On Friday night, the winning runs of two of the NRL's better teams came to an end...
Parramatta was not at their best, but an excellent game from soon-to-be-ex-Eel Feleti Mateo, another strong game from Jarryd Hayne and a solid debut capped off by a late try from Anthony Mitchell was enough to get them home over the Broncos. Brisbane missed Darren Lockyer, but possibly also suffered delayed effects from the tough game against the Dragons and tricky Cowboys game from recent weeks.
STAT!: Friday the 13th has not always been so unlucky for Brisbane and the Roosters. Brisbane had a 3 win, 2 loss record in their 5 previous Friday 13th games, winning all 3 at 'home' (one loss came against the Titans at Suncorp, but this was a Titans home game). Meanwhile, the Roosters had never lost on Friday 13th, winning all 4 games. However, these had all been home games. For Cronulla, their win was a (small) measure of revenge against the Roosters for a Friday 13th loss in week 1 of the finals in 2002. For Parramatta, this was only their second Friday 13th game after winning at Penrith in 2007. Avid followers of NRL scheduling will watch for which teams are drawn to play on Friday 13th May 2011...
On Saturday night, the Gold Coast looked to be doing it easy against an understrength Cowbores, before the Cowbores shockingly struck back with 3 tries in 10 minutes. Ultimately, the Gold Coast won well but it wasn't as easy as it might have been. In Sydney, the understrength Bulldogs somewhat surprisingly reached a 14-6 lead against a Canberra side which looked far better on paper but had to overcome the obstacle of backing up from Monday night. A mounting Bulldogs injury count and strong play from the Raiders saw them come back strongly and record an impressive win.
STAT!: Steve Michaels played only his 4th game for the Titans after switching teams mid-season from the Broncos, but at the risk of reaching a premature conclusion, Michaels has transformed his game significantly. In 59 games for the Broncos between 2005 and 2010, Michaels scored 22 tries and enjoyed a win-loss percentage of just above 50%. In his 4 games with the Titans, he has scored 4 tries and the team won all 4 games (after losing their previous 3 games). But his renewed career can't be expressed in tries and wins. Michaels was a defensive blubbering mess in his final days with the Broncos, routinely being abused by even medicore right-sided attacking players. Now...he is a defensive hitman and is playing a key role in a team which was searching for defensive intensity and guys to play centre competently. He might not yet be 'buy of the year' but he is probably great value for money for the Titans.
For Canberra, this was their 5th away win of the season: only the third time they have passed 4 away wins in a season since 1999. Usually, whenever a Canberra team wins close to half its games away from home, they're a lock to play in September, but their scratchy home form (just 5 wins and 5 losses; their equal 3rd worst home record after 10 games in their history) means they probably need to win each game until the end of the minor premiership. Lucky for them they play the Dragons this weekend...
On Sunday, the Warriors got a much better game from Newcastle than they were expecting but the Warriors did just enough - thanks to a bit of help from some dubious refereeing decisions and a lucky bounce late in the game - to get away with the win. Next up, Melbourne gave another brief reminder of better days as they looked on track to soundly defeat Souths, but the resilient Rabbitohs almost made it two huge comebacks in a row. The tired Storm held on for the win. Finally, Wests bounced back nicely from their embarrassing play of recent weeks to dominate Penrith in the forwards - a rare feat - and win comfortably.
STAT!: New Zealand's Manu Vatuvei continued his great run of form with 3 tries. He now has 11 tries in his last 9 games and 10 tries in his 10 career games against Newcastle. Melbourne continued their pattern of home wins and away losses since news of their salary cap breaches: they have won their last four games in Melbourne and lost their last 5 away from Melbourne. For the Wests Tigers five-eighth Benji Marshall, Sunday's game was his first success against Penrith after 7 losses. This game was also Benji's 37th consecutive NRL game - a noteworthy achievement for a player who has suffered so much injury.
Finally last night, the Dragons were clinical in their 32-10 defeat of Manly. Manly enjoyed some good field position but their limited attack and some excellent Dragons defence made it difficult for them to cross the line. Meanwhile, Manly errors meant the Dragons scored much too easily.
