In a change of pace, this week's Roast is in ecclesiatical form and emanates from up above (of me on the tipping ladder). Thanks to Michael "Tipping God" Payne for his stellar effort below.
Parramatta (fall of man) Genesis 3.1-24
So the LORD God said to the serpent EEL, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you Will eat dust all the days of your life.”
Parra-don’t-matta tackled like the villainous serpent from the great Book, that is without shoulders or hands. Biblical passages make reference to the killing a serpent by removing its head – only when Fitzgerald is sacrificed will the ‘worms’ have any success.
Papal Points (3-2-1)
3 - Brett Stewart
2 - Watmough
1 - Hindmarsh
Judas’ Ear
Jarryd Hayne – was he really worth dropping Burt for?
Bulldogs (plagues on Egypt) Exodus 7.1-24
Then the LORD said to FOLKES, "See, I have made you like God to Islanders, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet"
‘Aaron’ is clearly representative of the Warriors, who are now the superior entity to the disgrace formerly known as the Bulldogs Rugby League team. 3000 paying Bulldogs pilgrims ignored the chance to sleep at Randwick, and instead decided to make their eyes bleed the blood of 1000 sheep as the Warriors were made to look like a team with talent – no easy task mind you.
Papal Points
3 - Malo Solomona
2 - Steve Price
1 - Lance Hohaia
Judas’ Ear
Dunny-Dill Williams – ‘come and watch me play for free bro, it will be choice’. Then don’t play. The man is a genius.
Tigers (Valley of the dry bones) Ezekiel 37.1-28
And as Sheens was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. He looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them, until Benji remembered the words of his large mother…’play Benji, play’
The team that has looked most likely to disappoint their following took heed from the message bandied around Sydney for the past week: Build it, and He will come. The tigers ‘built it’ by having some front rowers, and he came in the form of an erratic lair named after a famous dog (God spelt backwards – are you feeling it?). Mark the Tipping God's words, they will end the season in the top 5.
Papal Points
3 – Keith Galloway
2 – Benji (not the more famous the dog)
1 – Farah (victim of recent phone threats)
Judas’ Ear
Sheens – for not letting us watch that crazed Daine Laurie play earlier.
Cronulla (Good Shepard) Psalm 23.1-6
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for Stuart is with me; his rod and his staff, they comfort me” – Gallen
Two teams the Tipping God hates played in what was widely panned as one of the most frustrating games of the year. The only reason the Sharks are in contention is Stuart, with Gidley being the Newcastle saviour. TG has nothing more to say on this match (don’t start the conspiracy theories that he did not watch it as that would not be very nice)
Papal Points
3 – Gidley
2 – Kimmorley
1 – Ben Ross (for not getting knocked out)
Judas’ Ear
Gallen – no real reason.
Canberra (Magi Visit the Messiah) Matthew 2.1-12
After they had heard the siren, they went on their way, and the number 7 they had seen when it ran onto the field went ahead of them until it stopped in the centre of the arena. When they saw the star wearing the 7, they were overjoyed.
Todd Carney is a lot of things. Devout Christian – yes. Bad drunk – yes. Wants to be a black man – yes. Possible retarded – yes. Bloody talented footballer – absolutely! A few of his 40-20 kicks nearly hit God in the ‘wheels’ as they gave the Raiders excellent field position to dismantle a pathetic team of ‘Cocks’
Papal Points
3 – T Carney
2 – T Campese
1 – Thompson
Judas’ Ear
The Raiders – it would have been great to see the Cocks go home without scoring a point.
Broncos (Lamp on a stand) Luke 8. 16-18
The Broncos do not light a lamp and hide it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.
That light, my friends, is K.Hunt. Easily the coolest man in league and one of the toughest, The Tipping God is in negotiations with his slightly more powerful cousin, the ‘real’ God, to have K at the Dragons next year.
Papal Points
3 - Thaiday
2 - Tronc
1 - Hunt
Judas’ Ear
Matt Bowen – I hate him but love watching him play. All Cowboys games have been boring without him
Melbourne (Demon-possessed men) Matthew 8.28-34
So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water.
There's no secret here. The Dragons are the pigs, and they drowned in the water of frosty Melbourne. Aided by one of their fearless leaders, the great Jason Ryles, getting sent off for being a tool, they were duly flogged worse than Christ by the Romans, hence reinforcing the Tipping God's position that the 7 in a row was actually more like 3 wins with 4 byes.
Papal points
3 – C. Smith
2 – Folau
1 – Lima
Judas’ Ear
Gavin Badger – if that was a send off then how has Paul Gallen finished a game this year?!?!
Panthers (Parable of the Wondering Sheep) Matthew 18.10-14
See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that Elliott's angels in heaven always see the face of Matthew in heaven.
Matthew Elliott is the saviour of Penrith, even if they don’t realise it yet. The league equivalent of ‘Charlie's Angels’ come in the form of Coote, Graham and Gordon. Elliot is a proven leader of bad teams and what better place to thrive than the foot of the mountains.
Papal Points
3 – Gordon
2 – Laffranchi
1 – Pritchard
Judas’ Ear
God – why is he so cruel to Scott Prince? WHY?
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Round 19: A special WYD Roast from Michael "Tipping God" Payne
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Round 18: Game of the Week: Cronulla v. Manly
With 17 rounds complete – meaning the end of the State of Origin period and the end of byes – the upper echelon of teams had emerged: Manly, the Roosters, Cronulla and Melbourne (and possibly the Dragons, due to their strong performances against most of these teams).
However, the draw had been rather unkind to those wanting regular matchups of these teams (at full strength anyway). The early rounds gave us weekly collisions of the upper four, with Cronulla taking on Manly and Melbourne in the first 2 rounds and Melbourne playing the 3 others within the first 5 rounds.
Since then, these 4 teams have been busy accumulating points (save for some Origin interruptions) and waiting for the next round of collisions with the other upper four.
Saturday night provided the first of these games and was (by far) the standout game in Round 18 as Manly left one insular peninsula to travel to another: Toyota Park at Cronulla.
Both teams had strong momentum coming into this game: Manly had won 9 out of 10 including 6 in a row away from Brookvale. Unlike all other good teams (and a few bad ones), their State of Origin representation was minimal, allowing solid combinations to develop (which in turn helped to allay concerns about Manly’s attack after a poor first 2 rounds) and significantly reducing the likelihood of any post-Origin letdown. This has also contributed to their very low injury count.
Meanwhile, Cronulla had won 7 out of 8, including their last 4 games at home. Prior to this streak, they won only 5 of their previous 19 games at home: this was a terrible record for any team, but more so for Cronulla, who won almost two-thirds of home games in their halcyon period between 1994 and 2002.
Cronulla also had developed a potentially very valuable quality since the latter rounds of 2007: the ability to play very well against good teams and/or at difficult venues. This quality was captured by the statistic of 9 wins from their last 11 games as the outsider with the TAB. Wins against the odds this season include at Brookvale, at Olympic Park, at Townsville, at Penrith, versus Parramatta at home (for the first time since 2000) and at Bruce Stadium in their last game. These games saw varying combinations of stifling defence (approaching Storm-like levels) and some top-shelf attack (quite unexpected from a team with few skilled attacking players).
But both teams also had nagging doubts. Manly won at Cronulla last season, but that was against a severely depleted line-up: prior to last year, they hadn’t won at Cronulla since 1986. They lost to Cronulla back in Round 1 and have had troubles against the best teams at full strength (Melbourne, the Dragons) or capable teams playing a rare game at or near their best (Newcastle, New Zealand, Gold Coast). In short, when teams come close to matching Manly’s physical presence and endurance, they are nothing special. That said, this doesn’t happen very often.
