Round 10 provided further evidence of a phenomenon that has become widespread in recent seasons: where teams post poor performances despite facing a much-weakened opposition lineup, having strong motivation to the contrary or both.
This has become increasingly common in the approach to the finals series, where teams out of contention (and without any pressure or expectations) often defeat those with the lure of securing or improving their top 8 position, but the mid-season malaise suffered by many teams is often due to facing opposition missing many important players.
In some instances, this can be an absence of players before State of Origin games or just a host of players missing due to injury, but it can also come when playing an opposition well down on form. The factors attributed to many current failings in the NRL (static salary cap, significant talent and experience losses to UK/Rugby, continued increases in speed and intensity of games) are also relevant here (in making it difficult to maintain consistency and focus from week to week), but there is more to it: over short periods (enough time to build a significant lead), Rugby League is a game where a burst of effort alone can make a difference, especially in such an even competition. When the favoured team is flat or complacent, anything is possible.
Most games in Round 10 featured a healthy dose of playing down to a weakened opposition / playing poorly when circumstances or motivation suggested otherwise. Without doubt, the best of this came from Parramatta, for whom such an effort (or lack thereof) was not really a surprise.
Parramatta's Round 10 opponent was the Roosters, who were missing 4 of their best forwards to State of Origin. Even a pack as strong and as deep as the Roosters cannot fully cover for the loss of the 4 quality players; that is, they cannot fully cover for this loss against most teams. Against Parramatta, the Roosters' weakened forward pack still dominated.
The first half was relatively even, as the Roosters made a number of errors, but their defence held quite firm against a rather pedestrian Parramatta attack. However, in the first 15 or so minutes of the 2nd half, the Roosters held onto the ball and their forwards took over. From this platform, halves Anasta and Pearce took advantage and did as they pleased. Tries came far too easily and within 20 minutes of the second half, the Roosters had a match-winning lead. Parramatta supporters everywhere would have been disappointed, but perhaps none more so than Ray "Rabbits" Warren, who sounded almost funereal as Pearce took a late intercept and ran away to score.
As noted earlier, Parramatta has become one of the teams most likely to put in an "unexpected" stinker like this. They have become almost as bad as the Dragons at losing games when they're favoured by many to win. Speaking of the Dragons, one of Parramatta's more famous losses came against them in 2004 (which took place, like the Roosters game, before State of Origin 1). In this game, the Dragons were missing Bailey, Barrett, Cooper, Gasnier, Hornby, Kite, Thompson and Timmins either to State of Origin or to injury. Parramatta was missing Burt, Cayless and Hindmarsh, but they were thrashed 37-6 by the second-string Dragons (led by the...ahem...inspirational leadership of Jason Ryles). As Piggy Riddell dominated, the boos reverberated around Parramatta Stadium: the Eels probably deserved boos on Friday night as well.
Cronulla is not as bad as Parramatta when it comes to losing games they should win - their forté is an alarming inability to win at home and perhaps the worst attack in the NRL - but they were in a similar situation as the Eels on Saturday night. In fact, Brisbane was probably weakened more than the Roosters by State of Origin and injuries, but the fact that they were not massive outsiders showed how little respect many gave to Cronulla's ability to win at home and to score enough points to beat Brisbane (who, in their Origin and injury-weakened state, rarely looked like scoring).
Despite having some of the best supporters in the NRL, Cronulla had won just ONE of their past nine games at home and have endured long losing streaks there in recent years: a stark contrast to the period between the mid 90s and early 2000s, when Cronulla was almost unbeatable at home. The fans again turned up in hope on Saturday night, but it didn't look very good early, as Cronulla errors gave Brisbane a much-needed assist into attacking field position. In contrast, Brisbane's ball-handling early on was exemplary and eventually they found a try to take an early lead.
Slowly, Cronulla fought their way back into the game - a significant task given a still very-strong Brisbane forward pack - and dominated the game for an extended period into the second half with the wind at their back. However, this dominance resulted in just 12 points. While Cronulla was missing their two best players in Gallen and Bird, they still had significant attacking field position but rarely looked like scoring.
Their best attack came from set plays; there is little doubt of the significant improvement in Cronulla's defence under Ricky Stuart's coaching, but their attack has regressed markedly. The enterprise, instincts, nous and (most importantly) attacking confidence has almost completely disappeared in Cronulla's game. Instead, they rely on several set plays and the bare bones of an attacking system. Stuart is either over-managing his team from an attacking perspective, unwilling or unable to coach an attacking system (as opposed to a few plays) or the key attacking players are under instruction not to undertake any risky attacking plays. Given Stuart's history of chopping and changing halves, the latter would not be surprising, although Kimmorley may now play a more expansive attacking game with his NRL future now secure.
Kimmorley did seal the win for Cronulla with a late field goal: at this stage, any home win for Cronulla is a great one, no matter how ugly.
The same could be said for Penrith, who have an incredibly poor recent record: at home, when favoured to win at home and when coming off a win. They were also without Petero Civoniceva for their game on Sunday against the still injury-hit Warriors. But his absence meant little as Penrith gave a rare glimpse of their attacking potential. Pritchard and Jennings dominated down the left-hand side. They dominated to such an extent, you wonder why it doesn't happen more often. Meanwhile, the newest, largest halfback in the NRL, Luke Lewis, had another good game (although his introduction to halfback has been made quite gentle by another poor defensive showing by Penrith's opposition) and Tighe and Gordon continued their strong recent form on Penrith's right.
That said, the Warriors were again (for a game in Australia) very poor. They fought back late in the first half, but a weak attempted kick in attack by Grant Rovelli was returned by Pritchard then Jennings for a Penrith try: this broke the game open and Penrith piled on the points from here. Still, a win in this situation is a very good one for Penrith. There's a looooong way to go, but they just might have turned the corner.
Even Manly and Gold Coast slipped from their previous strong form against weakened opposition. Manly figured to be the weekend's big winners. They took on a Cowbores team minus Feral Thurston, Matt Bowen, Carl Webb and (if the rumours were true) coach Graham Murray (on a permanent basis). Even still, the Cowbores competed very well for most of the first half. Alas, without anyone with more than rudimentary playmaking talents, they never seriously were in the contest, but they stuck close with a team known for their consistency of effort for far longer than many expected. The final wide margin flattered Manly, but also reflected the magnitude of problems within the Cowbores.
The Bulldogs don't have Feral Thurston (well...not since 2004 anyway) but they have almost as many problems as the Cowbores, with injuries, a coaching change already booked in for 2009 and some big-name player unrest. While the table-topping Gold Coast was without the likes of Rogers, Laffranchi and Campbell, a close contest between these teams seemed extremely unlikely, especially with Scott Prince's omission from State of Origin and the return of inspirational co-captain Luke Bailey.
The Bulldogs dominated possession in the game's early minutes but never seriously threatened to score. When the Gold Coast finally saw some ball, they put on 3 tries in relatively quick time: the thrashing looked on to everyone except the most one-eyed Bulldogs supporter and the Channel Nine commentators.