STAT!: Despite suspicions of Mark Gasnier's try not being legitimate due to the bouncing of the ball just before the line, under-fire referee Bill Harrigan has assured the Tuesday Roast this was the correct decision. Hence, the stat from this game is Bill Harrigan's self-confessed error count over the course of his career - zero.
See you next week.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Round 23: Get Me 1 Good Stat from each game...STAT!
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Round 22: Haiku Roast
An unwelcome consequence of ongoing increases in the speed and intensity of NRL matches ― as well as the stagnant salary cap and its meagre concessions ― has been a phasing-out of the canny veteran, the wily older player. He may have lost a step or two and may slur his words every so often but can still be highly valuable for young and impressionable team-mates.
If you look closely, some teams still have these older players, and while they are almost always highly appreciated on their teams, the game as a whole probably doesn’t give them the respect they deserve. One only has to look at the relatively poor recognition for Brett Kimmorley’s 300th game a few weeks back or that still-valuable players such as Colin Best, Luke Priddis, Mat Rogers, Luke Patten and Adam MacDougall will struggle to find a club (or be forced to play for Cronulla) next season.
These players deserve far better. Every team should have a few such players, if not in first grade then at the very least mentoring up-and-comers in the lower grades. No-one wins when these older players run off to England or start media careers prematurely. There’re only so many comic talents like Brad Fittler out there…
Hence, this week’s Roast will draw from the culture which is perhaps the most respectful towards wisdom, age and experience: the Japanese. Yep, it’s Haiku time.
Gold Coast v. Parramatta
Parra started strong
But Gold Coast’s play was regal
Hayne Plane on tarmac
The round started with a potentially riveting match-up between the desperate Eels and the resurgent Titans. A 12-nil lead to Parramatta suggested a bounce-back for one of the NRL’s most enigmatic teams, but Gold Coast responded with 34 unanswered points, many of which came from the boot of Scott Prince. Prince’s speed and elusiveness may have waned but his craftiness hasn’t, nor has the accuracy of his kicking game.
After looking unlikely a few weeks ago, the Gold Coast is now back in contention for a top-4 spot, while for Parramatta, they are increasingly swapping scenarios with the Gold Coast…
North Queensland v. Brisbane
Brisbane’s task was tough
After Saints, but Feral’s loss
Helped; an easy win
Of the teams who have beaten the Dragons this season and played the next week, only the Gold Coast had won in their next match. Throw in a short turnaround and a ‘local’ rival keen on disrupting solid momentum and this match in Townsville was quite a prospective challenge for the Broncos.
However, the Broncos confirmed their standing as one of the most improved teams in the NRL with a robust performance. The injury to Feral Thurston probably lowered their motivation, if anything, and made this game closer, but Brisbane was not a risk of losing.
Manly v. Melbourne
Storm away from home
Put them out of their misery
Yawn – they just don’t care
After repelling some early Storm attack, Manly crossed for several well-worked tries…and this game was basically over. Melbourne clearly couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to stop Manly’s solid but hardly world-beating attack (with the possible exception of Jamie Lyon) and showed few signs of mounting a comeback.
Sadly for the gallant Rabbitohs, Melbourne will probably put in a better effort this Sunday and deprive a hard-working, popular, legal team of points.
South Sydney v. Wests Tigers
Injuries galore
For Souths; but Tiges’ focus gone
SS marches on!
The incredible run of success for Souths’ coach John Lang against Tigers’ coach Tim Sheens looked set to come to an end on Saturday night, with Souths missing almost a full team of regular first grade players, while the Tigers were almost at full strength and in need of a strong performance.
But Souths still had their ‘spine’ and although they allowed the Tigers to score some hilariously easy tries, they gave some easy tries back to stay close enough. With about 20 minutes to go, the Tigers’ focus slipped terribly and Souths started their comeback. They were aided by numerous Tigers’ errors, missed tries and premature field goal attempts and incredibly eliminated a 16-point deficit with 3 minutes left in normal time.