Cronulla was missing several injured players for this game, most notably Greg Bird and while the aforementioned impressive wins were significant, they hadn’t come up against a team anywhere near the upper four since very early in the season. Manly and Melbourne were caught off-guard by Cronulla’s assault in these early rounds: Cronulla’s legitimacy as a premiership contender was in need of reinforcing in this game.
Cronulla’s disgraceful home record between 2006 and early 2008 has impacted significantly on crowds. Saturday night games at Cronulla used to mean regular crowds of above 15,000 with the occasional bumper crowd. Since late 2006, the average crowd fell to just under 11,000, but as the wins have continued, the somewhat sceptical Cronulla supporters (who can blame them?) have come out of the woodwork: 17,547 against Parramatta three weeks and almost 19,000 greeted Cronulla and Manly on Saturday night. For the first time since 2002, the Shire might be really getting behind Cronulla again.
Unfortunately, especially for those late to get back on to the bandwagon, Cronulla’s prospects for victory in this game fell to almost nil inside 20 minutes. This was THE worst possible outcome for Cronulla. Not only could this frighten the woodwork supporters away for another few months, it will provide further fuel for those who like to bring up / hope that Cronulla will enter yet another late-season tailspin.
Admittedly, this group has included the Tuesday Roast on several occasions (for those keeping score, Cronulla’s record after the accountants have sung Auld Lang Syne since 2003 is an anaemic 12 wins and 37 losses after Saturday night), but surely it’s fallacious to look back at Cronulla squads coached by nuffies such as Stuart Raper and Chris Anderson when compared to the current Ricky Stuart-coached line-up…isn’t it?
This will be seen, but Stuart would have been extremely disheartened by his team’s performance. What has been perhaps the best team at execution of their coach’s pre-match preparation and strategy turned into a bumbling mess on Saturday night. Silly, unnecessary and unforced penalties gave Manly a significant amount of attacking possession early on, while mistakes gifted Manly more attacking possession and the first two (simple) tries.
Some of these mistakes came from Paul Gallen, who, perhaps stung by having his captaincy taken away, tried very hard all game, but this desire saw him attempt to do things which others should be doing (such as playmaking and offloading). This was where the absence of Greg Bird hurt Cronulla the most. And of course there was Gallen’s bizarre exit up and out of the defensive line allowing Ballin to score Manly’s first try. At least the major frustration involved in such a thrashing didn’t lead him to do anything he may have regretted.
But Gallen was not alone. Misi Taulapapa… he may be athletic, but his high mistake rate (that’s the nicest way to put it) was significant in Cronulla’s long losing streak late last season. Maybe he too was stung by recent criticism (in his case, the cowardly assault on Alan Tongue’s ribs) but Manly targeted Taulapapa heavily and he had a terrible game. His off load just a few metres out of from his line fell into the waiting arms of Steve Matai and Manly’s second try came from the next tackle.
By now, Manly’s dominance on the game was total. Much is made of their excellent defensive statistics, but there is more to defence (at least for Manly) than moving up in a straight line, hitting hard, getting numbers into a tackle etc. For Manly (and one or two other teams at times), attack is a big part of defence. They were almost flawless in terms of holding on to the ball and finishing their sets: in doing so, their big pack wore down Cronulla. Matt Orford’s accurate kicking game meant a series of repeat sets and of course there’s the domination of possession which comes from outscoring your opponent four tries to nil in the first 20 minutes.
Manly had 70% of the ball during the game’s first 30 minutes. While possession usually evens out over the course of a game, the quality of possession doesn’t have to follow this. In other words, Cronulla was rendered almost useless with the ball due to the heavy defensive workload asked of them in the game’s first 20-30 minutes. Manly did much the same to the Origin-weakened Roosters in Round 13 and Cronulla nearly also experienced a 42-nil hammering.
After dominating the opening 15 or so minutes, Manly’s confidence was soaring. They had bashed Cronulla, so it was time to unleash some of their set plays. They threatened maybe twice with elaborate plays aimed at Cronulla’s left-side defence, but the next time hit the jackpot: Orford’s sleight-of-hand and involvement from Lyon and Bell sent Brett Stewart to the try-line almost untouched.
When Glen Stewart virtually did the same, Manly led 22-nil. Cronulla would almost have been forgiven here if the nimble Stewart stepped through some tiring defenders, but when replays showed fresh reserves De Gois and Nutley making feeble attempts at Stewart, it was a further black mark for the Sharks.
Finally Cronulla got over half-way, but a combination of the scoreboard, fatigue from Manly’s domination and panic saw their attack look nothing like the confident, set-play executing team of recent weeks. Instead, they ran hard then wide and Manly’s fresh defence moved with them. Their lack of imagination saw the great NRL fall-back option – the cross-kick – come out at the end of almost every set. Manly did concede one try, but it was hardly threatening.
In the early minutes of the second half, Cronulla spent some more time near Manly’s line: a try here might have given Manly some concerns, but the lack of variety and imagination (and continued signs of panic and trying to catch up 16 points at once) meant Cronulla never looked like scoring again. They defused a Manly attack, which meant a 20-metre restart, but took the gamble of trying to find the sideline down field (which would have meant a Sharks scrum feed) but this failed: more panic.
Manly added a few more tries to make sure of the result. Taulapapa’s poor night continued as he allowed Robertson to shrug him off for a try. Interestingly, with the result certain, Cronulla’s attack assumed a more normal structure in the game’s final 10-20 minutes. They ran some of their plays, but Manly kept their line intact.
It was a thorough thrashing from Manly, but the use of hyperbolic words such as ‘perfection’ and ‘premiership favouritism’ should be kept to a minimum. Sure, Manly could not have done much more in the first half, but Cronulla’s surprisingly poor effort was a major factor in their success. And until Manly come close to beating a full-strength Melbourne Storm, they should not enter into a rational discussion on favourites to win this year’s premiership. Des, feel free to use this whenever the pesky media continues to bug you on this matter.
In other Round 18 games, home was where the loss was. Cronulla’s abysmal home form over 2006 and 2007 has already been mentioned, but they have shown signs of emerging from this slump. But several other teams are in a frustrating pattern of poor home performance, resilient away win and then another poor home performance.
This adequately describes the recent plight of both Penrith and the Warriors. Penrith failed to take advantage of the Origin-weakened Brisbane a few weeks back but went to Parramatta Stadium and played far better in defeating the Eels. With the carrot of cementing a position in the top 8, they once again frustrated their loyal supporters.
How frustrating are the Panthers for their home supporters? The loss to Newcastle means they have won 5 of their last 22 home games and 14 of their last 40. They’ve also tasted success in just 2 of their last 13 home games as favourites with the bookmakers and 2 of their last 13 home games when coming off an away win: amazing. Penrith is better than this: a host of dumb plays at key times (again) hurt their chances for a rare home win.
That said, Newcastle showed a resolve they definitely possess but have shown far too rarely this season. It has been seen against some of the very best teams but also after 3-game losing streaks: Newcastle is now 3 wins and 0 losses coming off 3 losses this season. Kurt Gidley showed his endurance and versatility last week in the loss against the Dragons, but was even better in this game: a 5-star effort.
