Round 1: The NRL: The Game of the Everyday Man with Everyday Issues

NRL season 2011 started on Friday night and Round 1 provided entertaining contests, comebacks, intense games more typical of late-season play as well as some good old-fashioned early-season thrashings.

However, the best thing about Round 1 and the return of on-field action was the departure (for now, at least) of reports of off-field action. While it is understandable for various media organisations to highlight off-field transgressions (i.e. ratings, drive down costs for the upcoming round of broadcast rights for which their organisation is bidding, they’re in the AFL’s back pocket etc etc), it is all getting somewhat mundane.

The NRL and its players have come a long way. Scandals still take place, yes, but there are no longer despicable sexual acts, alcohol-fuelled mayhem or anything John Hopoate did. Instead, the players are learning; the NRL’s educative efforts are paying, contrary to what many may say.

For example, Ryan Tandy shouldn’t stand accused of spot-fixing, rather, he should be lauded for wise investing and securing his post-career income. Todd Carney shouldn’t be facing a drink-driving charge, rather he should be feted for going up to the shop on a Saturday morning to get stuff for a healthy and satisfying breakfast after one or two cleansing ales the night before. Benji Marshall shouldn’t be incarcerated for punching a man a week or so ago, he should be celebrated for taking a stand against racism (or, at least, bad insults). Mitchell Pearce shouldn’t have been in trouble for throwing ice when out with team-mates in 2009, he should have been praised for getting the message out (albeit in an unusual way) to keep well hydrated when consuming alcohol.

I could go on, but the point here is that the NRL is full of normal guys with normal thoughts on their mind who have normal things happen to them and normal things to worry about (despite the big pay packets, the abundance of tattoos and the practicing of gangster signals). Look at the unfortunate case of former Souths player David Kidwell, who in 2007 sustained a major knee injury merely by playing with his young daughter at home.

Let’s take a closer look at Round 1 of NRL action through the lens of normality.

Sydney Roosters v Souths

Ho-hum, how normal: Souths’ coach John Lang and his incredible loyalty to fullback Rhys Wesser.

It was a very entertaining contest to open the season, with the Roosters jumping out to a 28-6 lead before Souths, hit by injuries to three of their forwards, rode a wave of momentum to somehow take a 29-28 lead. But an inability to take the ensuing (short) kick-off gave the Roosters good attacking field position; they re-took the lead and scored again from a mistake after the siren.

While many teams take a lot from a close defeat, Souths and John Lang did not. Not only did they wear a $15,000 fine for briefly having too many players on the field, but their big-name signing from Melbourne via Brisbane saw little ball. Not that it was his fault, but many – including Inglis’ former coach – believe Inglis would be a better fit for Souths at fullback, where Wesser currently resides.

It’s never easy to push a respected player towards retirement, but considering Wesser was squeezed out at Penrith by up-and-coming juniors, it’s hard to think he would mind if one of the top 5 players in the game took his spot. I guess Lang’s feelings can be understood; he coached Wesser for many years at Penrith and he took his son Martin from Cronulla to Penrith – he’s clearly a loyal man. But his loyalty and delaying of one man’s retirement may prematurely bring on his if Souths lose a few more in quick time.

Brisbane v. North Queensland

Ho-hum, how normal: Darren Lockyer playing in a team with his son’s mates.

Ok, this is a slight exaggeration…but not a massive one. Lockyer started playing in 1995, when some of his current team-mates would not have yet started school.

When news broke that senior Broncos Justin Hodges and Ben Hannant would miss Friday night’s game, leaving Lockyer, Corey Parker, Peter Wallace, Sam Thaiday, Scott Tronc and….pretty much a bunch of kids to take on the Cowbores, the enormity of this task should have become apparent. The Cowbores may have struggled mightily in recent years, wasting some of the more talented players in the NRL, but they had the clear edge on Brisbane in all-round experience, especially with the signings of Dallas Johnson and Glenn Hall in the off-season, not to mention Matt Scott and Feral Thurston giving themselves (and team-mates) some key seconds to recover with pretend injuries when the Broncos had attacking momentum. It was a bit of a struggle, but the Cowbores got the win and broke a four-year drought against the Broncos.

New Zealand v. Parramatta

Ho-hum, how normal: Carl Webb missed this game due to injury (swollen cankles).

It doesn’t get much more common than this, especially in western Sydney, the home of calories. Carl Webb should feel right at home in Sydney’s Golden West, mostly when drives to the golden arches. It was a shame for Parra supporters and those who’ve had enough of watching the Biggest Loser alike that Webb couldn’t make it on to the field on Saturday night, especially after he just got over his recent bout of gout.

Webb really did miss this game with a calf injury, however if he’s in anything like the shape of his team-mates, it could be a career renaissance for the big Queenslander. Parramatta no longer appears to be the inconsistent, volatile, slow-starting team of years gone by. Instead, they look like Melbourne Storm clones. They gave a disciplined, intense, aggressive performance, especially for the first hour and soundly defeated the Warriors, although the Warriors did make the final score close. It might be difficult for Parramatta to repeat such a polished performance and they might have outside back issues as the season goes on, but they look set for a very good year.

One of Parramatta’s best was Luke Burt, who has taken over from Hazem El Masri as the smartest winger in the NRL (i.e. he plays well despite having only average speed, not much bulk or height). His positional play was excellent, his goal-kicking very good and he feasted on the Warrior back-three stew that Jarryd Hayne cooked up with his towering, swirling bombs. Meanwhile, Chris Walker, playing next to Burt in the Eels’ backline, did very little, except to threaten Beau Ryan’s stranglehold on the “Marginally Talented Team-Mate First to Celebrate Every Try” Award.

