Round 1: Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack

The combination of the (permanently?) wounded beast that is international cricket (and its especially lacklustre summer), the unusually high quality of rugby league’s off-season matches and, of course, the amazing success of the NRL in 2009 pushed expectations for the new season to a level probably not seen since the mid 1990s.

As is always the case, the start of a new season reminds us that high expectations are somewhat unreasonable. Rugby League is a game built on the success of combinations as well as superior levels of physical fitness; despite months of preparation off the field, performing at or near the peak in these two areas only comes about with extended time in match situations.

However, on the whole, round one of the new season was quite entertaining, more so than many recent season starts. This was especially due to in-game momentum shifts having a greater-than-usual effect (due to the lack of ‘match fitness’) and the general league-wide parity.

But it was also due to the ‘return’ of a number of intriguing players or factors after an absence of several seasons. The combination of these returnees with many consistent and regular performers from last year helped to give round one its quite high entertainment value.

In other words, each game over the weekend had its ‘Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack’ aspect (the theme from 70s TV show Welcome Back Kotter, which some may remember from a Pizza Hut ad campaign in the early to mid 1990s) as well as its ‘Oh No Not You Again’ feature (an early Australian Crawl song title).

Parramatta v St George Illawarra

The season’s first game provided us with perhaps the round’s only team playing at something very close to their best. The Dragons dominated early possession and jumped to a lead on the back of hard running, stinging defence and an excellent kicking game from Jamie Soward. They were rarely run down after getting an early lead in 2009 and they weren’t run down here either. Parramatta occasionally showed glimpses of their late 2009 form but never seriously threatened.

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack: to Timana Tahu (from Union) but also to the pre-season hype about Parramatta. Parramatta’s incredible late-season run in 2009 not surprisingly brought many supporters out of the woodwork. Throw in a few big-name signings such as Tahu and that Parramatta has a large supporter base and is in the part of Sydney under ‘threat’ from the AFL ‘invasion’ and it was little wonder the massive, Telegraph-led hype happened. Tahu had a relatively quiet game, but seasoned followers of the Eels are used to fairly slow season starts. They’d probably prefer less hype anyway.

Oh No Not You Again: to the Dragons’ incredible early-season intensity. This was how they started 2009, but this was somewhat unsurprising as new coach Wayne Bennett aimed to clean out the previous culture of laziness at the famous club. For them to start 2010 in a similar way though was quite unexpected. Obviously the hype for Parramatta probably contributed to their motivation, but after their late-season struggles and that premiership winners often pace themselves (sometimes by accident) more over the course of a season, one might have expected the Dragons to start 2010 in a more measured way. However, this shouldn’t detract from the impressiveness of their performance.

Brisbane v North Queensland

One of the more exciting games of the round, but played at a fairly low standard. Brisbane is a sliver of a shadow of their 2006 title-winning squad, but managed to jump to 24-nil lead over a largely pathetic Cowbores. From here, the Cowbores got some possession, Feral Thurston made one or two run-of-the-mill plays (which prompted ‘Best Player in the World’ garbage from the Channel 9 commentators) and Brisbane’s rookies made some inexplicable errors to allow the Cowbores all the way back to a deadlock. The big crowd and some shouting commentators created the feeling of a big game, but it was more mediocrity than class as the Cowbores botched a potential game-winning field goal and Brisbane spread the ball wide to instead take the win.

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack: to the Cowbores’ Ty Williams. Or at least the body of Ty Williams, which is apparently now inhabited by a 70-year old man. With leprosy. In an era where fullbacks are far more versatile, skilful, fast and confident than they’ve ever been, in a time where if you don’t have a very good fullback, you might as well go home for the winter, the Cowbores provided this cadaver in their no. 1 jersey. True, he played a fairly prominent role on their 2005 grand-final team, but since then, he’s aged like a dog. To add insult to injury for Cowbores supporters, the dynamic Shannon Gallant, inexplicably given away by the Tigers, was apparently not considered. One question remains: exactly how many compromising pictures of the coaching staff does Williams possess? There was, however, one huge fan of Williams’ effort on Friday night: Cowbores centre Ashley Graham. Graham was only barely above execrable on Friday night, but was (barely) better than Williams.

