Round 10: Those were the days - A Heritage Roast

In this week’s Roast, we take a look back at Round 10 – the Heritage Round – with each game accompanied by a memorable previous encounter between each set of teams (as described by the Roast of the day).

Brisbane v. Gold Coast

Yesterday: Round 24 2008, Brisbane defeated Gold Coast 25-21 (guest presented by Bruce McAvaney).

Suncorp Stadium – the old Lang Park – what an amazing ground it is, but more importantly for NRL followers, almost every game played there is top-shelf. This is only the Titans’ second season in the NRL but they have a wonderful rivalry with their older brothers up the road in Brisbane. Brisbane started strongly when Joel Clinton barged over, but Gold Coast dominated the rest of the first half. Can I just say I love Preston Campbell? Sure, he’s no Cathy, but he’s not far off. Preston had a wonderful first half, but he backed up in the second with a broken jaw. Aww gee, what courage, what toughness!

But Brisbane have become experts over the years at holding out the best an opponent has to offer and then coming back with their best and this game was no different. Lockyer guided the ship around but he had important help from Admirals Wallace and Ennis and Gold Coast was sinking fast. Somehow they found a life raft in the form of a surprise try and the game was tied at 20-all.

With under 10 minutes left, the field goal shootout began and gee three of the game’s best battled it out. Lockyer, who won the corresponding match last season, Prince and Rogers (with his surprisingly long boot): with a top-4 spot on the line for Brisbane and death staring Gold Coast in the face if they lose this game, a battle for the ages loomed!! Up stepped Lockyer, who gave Brisbane the lead, but a strip by Rogers gave Gold Coast one more chance and Prince took it to golden point!

Unfortunately for the plucky Titans and heroic little Preston, Lockyer won the game for Brisbane by stepping past the rushing defence and setting up the try for Eastwood. Two years running for Brisbane and Lockyer winning this fixture, but I couldn’t help shedding a tear for Preston and the Gold Coast, so gutsy and just falling short.

Today: Brisbane defeated Gold Coast 28-6. While this game was not decided in the final moments, it was still quite entertaining as Brisbane proved their excellent win over Melbourne was not a fluke, easily disposing of another very talented team. However, Gold Coast was probably due for a flat performance after a tough run of games. This should not detract from Brisbane’s effort though; Queensland would be ecstatic if Thaiday and Folau could replicate their performance from this game and the Melbourne game in the upcoming State of Origin series.

Canterbury v. St George Illawarra

Yesterday: Round 10 2009, St George Illawarra defeated Canterbury 20-18.

Much has been said already about video referee Steve Clark’s abhorrent decision in the game’s final minute to deny the Bulldogs what would have been a famous win, but perhaps the most salient point left unsaid in the game’s aftermath was that allowing Idris’ try to stand would have been the first step in ending the pedantry which has enveloped officials’ decision-making in recent years. There might have been a very minor obstruction on Soward by Eastwood as Patten made the break, but to allow this decision to prevent a match-winning try…it left a bad taste in the mouth of Bulldogs’ supporters and most neutrals.

This was especially the case given the stirring nature of the Bulldogs’ comeback. They absorbed much pressure from the Dragons in the first half (although were let off the hook somewhat by a struggling Dragons’ attack) and slowly forced their way back into the game. They had to endure a questionable sin bin on Kimmorley before continuing the comeback. A memorable finish was building and did eventuate – but not as most anticipated.

However, the Bulldogs have long been beneficiaries of controversial refereeing decisions in big games, the most relevant of which came from Steve Clark – the video referee on Friday night – during his on-field referee days in a controversial semi-final at Kogarah in 1998. St George (note the exclusion of Illawarra here) supporters with long memories (a tautology if ever there was one) would also be quick to note the Bulldogs’ good fortune in their 1985 grand final win, while most rugby league followers would also recall the unease at various refereeing blunders when the Bulldogs defeated Manly in 1995.

But for Steve Clark to help the Dragons out in such a big way: the Tuesday Roast could have been knocked over with a feather when this was realised. It just goes to show that everything with refereeing decisions does even out in the end (assuming you take a sufficient time horizon).