The Warriors won 9 straight minor premiership home games over late 2007 and early 2008 before losing to the Roosters in May. Since then, they’ve had 2 wins in Australia and no home wins in 3 attempts. They tried to make it 4 attempts without success against Feral Thurston and the rabble known as the Cowbores, but they ultimately failed: players such as Mannering, Luck and Wiki wouldn’t let their team lose again. However, players like Rovelli might as well have worn dark blue and white, as poorly as he played. He needs a spell in NSW Cup. Now.
Brisbane won only 8 of 18 home games between late 2006 and the start of 2008, but seemed to have overcome this with 5 wins out of 6 home games so far in 2008 (including several games without Lockyer). A home game against the beleaguered Bulldogs appeared to be a certain win for Brisbane: they were almost back at full strength after an unusually poor Origin period, while the Bulldogs were…the Bulldogs.
But the Bulldogs’ speed and most importantly their ability to forget about their capitulation last Monday night troubled the larger Broncos for much of this game. Brisbane was also let down by a slow start to both halves: the Bulldogs led by 12 with 30 minutes left. Brisbane came to life and exposed the Bulldogs’ defence where almost every other team has, but the Dogs held on for a huge upset.
Last night, the Tigers lost again at Campbelltown: they have won only 2 of their last 8 at Campbelltown. Melbourne was a bit off their game and the Tigers exposed some signs of weakness in the NRL’s best defence, but Inglis and, to a lesser extent, Slater were the difference between the teams. In an era of ever-improving athleticism, these two players exploit the slightest fault in a defensive line and the Tigers provided more than enough chances for them.
The Roosters and Dragons have been two of the best teams in the NRL so far this season and have enjoyed very good records at their home ground/s, but both suffered from a rare off game against under-strength but very committed opposition.
The Roosters have had two flat patches so far this season: in late April (when Newcastle and the Dragons overwhelmed them) and in early June (when Manly dominated them). As any stock price chartist will tell you, two points is enough for a trend and extrapolating this line meant a flat game coming soon. But it was hard to see it happening against a team like the Gold Coast, who put in incredible efforts against the Dragons and Manly in previous weeks but came up short. The Gold Coast has also had horrendous form out of Queensland: just 3 wins out of 14 games.
When the Roosters wiped out the Titans’ early lead and took their own 12-point lead to half-time (with no tries coming from kicks!), the threat from the resilient Titans appeared gone. Incredibly the Roosters failed to finish the job and allowed the Titans to score 3 tries and take an unlikely lead. Preston Campbell and Shannon Walker exploited the large Roosters forwards, but it was the Gold Coast forwards who provided the foundation for Campbell and Mat Rogers to lead the way for a famous, against-the-odds win.
At least the Dragons can’t say they threw away a lead in Sunday’s game against Canberra. The Raiders withstood early Dragons’ pressure and soundly defeated the winners of their last 7 games. While the Dragons have long been prone to defeats as heavy favourites and were probably due for a loss, it is also important to acknowledge Canberra’s major success over the Dragons since 2001 (they have lost only 2 of their last 12 against them) and Canberra’s strong record in recent years coming off a loss.
Lastly, Parramatta discovered they need more than to turn up and put in major effort for perhaps 40 minutes of a game to guarantee a win on Saturday night. They started strongly, but a 10-point lead was never going to make Souths feel too uncomfortable, especially as Parramatta was without Cayless and suffered injuries to Moi Moi and Mateo. As a consequence, Parramatta’s below par ability to sustain intensity and endurance was further weakened: they exhausted almost all of 10 interchanges just after the 60 minute mark.
This quality of Parramatta requires further inspection. In the latter years of Michael Hagan’s tenure at Newcastle, the Knights often used their interchange allotment faster than other teams and often used their allotment of 12 well before 80 minutes. While injuries often wreak havoc with interchange plans, it seems Hagan has brought this problem with him to Parramatta. Meanwhile, Newcastle’s fitness, intensity and endurance have all improved markedly under Brian Smith’s tenure.
While he probably wouldn’t be happy that some of his former players are suffering in this situation, one can only imagine that Jason Taylor is taking great delight in seeing Parramatta’s prospects looking grimmer under Michael Hagan’s leadership.
Souths’ confidence and momentum and Parramatta’s inability to sustain any pressure meant a Souths win was always the most likely outcome after the first 15-20 minutes.
Before this game, Parramatta might have looked forward to the challenge of taking on Manly (as they will this Friday night). Now, taking on the most physically imposing team in the NRL looks to be a challenge Parramatta is not capable of taking on (to put it mildly).
Still, every team in today’s NRL – even the Energizer Bunnies of the NRL, Manly and Melbourne – are prone to off days and losing when few expect them to do so. As was seen in Round 18 – and is quite likely to occur as the big-name teams get over any post-Origin fatigue and lesser teams take their final shots at the top-8 – home teams, favoured teams and even those playing the Cowbores are vulnerable. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Round 17 - Tuesday Is Serious Mum: Another Lyrical Roundup
Despite it being the final shortened round of 2008, Round 17 of the NRL offered a solid number of points for discussion: how well the Origin players backed up (or didn't back up), teams continuing to fail to get anywhere near their immense potential, the ongoing problems with referees / officials and several teams continuing to perform well above expectations.
While all teams have now enjoyed 2 byes, the Tuesday Roast has plowed on through all rounds to this point. To that end, offbeat Australian band / social commentators TISM were brought out of hiatus to provide a unique take on the games over the weekend and hence ease the Tuesday Roast workload heading into the last part of the season.
TISM may be as Malbournian as AFL, hook turns and nondescript CBD bars, but they jumped at the chance to take the piss out of Rugby. Once they were reminded that NRL and Rugby are different sports, they were all right to go.
Round 17 kicked off on Friday with the understrength Gold Coast hosting the table-topping Manly Sea Eagles:
"The last time I saw Roger was last year at the Boxing Day Test / He'd turned into such a fat, normal, yobbo ****. "The wife nearly didn't let me out today" he said / and he did all that chanting yobs do, like "Ooh, Aahh, Glenn McGrath" / "It got you in the end" I thought to myself, as I looked at Roger. "Life got you in the end, pal / You were such a cocky, successful winner when we were 16, but now you're just another sad fat pr*** sitting in the M.C.G high-fiving in self-congratulation, as if its you that had the skill and determination to play for Australia" / Its the ****s with the bad haircuts that you've got to watch out for / There's never been a popular teenager yet who's done rat's with their life. Its the ****ing dorks that give it a real go / Glenn McGrath got 5 for 50 that day" from The Parable of Glenn McGrath's Haircut (1998)
Despite being without Scott Prince, Luke Bailey and Ashley Harrison, Gold Coast put in their second straight excellent performance. The depth they enjoy in forwards in addition to their high intensity levels and fairly simple structure meant they were able to come very close to defeating St George Illawarra last week in one of the better games of the season.
Once it became apparent the Titans would be without these important players again (and for some time), Gold Coast was given next to no chance of defeating Manly, but they were just as good (at least for 60 minutes). They forced the much-vaunted Manly defence to pull out all the stops. With less than 20 minutes to go, Manly looked in trouble. Gold Coast was dominating possession, they tied the score after several minutes of sustained pressure then took the lead with a penalty.
Incredibly, Manly defeated the Gold Coast by 20. They were ultimately unperturbed by the pressure from the Gold Coast and calmly dismantled their defence. Sure, they received some help from the Titans' weak spot - their outside backs - but for an attack often perceived as having fewer options than many other teams, they gave this entertaining game a high-class ending.
