Round 6: Brought to you by PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, TAB Sportsbet, Centrebet, Sportingbet, Betfair etc. etc. etc….

“This is Brown, he beats one! He’s got the fullback to beat! Good stop, try saving tackle from Coote! He came up trumps…” Jason Costigan commentating Warriors v Panthers on Sunday
Round 6 of the NRL in 2010 had to largely make do with a bad hand as a number of teams struggled after tough Round 5 games and/or a mounting injury toll, but ended on a high after a surprise ace up its sleeve (in the form of another intriguing chapter in the Melbourne-Manly rivalry).

Friday night’s action kicked off with the Tigers in a heads-up battle against the Bulldogs. The Tigers must have felt they were up against a stacked deck; they were missing a number of key players while the ante had been raised for the Bulldogs after their slow start to the season.

A strong start for the Bulldogs and a high Tigers error count made the Tigers’ task that much more difficult; surely if the Bulldogs played their cards right, they would win this one easily. The final score was a fairly wide margin of 20 points but it was a very determined effort from the Tigers when the chips were down: the margin was only 8 points with 7 minutes left.

The second Friday game saw the short-handed Dragons travel to the Gold Coast to take on the Titans. The Titans were coming off an amazing win over Melbourne last week, but even their most ardent supporter would admit they were hit by the deck and sucked out (to an extent) to get the win. When the dealer turned over a 12-point deficit for the Titans early in the second half, the task for them to follow suit and come back again this week was just too tough. It was a very impressive effort from the Dragons; their typically solid, structured performance produced in spades.

Saturday’s action kicked off in Newcastle, where the more-boring-than-normal Cowbores came to town. It was painfully obvious from very early on in this game that the Cowbores were not playing with a full deck: the absence of Feral Thurston, Payne and Nutjob O’Donnell, plus the presence of Ty Williams, meant the Cowbores were taking 2 club-7 spade into battle against Newcastle’s pocket Kings.

But the flop was crazy: 7-4-5 all clubs and somehow the Cowbores were back in the game. However, the turn brought a third King (in the form of Cooper Vuna making a set of tries) and a blank on the river meant the Knights held on for the win.

The final Saturday game saw Canberra travel to Sydney to take on the Roosters. Canberra successfully called Parramatta’s pathetic bluff on the previous Monday night and took a strong hand to the showdown, so much so that they were given a solid chance to make it two wins in a row. But the Roosters were due for a win and their strong effort was helped by a high Canberra error count.

Canberra coach David Furner would no doubt have called a spade a spade at half time, but the Roosters ace in the hole Todd Carney killed his former team. He kept his cards close to his chest after being vociferously booed by Canberra supporters before his first conversion attempt, but he would no doubt have been extremely happy to have performed so well against his former team.

Sunday’s early game was in Auckland, where Penrith travelled to meet the home side. The Warriors had enjoyed a string of wins or impressive close losses so far this season, despite having to shuffle their deck fairly often due to injury, so it was perhaps not a surprise they came up well behind when the cards were put on the table here: they were probably due for a stinker. In contrast, Penrith played their cards right and this worked in spades when confronted by the Warriors’ poor performance. They led 22-nil before the Warriors sat down at the table and won convincingly in the end.

Next up, it was the perhaps-permanently-short-handed Cronulla up against Brisbane. This would have been a top-shelf match-up not even two seasons ago, but the quality of both teams has since been lost in the shuffle. After a few tough weeks, the return of several aces in the form of Folau and Parker, as well as renewed confidence, meant a crushing win for the Broncos.

The final Sunday game saw Parramatta take on Souths. The Rabbitohs were playing with far from a full deck, especially in the forwards, but it once again emerged in this game that their greatest weakness is in their head. They were hit by the deck early on and should have had a convincing lead against the struggling Eels, but when Parramatta upped the ante late in the first half, Souths’ structure proved to be a house of cards. The main culprit here had to be Rhys Wesser, who made a number of fundamental errors in the first half and gifted Luke Burt an easy try after a pathetic effort to chase down a long kick early in the second half.

This game received considerable media attention after a high number of penalties against both teams forced the referees’ hand. The sin-bin bubble was broken first by Cayless, then the other referee followed suit as Champion joined Parramatta’s co-captain. But no attention was given to Daniel Mortimer’s two ‘dog acts’ (pun intended): his failure to own up to committing the offence which was incorrectly attributed to Cayless followed by his dangerous ‘attempt’ to compete for the high bomb, which could have injured the Souths winger. These were hardly surprises though; there is little doubt his father and uncles were involved in far worse than this.

Lastly, Monday night saw Melbourne take on Manly. These teams have been involved in a number of high-stakes battles since 2006, but Melbourne clearly suffered from their taxing game on the Gold Coast last week and failed to bring their A-game in the first 20 minutes after they sat down at the table. In this time, Manly jumped to a 16-nil lead. Manly’s forward pack often comes up trumps, but their ace in the hole this season might just be their new halfback Trent Hodkinson. His demeanour, solid defence and direct running are in impressive contrast to their declining halfback of previous years Matt Orford. While no-one outside of the northern beaches wants Manly to do well, it would be quite funny if the last two teams Orford left (2005 Melbourne and 2009 Manly) went on to have far better years after he left.

Melbourne battled back into the game with a short stack, but their game suffered due to Manly’s trump cards i.e. their ability to anticipate Melbourne’s pet plays and make them work harder than normal to score points. Melbourne had opportunities, but never seriously looked like winning here. Manly’s coach Des Hasler kept a poker face in the post-game press conference, but he would have been delighted at how well his team fared against the premiership favourites.

Until next time, may all your cards be live and your pots be monsters! See you next week.