Round 9: NRL State of Mind: Doing What Tina Turner, the Hoodoo Gurus & Thomas Keneally couldn’t…?

These are indeed turbulent times in Rugby League. The belated discovery of the Storm’s ongoing disregard for the salary cap, the NRL’s potentially fatal punishment to the Storm and the looming departure of more of the game’s best players to the big-money codes have seen player frustration and disapproval with administration reach levels not seen since Super League days. The possibility of a player strike has been mentioned (probably via the game’s greatest grub Khoder Nasser and his pot-stirring, brown-nosing mate Danny Weidler) but any time Jarryd Hayne strings a coherent sentence together, you know someone’s been coaching him what to say (as well as when to include verbs): the NRL should be quite concerned.

However, until negotiations move beyond embryonic stages for the predicted bumper next round of television broadcast contracts or most clubs (especially the struggling ones) become a lot richer, there is little the NRL can do.

Well, this is not strictly true. The NRL will of course ask the players to be patient (to wait for the broadcast negotiations to start), to be informed (the NRL has ‘opened their books’ to the players at least once before in recent years and may have to again), to think through alternative Storm punishments fully (while the no points this year is very severe, any other punishment which lets them gain points and compete has many more problems, especially down the road) and to think of the cost of leaving for the money (where million-dollar activities can include catching a cold in the outside backs for the Tahs and being an incredible athlete but a sub-par kicker in sports where almost everyone has to kick).

However, the players and their notoriously short attention spans will likely tune out after ‘patient’: something else has to be done in the interim. The game needs an ad campaign to remind everyone just how great the NRL really is, something that even the immature stars of the game can relate to…

NRL State of Mind

Yeah, yeah, I’ma up near Leichhardt back in ‘08
Not two years back but a more momentous date
But the game’s come a long way, far from back in the day
Have a look at the places where we come to play

Leichhardt is still big, but only gets a rare gig
But on a Sunday afternoon, they’re hanging off the figs
Across town at Parra, where they say they matter
The crowd rises as one when Fui batters

Down in the Shire, where they aspire
To sell off the land by the quagmire
You know they can be fun, sometimes they run and gun
I wish I could rap around the post like Ferguson

Over at Brookvale, the home of the Silvertails
The Eagles rock as T-Rex makes them air mail
I love the suburban grounds, they make the world go round
You feel the passion and all of the awesome sounds in…

In the NRL, grassy jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do, in the NRL
Our grounds will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you, let’s hear it for NRL, RL, RL…..

I gave my love to the burbs, that’s where the game’s birth
But the game today is bout players (like Thaiday)
Like Benji and his sidestep, Hayne and his chip
Idris and his flowing locks, Folau and his leap

Cooper Cronk and his inside ball to Slater
Brett Morris with his pace sayin’ “See you later”
Michael Jennings and his pace lighting up Penny Park
Big Manu the beast always leaves his mark

But the unsung heroes, they deserve plenty of cred
The forwards who work harder for much less bread
Like Big Bull Bailey, he comes to play daily
But then there’s Jason Ryles, or is he a Hayley?

Watmough, Civoniceva, Benny Hannant, Tommy Learoyd Lahrs
When they come together, it’s like a bunch of cars
I love my flashy backs but I love my big pack
It’s all about scoring and knowin who got your back in…

In the NRL, grassy jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do, in the NRL
Our grounds will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you, let’s hear it for NRL, RL, RL…..

But you know it’s rivalries that make the game not tedious
Not just on the field but also in the media
Also in the boardroom, where ex-players clash
They make dumb arguments trying to protect their cash

First there’s Farah and Mick Ennis
The shifty Leb and Newcastle’s menace
Then there’s J Hodges and Melbourne’s Bretty White
If they meet in Origin, it could be a massive fight

In the media, the hate is deep and it’s been there since Super League
News Ltd Fairfax, Channel 9 Foxtel, 2GB ABC, they all have a story to tell
About the petty dislikes, the needless fights, and the dodging of shrapnel
But at the day’s end, it all moves product, it helps to sell

With the admin, the hate’s a bit more genuine
But everyone seems to hate idiots like Paul Osborne
Except for all the Storm fans who hate Gallop
But where would we be if no-one hated the top dog in…

In the NRL, grassy jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do, in the NRL
Our grounds will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you, let’s hear it for NRL, RL, RL…..