Steve Menzies featured prominently in Manly's attacking outburst as well as their robust defence earlier on and was a worthy winnner of Channel 9's Man of the Match award. His longevity, consistency, class but most of all, appearance means he is of a similar ilk to Glenn McGrath (alas there is no catchy Menzies chant). However, the point of Parable could equally apply to Manly as a whole. There are many teams in the NRL with a flashier attack or better athletes or bigger forwards. But Manly's consistent execution, their frequent play at or near their potential and their hunger makes them better than most other teams.
The sole Saturday game saw the streaking Dragons travel north to take on a desperate Newcastle:
"Life is full of problems / And here's the remedy / Denial works for me (denial works for me))" from Denial Works for Me (1998)
While there is little doubt the Dragons are playing with quality and consistency not seen....ever?.... as they made it 7 consecutive wins on Saturday night, there is also little doubt they received a considerable leg-up in this game from the officials (the referee, the touch judges and the video referee).
At about the half-hour point of this game, the Dragons had an incredible advantage in possession: they had the ball twice as much as Newcastle. The Dragons benefitted significantly from a very generous Sean Hampstead, as his penalty threshold was far lower for Newcastle than it was for the Dragons. While many were happy to see Wendell back, clearly the referees were too, as they gave the Dragons a penalty for a mid-air tackle on Wendell, but failed to do the same to Newcastle when Wendell was doing the tackling.
But the two most egregious decisions were the held-up call (when Jason Nightingale was tackled into touch) and the try awarded to Chase Stanley (where Jarrod Mullen seemed to get his foot between the ball and the ground). The ball did touch the ground eventually, but it appeared Stanley's hand had come off the ball at that point.
Still, Newcastle was only trailing 8-nil just prior to half-time and were enjoying a rare period with the ball near the Dragons' line. Given the decisions against them, 8-nil down would have been considered a positive half-time score. But a poorly timed offload by Chris Houston gave the ball back to the Dragons. A few tackles later, Rangi Chase took an offload from Lagi Setu and put Brett Morris into a gap. He probably could have gone all the way himself, but gave it to his just-as-quick brother Josh for the runaway try which was a crushing blow for Newcastle.
The Dragons' lead ballooned to 24-nil before Newcastle gathered themselves (and the Dragons eased off). Two quick tries gave Newcastle a glimmer of hope, but a third try was disallowed by an erroneous forward pass call.
It hasn't yet taken place, but no-one will be surprised when referees' boss Robert Finch emerges with a patchwork justification for the controversial calls in this game. Rugby League deserves far better than for its most experienced referee (Hampstead) to be involved in a game such as this. An admission of guilt or error for more than just the most obvious mistakes would give the referees more respect for their difficult job, but instead we get the verbal equivalent of Robert Finch putting his fingers in his ears, closing his eyes and singing Kumbaya.
Sunday's first game saw Canberra try to avoid their 12th consecutive minor premierhsip loss to Melbourne. After half an hour, the upset was a fair chance:
"I’ll get onto it / When I give a sh*t / Just wait a bit / Till I give a sh*t / This time it’s legit, my sins I’ll admit, I promise I’ll quit, I’ll get myself fit / I’ll get onto it / When I give a sh*t" from Bone Idol off The White Albun (2004)
Everyone knows about Melbourne's dominance over the NRL since 2006. Prior to this season, they were even dominant in games on the weekend after State of Origin games, but in 2008, their State of Origin representation has increased while their post State of Origin performances have suffered.
To be fair, Melbourne's post-Origin opponents this year have been Souths and Canberra. Despite Souths' best efforts, Melbourne beat them with a minimum of fuss and they defeated Canberra (again) thanks to about 20 minutes of effort starting just prior to half-time. Once the likes of Slater, Smith and Inglis started trying, the gallant Raiders had no chance.
When Parramatta starts trying on a consistent basis, every team in the NRL should be scared. Luckily, waiting for this to happen is not unlike waiting for Harold Holt on Portsea Beach:
"I can predict mankind's fate / I know where there's oil in Bass Strait / All the deserts I could irrigate / All the poor I could emancipate…..But that's not what motivates me / I'm interested in apathy" from I'm Interested in Apathy off Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance (1988)
Parramatta is the great tease of NRL teams. When they're coming from 20-nil down against the Bulldogs, or scoring 4 tries in 12 minutes at Penrith, or when Mateo or Inu thrilled at Suncorp Stadium a few weeks back, or when they stood up to a big bad Sharks team and almost won or whenever they play the Wests Tigers, they look like premiership-winning material. But at almost all other times, they look flat and disinterested.
They almost lost to the Storm reserve graders last week but didn't heed the warning and started slowly against a very young but fearless and talented Penrith side. The result: a 16-6 half-time deficit. The score became 22-12 before Parramatta got going. Their enormous talent and potential became apparent here, but they fell just short.
While Parramatta play as if they're a top-4 team who can afford a loss of this nature every now and then, they are in fact now out of the top 8. They have won just 5 of their last 12 games at Parramatta Stadium. Of their final 9 games, only 3 will be at Parramatta, but it is not a stretch to see Parramatta reacting positively to facing adversity (in the form of many away matches): of their last 12 away matches, they have won 6.
Penrith know even more about playing poorly at home and making up for it away: they have won only 3 of their last 12 home games, but 8 of their last 12 away games. There's also the Wests Tigers' woeful record at Campbelltown since 2005. What is it with these Western Sydney teams and their lack of home-ground advantage???
ANZ Stadium is also in Western Sydney (sort of) but hosts so many teams and is so large and impersonal that it offers next to no home-ground advantage. However, Souths have now won 3 of their last 4 games there, all high-scoring matches and all featuring Souths having to overcome mistakes and other poor play related to their general inexperience:
"The pressure's on - you're off the pace / If agents aren't around your place / Bidding for your fresh young face / You ain't so hard to replace......It used to be at twenty-one / Then at eighteen the curtain come / But now at fourteen, look out son / That fork in your a*se means you're done" from If You're Not Famous at Fourteen, You're Finished off De Rigeurmortis (2001)
While Souths have experienced hardheads such as Luke Stuart, Craig Wing and Roy Asotasi in their team, their poor start to the season forced coach Jason Taylor to prematurely play a host of talented youngsters in key positions (such as Chris Sandow, Luke Capewell and Isaac Luke (in terms of playing almost a full game regularly)). Their youthful exuberance and ability has given Souths a shot in the arm over the last month or so, but not without more than a few racing heartbeats amongst Souths' supporters, officials and coaches. With their opponent last night being the almost-as-inexperienced Bulldogs, it became fairly clear early on that a game filled with inexperience-related mistakes would take place.
Not that this was a bad thing. These two lowly ranked but desperate teams provided quite an entertaining game. The Bulldogs overcame a number of mistakes, penalties conceded and much Souths possession near their line to respond with two early tries. Then it was Souths' turn to give away a number of needless penalties: the Bulldogs rather easily found room on the edges and led 18-6 at half-time.
When Capewell made yet another mistake (which directly led to a Bulldogs' try), the game looked over. But in an eerily similar way to the game against the Cowbores, Souths stormed back into the contest. Once again, they put on three tries in under 10 minutes. Craig Wing was again pivotal here, while Sandow emerged with a try, a 40/20 kick and some crucial goal-kicking.
Another Souths' mistake allowed the Bulldogs to re-take the lead, but Souths responded, showing excellent poise to hold the ball as the rain moved in. Sandow's missed conversion meant extra time (although Ben Roberts' brain explosion - in choosing to kick downfield rather than direct his forwards down field and set up for a field goal with a minute left in normal time - was perhaps the biggest mistake in a game of them).
