldogs' supporters were probably thinking their 20-nil lead over Parramatta was a match-winning one and that it came quite easily. It seemed Parramatta's bad habit from 2007 of taking lowly rated teams far too easily was back again. While Parramatta always seem capable, their 2nd half efforts after poor first halves in 2007 suggested a sizeable Bulldogs' victory looked the only outcome in this one.

Instead, this was a landmark game for Parramatta. They didn't panic and try to catch up the 20-point deficit straight away. They built slowly, completing their sets and getting the edge in field position. They then attacked the short Bulldogs' wingers and crept back into the game. The large Bulldogs' forward pack tired as Parramatta came back into the game, creating more opportunities.

A stalemate was reached as Parramatta came to within 2 points of the Bulldogs, but the next try was always going to be enough and a fortuitous Mateo try sealed the win in the last minute.

It was difficult to fault the Bulldogs: they don't appear to have the talent or the mobility in the forwards to contend with a lot of teams this season, but Steve Folkes probably erred somewhat in keeping Michael Sullivan on the bench for so long. Folkes probably thought they didn't need points, they needed Corey Hughes' leadership and defence at 20-nil up. But Sullivan's speed could well have taken the Bulldogs' lead to an unapproachable level.

It appeared as though Newcastle was about to suffer the same fate as the Bulldogs in the late Saturday game. Their solid lead over the gritty (but injury-hit.. for yet another season it seems) Raiders was evaporating quickly late in the game. While the Knights are now a significantly different team than they were when Brian Smith first took over as coach, they still seem to possess an ability to grind out wins at home. It is only Round 1 of course, but these 2 teams look set for tough seasons.

The same cannot be said for the remaining four teams. Manly and Cronulla look set for positive seasons, although it appears Manly may have to follow Cronulla's low-scoring path to victory more often than they have in previous years. The departure of Michael Monaghan and Travis Burns means Matt Orford is now responsible for creating most of Manly's attacking options. The foundation of Manly's success in recent years has been their relentless intensity, but their versatility in also being able to compete (and more often than not win) in high-scoring contests took them to a grand-final last season. They may get back there this season, but unless they can unearth someone to take the pressure off Matt Orford, scores like 16-10 may become much more common for Manly.

Cronulla could probably also use a Michael Monaghan. They are clearly capable at winning the low-scoring grind, but it is extremely difficult to bring this level of defensive intensity each week. They need to find some points for those games where the intensity is not quite there: Cronulla surely doesn't need any more reminding of their lengthy losing streak last season, when teams more or less matched their intensity, but had a few more points in them. Still, it looks like if Cronulla can have more luck with injuries, they should have a much better year than in 2007.

It took 5 years into Craig Bellamy's reign as coach of the Melbourne Storm, but in 2007, they finally figured out how to channel their intensity to win games when they needed to. They never really had Cronulla's point-scoring problems, but they did struggle when teams matched their intensity (usually folding like deckchairs) then they discovered they just couldn't maintain their intensity all season long (in 2006).

But now, despite the salary-cap induced departures of a number of key players as well as some significant players missing through injury, they've rarely looked better. Not so much in their play against the Warriors (they let the Warriors back into the game late in the first half) but that their team structure is stronger than ever. Each of the new/young players for Melbourne in last night's game clearly knew his role and performed strongly.

In the end, Melbourne won well. After an impressive first half in the heat, the Warriors made life significantly easier for Melbourne in the second half: 3 kickoffs soaring across the dead-ball line is truly Scarecrow-ish play. The Warriors' predicament was perhaps best exemplified by winger Manu "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Vatuvei. When he is asked by the opposition to perform complex tasks such as catching, he is often made to look foolish, but with ball in hand and momentum increasing, there is perhaps not a scarier sight for a defender.

This combination of awesome potential and a tendency for the most basic of mistakes would make Vatuvei feel right at home outside Gasnier (or maybe Cooper)...

Read More...

Summary only...