(The other 2 games between these teams at Kogarah were also memorable; a 2006 epic where the rampant Bulldogs forward pack matched up against a potent Dragons attack and an early season match-up in 1999 where the Bulldogs won a tight one with memories of a controversial semi-final loss at the same ground in late 1998 still fresh in the mind of all players and supporters. Kogarah also played host to another tight game between these teams in 1990, where a last-minute try to Cameron Wade and then a sideline conversion by Brad Mackay gave the Dragons a 9-8 victory. In one of history’s more memorable calling-of-a-result-too-soon, a young Tuesday Roast and Father Tuesday Roast heard the cheers of the Kogarah crowd as the Dragons scored the late win ― as they were walking back to the car to beat the traffic.)

Today: St George Illawarra defeated Canterbury 19-6. While the Bulldogs were missing a few regular players, they started this game strongly, jumping to an early lead and threatening to overwhelm their opposition. However, after the blip of losing to Manly last week, the Dragons got back on the ‘grinding out victories’ horse; slowly but surely they got the better of this game and won quite comfortably. Once again, the Dragons did this without a number of important players, highlighting their depth and consistency.

New Zealand v. North Queensland

Yesterday: Round 15, 2004, North Queensland defeated New Zealand 28-26 (in golden point).

Sunday’s action kicked off in Auckland, where the Cowboys came back late and eventually defeated the Warriors in golden point extra time. This result means Siberia has now lost only 1 of its last 7 games – an effort worthy of celebratory golden showers. However, this game was not so much won by the Cowboys as thrown away by the Warriors, who missed 5 out of 6 shots at goal and were repeatedly baited into giving away stupid penalties.

Today: New Zealand defeated North Queensland 22-12. Despite the Cowbores once again sneaking Feral Thurston back early from injury, the major effort needed to back up a Monday night win with a Saturday night win proved far too much. The Warriors jumped to a large early lead and held on for a comfortable win despite a patchy second half.

Canberra v. Melbourne

Yesterday: Round 6 2008, Melbourne defeated Canberra 23-16.

However, the best game of the Heritage Round was played last night in Canberra. The home team (who was missing a host of regular and important players) gave a textbook display of physical rugby league in the first half: they led Melbourne 16-4 at half time. Melbourne should not have been disgraced: few, if any, teams would have survived such an onslaught and while they were not quite at their best, they certainly were not playing poorly, although they should have been concerned at the dominance of Canberra’s Colin Best over their right-side outside backs.

It became apparent in the minutes after half-time that the proud Storm was playing at a higher level, but Canberra was still comfortably in the lead and repelled the Storm’s early efforts. They threatened to put the game out of reach – history shows that once Melbourne concedes 20 points, they are next to no chance of winning – when the aforementioned Best caught a high kick and went towards the corner. But Melbourne’s Billy Slater – who had a relatively poor game to that point – made a great effort to just push Best into touch.

From here, Melbourne’s effort and intensity lifted several notches. Their defence wrested the momentum away from the Canberra forwards, while Melbourne’s attack became more incisive, with Slater assuming a much more dominant role. In addition to moving into dummy half, he constantly looked to exploit gaps in the middle of the tiring Canberra defence.

Slater eventually scored and Melbourne looked a chance of running away with the game: an extremely unlikely possibility in the first half. But Canberra’s effort – and a bit of luck – kept the score at 16-all until a Melbourne field goal. Even after finally assuming the lead, Melbourne’s defensive effort didn’t relent. Canberra was next to no chance of gaining attacking field position, so they gambled with several attacking kick plays, which almost paid off.

When Cooper Cronk finally produced an attacking kick which hit the intended target (and a try for Israel Folau), perhaps the best game thus far in 2008 was decided: a 7-point Storm win. They rarely have had to work harder: who would have thought such an effort would be required against an almost second-string Canberra team?