When Jarrod Hickey took his eye off the ball as the second half of extra time started, Souths took over possession and surprised the Bulldogs by moving the ball wide (and away from field goal range). Their quick passing saw Capewell make up for his horror game elsewhere to score a try and ensure another comeback win for Souths.
Games such as this are likely to become more frequent, due to the usual suspects of the stagnant salary cap (driving more experienced players to England) and the faster, harder game (driving more older players towards early retirement). An experienced halfback like Brent Sherwin might have been driven away from the Bulldogs by criticism from supporters, but he would have been very useful for the Bulldogs.
So there can be entertaining, interesting games played at ANZ Stadium. Anyone who watched last Wednesday's State of Origin game would never have believed this. Last definitely equates with least in this case. There are several TISM songs which could describe the abomination from last Wednesday night, but all are somewhat vulgar. Queensland again looked like a completely different team at ANZ Stadium (they looked like they were backing up from a weekend game to be brutally honest), but the inept NSW team showed little in terms of innovation or effort to break them down. Even worse, whenever Queensland found the energy to put on some basic attacking plays, NSW's fundamentally poor defence meant Queensland almost scored far more often than they deserved to.
Thankfully, Feral Thurston put this game out of its misery, but we should never have to watch such a shocking game again. How about the ARL/NRL co-ordinate with the English League for ALL Australian players to be available for State of Origin games? This could be similar to the allocated days where all soccer players must be made available for their country. This might not solve the NSW halves drought, but at least we wouldn't have to watch pretenders like Turner, Quinn, Monaghan, Boyd or Stewart (who tried hard, but is not an Origin player). Something to consider...
A final TISM thought. See you next week:
"The guy who slagged the football team / Those yobs were not for him / He turns into a real estate agent / Who believes in discipline" from Greg! The Stop Sign! off Machiavelli and the Four Seasons
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Round 16: More Pre-Origin Goodness (Or how the Origin-weakened finally stood up for themselves)
Round 16 was the third and final pre-State of Origin round for 2008. Whereas, in previous years, these rounds saw various methods of playing less club games (extra byes or split rounds), it was decided for 2008 that all teams should play in pre-Origin rounds (with the byes being shifted to the rounds played immediately after State of Origin games).
It was revealed last week that this idea came from the clubs/coaches and not from the NRL. It was also revealed last week that the draw for 2009 will contain byes in the pre-Origin rounds once again. Add yet another one to the rather lengthy list of rules or administrative changes due to suggestions from clubs,coaches or players which is found to suck, leading to a hasty and embarrassing reversion to its original arrangement. The NRL: where the inmates run the asylum.
While it appears sanity has prevailed relating to the scheduling of NRL games and byes during the Origin period, it will limit what becoming a quite interesting analysis of NRL teams and how they fare without their Origin players (vis a vis the fortunes of teams with less or none Origin players). Over the first 2 pre-Origin rounds, the teams who experienced less of an impact (strictly in terms of number of players absent) from State of Origin compared to their opponents won 10 out of 14 games (there were 2 games in these rounds where no players from either team were absent due to State of Origin): a winning percentage of 71%.
Conveniently for tipsters looking for a sure thing, each game in Round 16 had a team missing some significant players to Origin duty up against a team missing fewer (or none) significant players to Origin duty. Not surprisingly, each of these less affected teams was made favourites by betting websites, but ultimately only half of these teams were successful. Also, several of those teams with relatively greater Origin representation gave a much better account of themselves than many thought possible.
In short, Origin-hit teams made a stand in Round 16 and what could have been a rather mundane round was surprisingly entertaining (or at least more interesting).
Channel 9 would have been especially pleased about this: their 3 Round 16 games looked quite unappealing. Once upon a time, Brisbane had such depth they could field a team in pre-Origin rounds that would have been competitive over the course of a full season. But the ongoing work of the salary cap and several other factors have thinned Wayne Bennett's squad of depth of talent and experience. Hence, in these pre-Origin rounds, their best hope is for a low-scoring grind of a game, where they can work hard, jag a few tries through hard work and hope to hold on.
Luckily, their opponent was Penrith - owners of a 5 win and 15 loss record at home since late 2006 - who had a fair bit more talent that Brisbane, but much less experience. When it became apparent there was a heavy dew at Penrith on Friday night, Brisbane would have been delighted. Opponents of Penrith in the 1970s and 1980s - when the combination of a sunny day but a mysteriously heavy track (often due to someone mistakenly leaving the hose all night) would often greet a visiting team to Penrith Park - would have been smiling.
Not surprisingly, the game took over 20 minutes to get going. For Penrith, this was always going to happen down their left hand side, where the enigmatic Frank Pritchard and his talented teammates in Michael Jennings and Luke Rooney had a distinct advantage. Penrith took the lead down the left with a long-range effort which brought the game to life, but this play signalled the end of Luke Rooney's game, making Penrith's job somewhat harder.
Brisbane's confidence gradually grew as they realised they had a great chance to win (and to inflict another pre-Origin win over Penrith at Penrith almost a year to the day since they last achieved this task). As the clock ran towards 80 minutes and Penrith's patience started to wear thin (and they botched several try-scoring chances), it looked like another disappointing Penrith home effort.
Finally, Penrith successfully attacked down their left hand side and tied the game, but couldn't regain the lead over the remaining minutes of normal time or extra time. The absence of Luke Priddis and the lack of experience in the halves or at fullback was painfully apparent here. The confidence of first-gamer Lachlan Coote was admirable, but his efforts came to nought (both kicks for goal and field goals). Meanwhile, Brisbane had one concerted effort to win the game in extra time, but Shane Perry missed a good chance at field goal.
The ineptness and lack of experience meant a draw was the final result. The battle between skill and guts became quite interesting as the game went on, but the two teams probably could still be playing and be locked at 12-all.
In Friday night's other game, the Bulldogs gave a far better account of themselves than their dreadful showing last week against Canberra, but once the almost reserve grade Roosters team got their game going, the Bulldogs looked about as likely to score as Penrith or Brisbane.
Admittedly, the Bulldogs were quite unlucky to lose 2 players to injury (the loss of big Hickey was particularly noticed against the still-large Roosters' forward pack) during the game and the Roosters also benefitted from two questionable video referee decisions in the second half (although they were denied a fair try from the video referee in the first half), but it was a highly impressive performance from the Roosters. Their forwards dominated and their makeshift halves combination of Aubusson and Sa (with Famous Amos chiming in every so often) provided the pinpoint kicking game which leads to so many Roosters' tries.
The magnitude of Melbourne's player losses during these pre-Origin games has been well documented but they almost followed the Roosters' lead (from before Origin 1) and inflicted defeat on an almost full-strength Parramatta team on Sunday afternoon. To be fair to Parramatta though, they have a disturbing tendency to lose games to significantly understrength opponents, so for them to hold on for the narrow victory here was...all that was needed. Parramatta's coach (Michael Hagan) and captain (Nathan Cayless) admitted as much after the game.
The New Zealand Warriors were "only" missing Steve Price and Brent Tate, but a Warriors win on Sunday afternoon at Leichhardt was almost considered as unlikely as a Melbourne win. But the Warriors have a good record against the Tigers and when the Tigers started slowly for the third consecutive week, the Warriors took advantage.