The usual mess that is extra time ensued, with missed or charged down field goal attempts and several thousand offences not penalised by gutless referees, and a draw seemed certain. But then Rhys Wesser – of all people – somehow broke through a tackle on what looked to be one of the slowest line breaks in history to set up an incredible match-winning try.
This was one of the more famous victories in Souths’ long history and especially so because they had shown nil signs of getting a win under pressure in recent years. But for the Tigers, the charmed run they had pulling lucky wins out despite playing poorly against struggling or under-strength teams finally came to an end (and deservedly so).
Cronulla v. Warriors
Sharks were due a win
For new coach, but still rubbish
Warriors too good
After some very bad luck received in last week’s loss to the Tigers, many looked at Cronulla’s first home under new coach Shane Flanagan as a great chance for a rare win. This was especially so with the Warriors looking poor against the Gold Coast last week after their long run of wins.
But after a solid start, Cronulla fell away in this one and the Warriors cruised to an easy win. It’s hard to see how, even with heaps of salary cap cast-offs from other teams, that Cronulla can be competitive on a consistent basis any time soon.
Newcastle v. Canterbury
Newcastle’s good form
Continued; these Dogs appear
To have had their day
It may end up being a case of ‘too little, too late’ but Newcastle’s overdue run of form continued on Sunday as they thrashed the Bulldogs (whose run of form appears to be over). Many teams struggle to back up after a Monday night win and also to back up after playing Manly, but Newcastle achieved both of these in style, putting the game out of reach by half time.
Sydney Roosters v. St George Illawarra
Attack v Defence:
The classic battle, Roosters
Lost but not shamed
It was to be the toughest test yet for the white-hot Roosters; cracking the best defensive team (by some margin) in the NRL. Ultimately, they probably lost this game not by failure in the points-scoring area of the field but due to too many errors in possession. Still, it was a brave effort, especially in defence, where much Dragons possession only rarely led to points.
It has been an unfortunate mix of circumstances for the Dragons in the last month: the loss of Weyman, the return of Gasnier as well as the draw serving up four teams either running into form or at/near their best against big-name teams. That the Dragons have come out of this stretch with a solid buffer intact should give them strong impetus for the remainder of the season.
Canberra v. Penrith
Two strong teams Monday
While Penrith impressed; the win
Given to the Refs
This game featured some entertaining moments and some strong periods of play, more so from Penrith than Canberra, but it left an unsavoury taste in the mouth: referee decisions played a significant role in this game. Not necessarily the final score or the winner, but the momentum shifts in the game were mostly driven by penalties given.
Canberra certainly lifted their game after half time, with the end of the season staring them in the face if they lost, but they certainly received a solid leg-up from the referees. Penrith failed to cope with a more desperate Canberra, but they benefited somewhat in their excellent first half from dubious referee calls.
Once it became apparent that Canberra was on a roll in the second half, their comeback was almost expected; as such, Canberra probably can’t take as much from the game as Penrith, who looked very strong against a good forward pack and at a difficult venue.
See you next week.
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Round 21: Thanks Jason Robinson
Those rugby league followers in attendance or watching Saturday night's game between Wests and Cronulla have been unable to properly function ever since, due to one of the most bizarre refereeing decisions being given.
Cronulla's Ben Pomeroy was tackled just short of the try line but maintained some sort of momentum for a few seconds. This momentum slowed, when referee Jason Robinson called held, but it didn't stop completely. Just after the 'held' call, Bryce Gibbs joined the tackle and pushed Pomeroy towards the try line, when Pomeroy reached out for an apparent try.
Incredibly, Robinson penalised Pomeroy for attempting to reach out for the line after the 'held' call, rather than penalising Gibbs or realising his mistaken call and awarding the try. The stunned Leichhardt crowd could barely believe their ears. Any subsequent attempt to rationalise Robinson's thought process or logically discuss these events has left the sharpest minds of today in a state of torpor. Fermat's Last Theorem, The Big Bang, The Monty Hall Problem....these are now well and truly superceded by Robinson's Blown Call to confuse brains the world over. This is a truly amazing accomplishment from the code which brought you Mander's C**k-up on the Israel Folau "try" just 10 days ago.
