Round 15: RIP Piggy (And Also To The Lofty Dreams Of The Un-athletic)

It was a sad day for Rugby League on Saturday. Yep, Mark “Piggy” Riddell announced his immediate retirement from the game. Riddell was only a shadow of his former self (in terms of ability and impact) in 2011 so his decision wasn’t a huge surprise, but it was the fact that he cast a far larger shadow on the field (literally) in 2011 which kept the flames of hope flickering in the minds of all would-be rugby players in pubs across the country. “If Riddell can have a muffin-top happening and still be good for a short stint of first-grade per week…….”

As a tribute to the average per game appearance by Riddell in 2011, that brings this week’s Roast to an end, except for one final thought. While the un-athletic may no longer have someone to relate to in the NRL, at least the physically challenged still have Matt Orford (PS Good luck getting over that ‘virus’).

In Round 15 action:

* On Friday night in Brisbane, the Broncos started slowly before having too much for a tired Dragons team. This was a bizarre game; the Dragons were playing ‘catch-up’ rugby league whilst in possession of the early lead. Obviously Wayne Bennett knew his team needed points and plenty of them. A host of mistakes by officials added to the weird feel of the game, but the Dragons lost this game with a number of uncharacteristic errors. Jason Nightingale was the main offender, failing to ground the ball for a fairly easy try in the first half, before being lazy to retreat and hence allowing Darren Lockyer a momentum-changing 40/20 in the second half.

* The other Friday night game saw Souths easily (eventually) account for the pathetic Titans. Souths could have won by 50 but the Titans stayed far closer than they deserved to until the final 15 minutes. All 28 people at ANZ Stadium enjoyed some entertaining, if low-quality, action.

* On Saturday night, Newcastle and Penrith struggled their way to a close, fairly exciting finish. The poor play of both teams is somewhat understandable given major changes in their coaching structure looming. Hopefully the game is remembered for the impressive debut of Newcastle five-eighth Ryan Stig, who exhibited a running game rarely seen amongst halves today. His success after two years of play in open-age rugby league (below the NRL) after playing Toyota Cup comes after Manly’s success with Hodkinson and Cherry-Evans, who followed a similar path playing Queensland Cup after Toyota Cup. Sadly for Daniel Mortimer, Parramatta probably can’t afford to do the same thing for him, even though it would help his game immensely.

* The other Saturday night game saw the Cowbores finish with a flourish and continue the Warriors’ tough run of late. The Warriors rarely succeed in Townsville (the scarring from being forced to play on a Sunday afternoon in 2007 in their black jerseys in Townsville probably still remains) and the Cowbores, despite a horrible night of goal-kicking, were far too good again here.

* On Sunday, the woeful Bulldogs again went down, this time to the resurgent Sharks. To be (somewhat) fair, the Bulldogs were without pest Michael Ennis, Trent Hodkinson and Jamal Idris, but the Sharks were far too good. The return of key forward Jeremy Smith helped, but the continued brilliance of keyer forward Paul Gallen was again crucial for his team’s success.

* The other Sunday game saw Melbourne end the Tigers’ seven-match winning streak at Leichhardt. The Tigers’ tendency to lift and threaten the very best teams was snuffed out by an excellent Storm defence, but also by some refereeing decisions. The decision not to award Bryce Gibbs a first-half try was probably the right one, but in years (or even months) gone by, it would have been awarded. Good to see the ludicrous separation rule has finally changed.

* Finally on Monday night, Manly’s easy recent run of games caught up with them somewhat as the up-and-coming Eels came close to a major upset. This was a battle of two of the best performing coaches so far in 2011: Manly’s Des Hasler, who has regenerated his playing roster considerably from last year without any major signings from other clubs and Parramatta’s Stephen Kearney, who is showing signs of overhauling what looked to be a mess of a roster in just half a season. It looked like Parramatta would get away with the win – Manly looked unable to get enough far enough down field – until a freak late play. David Williams’ strange cross-kick sat up nicely for Kieran Foran to score the match-winning try.

See you next week.