Round 9: Played Strong, but Done....Poorly (or how to put a week off to good use)

The passing of Jack Gibson on Friday cast a pall of sadness over Round 9 for many. However, the game Gibson knew, the game he imbued upon a generation of players, the game his great mind came up with a host of innovations for, that game is long gone. Today's game is more for the athlete rather than the natural player, more for the 6'3 95kg utility than the crafty player who can read and understand the game but isn't the best at tackling Mack Trucks.

Remnants of the game Gibson knew so well still remain today - and when they are seen, in combination with Olympic sprinter-like speed and/or physiques seemingly carved out of stone, they are a sight to behold - but are all too rare. Size, speed and the ability to wrestle are the commodities most in demand - the rules of the modern game dictate this.

When the modern game on the field is combined with the modern game off the field - where the salary cap gives struggling teams a leg-up and hence innovation is stifled (due to any benefits being lost to the jaws of the salary cap in due time) - a rather homogeneous product is the result.

There's no doubting the effort of most players (Played Strong) in today's game, but the general skill level and quality of many games often leaves a lot to be desired (Done Poorly).

This was especially the case in Round 9, which served up a number of sub-standard performances. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the (few) teams who performed at or near their best came off the bye in Round 8 and were able to shake off injuries, lethargy or both and provide some highlights in an otherwise poor weekend.

The most surprising of these strong efforts came on Sunday from Manly. Much had been made of their rather impotent (but also quite predictable) attack in the early rounds of 2008. Their wins so far had come mostly from overwhelming poor teams at Brookvale Oval, with a brave win over a typically lackadaisical Parramatta as their only success away from home.

Even though their opponent on Sunday - Brisbane - was without Lockyer, then Hodges and Carroll, Brisbane still figured to be a far more difficult opponent than any other team Manly had beaten so far. Even if their defence stymied the usually strong Brisbane attack, their own attack probably needed to play at a higher level than had been seen this season (especially away from home): a potentially tricky task without Anthony Watmough and a less than 100% Brett Stewart.

Early on, Manly showed signs of taking the game to Brisbane, but Brisbane withstood Manly's efforts and put two tries on in fairly quick time. Manly's poor record when trailing early on seemingly made the likelihood of a comeback fairly slim.

But after about 25 minutes, inexplicably, the game turned. Brisbane put consecutive attacking kicks across the dead ball line, which gave Manly impetus. Several teams have attacked Brisbane's young outside backs with the cross kick this season: Manly's effort in this area caused havoc, with a try scored and a second try very nearly recorded soon after.

Manly's momentum gathered pace in the second half, as sustained pressure saw Brisbane look extremely vulnerable. Most importantly though, the predictable, one-pace Manly attack of early rounds was nowhere to be seen. New recruit Heath L'Estrange was the catalyst here, giving life to his forwards with incisive running from dummy half and asking many questions of the Brisbane defence.

Brisbane is a fundamentally solid defensive team, but they were found wanting, especially in the first 20 minutes of the second half, where Manly won the game. The absence of noted defensive specialist Carroll was significant, but Manly probably would have won well even if Carroll played.

Another team to significantly improve their attack after a bye week was Cronulla. While Cronulla's attack had been far less effective than Manly's, luckily for them, they played perhaps the worst defensive team (from a fundamentals basis) in the Cowbores.

The jury remains out as to how much of the credit for Cronulla's first-half onslaught of four tries should go to poor Cowbores' defence; Cronulla certainly had more life in their attack than in any time in the past 6 weeks or so and the early try to Kearney gave them a much-needed boost of confidence. But there is also little doubt the Cowbores made things easier for Cronulla than most other NRL teams would have. The decline of a much-vaunted defensive unit of 2004 and 2005 continues...

However, the Cowbores stayed in the game as Cronulla considered 18 points to be enough of a lead to win the game. To be fair, Cronulla's defence feasted on Feral Thurston having no other helpers and a 2nd half shutout looked likely for some time, before a Carl Webb run and a freak Luke O'Donnell effort cut Cronulla's lead back to 6.

Cronulla players probably felt more comfortable having to grind out a close win than coasting to victory, but there was a few close calls in the game's dying minutes: despite playing in the Test on Friday night and playing with an ankle injury, Feral Thurston never gave up and very nearly set up another try late on.

The other two notable team efforts from Round 9 also involved players backing up from Friday night's Test, but of a greater number than in either of the Cowbores or Sharks. The 5 Roosters' Test players - led by Willie Mason - all gave a very good account of themselves as the Roosters easily accounted for Canberra on Saturday night.