Regular service will hopefully resume next week.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Round 20: Masterchef Bye Week
This week's Roast was all ready to go before we learnt we would be shafted by the timing of the Masterchef grand final and there was no alternate timeslot available. Sorry guys.
So here's a brief summary of last weekend's events:
* Was it a train? Was it a plane? It may very well have been SuperHayne as Jarryd helped the Eels to a smoking start on Friday and despite a Bulldogs comeback, this was a strong win to Parramatta.
* The injury-hit Titans shocked the Dragons with a golden point win. The inclement weather probably helped the underdog but the Dragons must now prove themselves as being able to win big games late in the season.
* Cronulla started strongly coming off a big loss and a coach resignation but Canberra did enough to eke out the win.
* Both teams struggled in Melbourne, but ultimately the Storm was too much for the patchy Panthers.
* Newcastle made a late surge to force extra time, but the Cowboys scored the golden try (albeit from a pass which looked much less than golden) to get the win.
* Souths produced a brilliant second half and some desperate late-game defence to score a morale-boosting win over the streaking Warriors.
* The Tigers started strongly, but Manly held their nerve and exposed Wests' defensive frailties on their way to a fairly convincing win.
* Finally, Brisbane took an hour to get going but get going they did, overwhelming a huge Roosters' lead. But the Roosters hardly flinched and scored the match-winning try with more of their eye-pleasing play.
See you next week.
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Round 19: Rivalry Round - Best Round of the Season (so far)
“I tell you what… this competition, and we flower it up all the time and we love the superstars, they’re great players, this is the weakest competition I’ve seen in a long long time alright. Anyone can win this, because our no. 1 team is only a very average team. But they look so much better than everyone this because at least they’re consistent and they’ve got some intensity. This is crying out for a Tigers 2005, for someone to get on a roll now and they’ll just beat everyone….it’s baying for one team now to stand up and get it done, they’ll win the comp…”
Phil Gould’s brutally honest – but quite unpopular – assessment of the NRL on Sunday could have sent many followers of the game into the foetal position. They might have wondered why they waste their time following a season for close to 30 weeks, when all that is required is to tune in sometime in August to find which team is building momentum best for a late-season run to the premiership. They may also have wondered about the ongoing prospects of a competition which has lost a good portion of its depth to England and a worryingly high portion of its star power to other sports, whilst pursuing an agenda of expansion in the not too distant future.
However, Rugby League has a long history of producing entertaining product to make its followers (temporarily) forget about the game’s deep-seated problems and Round 19 – Rivalry Round – was just another example of this. There were some cracking games, high scores, great comebacks and just enough spice to make things interesting without invoking the Helen Lovejoys (i.e. vested interests in the media pushing the AFL perspective) of this world.
The game of the round saw Penrith take on Parramatta. Most expected Penrith to bounce back after their loss to the Warriors last week, with their attack to lead the way. The Warriors kept one of the NRL’s highest scoring teams to just 6 points, which gave voice to the growing number of critics of Penrith’s attack, who accuse it of being one-dimensional (relying too much on kicks).
While Penrith’s attacking game probably needs some variation to minimise the possibility of a point-scoring drought in a key late-season game, Parramatta’s generous defence against the kick was not going to encourage any Penrith attacking innovation any time soon. Penrith led 22-nil after 20 or so minutes, with several tries coming off a poor defensive response to fairly standard Penrith kicks.
Many who wondered whether the Eels’ effort against the Cowbores last Monday night was the start of a late-season run or an easy win against pathetic opposition were answered in the remainder of the first half on Saturday night, as Parramatta cut Penrith’s lead to just 10 and probably should have cut it even further. They clearly had a great momentum and continued it after half time as Wright and an extremely calm Inu crossed for tries to give Parramatta a lead.