The Leichhardt faithful helped bring the Tigers right back into the game - the Warriors' 16 point lead was eliminated early in the second half - but they couldn't sustain this effort and the Warriors' confidence wasn't harmed. They spread the ball within their own half, forced a poor decision from Beau Ryan which led to a great try to Lance Hohaia. After the Tigers lost the ball not far from their line, a barnstorming run by Sam Rapira looked like sealing the win for the Warriors.
As many started leaving Leichhardt in an attempt to beat the traffic, the Tigers almost forced extra time as Taniela Tuiaki barrelled along the left-hand touchline, but Brett Hodgson's missed conversion after the siren gave the Warriors a deserved win.
But the best performance by a team who was more affected by State of Origin than their opponent came last night as Cronulla absorbed Canberra's best in the opening 20 minutes of both halves before scoring points almost at will to record a 36-24 victory. Interestingly, Canberra's Best (Colin Best) crashed to earth with a thud after looking like the worl's best left centre in far too easy wins over the Bulldogs and Brisbane. This win moved Cronulla's away record to 7 wins and 2 losses and they have won all 3 pre-Origin games: both remarkable stats for a team with so little "on paper" talent (without their Origin players Bird and Gallen). Give Ricky Stuart the Coach of the Year award now.
It was a mix of well-run set plays, a well-executed kicking game and the excellent dummy-half play of Isaac De Gois which were the main factors behind Cronulla scoring 6 tries for only the second time in the Ricky Stuart era, while Luke Covell had a brilliant game at winger, kicking all 6 conversion attempts and making numerous big plays on the wing both with and without the ball.
Much of the above two paragraphs of glowing praise haven't been synonomous with Cronulla's style of play since John Lang's teams, but there was one moment in last night's game which left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. In Alan Tongue's case, that taste was probably blood. As Tongue was helping to tackle a Cronulla player in the second half, Cronulla winger Misi Taulapapa decided Tongue was out of line and gave Tongue a shot in the ribs (which left Tongue with rib cartilage damage and prematurely ended his time in last night's game). With Canberra already two men down with injury, Taulapapa's cheap shot made a comeback that much more difficult for the Raiders (although it was hard to see them winning in any event).
Taulapapa may be just another dumb rugby league player, but even he knows to hit an opposing player when he's not looking is the most effective way to end his involvement in the game. Ricky Stuart would have been proud as punch: the many hours of thug training (led by Bird and Gallen) finally paid off. Taulapapa's cowardly act was probably worse than Riley Brown's on Craig Wing in Round 1.
Wing finally returned to the field after his Round 1 injury as Souths looked for their third win in a row against the understrength Cowbores in Townsville. Souths enjoyed a mountain of possession early but couldn't convert any of it into points. The Cowbores were missing one of the best attacking organisers in the game in Feral Thurston, but still managed to score 2 tries in the first half before adding 3 more early in the second.
At 28-4, the game looked over, but Souths came back from deficits (although not nearly as large as this) in their previous 2 wins: they appeared unfazed at the giant task ahead of them. This was probably due to the increasing signs of tiredness in the Cowbores' defence. Souths responded with 3 tries of their own in 8 minutes not long after falling behind 24. Each try came quite easily and the Cowbores were fading fast.
While it took Souths another 15 or so minutes to tie the game, it was far too easy a try to concede for a team who desperately needed to win to try and avoid the wooden spoon. After Isaac Luke hit another tricky conversion to tie the game, a lost ball by Fetuli Talanoa near half-way meant a critical decision had to be made. The decision of an illegal strip gave Souths the field position to take the lead. Once again, the ease of this task was surprising. It was almost too easy: it took Souths almost 2 minutes to correctly set up a field goal play.
The Cowbores almost parlayed their improved kick-off tricks (as seen in the Melbourne game last week) into an extra time game but Anthony Watts couldn't get his after-the-siren attempt over the onrushing defence. It was an incredible comeback win by Souths - although they tried their hardest to throw it away on several occasions.
The same could almost be said about St George Illawarra's win over the Gold Coast. Despite Nathan Brown's negative post-game comments, the Gold Coast played their best game in several months: a significant fact given the absence of a host of important players to Origin and injury. It took the Dragons until well into the second half before they were able to gain control in this game, despite a very high completion rate and some well-executed attack (especially the bombing of Gold Coast winger Ben Jeffery).
The Dragons' lead stretched to 8 before several howling Dragons' mistakes happened. First, the offload from Lagi Setu towards an unsuspecting Jason Ryles. Mat Rogers saw this unfold and intercepted it to cut the lead to 4 points. Then, in the game's dying minutes, it was Ryles again who forced an unnecessary offload and turned over possession not far from the Dragons' line. Both teams were very tired by this stage and the Dragons looked certain to concede another try, but a dropped ball by Michael Hodgson saved what was an otherwise very good game from Ryles from being forgotten.
Lastly, the Buderus and Gidley-less Newcastle Knights fell behind to Manly but things looked promising for them at half time. They trailed only by 2 points (it could have been far worse) and Manly appeared to have some significant injury concerns (Matai and Watmough).
But ultimately Newcastle had next to no chance. Matai and Watmough played on and Manly efficiently disposed of the Knights. How is it that a team faring as well as Manly can have only one Origin representative? The Tigers benefitted from a lack of Origin players in 2005 but they did it with having a high number of New Zealand representatives: Manly don't even have this. To continue a winning culture after several years where intensity is a major factor is a credit to Manly coach Des Hasler.
While Newcastle was handily beaten, as a whole the Origin-affected teams gave a far better account of themselves in the third pre-Origin round of 2008. It might cost needy clubs money and give TV networks less to promote, but these pre-Origin rounds can often be the beginning of successful careers as well as provide ongoing evidence of rugby league's ability to remain strong in times of adversity.
There you go... A far too infrequent positive Tuesday Roast to end the financial year. Regular service I'm sure will resume next week.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Round 15: A look at declining point totals
Once upon a time, Rugby League was largely a low-scoring game. But as full-time players became the norm rather than the exception, as leather balls were replaced by the synthetic variety, as the 5-metre rule became a 10-metre rule, as the number of teams jumped (and the talent level diluted), as unlimited interchange severely threatened the concept of endurance and as corporate influence within Rugby League reached never before seen levels, point-scoring climbed to its highest ever mark (in the 1997 Super League season).
However, there was more to come. The introduction of unlimited interchange in 1996 took the game in a weird direction. It became much more difficult for a halfback to find a tiring prop to run at (unless he ran towards the interchange bench). This rule prematurely ended Allan Langer’s career and enhanced Brett Kimmorley’s. Unlimited interchange had to go.
While the reintroduction of limited interchange in 2001 ticked a host of boxes for the NRL, it took rugby league – especially the hulking forwards, whose lack of endurance was exposed – several years to adjust. Well… it didn’t take halfbacks too long to adjust: point-scoring jumped 3 points per game per team on average in 2001 over the previous record from 1997. Over the following four years, point-scoring remained near this record high.
But since 2006, defences have fought back. Continued physical improvement – stronger backs and leaner forwards – across the league has made it more difficult to wear down opposing defences. The increasing size and strength of players has increased wear, tear and injury of star players and scrubs alike.
Also over the last few years, the drain of talented players away from Rugby League (to England, Rugby Union or to (relatively) early retirement) has increased. Sure, this loss of rugby league IQ and experience has affected defences (has poor defensive play from wingers ever been as widespread?), but attack has suffered more.
The increasing reliance of tries from kicks is a result of this. Several benefits of relying on kicks is that it utilises the great athletes in the game as well as not being massively affected in the event of long-term injury or a player leaving the team (i.e. a replacement halfback can cross-kick nearly as well as a representative halfback).