It was an important game for the Roosters to re-establish their momentum after consecutive losses (Craig Fitzgibbon was right up there with Mason leading the way), but Canberra was very disappointing. Sure, coming off a physical battle in the wet with the Warriors last week was going to be difficult, but their commitment, their mental application and their intensity were all lacking. This was a team who came close to defeating Melbourne 2 weeks ago...

Speaking of Melbourne, while they didn't play in Round 8, they had almost half their squad playing in Friday night's Test. When it became apparent not long after kickoff on Monday night that their opponent - Newcastle - was the third consecutive team to bring everything to try and achieve a rare win over last season's premiers, another major effort was going to be required by the Storm to get the win.

It took far longer than it normally does - Newcastle's defensive effort was brilliant - but Melbourne eventually wore down the Knights. While a low-scoring grind, where all points were well earned, was more common in Jack Gibson's day than in the modern era, Melbourne's mechanical approach to the game is symptomatic of the problems in the game today.

As Newcastle's defensive efforts continued to repel the always-intense Storm, anyone who has even a few Storm games over the years could predict the means by which the Storm would attempt to punch through the Newcastle defence. In addition to their efforts to dominate possession despite not getting the ball back from kickoffs (through methods such as tackling Newcastle in their in-goal, aggressive defence forcing turnovers and benefiting from Newcastle ill-discipline), the standard plays were all trotted out: appearing to use Ryan Hoffman as the decoy runner but giving him the ball close to the line, giving Inglis the ball and letting him wind up and fend off the defence, Cameron Smith hitting one of their big forwards close to the line as well as the stock-standard kick-across for the oversized outside back (Israel Folau).

Newcastle clearly saw each of these plays as they were happening, but Melbourne's machine-like consistency and ever-improving ability not to get frustrated or lose focus when things aren't working is why they are the best in the NRL. Their on-field leaders knew that Newcastle might have known what was coming, but stopping it time after time is another matter entirely. When the cross kick to Folau finally worked, Melbourne was on the way to victory.

Strangely enough, Folau's second try came from a well-worked move; one that wouldn't have looked out of place in eras gone by. It seems Melbourne's conservatism and over-coaching stops them from attempting such plays when points are desperately needed (as they were before Folau's first try; the longer the score stayed at 0-all, the better Newcastle's chances of winning).

While Newcastle lost and didn't come off the bye from Round 8, their performance in standing up to a dominant Storm display for over 50 minutes without relenting was one of the most inspired in recent years. On the other hand, how long can Melbourne keep up their extremely high levels of intensity? In the last few weeks, they were bombarded by Canberra, made to back up just 5 days later in Townsville and made to follow up a Test for half their squad by facing one of the best defensive efforts of recent times.

They are, without doubt, the best team in the NRL, but the Origin period will drain their resources and test them (further) like they haven't been tested before.

The final 2 games of the round displayed so much about what is wrong with the NRL today, including the fact both games were played at Homebush.

Parramatta and St George Illawarra both showed glimpses of their massive potential, but both put forth considerable effort to give the opposition many chances to win. Dragons' supporters will complain about the controversial no-try to Nightingale (after a dubious steal call against Matt Cooper), but Soward's bombing of two tries later in the game was far more crucial to the game's outcome. Meanwhile, Parramatta's complacency returned each time their lead hit 12, while their continued inability to put downfield kicks above onrushing defence could have decided the game. As it turned out, the last chargedown made the final margin 1 point: both sets of supporters had every right to be unhappy.

The Bulldogs Penrith game on Saturday night was one of the worst games in recent memory. The injury-affected Bulldogs' lineup was crippled by 3 further late injury withdrawals (including Sonny Bill and Luke Patten), while Penrith coach Matt Elliott decided to play Luke Lewis at halfback. The result was an extremely disjointed game. Penrith eventually got on top, but it was a painful victory: the Bulldogs' effort was abysmal, while any game where a non-playmaker such as Lewis dominates is always going to be ugly.

Some rare positives from the game were further confirmation of Petero Civoniceva's reputation as a top-shelf player when backing up from representative games, but this was dwarfed by the effort from FOX's Andy Raymond and Gary Freeman, who toiled manfully to say positive things about this abomination of a game. There must have been ongoing and significant temptations to lash out in frustration at the many incompetent players from both teams, but their professionalism (and creative use of words) won the day.

Jack Gibson would never have used so many words (nor sugarcoated his thoughts) during his commentary career, but his patience would have been thoroughly tested if he was commentating today.

Vale Jack. See you next week.

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