However, in the remaining minutes of the first half, it became quickly apparent the above list included most of the Bulldogs' players. They came back into the game with two tries down Gold Coast's right-side defence: once they had this sniff of a chance of victory, they attacked wherever chances made themselves apparent. This attack took place both with and without the ball, as a series of well-executed tackles secured an increasing amount of possession. Much of this possession was returned quickly towards the Gold Coast tryline.
Despite more Scott Prince brilliance and a Prince penalty goal, the Bulldogs were not to be discouraged. How was this the same team who meekly submitted to Penrith last week? Even when Gold Coast had the ball, the Bulldogs smelled blood and attacked any sign of weakness (which were becoming more apparent). A turnover of possession in Gold Coast attacking territory was bundled back down the field by, of all people, Jarrod Hickey. Soon after, Reni Maitua scored: he looked more energised than he has been in years.
To describe Gold Coast's four-point lead at this point as tenuous was to be polite: they were in desperate need of the full-time siren. A dubious penalty and a possible knock-on came in the lead-up to what appeared to be the game-tying try to Michael Sullivan; alas, a forward pass was called, denying what would have been an incredible comeback win.
For the Gold Coast, it was another home win, but it was not so much a wake-up call as fingernails down 1000 blackboards. Sure, they were without several important players, but until they see off a challenge such as this in somewhat more convincing fashion, they will have little support to come close to Premiership success.
Perhaps luckily for the Gold Coast, their next opponents also came close to defeat against an understrength opponent in Round 10. For the third time in four seasons, the Wests Tigers played the Knights in Newcastle with the Knights missing a host of important players. State of Origin meant the absence of Buderus (as it did for the corresponding game in 2007) and Cross, injury and suspension ruled out Gidley and Hilder respectively, while Newcastle's massive effort to be competitive with Melbourne for 60 minutes last Monday night meant most other players were not 100% for this game.
In contrast, the Tigers were coming off the bye and welcomed back Robbie Farah and Benji Marshall: they were perhaps two players away from being at full-strength. This game went much the same as the games in 2007 and 2005 did: the understrength home team played quite well for some time, before the Tigers exerted their authority and surfeit of ability to win fairly comfortably. While they looked good for about a 20 minute period in the second half and scored some nice tries, the overall display was so-so: Tim Sheens had every right to publically voice his concern after the game.
Last night's game saw Canberra take on Souths. Canberra's ongoing terrible luck with major injuries saw them field a team significantly weaker than their best (although many teams would take the likes of Monaghan, Purtell, Carney, Tongue and Tilse in a significantly weakened team) while Souths was really only missing Craig Wing (a major loss, of course. You can probably guess how it turned out: a combination of strong play by the Raiders and insufficient intensity from Souths saw Canberra enjoy an easy win. The good work of recent weeks was wasted by Souths, while Canberra continue to be dreadful away and brilliant at home.
Lastly, in a round where the increasing tendency of Rugby League teams to waste dominating positions (or to rise against adversity and the loss of important players), the team most closely linked with such bizarre play - St George Illawarra - did as the formline suggested and thrashed a significantly weakened Melbourne Storm. However, it may be important to note that the Dragons were missing three of their important players: see the story above from 2004 as to how the Dragons often fare quite well when missing big-name players. Players such as Soward, Chase, Ryles and Poore had great games: if only they could reproduce this form on a more consistent basis.
It is also important to note just how understrength the Storm was. They won 2 games before State of Origin last season, but those teams featured Slater (one game), Folau, Quinn, Cross, Aubusson, Rua, Crossman, Newton: these players are now either Origin players or were forced elsewhere due to salary cap constraints. Melbourne is renowned for developing (or purchasing) some of the best youngsters in the game, but the young Storm players were out of their depth in this game. They gave away far too many late tackle penalties and errors.
The extent of the dropoff in performances in Round 10 from Melbourne, Brisbane and the Cowbores has brought a host of complaints that the NRL should make play State of Origin games on a stand-alone weekend. This would mean less potentially one-sided contests, but also less chance to see how teams on both sides react to being put in such unusual situations. One thing's for sure: Parramatta supporters wouldn't disagree with such a proposal (unless, of course, they were without many of their big-name players).
See you next week.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Why are NRL teams slow or unable to take advantage of a weakened opponent?
Monday, 12 May 2008
Round 9: Played Strong, but Done....Poorly (or how to put a week off to good use)
The passing of Jack Gibson on Friday cast a pall of sadness over Round 9 for many. However, the game Gibson knew, the game he imbued upon a generation of players, the game his great mind came up with a host of innovations for, that game is long gone. Today's game is more for the athlete rather than the natural player, more for the 6'3 95kg utility than the crafty player who can read and understand the game but isn't the best at tackling Mack Trucks.
Remnants of the game Gibson knew so well still remain today - and when they are seen, in combination with Olympic sprinter-like speed and/or physiques seemingly carved out of stone, they are a sight to behold - but are all too rare. Size, speed and the ability to wrestle are the commodities most in demand - the rules of the modern game dictate this.
When the modern game on the field is combined with the modern game off the field - where the salary cap gives struggling teams a leg-up and hence innovation is stifled (due to any benefits being lost to the jaws of the salary cap in due time) - a rather homogeneous product is the result.
There's no doubting the effort of most players (Played Strong) in today's game, but the general skill level and quality of many games often leaves a lot to be desired (Done Poorly).
This was especially the case in Round 9, which served up a number of sub-standard performances. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the (few) teams who performed at or near their best came off the bye in Round 8 and were able to shake off injuries, lethargy or both and provide some highlights in an otherwise poor weekend.
The most surprising of these strong efforts came on Sunday from Manly. Much had been made of their rather impotent (but also quite predictable) attack in the early rounds of 2008. Their wins so far had come mostly from overwhelming poor teams at Brookvale Oval, with a brave win over a typically lackadaisical Parramatta as their only success away from home.
Even though their opponent on Sunday - Brisbane - was without Lockyer, then Hodges and Carroll, Brisbane still figured to be a far more difficult opponent than any other team Manly had beaten so far. Even if their defence stymied the usually strong Brisbane attack, their own attack probably needed to play at a higher level than had been seen this season (especially away from home): a potentially tricky task without Anthony Watmough and a less than 100% Brett Stewart.
Early on, Manly showed signs of taking the game to Brisbane, but Brisbane withstood Manly's efforts and put two tries on in fairly quick time. Manly's poor record when trailing early on seemingly made the likelihood of a comeback fairly slim.
But after about 25 minutes, inexplicably, the game turned. Brisbane put consecutive attacking kicks across the dead ball line, which gave Manly impetus. Several teams have attacked Brisbane's young outside backs with the cross kick this season: Manly's effort in this area caused havoc, with a try scored and a second try very nearly recorded soon after.
Manly's momentum gathered pace in the second half, as sustained pressure saw Brisbane look extremely vulnerable. Most importantly though, the predictable, one-pace Manly attack of early rounds was nowhere to be seen. New recruit Heath L'Estrange was the catalyst here, giving life to his forwards with incisive running from dummy half and asking many questions of the Brisbane defence.