Today: Melbourne defeated Canberra 17-6. This was another disappointing home game for Canberra (although some of their more vocal supporters enjoyed themselves waving paper currency of various denominations at the Storm players). With so much more to play for, with a home crowd behind them, Canberra struggled against a Melbourne side which played quite well coming off the hiding to Brisbane, but was not at their best. Melbourne jumped to an early lead and was relatively comfortable in keeping Canberra at bay.

Sydney Roosters v. Newcastle

Yesterday: Round 6 2008, Newcastle defeated Sydney Roosters 34-20 at Gosford.

The Roosters’ size and consistency meant they were strong favourites to win their 4th in a row – and, in doing so, send Newcastle to their 4th straight loss – at the historical Rugby League stronghold of Gosford on Sunday.

Once again, Newcastle’s awesome attacking potential was on display: their sweeping passes combined with their above-average speed and size at most positions. However, they were let down for most of this game by unforced mistakes, poor decision making in attack and conceding too many penalties. The less skilful but smarter and more consistent Roosters took advantage and deserved to lead 20-12 at half-time.

The game took a curious turn in the first 20 or so minutes of the second half. Newcastle gradually took control of the game but the scoreboard didn’t change. Almost every time the Knights had the ball, they seriously threatened to breach the Roosters, but a number of tries were squandered due to questionable attacking options. Sure, Newcastle’s second-rowers are skilful, but their supporters (and coach) were understandably frustrated to see them putting in attacking kicks before the last tackle in somewhat normal attacking situations.

But the Roosters’ normally solid game was coming apart at the seams. Their error count was unusually high, meaning they were unable to put any sustained pressure on Newcastle (and therefore unable to give much of a rest to their tiring defence) and they started conceding penalties at important times.

With 12 minutes left, the Roosters looked increasingly likely to hang on, but finally Newcastle’s attack clicked and how: 4 tries in the final 12 minutes. Admittedly, the Roosters tackled themselves into the ground: they barely saw the ball in the game’s final 15 minutes, but it was an impressive end to an entertaining game.

Today: Newcastle defeated Sydney Roosters 32-18. Just over two years since the match described above and Newcastle could still be described as having “awesome attacking potential” (even with Ben Rogers in their team) but all too often, this potential is not realised. However, Saturday night was one of those games where the Knights looked awesome, despite a mounting injury toll and the disruption of an unfamiliar halves pairing. The Roosters clearly miss Mitchell Pearce badly and could struggle to add to their premiership points tally until he does.

Wests Tigers v. Souths

Yesterday: Round 24 2007, Souths defeated Wests Tigers 37-12.

The capacity crowd at Leichhardt for the Tigers v Souths game on Sunday afternoon was not as large as the record crowd for the corresponding fixture in 2005, but those Tigers supporters unable to secure tickets to the game were most likely happy they couldn’t attend. Given what was at stake (for both teams), it was a woeful Tigers effort. Robbie Farah’s injury was obviously a major setback, but their poor attitude and lack of intensity likely wouldn’t have led to victory even if Farah was on the field.

The Tigers’ poor game was in stark contrast to Souths’ brilliant effort. They followed the lead of teams such as Brisbane, Parramatta, the Bulldogs and the Warriors in exploiting their size advantage to thrash the Tigers.

Today: Souths defeated Wests Tigers 50-10. Unlike a number of games between these teams in recent years, this game was fairly low quality from the outset. It was Souths who overcame their poor start and jumped to an 18-6 halftime lead; a similar lead which the Tigers enjoyed in the corresponding fixture last season, but there was no comeback this time. On the contrary, as the passes stuck and the confidence grew, Souths ran away with the game. The challenge for Souths is to back up an exceptional effort like this with another win; the challenge for the Tigers is to score 20 points.

Cronulla v. Penrith

Yesterday: Round 24 2006, Penrith defeated Cronulla 32-28.