Gold Coast v. St George Illawarra

Ho-hum, how normal: Preston Campbell as the old guy in your social team who will play forever, tricking those far younger with his sleight of hand until he struggles to walk.

While John Lang sticks doggedly by his aging fullback, Gold Coast coach John Cartwright is slowly moving his aging, yet still extremely high performing, fullback towards retirement Gold Coast would probably still have lost on Saturday night, but it was quite unusual seeing someone else (Zillman) in the fullback jumper for the Titans, while Campbell filled in, quite out of position, at dummy half. That said, he did make a reasonable fist of it and played well, but the Titans missed their regular dummy half and tackling machine Nathan Friend badly.

This was not a supreme Dragons performance, but it was more than sufficient to defeat a Titans team whose chance to win a premiership with this current group of players has probably passed them by.

Melbourne v. Manly

Ho-hum, how normal: Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith are like the stars of the social sporting team who are the only ones left since all their mates have had to leave (due to kids, work reasons or just getting old). But they love the game too much to stop playing or play with another team, so they’re running around again with up-and-comers and lower grade players.

It was like old times for Melbourne….sort of. The barren wasteland that was the 2010 season was gone, Slater, Smith and Cronk were running the show and grinding out a win, while Craig Bellamy was cursing violently in the coaches’ box, covering the window with saliva like it was 2009 again. But this season will be the greatest test yet of Bellamy and the Storm’s ability to take discards and rejects from other teams and convert them into useful players, if not stars. That’s what playing by the rules will do to you, some might say…

Manly tried hard, but they were no match for Melbourne on this night. It could be a long season for Manly, whose depth has been savaged over the last few years; their bench, once a strength, must hurt coach Des Hasler’s eyes whenever he looks in that direction. Not to mention the high number of miles on the clock so to speak a number of Manly’s star players have logged in their last half-decade of success.

Canberra v. Cronulla

Ho-hum, how normal: Judging by his performance on Sunday, Paul Gallen was obviously led astray by a much less talented team-mate (possibly Ben Pomeroy) on Saturday night, taking in some of the night-time delights the thriving metropolis of Canberra has to offer (such as Mooseheads and the “Casino”).

The final score-line was embarrassing to Cronulla but this was a great opportunity for them to start the season with a win. Canberra looked vulnerable; without Campese (injured until midway through the season), Orford, Dugan (injured but soon to return), Monaghan, Logan (left the team) and Tongue (sadly injured again after a few minutes), Canberra was down on talent and experience. Meanwhile, they often lift at home against highly-rated teams but struggle at times against weak ones.

Cronulla took an early lead and Canberra looked a little nervous. They lacked direction and Cronulla looked solid. But from the 20 minute mark, the game changed. Canberra realised ex-Shark Blake Ferguson had a massive advantage over the men trying to mark him, while Cronulla (led by Gallen) made a number of stupid mistakes with poorly judged off-loads. It was an unusually poor game from Gallen, normally a beacon of consistency on a struggling Cronulla team.

Penrith v. Newcastle

Ho-hum, how normal: Michael Jennings was eerily like the social team sports player with much speed/skill but NO IDEA about some very important rules.

We’ve all experienced them: in soccer, he’s the guy who can score some brilliant goals, but you never know if he’s going to turn up week to week and for every brilliant goal he scores, he’ll give away 15 offside free kicks, plus a disgusted look at the officials, despite being metres in front of the last defender. On Sunday, Jennings was not listed to play but made himself available late on (one wonders how this happened….did he just feel like a run? Was it too hot to hang out at The Mean Fiddler?), then gave an insipid display. Clearly he came back too early from injury, but his worst offence was NUMEROUS penalties conceded by being off-side from kick-offs and line drop-outs.

Usually this laziness might prompt a warning from officials, but given the NRL told all teams these pedantic rules would be enforced early on this season, Jennings’ poor play should result in his demotion to reserve grade. Penrith coach Matt Elliott bravely, but stupidly, offered to take the blame for Jennings, but unless Elliott pinned the rule crackdowns on a noticeboard and he knows Jennings is illiterate (not that far-fetched to be fair), the blame for this should lay squarely on Jennings.

There was more idiocy from Penrith on Sunday with their decision to wear black on a very hot afternoon. Home teams have the choice of jersey and anything would have been better than black, even their yucky teal jersey. Why not have a white jersey for afternoons such as this?

Newcastle was excellent, but it will be difficult to assess them until they play some more credible opposition. Sadly for them, they lost two key players to injury and hence had to name Ben Rogers in this week’s team line-up. Advantage: whoever Newcastle is playing.

Canterbury v. Wests Tigers

Ho-hum, how normal: Tigers winger Mitch Brown couldn’t play (TAFE on Monday nights).

Surely, with Beau Ryan injured, Brown must have had some other commitment which precluded him from being named to play the Bulldogs on Monday night. Why else would the Tigers choose Matt Utai, two years removed from his last NRL game (when the Bulldogs hilariously tried playing him as a back-rower) who kept himself ready for NRL by playing park football last season? It felt awkward just watching the Tigers trying to integrate such a foreign object into their set-up; it could only have been far more difficult for the players.

Tigers coach Teflon Tim Sheens has form in signing and selecting veterans well past their use-by date. Daniel Fitzhenry’s career lasted about 15 years longer than it should have thanks to Sheens, while Jason Moodie inexplicably made a comeback in 2007 after being retired for three years on the Tigers wing. Hopefully Utai doesn’t make it to the 8 games Moodie did before having second thoughts about his comeback.

Luckily for the Tigers, the Bulldogs rarely tried to exploit Utai’s lack of height or speed by attacking his wing. However, the Bulldogs’ focus, playing a simple but intense game, attacking the Tigers up front, was good enough, especially with top-shelf contributions from centres Jamal Idris and Josh Morris.

See you next week.