Brisbane is a fundamentally solid defensive team, but they were found wanting, especially in the first 20 minutes of the second half, where Manly won the game. The absence of noted defensive specialist Carroll was significant, but Manly probably would have won well even if Carroll played.
Another team to significantly improve their attack after a bye week was Cronulla. While Cronulla's attack had been far less effective than Manly's, luckily for them, they played perhaps the worst defensive team (from a fundamentals basis) in the Cowbores.
The jury remains out as to how much of the credit for Cronulla's first-half onslaught of four tries should go to poor Cowbores' defence; Cronulla certainly had more life in their attack than in any time in the past 6 weeks or so and the early try to Kearney gave them a much-needed boost of confidence. But there is also little doubt the Cowbores made things easier for Cronulla than most other NRL teams would have. The decline of a much-vaunted defensive unit of 2004 and 2005 continues...
However, the Cowbores stayed in the game as Cronulla considered 18 points to be enough of a lead to win the game. To be fair, Cronulla's defence feasted on Feral Thurston having no other helpers and a 2nd half shutout looked likely for some time, before a Carl Webb run and a freak Luke O'Donnell effort cut Cronulla's lead back to 6.
Cronulla players probably felt more comfortable having to grind out a close win than coasting to victory, but there was a few close calls in the game's dying minutes: despite playing in the Test on Friday night and playing with an ankle injury, Feral Thurston never gave up and very nearly set up another try late on.
The other two notable team efforts from Round 9 also involved players backing up from Friday night's Test, but of a greater number than in either of the Cowbores or Sharks. The 5 Roosters' Test players - led by Willie Mason - all gave a very good account of themselves as the Roosters easily accounted for Canberra on Saturday night.
It was an important game for the Roosters to re-establish their momentum after consecutive losses (Craig Fitzgibbon was right up there with Mason leading the way), but Canberra was very disappointing. Sure, coming off a physical battle in the wet with the Warriors last week was going to be difficult, but their commitment, their mental application and their intensity were all lacking. This was a team who came close to defeating Melbourne 2 weeks ago...
Speaking of Melbourne, while they didn't play in Round 8, they had almost half their squad playing in Friday night's Test. When it became apparent not long after kickoff on Monday night that their opponent - Newcastle - was the third consecutive team to bring everything to try and achieve a rare win over last season's premiers, another major effort was going to be required by the Storm to get the win.
It took far longer than it normally does - Newcastle's defensive effort was brilliant - but Melbourne eventually wore down the Knights. While a low-scoring grind, where all points were well earned, was more common in Jack Gibson's day than in the modern era, Melbourne's mechanical approach to the game is symptomatic of the problems in the game today.
As Newcastle's defensive efforts continued to repel the always-intense Storm, anyone who has even a few Storm games over the years could predict the means by which the Storm would attempt to punch through the Newcastle defence. In addition to their efforts to dominate possession despite not getting the ball back from kickoffs (through methods such as tackling Newcastle in their in-goal, aggressive defence forcing turnovers and benefiting from Newcastle ill-discipline), the standard plays were all trotted out: appearing to use Ryan Hoffman as the decoy runner but giving him the ball close to the line, giving Inglis the ball and letting him wind up and fend off the defence, Cameron Smith hitting one of their big forwards close to the line as well as the stock-standard kick-across for the oversized outside back (Israel Folau).
Newcastle clearly saw each of these plays as they were happening, but Melbourne's machine-like consistency and ever-improving ability not to get frustrated or lose focus when things aren't working is why they are the best in the NRL. Their on-field leaders knew that Newcastle might have known what was coming, but stopping it time after time is another matter entirely. When the cross kick to Folau finally worked, Melbourne was on the way to victory.
Strangely enough, Folau's second try came from a well-worked move; one that wouldn't have looked out of place in eras gone by. It seems Melbourne's conservatism and over-coaching stops them from attempting such plays when points are desperately needed (as they were before Folau's first try; the longer the score stayed at 0-all, the better Newcastle's chances of winning).
While Newcastle lost and didn't come off the bye from Round 8, their performance in standing up to a dominant Storm display for over 50 minutes without relenting was one of the most inspired in recent years. On the other hand, how long can Melbourne keep up their extremely high levels of intensity? In the last few weeks, they were bombarded by Canberra, made to back up just 5 days later in Townsville and made to follow up a Test for half their squad by facing one of the best defensive efforts of recent times.
They are, without doubt, the best team in the NRL, but the Origin period will drain their resources and test them (further) like they haven't been tested before.
The final 2 games of the round displayed so much about what is wrong with the NRL today, including the fact both games were played at Homebush.
Parramatta and St George Illawarra both showed glimpses of their massive potential, but both put forth considerable effort to give the opposition many chances to win. Dragons' supporters will complain about the controversial no-try to Nightingale (after a dubious steal call against Matt Cooper), but Soward's bombing of two tries later in the game was far more crucial to the game's outcome. Meanwhile, Parramatta's complacency returned each time their lead hit 12, while their continued inability to put downfield kicks above onrushing defence could have decided the game. As it turned out, the last chargedown made the final margin 1 point: both sets of supporters had every right to be unhappy.
The Bulldogs Penrith game on Saturday night was one of the worst games in recent memory. The injury-affected Bulldogs' lineup was crippled by 3 further late injury withdrawals (including Sonny Bill and Luke Patten), while Penrith coach Matt Elliott decided to play Luke Lewis at halfback. The result was an extremely disjointed game. Penrith eventually got on top, but it was a painful victory: the Bulldogs' effort was abysmal, while any game where a non-playmaker such as Lewis dominates is always going to be ugly.
Some rare positives from the game were further confirmation of Petero Civoniceva's reputation as a top-shelf player when backing up from representative games, but this was dwarfed by the effort from FOX's Andy Raymond and Gary Freeman, who toiled manfully to say positive things about this abomination of a game. There must have been ongoing and significant temptations to lash out in frustration at the many incompetent players from both teams, but their professionalism (and creative use of words) won the day.
Jack Gibson would never have used so many words (nor sugarcoated his thoughts) during his commentary career, but his patience would have been thoroughly tested if he was commentating today.
Vale Jack. See you next week.
Monday, 5 May 2008
Penalties: does the punishment now exceed the crime?
It's a few days after the event, but this article from the SMH on Friday is worth discussing.
The effect of penalties is more significant than ever before: as the article says, one in three tries now result from penalties (and this is without considering the repeat sets gained and the subsequent tries or the significant tiring of the opposition defence from having to defend multiple sets).
Curiously, this does not seem to be deciding matches: home teams are faring better than they have over recent years and the Cowboys - Melbourne game went Melbourne's way despite a huge penalty count against them (although it is hard to imagine any other team defending as well as Melbourne did and overcoming such a hurdle). But as the game continues to get faster and the emphasis on speed from dummy half increases, surely the relationship between penalties and results will strengthen.