Most importantly, however, for Parramatta, was that their often-dormant superstar Jarryd Hayne had woken up and was involved in everything; a danger sign for whoever the opposition is when this rare event takes place. He played a key role in each of Parramatta’s first four tries then broke the game open with his spectacular 80-metre kick return. It probably didn’t deserve the orgasmic reaction it got from the commentators, but it marked the start of what Parramatta supporters hope will be an eruption lasting several months.
Penrith responded (via a kick) and some errors gave them chances to re-take the lead, but Parramatta held on for a famous win. This was one of the better games so far this season, but it was made even more memorable by a ground record crowd packed into CUA Stadium at Penrith. Sadly, this may end up leading to more Penrith-Parramatta games moving to larger stadiums, but hopefully there can be room for games – and crowds – like this at suburban stadiums as well.
Other notable games from the Rivalry Round saw the Roosters and Bulldogs square off as well as the Tigers host the Cowbores. The perplexing Roosters – who struggle against lowly teams, defeat good teams and rarely string similar results together – should have had the goods to beat the Bulldogs, but the Bulldogs’ recent momentum and confidence gained saw them jump to a strong lead after early back-and-forth of tries in the opening 30 minutes.
The Roosters – and especially Braith Anasta – seemed to lose their way as they suffered from several refereeing errors and became increasingly frustrated. Anasta already gave away a penalty for dissent after a dubious forward pass call, then he looked like he’d have a stroke when correctly denied a try soon after.
Somehow during this time, the Roosters dominated possession and mounted a comeback against the gallant but tiring Bulldogs. Eventually the Roosters re-took the lead and held on for an unlikely win. While Anasta gained (eventual) satisfaction, fellow milestone gamer Kimmorley added to his legacy of crapping the bed in big games, thanks to numerous errors and penalties conceded. Afterwards he complained of not being recognised for reaching 300 games. Hey Brett, here’s a statue of you throwing the intercept pass to Bowen, now go away.
On Monday night, the Tigers took the resurgent Cowbores far too lightly and woke up to find themselves 16-nil down. Luckily Feral Thurston missed his first conversion, perhaps due to his nasty black eye. Apparently one of his victims fought back this time…
Once the Tigers got going from late in the first half, the 16-point deficit was quickly rubbed out but the stalemate continued for far longer than expected despite both teams having numerous chances to take the lead. Actually, the Tigers had about eleventy hundred chances, most of which were Benji Marshall missed goal or field goal attempts. But then he sets up a try with a brilliant chip and chase and all is (seemingly) forgotten. Until he costs them a finals game with his erratic play that is…
Finally, the surprisingly impressive Fulton sealed the win for the Tigers, who after winning 7 of their last 8, must surely be due for a loss against Manly on Sunday.
The Warriors and Melbourne have had a somewhat heated rivalry over the years and despite Melbourne’s season rapidly losing relevance, this game stoked the rivalry to greater heights.
The Warriors backed up well after their Herculean effort to defeat Penrith last week to jump to 12-nil lead early on against the Storm, but the Storm slowly fought their way back. The Warriors’ newly found defensive resolve continued and maintained their lead, but eventually Melbourne scored. Rather than suppressing the crowd, this made them louder as a chorus of “CHEAT CHEAT CHEAT” rang around Mt Smart Stadium as Cameron Smith lined up the conversion attempt.
Melbourne almost scored in their next set of six, but ultimately couldn’t score again and the Warriors held on for their fifth win in a row – a difficult feat in the NRL this season. The next Melbourne v. Warriors game should be one to look forward to…
Friday’s game might have been more memorable in a normal round: Souths gave a very good account of themselves in almost defeating the Dragons, while Brisbane slowly but surely overhauled the Titans, with a run of 24 straight points after the Gold Coast had a 10-nil lead. The Titans were somewhat unlucky though to suffer from a dubious sin-bin for the second straight week. To rub salt in the wound, they lost Bird and Harrison to injury.