While almost all very good teams are built upon a strong defence, more top teams in recent years have the strong defence but little on the point-scoring side. The physically gifted player is far more prevalent than the heady, wise but diminutive type. In many cases, these players are too expensive or have left for greener pa$tures, but in some cases, they are not wanted (see Head, Mathew).
Round 15 gave us five of the modern-day low-scoring matches due to a mix of the aforementioned factors and more.
Friday night’s 2 matches provided a total of 62 points. The Brisbane – Tigers match was all about missing players. Brisbane was without most of their skilful players, while the Tigers were missing many of their big players. It was an interesting game, as Brisbane tried hard to exert their size advantage and minimise their quickness disadvantage, while the Tigers knew if they could garner any sort of lead, the Broncos would have trouble chasing it down.
The Tigers looked the more threatening team, but were not quite in rhythm: not a good outcome when your key attacking players are all together. The game turned sharply when Brisbane prop Dave Taylor took an intercept near his line and rumbled over half-way. The momentum gained was enough to lead to a Brisbane try and then another try soon after. Neither was particularly attractive, but they both involved dominance of the smaller Tigers defenders.
The Tigers tied the game with another eye-catching play: they pierced the edge of the Brisbane defence and a streaking Dean Collis kicked inside where Liam Fulton scored. Brisbane regained the lead with a field goal, but the Tigers could have tied the game again or won the game: they had a lot of late possession near Brisbane’s line. Alas, they wasted their chances: John Morris inexplicably missed an easy field-goal attempt. It was a victory for hard work over undersized (and seemingly out-of-sync) skills.
Meanwhile, injury-hit Penrith threatened yet another boilover away from home. Sure, the Dragons are often vulnerable as heavy favourites, but Luke Lewis’ try just before half-time (to extend Penrith’s lead to 12-nil) was softer than soft.
Lewis was having another good game at makeshift half-back, but there were times where his lack of experience at the difficult position of half-back was revealed: Penrith may have had an unassailable lead with a more regular half-back.
However, as the second half warmed up, it became clear the Dragons were keen to do just enough to get the win and Penrith was running out of steam. Having 2 players on debut and losing your fullback will do that. Rangi Chase and Jamie Soward’s youthful exuberance created 2 try-scoring opportunities for the Dragons…and Penrith’s hard-earned lead was gone within 5 minutes.
Rather than push home the advantage, the Dragons unsuccessfully tried for a penalty goal then twice for field goals. The second of these was good and looked like being enough, but the Dragons could have won by more, but for a streaking Brett (or was it Josh?) Morris to needlessly throw a pass which was brilliantly intercepted by Jarrod Sammut.
From the understrength team who was unlucky to the understrength team that didn’t really deserve the lead but threw it away once they got it: hello New Zealand Warriors. They took on Manly in the early Sunday game and led by 2 at half time despite running into the wind, rarely getting any good attacking field position and making a bunch of poor decisions on the last tackle. Manly’s defence was a factor here, but the Warriors’ new halves combination was clearly not coming together.
In contrast, Manly had a much better attacking structure and threatened the Warriors’ line many times. They scored once, had two tries disallowed (both of which could have been given under a different video referee) and looked by far the better team.
Glenn Stewart’s early second half try gave Manly a deserved lead, but the Warriors tied the game after a fortuitous bounce from a kick-and-hope.
The game remained tied nearing the final 10 minutes when the Warriors finally looked convincing at the attacking end: a Nathan Fien kick isolated Aiden Kirk on the Manly winger. Kirk leapt and brought down gold in the form of a try.
The Warriors incredibly had a lead over the competition leaders in the game’s final 10 minutes: could they secure a season-turning win? Not even close…they returned to their Scarecrow days and surrendered possession on several occasions with needless risky passes and other silly play. To compound these mistakes, they allowed Manly hooker Matt Ballin to score a relatively simple try to take back the lead.
When Brent Kite went over to seal the win from a well-worked move, it left both teams at least somewhat annoyed. Manly largely failed to cash in on their advantage over the Warriors until the game’s dying minutes, while the hard-working but mostly inept Warriors failed to cash in on their good fortune.
The match between Cronulla and Parramatta left many with a bad taste in the mouth at game’s end. As they usually do, Cronulla dominated their opponent physically but rarely looked like scoring. If it wasn’t for an inexplicable Tony Williams fumble, they probably wouldn’t have cracked the psychological 10-point barrier.
Parramatta, on the other hand, absorbed a massive amount of hurt from Cronulla’s defence (and their rampaging – in terms of field position – attack as well), but always threatened Cronulla’s line on the rare occasions they got near it and had enough left in the tank to score a late try. If Luke Burt’s strike was a little truer, it would have been a Parramatta win.
In other words, it was a very good effort from a team not noted for their ability to win in low-scoring games against physical opposition. Phil Gould made this point roughly 6546874645684654564848916516181681 times (at last count) during Channel 9’s coverage. Gould’s stubbornness almost made Ray Warren’s valiant efforts to be subtle in his support of Parramatta less obvious…almost.
But the main reason for dismay at the end of this game was the penalty given against Moimoi for his botched charge-down of Kimmorley’s field-goal attempt. It was a clumsy challenge and there was (some) contact with Kimmorley’s head, but in true Cronulla (under Ricky Stuart) spirit, Kimmorley stayed down in a manner that would have made Italian soccer lovers proud (I’m sure Gallen and Bird were particularly proud of him).
Obviously any other player worth his salt would have done the same thing, but for this to decide a match felt…wrong.
The final low-scoring match of the round was probably the best. There were a fairly high number of mistakes and silly penalties conceded, but this was mostly due to the above average speed and intensity on display (one reason why Mitchell Pearce was selected to the NSW State of Origin team).
The Newcastle Roosters match was low-scoring and was in the balance until the last play of the game. Newcastle once again exhibited their ability to lift considerably when playing the higher ranked teams in the NRL: they attacked the few Roosters’ weak spots and forced the Roosters to play close to their best (or at least their most intense) to secure the win.
If more low-scoring matches mean more games like Newcastle v. Roosters (or even Cronulla v. Parramatta…the first 79 minutes anyway), I’m sure most rugby league supporters won’t be too disappointed. But if it means more of the other games then the downward trend in quality of most NRL games looks certain to continue.
That said, at least the Brisbane v. Tigers, Dragons v. Penrith and Warriors v. Manly games were (mostly) entertaining. The other games in Round 15 – Bulldogs v. Canberra, Melbourne v. the Cowbores and Souths v. Gold Coast were largely uninteresting as well as being poor quality games.
The Bulldogs were as bad as an NRL team has perhaps ever been (admittedly to many NRL followers, this is extremely interesting). It was evident from very early on that Canberra had brought their home ground form to an away game for once (they had won only 3 of their last 22 away games after a home win), but they are probably somewhat annoyed they did so against such insipid opposition. They probably would have won playing in blindfolds. The Bulldogs capitulated similarly at the end of 2005, but there’s still another 11 rounds left in 2008: it could be an ugly next few months for them.
The same could be said for the Cowbores, who tried every devious trick in the book to slow the Melbourne juggernaut. It did work for a while though. Throw in what looked like some complacency (or maybe boredom) from Melbourne and the Cowbores had 3 first half tries. After a typical Craig Bellamy half-time spray, Melbourne cruised to victory – and proceeded to abuse the Cowbores’ underhanded ways.