Oh No Not You Again: to Brisbane and their ability to unearth special young talent. On paper, this was perhaps the weakest non-Origin Broncos team ever, but they played quite well. Their rookies, led by Corey Norman, were especially impressive. See, Cowbores, there are good fullbacks everywhere. If you close your eyes and spin around with your arm out, you’ll probably find two or three. No wonder Feral Thurston wants to run away to Union.

Bulldogs v Newcastle

This was the first of the round’s games where the overachievers of 2009 started slowly. In contrast to their 2009 opening, where they thrashed the reigning premiers Manly with their new team, the motivation of lining up against the wooden spoon favourites from the Hunter with a highly-lauded team (and the next addition to the Hall of Fame of players who leave Melbourne and then everyone realises the player is not very good, Steve Turner) was not nearly as huge. Meanwhile, Newcastle started the game strongly, clearly determined to show events of recent months and some prominent injuries would not affect them. They led 16-nil and 20-4 before a Bulldogs comeback fell short – by the barest of margins. Had Idris kept on running and not kicked ahead, a Bulldogs victory (either in the 80 minutes or in golden point) seemed certain.

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack: to Newcastle’s Ben Cross. After missing most of last season with injury, the former Melbourne and State of Origin prop led Newcastle as they had the better of the early physical exchanges with the Bulldogs.

Oh No Not You Again: to the NRL’s interchange rules. Newcastle was severely hampered in the second half as two of their outside backs left the field with injury. Rugby League is a game of endurance and any increased interchange capacity for injured players would have to be unable to be exploited by the tiring or those pretending to be hurt. But any game where one team suffers heavily due to injuries to their outside backs (those players least likely to be interchanged during a game) always leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The Bulldogs comeback was definitely aided by large Newcastle forwards having to play in outside back positions.

Cronulla v Melbourne

Defending premiers have struggled in recent season starts, especially when forced to play away from home. While Cronulla is far from the NRL’s best, any game at Toyota Stadium can be tricky, especially with the strange microclimate there. Cronulla played Melbourne tough for most of the game, but Melbourne was not really troubled despite the closeness of the score line.

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack: to Cronulla’s Adam Cuthbertson. Seemingly a player of great potential at Manly a few years ago, his decline out of first grade was sudden and surprising. This decline made him a perfect Cronulla signing: cheap, rejected by another club and a good complementary player. It’s hard to be too negative on Cronulla though, at least Cuthbertson is not a ‘Bra Boy with a drug problem.

Oh No Not You Again: to Melbourne and their ability to….put very simply, win. There may be a number of contenders for the NRL crown in 2010, but none of them has the ability to perform when needed as Melbourne does. They also don’t have the ability to make chicken salad out of chicken feathers as Melbourne does. It helps that some players want to play there for chicken feed, but their ability to grind out wins (damnit…no more chicken metaphors!), to manage their roster through the representative season and to time their run for the big September games means they should be strong favourites to defend their title in 2010.

Penrith v Canberra

Penrith threatened to end this game as a contest, but Canberra probably should have taken a lead in this game with about 20 minutes to go. Canberra was almost scoring at will and had a two-man overlap near Penrith’s line, but former Raider Adrian Purtell successfully went for the intercept and returned it 95 metres for a try and a momentum shift. Penrith won well in the end, but could very well have lost this one, and disturbingly easily too.

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack: to fairly cool round one weather. Season starts in previous years have been affected by fairly hot and/or humid conditions. They would not necessarily affect the performances in a given match, but teams often struggled noticeably the week after playing a match in difficult conditions early in the season. Even the Sunday game on the Gold Coast (luckily) did not experience the searing conditions many expected. Hopefully, this will mean generally better performances in round two.

Oh No Not You Again: to Canberra’s erratic/inconsistent form away from home. From time to time, Canberra scores some emphatic wins away from the national capital, but for the most part, their play away from home is poor. Frustratingly for them, they often show glimpses of their talent, as they did in the second half when they threatened to storm into the game and take the lead. Apart from their amazingly successful 2003, where they racked up a huge number of away wins, this has been a characteristic of their play since the end of the Laurie Daley era and looks like continuing while the talented but inconsistent Terry Campese leads them around.