A possible solution is to "grade" penalties. This could be done where the penalty for more minor infringements is merely a re-start of the tackle count, rather than a long kick downfield.
Or, offences could be graded and a set metre penalty could be enforced (as is the case in the NFL). Sure, the grading of offences could be difficult and having the on-field referee to determine the grade whilst carrying out so many other duties could prove a troublesome task, but it would overcome the current situation, where a penalty received in the middle of the field usually results in further yardage gained than a penalty received near the sideline.
Also, the yardage gained from a penalty would not be contingent on the quality of kick or the weather conditions (i.e. a strong wind) on the day.
Whatever the solution, something must be done in this area and done soon, otherwise the pressure on referees (and the importance of their decisions) will only increase: that can't be good for the game.
Round 8: A Lyrical Roundup
Even though Round 8 of this year's NRL competition provided us with two exciting games from ANZ Stadium at Homebush, the major event of the weekend at the Olympic Precinct was without doubt the Foo Fighters concerts at the adjoining Acer Arena.
Let it be stated that the Tuesday Roast is not one to ignore the sentiments of the people, so instead of the standard dry discourse, this week's edition will borrow heavily from the world of music.
But instead of describing each of last weekend's games via the pen of Dave Grohl, the lyrical link to Round 8 will come from another multifaceted (and, indeed, multi-group) musician: Mike Patton. Or, more particularly, the most famous band with which he is associated.
Ladies and Gentlemen, your Round 8 roundup is brought to you by Faith No More.
"It shouldn't bother me, no, It shouldn't, no no, It shouldn't bother me, It shouldn't but it does!"
(from A Small Victory, off Angel Dust (1992)).
While the Foo Fighters were performing for a full house on Saturday night, the Tigers and Brisbane game took place in a far emptier facility just metres away. Despite the small crowd, it was a highly entertaining game. Brisbane eventually won comfortably, but the Tigers gave them a few uncomfortable minutes late in the game.
Still, neither coach was pleased after the game. A Small Victory is about the competitive instincts engendered into a son by his father, followed by the realisation that no matter how strong this competitiveness, victory can not always be achieved. Both Brisbane's Wayne Bennett and Wests' Tim Sheens are father-like figures to their teams and were disappointed in post-match correspondence.
A losing coach is rarely happy, but this was perhaps the Tigers' best effort of the year to date. Sure, they allowed Brisbane to score too often with little difficulty, especially after coming close to putting points on at the other end, but they often stretched one of the NRL's best defences: a significant achievement for a team learning to play without their best player and who also lost a major cog (Todd Payten) very early on.
Meanwhile, Brisbane had every right to be very happy with their effort. Their ability to respond after pressure showing little to no signs of fatigue was exemplary, better than it has been for several seasons. Karmichael Hunt returned from injury and caused the Tigers problems for much of the game, while Peter Wallace took over from a struggling Darren Lockyer and led the team well and Sam Thaiday had a dominant game up front. Lastly, Ben Hannant did well to deceive all officials and earn a penalty from the half-way line, despite incorrectly executing the "make the kickoff go dead" procedure.
Despite the post-match comments from the coaches, both teams should be fairly happy with how they performed. However, the same cannot be said of Penrith and Parramatta...
From the bottom, it looks like a steep incline, from the top, another downhill slope of mine, but I know…an equilibrium's there
(from Falling to Pieces, off the Real Thing (1989)).
Both of Western Sydney's major teams are notorious for being wildly inconsistent. Over the course of a season - or even a game or a half - they can touch dizzying highs and despairing lows. This game had it all: for both teams.
The first 10 or so minutes favoured the visitors. Some strong play by Penrith was prevented from being converted into points, before a very easy try due to pathetic Penrith goal line defence.
The remainder of the first half saw Penrith dominate. They scored two tries - to Civoniceva and Puletua - added a penalty goal and could have had several other tries. Despite no evidence of either defender getting hands under the ball, Nathan Smith was judged to have been held up over the line late in the first half. Clearly, this was the referee's initial decision before it was sent to the video referee (who could not decide either way) but how this initial decision was arrived at is a mystery to anyone who watched the game.
The first 10 minutes of the second half saw more bad luck come Penrith's way, as Michael Gordon's failure to fully know the possession-in-goal rule saw him expend a significant amount of energy in setting up a try for Luke Priddis which was never going to be awarded. To compound matters, Parramatta scored soon after, despite Brett Finch appearing to have come extremely close to being tackled before passing the ball out. The ensuing kick-and-hope took a very fortuitous bounce, leading to a Nathan Hindmarsh try.
Hindmarsh was overjoyed and rightly so: after another poor first half, his lucky try meant Parramatta was only down 2 points. From here, Parramatta provided what has become their standard 10 minutes of playing somewhere near potential: however, a downcast Panthers' team allowed the suddenly ebullient Eels far too many offloads and 3 long-range tries was the result.
With the game virtually won, Parramatta eased off and allowed Penrith a late try, but the failure to convert the try secured the win. In contrast to Wayne Bennett, Parramatta coach Michael Hagan was quite happy with his team's effort. Parramatta's next opponent is the Dragons: an intriguing matchup of teams who rarely play at their potential and of nice-guy but lame-duck coaches. I bet Nathan Brown wishes he had Johns, Buderus and Simpson at his disposal for his first 6 seasons of coaching...
Speaking of the famous Knights' troika, they were all absent from Newcastle's lineup as they took on the Gold Coast on Saturday night. But, incredibly, despite these big name absences, Newcastle was favourite to win. To again borrow from Faith No More:
Cause you come from out of nowhere, my glance turns to a stare
(from From Out of Nowhere, off the Real Thing (1989)).
Both Newcastle and the Gold Coast have impressed and surprised NRL watchers thus far this season. Neither team was expected to do much; in fact, many picked either of these teams for wooden spoon contention. Gold Coast was looking for their 6th win in succession, while Newcastle was looking to build upon their last start comeback win over the Roosters with their third win in four matches at home.
Newcastle coach Brian Smith has often achieved major results coming off a bye and he clearly had his team drilled for a big-time scalp. Their defence was very quick off-the-mark and gave the talented Titans little time to make plays. This was the basis for a first-half domination of field position and then possession, as tries to Naiqama and Mullen gave Newcastle a 12-nil half-time lead.
But as Gold Coast started to receive more attacking field position, their excellent kicking game resulted in a host of repeat sets. The Newcastle defence showed great resilience to turn away one of the best attacks in the NRL so far this season, but eventually Scott Prince set up 2 late tries and it was only further determined Newcastle defence and a fortunate penalty or two which gave Newcastle a famous win. This win was even more special due to having lost their last 9 games without Buderus.
The New Zealand Warriors don't have one player as influential as Buderus, but were without a number of important players for their game against Canberra on Sunday. However, their cause was helped by torrential rain in Auckland for much of the day. Canberra's comically high error count and extremely low completion rate was in stark contrast to the almost-perfect display of wet weather rugby league by the Warriors. It may well have been perfect, except for one of the more incredible penalty kick bloopers you will ever see...