One hand in the air for the NRL
Bright lights, big dreams and the Big Dell
No comp in the world can compare
Put your lighters in the air, everybody say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

In the NRL, grassy jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do, in the NRL
Our grounds will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you, let’s hear it for NRL, RL, RL…..

On to discussion of the abridged Round 9 action, where a fairly routine Friday night gave way to a topsy-turvy weekend of bizarre results.

Everyone expected Australia to win and they did this but a resilient Kiwi defence, the dreary Melbourne weather and a somewhat under-strength Kangaroos line-up meant the final margin was far close than most expected. In the other Friday representative game, City surprised Country in taking a 12-nil lead but Country dominated from here, providing some entertaining tries and expansive play to win comfortably.

There are always injuries from these games which impact upon subsequent club fixtures. The Dragons, for example, missed Michael Weyman noticeably on Saturday night, but the Cowbores and Parramatta would have quietly been happy to watch Luke O’Donnell and Kris Keating leave the City Country game with injuries. Not surprisingly, the Cowbores looked much better without O’Donnell and Parramatta should look far less retarded without Keating against Manly next week.

Without Weyman, the Dragons forward pack was lacking a little, but Manly shocked many with a dominant display. With so many players backing up from Friday night and a difficult draw in recent weeks, Manly playing somewhere near their best looked a long-shot, but they were very impressive. The Dragons fought back to 10-6 but a Darius Boyd turnover started a burst of two tries for Manly early in the second half which ended the game as a contest.

There was a significant element of dé ja vu on Mothers Day. Firstly, Newcastle hosted the Gold Coast in another close game where a controversial refereeing decision had a considerable impact on the game’s outcome. However, this year the tries flowed somewhat more freely due to a combination of freewheeling attack, sloppy defence and some inexplicable mistakes and this year, it was Newcastle’s turn to suffer from the officialdom. The penalty given against Ben Cross for an incorrect play-the-ball when Newcastle was deep in attack was at least as poor as the game-deciding penalty given against Scott Prince in the corresponding fixture last year. But Newcastle had the lead when Cross was penalised and over 20 minutes left to secure what should have been a fairly comfortable win. They have only themselves to blame.

More dé ja vu in the later game, where the team under the pump (Brisbane….last year it was Manly) turned their season around with an impressive win. How powerful is a team’s position on the ladder in determining the success of a player’s backing-up from representative games? Last year, Lockyer and Thaiday looked ancient as Manly ran down Brisbane (who started 2009 fairly well) to score a season-turning win. On Sunday, Lockyer and Thaiday had brilliant games as Brisbane (who has started 2010 very poorly) absorbed Melbourne’s best in the opening 20 minutes then thrashed the Storm.

A letdown for Melbourne was always going to come and in hindsight, we should not have been too surprised it came on Sunday (they were white-hot for most of their previous two games, complacency against a struggling Brisbane side had to be an issue and backing up from Friday night – plus the injury to Cameron Smith – would have made things difficult), but merit must be given to Brisbane for one of the performances of the season so far. As mentioned, Lockyer and Thaiday (especially) were excellent, but their effort and intensity were top-shelf across the park from a very young and inexperienced team.

The icing on the cake (which would have been quite bitter…for both teams) was the dominant display of Israel Folau. He scored two tries, set up another and obliterated his direct opponent Greg Inglis. There was probably a strong justification for not picking Folau in the Australian team, given his patchy form and injury, but at his best, Folau is more dominant than Lyon, Jennings, Hodges or anyone else in contention for the right-centre position. Sure, he is an unco when it comes to kicking the ball and passing is far from his forte, but it will be a major loss to rugby league if/when he signs with another code. His potential is (still) frightening.

The final game of the round saw a much-improved effort from the Cowbores – but if the Roosters were anywhere near their best, or even their average, the Sydney side would have won easily. A high mistake count and a lot of generally sloppy play were seen in the game’s first hour, before the Cowbores secured the win with robust defence late on (in response, the Roosters folded faster than Superman on laundry day). It was hard to not to think of the Roosters and their possibly-gambling-induced capitulation to the Cowbores when these teams last met in Round 26 last season as the Cowbores pulled away to record a convincing win last night, but at least (get the sick bags out) Matty Bowen came back from injury! Ohhhhh Matty Bowen, what a player! He may be only a shadow of what he once was with his artificial knee cartilages, but I’ll always remember him as the overrated player he was 3 years ago!

See you next week.