The final two games of the round were closer to Phil Gould’s description of the game than the standard from the better games of this round: Manly and Canberra jumped to massive first-half leads over insipid opposition in the form of Cronulla and Newcastle respectively.
See you next week.
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Round 18: NRL Bizarro World
Hope you enjoyed that look back over a very weird round of NRL. See you next week.
And allow them they did – 24 in under 20 minutes between late in the first half and early in the second half. To the Cowbores’ credit, they didn’t capitulate and might have had a chance at winning if one or two things went their way, but in the end, it was a solid, although still far from impressive (from an overall perspective) win for the Eels in one of the weirder Monday night games of recent times.
The round finished on Monday night with Parramatta triumphing over the very un-boring Cowbores in a shootout in the Wild West of Sydney. Both teams’ attack has stuttered significantly of late but both teams enjoyed breakout attacking performances and, most importantly, brought aggressive attitudes to the game. Early on, any result looked possible, but once the errors returned to the Cowbores’ game, it was only a matter of time before the worst defence in the NRL would allow points.
This was in spite of a massive penalty count in Penrith’s favour. Perhaps Penrith was in shock; they are almost always on the wrong end of penalties, only the Dragons have any idea about how to get the most benefit out of a run of penalties. In the end, the Warriors grimly held on for a famous win. Only the great Melbourne defence of early 2008 recorded a win under similar circumstances.
From here on, Penrith had the better of the game and gradually dominated possession and field position – but could get no closer than 6 points. Penrith’s successful air attack, their kicking arsenal fired blanks all afternoon as the Warriors’ defensive intensity never wavered.
The weird happenings continued in Sunday’s late game at Penrith. It became quickly apparent that the big efforts in recent weeks – both at club level and at Origin – had taken their toll; it was a flat start from the Panthers and the Warriors jumped to a 12-nil lead. Their second try, to Vatuvei, was quite strange. Vatuvei ran through and caught a bomb almost unopposed to score in the corner (not unlike the famous Steve Gearin try from the 1980 grand final).
First up on Sunday, Newcastle recorded a solid win at home, while Cronulla struggled to perform away from home. Those outcomes are weirdness enough thus far in season 2010, but two of the game’s better performers are Ben Rogers (Newcastle) and Ben Pomeroy (Cronulla) well….Halley’s Comet will probably come again before these two hacks play another good game.
The Bulldogs took a solid lead to half time, as they had the past two games, but came close to relinquishing it as Melbourne came back strongly. Ultimately, it was a crazy ending as time expired when Billy Slater poked his head up from the clock-stopping scrum formation. A grin from Slater confirmed the weirdness of this match.
It’s an even crazier round and game when Billy Slater makes a number of mistakes at the back. Slater is usually so reliable but the Bulldogs found him out on several occasions. Admittedly, he would have done brilliantly well to stop the steam train that is Jamal Idris from scoring.
A rugby league game being played at Adelaide Oval for the first time since 1998 is bizarro enough. However, when that game involves the car crash that is the 2010 Melbourne Storm and the Storm, against all expectations, show fight and heart to come back into a game given the hopelessness of their situation, you know it’s a crazy round of rugby league.
With that said though, Canberra did put on two tries from close to the opposition line – where they had failed so miserably in previous weeks – to take a match-winning lead. Manly’s struggles and very poor home record since their awesome win against the Dragons a few months back continued.
The craziness got worse on Saturday night as Canberra turned around their abysmal performances from the last two weeks with a close but well deserved win over a still-scratchy Manly at Brookvale. We’ll never know if Canberra was going to sort out their diabolically poor attack because Canberra’s first two tries were gifts from Manly intercept passes.
The Tigers scored the game’s next 15 points – including an incredible field goal from Benji Marshall just before half-time – to grind out a match-winning lead: if they could only like this in the myriad of other games when Ellis plays a lone hand. A late try to the Titans made Benji’s field goal that much more important as the Tigers held on for the win.
