Round 16: Repetition On A Theme (Or How Lazy The Rugby League Media Can Be)

Round 16 of the 2010 NRL season may have been the very popular Women In League round, but for far too many media types, their “concerns” (fixations is probably a better word) were with the makeup of a group who would have struggled to beat a team of young girls in their last two games: the New South Wales State of Origin team. Here is how a collection of standard Round 16 match reports in the media from over the weekend might have sounded…

“In the first of last night’s NRL matches, Jamie Soward pushed his State of Origin claims with a dominant effort as the Dragons finished with a wet sail late on to comprehensively defeat the Wests Tigers 34-10. The Dragons took a while to get going as the Tigers threatened to open the scoring, led by some incisive work from Robbie Farah, who surely must be threatening to usurp his former NSW number 9 jumper from Michael Ennis after his recent run of good form, but typically excellent Dragons’ defence and a penalty goal by Soward saw the Dragons take an early lead.

The Tigers fought back with a try to Chris Lawrence, who must be a chance for the left centre position for NSW left vacant by the injured Matt Cooper, but the Dragons pulled away again. The Tigers responded thanks to Lawrence again while a break by Wade McKinnon forced Origin prop Michael Weyman into a dangerous tackle, which will see him miss Origin 3.

But the Dragons were ultimately far too good as the likes of Soward, Morris, Scott, Creagh, Prior, Merrin, Hornby, Green and Gasnier all reminded NSW selectors of their class.

The other game saw Penrith unleash the razzle dazzle in defeating Manly. Penrith became the Pink Panthers on this night, but they may as well have been wearing blue given how many of them could force their way into the NSW line-up for Origin 3. Michael Jennings continued his great run of form, while Coote, Gordon, Lewis, Waterhouse, Walsh and Purtell will make the selectors’ jobs very difficult. Gordon’s combination of great wing play and goal kicking will make him especially hard to ignore; his 1st half try was one of the tries of the season and featured slick passing and player movement.”

“In tonight’s NRL games, Brisbane outlasted Parramatta, Cronulla came from way back to defeat the Cowbores and Souths showed the people of Perth how it’s done as they defeated Melbourne.

At Parramatta Stadium, Jarryd Hayne scored the Eels’ only try, reminding selectors of his rare combination of size and speed, while Tim Mannah made life tough for Brisbane’s forwards. Nathan Hindmarsh, as ever, was consistent; he will never be out of place in the elite level. Meanwhile Brisbane scored a solid win, despite only one player of note: Peter Wallace, who put his hand up for the uncertain NSW halfback position with a strong effort guiding the Broncos around.

In Townsville……nuh, I can’t do it. The Cowbores’ players from New South Wales are all absolute garbage, they can’t even make my pretend abnormally large group of players vying for Origin selection. Anyway, they took an 18-nil lead before the Sharks somehow fought back despite the gaping absence of Origin candidate Kade Snowden. Gallen was tireless and always lifts before Origin selection, Tupou reminded those in charge of his Origin experience and Barrett must have shown some sort of captaincy experience – or is he just old? Anyway, NSW could do worse than having a utility like John Morris on the bench, his and Barrett’s field goals got the Sharks home.

It was almost apt that the final game of night was played in Perth, because only a handful of players were eligible for the coveted NSW Origin jersey in this game. Brett Finch’s career renaissance in Melbourne continued here; selectors would remember Finch’s Origin heroics well. Meanwhile, for Souths, Colin Best had his best game in sometime. His combination of size and speed could give Inglis problems in Origin 3. Ultimately though, Souths’ traditional combination of John Sutton and Luke Stuart pushed their claims for Game 3 by leading Souths to a solid win.”

“To the NRL and upsets were the order of the day. Perhaps some were too concerned about the looming selection of the NSW Origin team for game 3? We will never know.

Earlier today, the Roosters took their home game to Christchurch to take on the Warriors and we had our first glimpse of a possible NSW halves pairing. Todd Carney and Mitchell Pearce played their first game at 6 and 7 and weren’t put off by the difficult conditions to record a strong outing. Phil Graham showed some blinding pace to help set up Carney’s try here; Graham would certainly not look out place in that hard-to-fill right wing slot for the Blues. Another performer for the Roosters was Mitch Aubusson, whose pace and utility value could come in handy for NSW.

Ultimately though the Warriors snuck home. Ian Henderson helped the Warriors stay close in the second half and his tenaciousness and speed out of dummy half could be just what NSW need.

After their Monday night struggles, Newcastle made it two wins this week as they lifted their effort and received a little luck to defeat the Titans. Kurt Gidley was brilliant as fullback and captain. Needless to say, Origin selectors would have been watching closely. Another contender for the NSW halves positions was Jarrod Mullen, who had a hand in most of Newcastle’s attack and already has had his Origin initiation.

For the Titans, Greg Bird played a virtual solo hand and would be stinging to add to his Origin man of the match awards.”

“In the NRL tonight, it was the Bulldogs who triumphed in the upset win over a disappointing Canberra. Michael Ennis proved his Origin credentials with an inspired – and typically irritating – effort, while the Blues selectors could have done worse than look to steady veterans like Kimmorley and Andrew Ryan for some consistency. Idris proved his versatility by starting this game in the forwards and giving his team some early bite against the giant Canberra pack and Steve Turner….wasn’t completely rubbish.

Canberra dominated field position thanks to the likes of Miller, Tilse and Thurling; these players get forgotten by the selectors it seems. Finally, each rubbish Canberra effort like this makes the long-absent Alan Tongue and his leadership more and more valuable.”

Meanwhile Queensland picked basically the same team (again) to no fanfare, even from Queensland media (again) and should win (again).

See you next week.