It's always funny until someone gets hurt and then it's just hilarious
(from Ricochet off King For a Day (1995)).
Canberra's tragic inability to hold on to the ball for a sustained period, followed up by further mistakes as they tried in vain to chase down the Warriors, meant this was a very one-sided 14-6 win. It may have been more if the usually brilliant Michael Witt kicked a penalty goal late in the game. Instead, he incredibly miscued so badly that the kicking tee went further than the ball and Witt was left to nurse a sore leg after kicking the ground with such intensity. A more unlikely mistake will not be seen for many years.
The final two games of the weekend have a strong association with mistakes. Souths have made plenty of mistakes in their winless start to the season (including the unfortunate alcohol episode from last weekend), but their opponents on Sunday - the Cowbores - have had an uncharisterically slow start to the season.
A possible mistake the Cowbores made before this game was to decide to play Matt Bowen. Bowen was originally named in the team, before pulling out on Friday due to further knee soreness. This decision was then overturned on the weekend. Bowen had a solid game, but his knee injury was apparent at times, but interestingly, the Cowbores' loss on Sunday meant they are just 1 win and 4 losses this season with Bowen in the lineup (compared to 2 wins and 0 losses without him).
However, the more likely contributing factor to the Cowbores' loss was their massive effort in trying to overhaul Melbourne last weekend. In this game, their defence, crispness, intensity and all-round effort was far higher than in most games. To play at such a level only to lose by 2 points, then to lose Lilyman to suspension and have several players backing up from City v Country was always going to make a trip to Sydney against a spirited team such as Souths very difficult.
Awakened by the sun light, victimised by last night, memories flashing through my head, was I just born or am I dead?
(from The Morning After, off the Real Thing (1989)).
That said, the Cowbores looked very strong in the game's first 10 and final 10 minutes, more so than they often look when they play in Sydney (when the Cowbores moniker is far more apt). But in the intervening 60 minutes, the Rabbitohs' relentless effort eventually wore down the resistance of the Cowbores. The usual number of Souths' errors (including several kicks out on the full) were not dwelled on; instead they were shrugged off and continued defensive vigour and liberal dosings of speed in attack got them home.
Last and least, it was the City v Country Origin game from Wollongong. This relic continues to be a fixture on the representative schedule, and incredibly was brought back from the dead in 2002, despite marginal interest from most. One game in a "regional" centre is not enough to make up for years of neglect for Country Rugby League...
That's why I'm easy, I'm easy like Sunday morning
(from Easy off Angel Dust (1992), but originally by The Commodores (1977)).
Most supporters are over this game and over their long-time relationship with this game. Even many players are indifferent or even against this game; they "just want to be free to know the things they do are right".
That's enough lyrics for now. City overcame the considerable handicap of having Corey Hughes in their team to come back from a 16-6 half-time deficit and led by 6 with under 10 minutes to go.
City looked to have all the momentum, but after Todd Carney hit a gap and scored under the posts, the game was tied at 22 and a field goal shootout started....and stopped at the 80 minute mark.
An antiquated concept decided (or not decided, as it may be interpreted) by an antiquated method. Despite the initial empty feeling, this was probably an entirely appropriate outcome, especially with the lack of clarity provided by the game for a host of key NSW State of Origin positions.
On that confused note, regular service will resume next week.
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Round 7: Could the NRL's victims strike a rare blow against their tormentors?
Over the last decade or so, the NRL has been quite successful at bringing an increasing amount of parity to the competition. A quick glance at the list of recent premiership winners confirms this. Still, no matter how far an administrative body goes in the quest for evenness, there will always be some teams who exert an undue amount of dominance over others. Each match in Round 7 featured one team with a long run of success over the other, a matchup where one team's success has altered the psyche of the defeated or a combination of the two.
So, in a competition geared towards parity (or, as Phil Gould says, "the punishment of success"), surely this dominance had to come to an end at some point? The bookmakers thought the downtrodden had a better than average chance of retribution, with 4 of the 6 victims expected achieve success, but any thoughts of some long-overdue revenge were looking surprisingly unlikely just minutes after kickoff at Homebush on ANZAC Day afternoon.
Yes, it was that once-in-three-to-six-weeks freak occurrence: an exemplary Dragons' performance. Their highly-rated but rarely performing forward pack won the battle against a Roosters' pack sure to be plundered by representative teams in coming months: this is a success that can't be claimed by Melbourne or Brisbane this season.
The return of Soward (and, more importantly, his excellent kicking game), Hornby's return to fullback and Young's move to dummy half allowed the Dragons to get the most opportunities from their forward dominance, while their defence was first-rate: despite the one-sided scoreline, most of the statistics indicated a close contest.
In other words, the Roosters had about as much good field position as the Dragons did, but they failed to convert most of this into points. The kicking game of Mitchell Pearce and Braith Anasta - in concert with some athletic outside backs - had yielded significant rewards for the Roosters so far this season, but the organised and equally athletic Dragons' outside backs repelled all of the Roosters' kicking forays.
So the Dragons continued their recent run of dominance over the Roosters, with the win on ANZAC Day giving them 5 wins in the 6 matches between the two teams since the retirement of Brad Fittler.
Just over a month before Brad Fittler's first game of top-grade rugby league, Souths last defeated Brisbane in Brisbane. Obviously, many teams have enjoyed periods of dominance over Souths since their last successful year of 1989, but Brisbane's is better than most.
The corresponding fixture between the two teams last year saw Brisbane grind their way (this has become a cliché over the years, but adequately described the 8-4 result) to a win and this again appeared to be Souths' best chance of success, especially when it was revealed Justin Hodges would be starting from the bench (due to the flu) and when centre Steve Michaels sustained an injury after just a few minutes. If Souths could keep it close while doing their best to tire the ailing and undermanned Broncos, they might have had a chance to win in the game's dying minutes.
Alas, they were never really a chance. Brisbane scored not long after Michaels was taken from the field and their consistent effort was rewarded by a variety of Souths' mistakes throughout the game. Even still, Souths closed the gap late in the game, due to some inspired play and more Brisbane injuries: Brisbane was fielding some players who would have been rested in normal circumstances. However, more Souths' mistakes and a late Brisbane try made the final margin a somewhat unfair 14 points: Souths are (cliché alert) "not far away".
But with an already thin Souths' lineup set to be decimated in Round 8 by a mass demotion for excess alcohol consumption, the cliché looks likely to be trotted out for at least another week.
A seemingly futile wait for success gives Cronulla supporters the motivation to get out of bed (and whinge) every morning. On Sunday, their team took on the Wests Tigers, who hadn't defeated since June 2003. The prospect of seeing their team conjure up a new way to lose to a dominant opponent attracted the largest crowd at Toyota Park in over a year.
Early on, Cronulla almost monopolised possession and seemed certain to finally post a mountain of points. But a funny thing happened: not only did Cronulla post just one try from their extended stay near the Tigers' tryline, but they didn't sap as much of the Tigers' energy as such a stay would have suggested. The Tigers are not renowned as a tireless tackling machine, so it can only be concluded that the monotony and predictability of Cronulla's attack not only doesn't score many points, but doesn't tire opposing defences as much as others do.