Across town, the Tigers looked likely to fall well behind to the overdue Titans, but the usually sure-handed Titans outside backs dropped several passes where the try-line was in close proximity. The Tigers desperately needed such a leg-up as they were missing their best player in Gareth Ellis, but it became clear that the motivation to perform without Ellis and beat a hated rival in the process was strong.
Late penalties for relatively insignificant offences are perhaps not quite as rare as hens’ teeth, but are not much more prevalent. This was a surprisingly good game, but a slightly fortunate win for the Roosters.
Despite the Roosters coming back and dominating much of the remainder of the game, a try to Talanoa in the corner and subsequent conversion to the erratic Sandow saw Souths re-take the lead, a lead they seemed likely to hold onto until a crucial penalty to the Roosters led to the match-winning try to Mitch Aubusson.
The madness started on Friday night when Souths looked destined to score a significant win over the Roosters without their best player Issac Luke. Souths started very strongly, overcoming the physical Roosters and the difficult conditions to take an 8-nil lead.
Even in a league where consistency is rare and volatility much too common, the happenings of Round 18 were still difficult to comprehend. The downtrodden fought back, in the unlikeliest of situations, the favoured and in need struggled mightily, while those in a drought spectacularly farewelled dryness…but welcomed instead a severe loosening of standards, and finally many found they could perform despite the absence of crucial inputs.
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Round 17: NRL Teams Explained to the International Football (Soccer) Supporter
The Australian professional sporting landscape has changed markedly over the last decade. After years of lying dormant with massive participation at the recreational level but little interest for the local elite competition, association football – better known as soccer to most Australians – came to life after a major remodelling and infusion of funds and corporate support.
The Australian men’s team’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup Finals – and their somewhat unexpected journey beyond the first round – saw public interest swell even further. This interest has been sustained by a much greater number of national team games (brought on by the shift to the Asian Confederation) and an unlucky, but still quite spirited, effort at the 2010 World Cup Finals.
Not surprisingly, given out penchant for hosting major events and desire to be noticed on the world stage, Australia has signalled its intention to bid for the right to host the 2018 or 2022 Football World Cup Finals. Our chances for 2018 seem doomed as all-powerful Europe is overdue for its turn to host again, but 2022 could be our time.
Unlike the xenophobic AFL, Rugby League is not openly hostile towards the possibility of Australia hosting a World Cup Football Finals tournament and could benefit considerably, with the construction and upgrade of a number of NRL-capable stadia. However, another benefit of the potential hosting of the World Cup Finals for the NRL would be to expose our great game to a huge new market. Let’s face it: if Rugby League can dominate a city as fickle as Sydney then surely anything is possible.
However, the football supporters of the world will have to come up to speed with over 100 years of Rugby League history and culture. In this week’s Roast, the first steps along this road are taken, with each NRL team’s history, accomplishments and qualities explained in terms of a similar international football team.
Brisbane is a lot like Brazil: Brisbane is the dominant team in the NRL’s second state. For long parts of its history, it had access to many of the best players in that state. Brisbane has a brilliant record in tournament finals and a long history of success, although many feel they should have done even better.
Wests Tigers > Spain: The Wests Tigers are often expected to be a great chance of success but usually fail miserably. Apart from a recent surprise triumph, their last success came many decades ago. Despite enjoying great support, they enjoy two distinct groups of followers, between whom there is much dislike and tension.
Friday night’s match featured these two teams, where an Origin-weakened Brisbane played well above themselves but failed – barely – to push home this advantage on the scoreboard. The Tigers hung on bravely to a chance of victory and somehow won in the dying minutes.
Cronulla > Scotland: Cronulla is the poor neighbour of their region’s dominant team and has never won anything of note. In fact, they rarely even qualify to play in the big matches. Some of their few devoted fans remember back to a few tournaments in the 1970s when they….weren’t quite so bad, but really, they are the laughingstock of the competition.
Canterbury > Italy: They are known as the “family club”. Hence, there is usually much tension and drama around the club, which manifests itself in the boom-bust cycle of ultimate success (or something very close to that) and crashing back to Earth with a thud. Their success is often associated with cheating or (at the very least) ‘gamesmanship’ and stretching the rules as far as they’ll go.