First up on Saturday was Cronulla vs. Penno. This game was always going to be hard on the eye, given that both teams have been performing so poorly in recent weeks, but both were still in contention for the playoffs. Both teams started nervously and rarely impressed. Penrith was first to string a few competent plays together and took an 8-nil lead, but they proved just as good giving up tries. Cronulla found the try-line rather easily to take a 10-8 lead to half-time and added 3 more tries in quick succession. Penrith again faded badly and Cronulla finally ended their long losing streak. Wait...Penrith just scored. They scored again, making the score respectable. They scored AGAIN! They're only two points down! It's an old-fashion Cronulla choke! Lance Thompson is now a true Shark. THEY SCORED AG...no, wait, an incredible tackle from Darren Albert knocked the unfortunate Danny Galea into touch and kept Cronulla's slim lead. But now Penrith pushed hard in the scrum and got the ball back!! It's Cronulla's ball again, but Thompson has made another mistake! Preston Campbell with the kick and Penrith score! They're in front! Cronulla got the ball back from the kick-off, but Adam Dykes, in his infinite wisdom, decided running into defenders with the ball on the last tackle was the best option – game over. Congratulations Cronulla – you've now lost in every possible way in this losing streak.

Today: Penrith defeated Cronulla 34-14. On paper, Penrith looked likely to thrash Cronulla; a few minutes of Michael Jennings brilliance could have exceeded Cronulla’s point output in a month. But Penrith has long been notorious for losing when heavily expected to win and the bookmakers had long lost faith in Penrith’s ability to win away from home; they had not been favourites to win in a game away from home since Round 13 2007 and they had lost their last four games as favourite away from home going back to early 2006.

Despite Cronulla having won their last two games at home and showing some signs of being competitive, they were largely overwhelmed by Penrith. This occurred even though Penrith wasn’t quite on their game. Michael Jennings lost interest after a hat-trick and this game petered out tamely. However, Penrith supporters would surely take games like this to the heart-stoppers their games against weak opposition can sometimes be.

Manly v. Parramatta

Yesterday: Round 21 2006, Parramatta defeated Manly 31-18.

Next up, Parramatta hosted Manly. Parramatta was perhaps the most in-form team in the NRL entering this game, but Manly had quietly accumulated a 3-game winning streak, despite missing some important players. Through the first 50 or so minutes of this game, Parramatta's great play looked set to deliver another big win. They had a 24-8 lead and the soon-to-be-missed Dean Widders went within a dropped ball of making it 30-8. Then the game changed significantly, as Parramatta's Fuifui Moimoi was sent off for a nasty high tackle. He flew near the sun of heavy contact with his wings made of explosive play once too often. After Brent Kite was rescued (following the Moimoi tackle) and returned to King Kennedy, King Kennedy was given one wish. King Kennedy's extreme competitiveness made this an easy decision: he wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. For the 5 minutes after Moimoi went crashing into the sea, King Kennedy's wishes came true and Manly surged back into the game with two quick tries. But the Kennedy touch would do no more - not for Manly anyway. The only further gold would come for the blue-and-gold, as a Luke Burt try sealed the win for Parramatta, which disturbed Zorba on the Manly bench.

Today: Parramatta defeated Manly 19-12. This was a danger game for Manly. After a tough run of games over the last month or so, as well as the two games for much of their team last weekend, another game against tricky opposition on the heavy Brookvale track was always going to be difficult. Parramatta is an unknown quantity early in the season, but their wayward focus can often be overcome by a big-name opponent; they looked on their game right from the start of this one. Manly looked unlikely to threaten Parramatta unless Parramatta gave them chances; two of these saw Manly eliminate Parra’s 12-nil lead.

More Parramatta mistakes early in the second half saw Manly deep in attack, but they badly missed Kieran Foran and Trent Hodkinson missed his normal halves partner and was probably still suffering after two games last weekend and took a number of bad options during this game. Parramatta scored rather easily on their next major trip downfield against a rapidly tiring Manly defence thanks to a crafty Luke Burt kick and they held on comfortably for the win. For Parramatta, Hayne was brilliant, Hindmarsh never stopped and Humble helped his team look much less retarded than Kris Keating ever did ― why would Parra want to keep him? Meanwhile, Jamie Lyon was Manly’s best but far too many of his team-mates (led by Watmough) looked as though they were running in soft sand.

See you next week.