Sure, the Tigers looked a little tired at times after their extended defensive effort, but in almost every venture into Cronulla's 20-metre area, their long passing, bodies in motion and offloads looked much more likely to result in points. It was a quick play-the-ball and some smart play from Heighington which saw the Tigers narrow the deficit to 2, then, after a series of Cronulla mistakes, the ever-surprising ball-playing skills of Brett Hodgson set up Chris Lawrence and the Tigers, amazingly, had a half-time lead.
It was Hodgson again who extended the Tigers' lead early in the second half, but Cronulla eventually scored a second try - from perhaps their best set of six tackles (in terms of gaining momentum and quick play-the-balls) in the game - and added a few penalty goals to have a late lead.
While penalty goals add points, Cronulla's two penalty goal options were taken when the Tigers looked vulnerable, especially their last one with under 10 minutes left. Despite Phil Gould's concerns, the Tigers had enough left in the tank to put together a strong set of six. Heighington came within inches of giving the Tigers back the lead, but a Mathew Head grubber from dummy half - in a Farah-like manner - set up Lawrence for the match-winning try and more success for the Tigers over Cronulla.
This year was supposed to be different for Cronulla. They were meant to have focused more on attack, they were supposed to be better prepared to win the close game. But after a great start, they have stalled, really since Round 3. They figure to be without Gallen and Bird for much of the representative season. It hurts to me say it(no, really) but could their annual decline have started so soon?
Melbourne will also be without many of their best over the representative season, amazingly even more so than in previous years. Over their last two years of dominance, they have tormented many teams, including the Cowbores. Prior to early 2006, the Cowbores enjoyed a very good record against Melbourne, but Melbourne's last two wins against North Queensland have been crushing. Not only did they suffocate Feral and Matt Bowen in keeping the Cowbores to 6 and 12 points respectively in those two games, the 58 points their attack put on in Townsville last year was perhaps the most dominant display of last season.
However, the Cowbores were seemingly handed a gift by this year's schedule makers, with Melbourne having to back up from playing in Canberra last Monday night, while the Cowbores were playing their second straight game at home. Canberra also did the Cowbores a favour, forcing Melbourne to play at their best to record a late comeback win. Throw in the Cowbores' resurgence from their early-season malaise and the planets were aligning for some rare Cowbores' revenge.
While the Cowbores clearly performed at a much greater level of intensity than they have this season (and perhaps for a few years), they were also clearly spooked by the speed, relentlessness and force of Melbourne's defence. Feral and Matt Bowen looked uncomfortable for much of the game, as they were often rushed by Melbourne defenders from various angles, while Melbourne's excellent defensive technique resulted in a swathe of Cowbores' dropped ball (aided by the humid Townsville conditions).
But even more things went right for the Cowbores, making Melbourne's task even more difficult. The unfortunate injury to Billy Slater (finally, an appropriate reason to use the Feral moniker!) severely restricted Melbourne's attacking options, while a combination of Cowbores' enthusiasm and a whistle-happy referee saw Melbourne on the wrong end of a heavy penalty count.
All this made Melbourne's victory that much more impressive. After the Cowbores finally scored to cut Melbourne's lead to 6-4, a typical piece of Folau dominance made it 12-4. Although North Queensland made it 12-10 inside the last 10 minutes, they never seriously threatened to score again. Melbourne's defence was incredible and showed few signs of fatigue, despite having many reasons to do so.
Many also expected Manly to show signs of fatigue from a combination of a tough win in difficult conditions on the previous Friday night, a host of injuries and what is notoriously a heavy track at Brookvale Oval. Making Manly's predicament worse was that they were playing perhaps the best team in the league at coming to Brookvale and leaving with 2 points: the Bulldogs.
After the first 10 minutes, the Bulldogs had a 10-nil lead and were looking like good things to make it 5 wins from their last 6 trips to Brookvale Oval. Manly's comeback in the second part of the first half was largely reliant on a host of Bulldogs' mistakes. If the Bulldogs could cut back on their mistakes, another Brookvale win looked likely, especially with Manly expected to tire late on.
By the time Manly eased off, they had a 20-point lead. Their performance given the obstacles in their way was impressive. However, the various representative selectors were not so kind to Manly players and several of them responded yesterday by churlishly dropping out of the City Country game. Good on them: the reasons to dislike Manly list had fallen perilously low in recent years.
Lastly, the second win for the weekend for the downtrodden took place on Sunday afternoon, where the Gold Coast recorded a solid win over the team who gave them the most trouble last season: the New Zealand Warriors. The Warriors' combination of size and mobility caused many problems for the Titans last season, but the improved form of a number of Titans' players - including Scott Prince, Anthony Laffranchi and (over the last two weeks) Preston Campbell - and the heat of Robina overwhelmed the Warriors.
To the Warriors' credit, they didn't capitulate as they did in Townsville last week and probably had the better of the game after falling behind 24-8. Michael Witt was probably the Warriors' best: he had a pivotal role in 3 of the 4 Warriors' tries.
But the Titans' multi-faceted attack was too much. Prince was again very good, but Campbell again made the absence of Mat Rogers a moot point. His involvement from fullback was well-timed and integral to Gold Coast's continued success.
However, one does wonder if the Gold Coast attacking juggernaut is any chance against the relentless defensive machine called Melbourne. Melbourne now has a major mental edge over Manly and the Cowbores: while the NRL has succeeded in making the competition more even, this has also had the effect of making it more difficult for teams to compete with Melbourne. Injuries and the annual post-representative doldrums can slow any good team, but Melbourne look quite likely to continue their dominance over a number of teams and repeat in the NRL for the first time in 15 years.
See you next week.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Round 6: Heritage Round: Weird Jumpers and Weird Happenings
The 100th anniversary of the first game of Rugby League in Australia saw every team return to their roots in garment form. While the outfits of some teams largely resemble their 2008 look, others were markedly different to their week-to-week garb, due to either significant uniform changes down the years or acknowledgment given to a long-distant precursor from that region.
But accompanying the unusual attire were unusual results or occurrences in most games over the weekend. Some of these were due to the wet weather, but others were…once-in-100 year events (sorry).
Heritage Round kicked off on Friday night with two close games, but two barely believable outcomes. After a relatively solid first few weeks, Parramatta has struggled mightily, as glimpses of their awesome potential have been overwhelmed by their lethargy. They took on the points-challenged but hard-working Sea Eagles. Manly fought hard (and took advantage of some lazy Eels’ play – more on this later) to lead 14-4 in the second half, but within minutes, several of the aforementioned glimpses saw Parramatta take a scarcely deserved lead.
Still, Manly was enduring a major injury toll. At one stage, they had the bare 13 on the field and no reserves available. The speed and intensity of today’s game means that such an impact from injuries means victory is almost impossible. Manly never looked like getting near the Parramatta tryline…until Grothe struck again.