The lone Saturday night match saw these two clubs battle at the unfamiliar venue of Gosford, but it was Cronulla’s unfamiliar team which suffered. The Bulldogs continued their strong form from Monday night with an easy win. Ben Barba enjoyed another impressive game for the Bulldogs as a starting minute player.
Canberra > Denmark: Canberra burst on to the scene in the mid 1980s and revolutionised the way the game was played. However, by the time this once-in-a-lifetime generation of star players had aged or moved on, this small-town club fell back in the pack and now struggles for the most part. They will occasionally produce a special effort and threaten some of the very best, but for the most part, they have disappointed since the mid 1990s.
Sydney Roosters > France: This team with red, white and blue colours and a rooster as their emblem have a long, but not always distinguished history in the game. A roll call of their stars over the last 100 years is impressive, but periods of success for them have been interspersed with lengthy dry spells. Disliked almost universally by supporters of other teams and their supporters are notoriously quick to drop off when times are tough.
If Rugby League was scored on field position only, Canberra would be near the top of the competition, but sadly for them, rugby league requires some sort of proficiency at putting points on the board. Without anyone of note to organise their attack, Canberra have squandered record amounts of attacking field position over the last two games. It was a second straight shocker for Terry Campese, possibly the worst half in the game at the moment. The Roosters were solid in defence, absorbing Canberra’s ‘best’, and put enough points on for a comfortable win.
New Zealand > Portugal: The Warriors are always an entertaining team, even if frustrating to their own supporters or just plain bad. Their moment in the sun came in the early 2000s when they had several chances for ultimate success but their big-game confidence and charisma was not quite there as it was in less meaningful contests.
Parramatta > Argentina: Parramatta has one of the more unique cultures in the game today. Despite a fairly high turnover of players, their relatively fragile, potentially brilliant, often lazy style of play remains a constant. Their golden period was from the late 1970s to 1986, although their genius at the time hung around for a few more years, but with his body rapidly failing him. Their large supporter base remembers the halcyon days well and turns on their current stars and coach if the team is struggling….but will be right behind the team if they turn it around. Bookmakers always expected this team to have a great chance of success.
Parramatta’s task last weekend was very tough: travelling to Auckland in the wet minus four of their biggest stars. They probably did fairly well to stay close with the Warriors for an hour, but the Warriors ultimately thrashed Parramatta after running in four late tries.
St George (Illawarra) > England (Wales): This team which wears white and red is perhaps the most famous in the game…or at least that’s what their supporters think. Their supporters also have an amazing ability to remember rare events from decades past as if they were yesterday…but they conveniently forget about their (very) junior partner which graciously provides a nice stadium for them to play in from time to time and also a number of their players. But St George Illawarra’s most famous trait is failing to live up (usually severely over-hyped) expectations, often placed on them by the media and their prominent supporters.
Penrith > Netherlands: Penrith’s initial claim to fame was one of rugby league’s more bizarre uniform designs, but after a long time in the wilderness, they rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a wonderful generation of players. Brief success was experienced, but so much more was lost in a quite sad manner. A major nursery of rugby league talent, Penrith usually finds its way near success once a decade or so – but struggles somewhat in intervening years.
Both teams were considerably weakened for this game by State of Origin, but even with inclement weather, this was quite an intriguing contest. On another night, the Dragons would have found an early lead and made life difficult for the Panthers to come back, but some uncharacteristically poor Dragons attack and a Penrith try meant Penrith played from in front. With some strong defence, greasy conditions and the Dragons looking a bit out of sync missing so many players and welcoming back one former star from a two-year break, one more try for Penrith was enough for an important, but probably not ultimately significant win.
In case you were wondering, here’s the remaining NRL teams and their international football counterparts. See you next week.
Manly – (West) Germany
Melbourne – (East) Germany (or maybe Juventus)
Gold Coast – Ivory Coast
North Queensland – Turkey
Souths – Uruguay
Newcastle – Colombia