Gold Coast v New Zealand

A bit like the Bulldogs, the Gold Coast fell behind early against a team most expected them to defeat easily in an environment where they were very successful in 2009. However, the Gold Coast started their comeback a little sooner than the Bulldogs, was a bit luckier with weather conditions and their goal kicker (Prince) had a far better day than the unfortunate Ennis. Preston Campbell started his 38th season of top-flight rugby league with yet another impressive display although he suffered a concussion late in the game. His chances to play against Souths on Friday night though appear good as the routine post-concussion brain scan revealed nothing.

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack: to the much-maligned Greg Bird. In a welcome change from previous behaviour, Bird took the flak for his misdemeanours. Despite making a number of mistakes, Bird’s generally aggressive and strong play helped the Titans to overcome their slow start. He could be one of the best signings of the year.

Oh No Not You Again: to the Warriors and their ability to lose after being in match-winning positions. Ok, for them to have an 18-6 lead over the Gold Coast with a totally new halves combination and missing a number of key forwards should not have been expected, but over the years, they regularly lose games where they have a very good chance to win. Some cruel people (ok, me) have suggested this was because of the high number of Polynesians in their team, but a fairly high turnover of personnel in recent years and an increasing Polynesian influence in many NRL teams means this factor no longer has the relevance it once did. Some other cruel people (not me) have suggested the Warriors will finish last this season. This seems unlikely; they will probably have a fairly good season, but one should never feel too comfortable when tipping them.

Souths v Sydney Roosters

On paper, this was a no-contest: a huge forward pack against a forward pack whose ranks had been considerably thinned over the off-season. Not surprisingly, Souths aimed to press home their advantage in the forwards, but the Roosters held firm and eventually overwhelmed Souths. Todd Carney had a brilliant first game as did fellow Hall of Shame member Nate Myles, but Souths had reason to consider themselves quite unlucky in several instances in this game, especially when Nathan Merritt inexplicably dropped the ball with 40 metres of grass in front of him.

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack: to Todd Carney. If he and Mitchell Pearce can be at their best on the field (whilst combining this with a very sober off-field effort) the Roosters could have a very good season. To have two good playmakers (possibly three with Braith Anasta) puts you in the upper echelon on NRL teams. While the Roosters’ depth and overall talent may be suspect (at least at this early stage), the addition of Carney could be one of the signings of the year. Downtrodden Canberra and Cronulla supporters died a little more watching Carney and Bird respectively over the weekend.

Oh No Not You Again: to the bizarre nature of Souths v Roosters games in round one. The last four of these games have been won by the team who performed the worst in the previous season. The game on Sunday was quite similar to round one in 2008, when optimism was high for Souths after their strong 2007, but the Roosters thrashed them at Homebush.

Wests Tigers v Manly

Probably the best game of round one, but also the game where the strengths and weaknesses of the two teams meant the shifts in momentum were especially crucial. The Tigers speed and crisp ball-movement punished the slower Manly players whenever the Tigers had an extended period of possession, while Manly looked very impressive with lots of ball as their size overwhelmed the smaller Tigers. Jamie Lyon figured to come under a lot of pressure as the only real playmaking option in the halves for Manly, but he had an excellent game, while Gareth Ellis was a beacon of hard-running and hard-hitting in an ocean of fairly soft Tigers forward play. His late try was a worthy reward for his great game. Imagine him in a good pack of forwards…

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaaack: to Lote Tuqiri and Jason Cayless after a number of years in the wilderness. Both looked a little off their game but both will have increasingly important roles as the season goes on, Tuqiri at the end of mesmerising play from Farah and/or Marshall and Cayless coming off the bench to help slugs like Bryce Gibbs and Chris Heighington. Another one to be welcomed back is Manly’s Tony Williams, although it can be argued that he was never really here. Despite his massive size and bulk, he slept-walked his way through most games in the past (a symptom of starting his career under Michael Hagan at Parramatta no doubt) and his being named at centre brought joy to the eyes of Tigers supporters. But he had a good game, displaying rarely seen aggression and some new skills. He was caught out for the Tigers’ last few tries, but he won’t be the last right centre to suffer against the Tigers.

Oh No Not You Again: to the Tigers, who rarely seem to be able to play to their potential. At times, they can be brilliant, but their dumb play tally was at typically high levels in this game, led by Chris Heighington and his penchant for the stupid penalty. You sometimes get the impression they wouldn’t really mind if they finished ninth again but had a number of exciting games like this. It pays the bills and Channel 9 loves them for an exciting Sunday afternoon game every so often.

See you next week.