Eric Grothe junior is a mighty ball-runner, but his decision-making in defence and general in-game intelligence is almost non-existent. Throw in several instances of in-game apathy – including his insipid and ultimately futile effort in getting to what should have been a harmless Jamie Lyon bomb before it bounced – and it is not a stretch to say he cost Parramatta what should have been a certain win.
The harmless Lyon bomb became potent once it hit the ground. Manly regained the ball and scored soon after, before holding on for an unlikely win.
Meanwhile, on the Gold Coast, the locals – wearing a bizarre mix of their current uniform and the uniform of the 1988 Gold Coast Giants – jumped to an early 16-0 lead over Brisbane. Gold Coast is playing some of the more impressive rugby league so far this season, but their 3 early tries owed more to very rare Brisbane incompetence than to Gold Coast skill.
The argument could have been made that Brisbane was tired after backing up from a difficult match against Newcastle just 5 days earlier, but this argument held little water as the game went on and the brave Broncos almost came back to snatch an unlikely win. They fought back to 16-8 down at half-time before a length-of-the-field special cut the Titans’ lead to just 2.
The Gold Coast extended their lead back to 12 points, as they again took advantage of Brisbane mistakes, but a late Brisbane comeback – including a try from a rare Scott Prince fumble – came up just short. Prince was again the man of the match, but the contribution from Preston Campbell – who played a Matt Bowen-like role filling in at five-eighth in attack (in place of the suspended Mat Rogers) – was also very important.
More weird jumpers and weird happenings were seen at Cronulla on Saturday night. Cronulla (who looked more like NSW) had a 20-10 lead over Penrith (who brought the Chocolate Soldier look back after a 17-year absence) midway through the second half. However, despite having a significant advantage in possession to that point in the game, playing their first game at home for the season, running with a strong breeze at their back, the incentive of sending Lance Thompson off into retirement with a victory and Penrith repeatedly choosing poor last tackle options, Penrith hung around and eventually came back into the game. What looked like being yet another poor last tackle option was salvaged by some desperate keeping-the-ball alive and a try to Michael Gordon was the result.
Cronulla could have tried for a field goal in this period to extend their lead to seven points, but their failure to even consider this option gave Penrith further impetus. As their pressure mounted, another try was scored and the ensuing difficult sideline conversion from Jarrod Sammut meant Golden Point. After a booming Brett Kimmorley field goal attempt went just wide, Penrith’s momentum looked to be too much. Cronulla charged down their first field goal attempt, but the second from Sammut gave Penrith the win.
To be fair though, a Penrith win against the odds is not really a “weird” happening: they continue to exhibit the seemingly perverse trait of playing much better when most expect them to lose.
That said, Penrith failed to overcome the Roosters last weekend despite most expecting a Roosters win. 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, much to the enjoyment of the quite vocal band of Roosters’ supporters. Why do these supporters not make as much effort in most other Roosters’ home games?
The game took a curious turn in the first 20 or so minutes of the second half. Newcastle gradually took control of the game – Brisbane was somewhat lucky they built a more significant buffer against the Knights last week – 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.
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 (in stark contrast to his career-best form in the early weeks of this season) to that point – made a great effort to just push Best into touch.
This Best no-try possibly showed the limits of video technology – could a more sophisticated recording device have shown continuous footage in between the two frames where Best was poised to put the ball down and when the ball was placed down (with his elbow on the sidelines)? – and it ended up being Canberra’s last chance.
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 a Cooper Cronk – in the middle of a rare off-night – 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?
There were three other games in Heritage Round. On Saturday night, it was a rare display from the Dragons. Instead of losing despite showing glimpses of their significant talent, they produced one of the worst efforts seen in many years. The Bulldogs won easily.
Also on Saturday night, the Cowbores thrashed the Warriors in a similar vein to their semi-final mauling from last season. The Warriors showed some signs early on, but were overwhelmed: while their halves (Witt and Rovelli) were unable to do much at all, the Feral / Bowen partnership (back after a two-week absence) dominated.
Lastly, the Wests / Tigers overcame a slow start to beat Souths. Souths may be due, but any team capable of scoring two tries or more looks likely to defeat Souths until their injured stars return.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Round 5: Queensland: Beautiful one day, Dominating the NRL the next
They've dominated State of Origin over the last two years and their players and teams have been disproportionately represented at the pointy end of the last few seasons. Round 5 in the NRL gave further evidence of Queensland's rise as the dominant rugby league state, starting with Friday night's double-header.
Melbourne, loaded with top-notch Queenslanders including Slater, Smith, Crocker, Folau, Kaufusi, Cronk and Inglis, was ruthlessly efficient in defeating Manly. Slater won his second straight man-of-the-match award and looks set to score an Australian jumper to go along with his cash prize and hat: his aggressive, incisive running - both when returning kicks and in attack - gave Manly problems all game long. However, Storm victories are far from one-man efforts: they outplayed Manly across the park. Their defence shut down Manly's options and reminded everyone - after a two-week hiatus - just how one dimensional Manly's attack can be.
To be fair to Manly though, they are in a very difficult position when they play the Storm at or near full strength. Melbourne and Manly are very similar teams: both rely heavily on playing with greater intensity than their opposition (and using this, via defence and attack, as a basis for victory), both have a heavily structured attack and both teams are micro-managed by very intense and thorough coaches. But Melbourne is more talented than Manly at almost every position. Not surprisingly, the only Manly success against Melbourne in recent years has come when Melbourne was either missing players for looming State of Origin duty or when those players were backing up from State of Origin.
The other Friday night game featured the Gold Coast proving the doubters wrong. Many thought the absence of Luke Bailey would make the already relatively small Titans pack less effective and vulnerable to an overdue Parramatta, but the resilient Titans had other ideas. While most Gold Coast forwards (and the rest of the team for that matter) originally hail from out of Queensland, their solid work provided the platform for occasional Queensland halfback Scott Prince to have another stellar game. Few others would have attempted his long kick at an acute angle early on, which became a 40/20 and led to an early try.
When Prince's sleight of hand deceived several defenders and allowed him safe passage across the try-line early in the second half, Parramatta was down 22-8 despite playing quite well for the most part (certainly better than when they beat Newcastle in Round 3). The 14-point deficit gave Parramatta more impetus and they responded with two tries in fairly quick time, the second a Brett Finch special.
Despite the game-sealing Titans try coming from a clear double movement, they did more than enough to deserve a rare win out of Queensland. Prince's conversion took their lead to a safe 8 points and ensured more pleasant headaches for Queensland selectors.
Queensland's incumbent halfback, the reigning winner of the Dally M and the 5-time winner of the "Australia Says NO" award for making women feel uncomfortable, Feral Thurston obviously paid close attention to Prince's dominant performance on Friday night because he submitted a sublime performance in steering the Cowbores to a close but important win over the Dragons. This was not a stellar Cowbores performance, but it was closer to their standard out of Queensland efforts: a very conservative attacking game plan combined with a solid defensive effort. Their defence wasn't exemplary, but they needed to a lot of it, especially in the first half. Sure, the Dragons were their usual bumbling incompetent selves, but they threatened to open the game on several occasions. Most times, the Cowbores' defence did the job.
The Cowbores' greatest failing in this game was their frequent unforced errors and high number of penalties conceded, especially late in the tackle count, giving the Dragons more attacking chances. The Dragons eventually scored a first-half try (only due to a gargantuan benefit of the doubt) but Feral conjured up a try earlier on out of almost nothing: the Cowbores led 8-6 at the break.
In the early minutes of the second half, the Dragons' dominance of possession turned around and the Cowbores saw some significant time in attack. A far-too-simple try to Watts was followed up by a rare moment (in the game to that point) of attacking brilliance. Feral took the off-load from Carl Webb and sent Ashley Graham to within a metre of the line. Feral and several other Cowbores followed up to significantly outnumber retreating Dragons defence for an easy try to Justin Smith.
As has often been the case over the years, the Dragons produced something near their best after they fell behind by 14. The experiment of playing usual fullback Ben Hornby at dummy half finally showed signs of succeeding, as his speed and a nice pass set up Stuart Webb for a try. This followed a stock-standard Jason Nightingale Australian Rules-style jump to catch the cross kick and score.
But the Dragons couldn't complete the comeback: yet another close, frustrating loss. Despite losing 3 of 4 games so far this season, their points differential is only -3. News emerged on Monday that Mark Gasnier has a calf injury and will miss the next few games. Perhaps his absence will help the team: every change of tactics, strategy or gameplan the Dragons make is centred on getting Gasnier more involved at parts of his game nowhere near as good what he does best (i.e. standing up the opposing centre and setting up his teammates on the back of this). He's not a goal-kicker, he's not a fullback, he's not a dummy-half, he's not a captain, but he's tried to be each of these with little to no success. At least they shelved the five-eighth option. He even played a bit of wing on Saturday night (his original position when he came into grade) and he helped set up the Nightingale try here, but this was probably only done as a response to his calf injury. Don't worry, Dragons' supporters, Round 1 2009 is only 11 months away.
Conversely for Brisbane - Queensland's most successful team - 2009 will bring a new coach and a fair degree of uncertainty. How could this hurt what will likely be a very strong team? On Sunday, Brisbane took on a very aggressive and talented, but also very young Newcastle side. In the first 20 minutes, Newcastle played a brand of free-flowing, long-passing rugby league rarely seen. They ran hard, passed wide and showed no fear or respect for one of the NRL's best teams. They led 8-6 and could very well have led by many more had a few more passes stuck.
Newcastle even exposed some of Brisbane's defensive weaknesses out wide, but the unflappable, extremely well-coached Broncos took it in their stride. They scored 4 tries in the first half, but had very little time with the ball near Newcastle's line. They either broke Newcastle's line and scored straight away or soon after in a very efficient manner. Without Darren Lockyer again, many others stepped up, including former Knight Michael Ennis, Tonie Carroll, the promising Dave Taylor as well as regular stand-out contributors Hunt, Hodges and Peter Wallace.
Newcastle eventually came back into the game but the damage had been done. Many a team would have folded in the face of the onslaught from the aggressive Knights, but the calm and consistent Broncos withstood what was thrown at them and scored a quite good win.
The Warriors - who possess a fairly high number of Queenslanders such as Brent Tate, Grant Rovelli, Michael Luck, Nathan Fien and the injured Steven Price, as well as having a Queensland born and raised commentator in Jason Costigan "Has he got the pace? HAS HE WHAT!" - could also be described in this way, but the Bulldogs' arsenal was nowhere near as potent as Newcastle's. The Warriors started strongly, much like they did against Newcastle last week, before letting the opposition back into the game rather meekly, much like they did against Newcastle last week. Sonny Bill Williams was wreaking havoc out wide, absorbing tacklers before offloading the ball almost as if it was a tennis ball. One such play put Andrew Ryan into open space, before Luke Patten finished off the long-range try.
Early in the second half, the Warriors held a close lead and the Bulldogs were in the middle of a sustained period near the Warriors' line. But the Bulldogs never really threatened. Sonny Bill and Patten are very good players, but they can't do everything: without a good halfback, the Bulldogs are going to struggle to score points against semi-competent defences. The Warriors emerged after this period with their line intact and finished strongly to seal a strong win.
Of the other NRL teams containing little/no Queensland players, the Roosters, Canberra and Cronulla each garnered two points over the weekend. The Roosters' Queensland contingent is only small in number - Nate Myles and the absent Dave Shillington and Danny Nutley (as well as the legendary Arthur Beetson) - but they made do with only one Queenslander (and the absence of several other high-profile players such as Mason and Minichello) to fairly easily dispose of Penrith. Penrith was somewhat unfortunate to have to back up only 5 days after their impressive Monday night demolition of the Tigers and play such a good team, but their first half effort was quite good. As is their way, they play much better as outsiders and an upset looked a solid chance in the first half hour or so.
But from then on, the mistakes slowly crept back into Penrith's game: a professional outfit such as the Roosters was not going to waste these chances. They took a lead to halftime after Penrith chose to pass the ball to a forward (Brendan Worth) for a hit-up only moments after he receiving a head knock from a previous hitup. Not surprisingly, Worth dropped the ball and the Roosters scored from this possession. After the Roosters scored early in the second half, the increased deficit and the effects of playing on Monday night saw Penrith's error and penalty count rise. From here, it was an easy Roosters win.
The Tigers looked set for an easy win after cruising to a 24-10 halftime lead against Canberra on Sunday. The combination of Mathew Head and the other Tigers looked like it had been evolving over many years, rather than a few months at most, while Canberra was listless and was quite lucky to have 10 points beside their name.
But as they do in so many home games, they give the opposing team a first-half head start and gradually reel them back in. An early second half try to Purtell started the comeback, but holding the Tigers out (despite the Tigers having a significant amount of possession) in the middle period of the half likely gave them a much greater impetus and belief they could come back. Lazy defensive play allowed Alan Tongue to cut the Tigers' lead further, before the tiring Tigers' defence and incisive running from Lincoln Withers led Todd Carney into space. Carney fended Chris Lawrence away initially then held off the gaining Lawrence for a spectacular long-range try to give Canberra the lead. A final Tigers' attacking kick was picked up by Purtell, who ran almost the length of the field to ensure Canberra covered the start….I mean sealed a famous victory.
On Monday night, Cronulla outlasted Souths to record their 4th close win of the season. The Man of the Match award from this game went to everyone who attended or watched the whole game: this required vast reservoirs of patience and possibly significant amounts of caffeinated beverages. Sure, Queensland do have the Cowbores, but these teams showcased attacking play without initative, risk or any degree of skill. In an ideal world, teams and games such as this would be taken off showcase timeslots (such as Friday and Monday nights) so the more skilful and entertaining players and teams, such as those from Queensland or including Queenslanders can take their place. See you next week.