The Souths – Gold Coast game was an entertaining game, but more in the mould of Brisbane Tigers than Newcastle Roosters. Souths had enthusiasm and aggression but were crying out for an experienced hand to guide them around, while the Gold Coast had the experienced hand but their big-name pack was lacking in enthusiasm and aggression.
Once Souths realised this – and that the game was there for the taking – they lifted considerably (after falling behind early on), but they trailed at half-time after falling for a fairly basic Scott Prince move.
Gold Coast replied by allowing John Sutton an alarmingly easy passage to the try-line. From here, the Gold Coast seemed to switch on and looked likely to win the game with two tries due largely to hard work.
The game took another strange twist as injuries continued to mount for the Gold Coast. In the space of perhaps 10 minutes, they were left with no reserves. Souths scored rather easily to equalise the game again, but they rather easily allowed the Gold Coast to march down field and take a one-point lead. Blind Freddy could tell that’s what they wanted to do, yet Souths seemed clueless.
This was clearly going to be a game of whoever benefited from the last mistake would win. When Jordan Atkins was far from subtle in his push-down of the tackled player, Souths added 2 points and held on for the win (despite allowing the Gold Coast within field goal range AGAIN).
The low-quality mismatch/lottery that is byeless pre-Origin rounds return next week and is sure to provide plenty of material for critics, in one way or another. Have a good week.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Round 14: The Rise and Fall of the Cowbores
In last night's game, the North Queensland Cowboys lost to Newcastle by 30-18. This was the Cowboys' 7th straight loss overall, 4th straight loss in Townsville and they remain 4 points adrift equal at the foot of the ladder: incredible numbers for a team widely considered as top-8 certainties in pre-season prognostications.
They lost to the Knights despite eliminating a 14-point deficit, despite benefitting from Knights' ill-discipline for much of the game, despite using their quick players to push several lumbering Knights' forwards towards exhaustion in the game's dying minutes and despite winning the field position battle for most of the game.
But the main reason they lost because their defensive structure and defensive performance was, to put it mildly, disgraceful. To be fair, they were missing a host of players whose presence is important to the Cowboys' defensive play, but they were not the team being run ragged due to lots of dropped ball or giving up a number of penalties. They had no excuses for their terrible defensive play emanating from tiredness or fatigue.
There are two very disappointing aspects of this woeful defensive effort for Cowboys' supporters: 1. The quality of their defence has been in decline for over a year now, but (until the start of 2008) it had been masked by timely point-scoring and 2. Defensive effort was the catalyst, the turning point for the Cowboys. Their breakthrough season of 2004 was built on defensive fundamentals, hard work and a cohesive team unit (because it surely wasn't built on attack...more on this later).
After last night's loss, several commentators called it: the end of the Cowboys' season. In hindsight, this has been developing over the last few years: you don't go from defensive specialists to making rookie mistakes overnight. This edition of the Tuesday Roast looks in greater depth at the rise and fall of the North Queensland Cowboys.
Despite enjoying considerable and very loyal support from much of Central and Northern Queensland, the Cowboys were a laughingstock for most of their first decade in the ARL/SL/NRL. Their efforts in securing big-name players or coaches were, for the most part, extremely ineffective. The ones they did sign failed to have much of an impact. Many a player or coach who had varying degrees of success at other clubs often disappeared off the rugby league radar when they played for the Cowboys. Does anyone remember the times when Steve Walters, Noa Nadruku, Jason Death, Dale Shearer, Paul Green, Noel Goldthorpe, Julian O'Neill, Tim Brasher, Robert Relf or Tim Sheens were Cowboys? I'm sure these guys try to forget their Townsville tenure every single day.
During these years in the rugby league wilderness (despite being endowed with far more "local" talent than any other team), their games were almost always on a Saturday night (never on Channel 9) and usually delayed until after much better and more entertaining games. How disrespected and ignored where they by people not residing in North Queensland? That great rugby league scholar, Glenn Morrison, left the Cowboys for what was a terrible Parramatta team, believing he was a better chance of playing State of Origin if only the selectors would see him play. Ok that's not strictly true, but the 'Siberia Cowboys' was a very appropriate moniker for such a team.
When the Cowboys' 2004 season started with 3 wins out of their first 9 games, another long losing season seemed certain. Then...a strange thing happened: the Cowboys started winning games. Almost 4 years ago to the day, the Cowboys defeated New Zealand in Auckland 28-26. It was their 5th win in 7 games and 13 points collected out of the last 16 available points.
They had quietly put together the core of a good team: Kevin Campion, Travis Norton and Paul Rauhihi were signed after playing important roles for the Warriors and Bulldogs respectively in their previous success, Matt Sing's evergreen career continued after leaving the Roosters and they (finally) had a promising crop of young players coming through (Luke O'Donnell and Steve Southern to form the nucleus of a great defensive back-row, Ty Williams and Josh Hannay who provided solid three-quarter play and, from the production line that brought you David Peachey and Preston Campbell, the speedy, side-stepping, risk-taker known as Matt Bowen).
However, playing in the halves for the Cowboys in Auckland in 2004 were David Myles and Chris Sheppard (Nathan Fien was the team's regular halfback that season). There might have been a less skilful, less talented, more sleep-inducing set of halves in rugby league history, but it's unlikely. It was unsurprising then that this team relied on hard work (at both ends of the field): they were never going match it talent-wise with many other teams.
When they lost to the Bulldogs, Roosters and Canberra in succession after the victory over the Warriors, the Cowboys went back to being Siberia's finest: people in the rest of the rugby league world went back to ignoring them. Then from mid-July, they won 8 out of 11 games and came this close to defeating the Roosters and making it to a grand final.
While Australia loves an underdog and rugby league, in particular, always seems to enjoy the battler overcoming the odds to succeed (look at the reaction everytime Souths wins a game), the general outpouring of joy throughout the rugby league as the Cowboys ground their way to win after win was, quite frankly, sickening. Their 10-0 snorefest over the Broncos - who, you may remember, were unable to do anything in a season once August started between 2001 and 2005 - was perhaps the most boring game ever played, yet people wanted more.
Sure, they were beating teams such as Brisbane, the Bulldogs and (almost) the Roosters: who doesn't like to see these high-flyers knocked down a peg from time to time? But you'd prefer the team to beat them to offer something - anything - to grab on to. If Matt Bowen didn't get the ball in broken play, a Cowboys' game was almost guaranteed to send you to sleep.
Never had a team been more in need of a playmaker when the Cowboys signed Feral Thurston for the 2005 season. With their large, intense team, the wilcard of Bowen and now the guidance of a potentially brilliant half in the Feral, anything looked possible for the Cowboys.
Yet they continued to serve up much of the same boring dross they had in 2004. With an eye on greater ratings in Queensland, Channel 9 was well and truly on the bandwagon at this point and was as excited about the Cowboys' dull play as anyone else.
The time had come. No longer could the Cowboys continue to lead such a charmed life; no longer could they continue to be praised for having one player with some semblance of athleticism in a team of automotons and have commentators everywhere describe them as 'exciting' or 'entertaining' (especially when the game's most recent innovators and entertainers - the Wests Tigers - were developing into a far more complete attacking team).
The Cowbores were born.
During the middle rounds of 2005, the quality of the Cowbores play slipped (partly due to the absence of Feral and Bowen (at times) due to State of Origin). They continued to be very boring, but this meant a still-strong defence and enough wins to remain near the top of the ladder.
They emerged from their slump in the latter part of 2005 and found form much like they did in 2004. Rugby League has about infinity payments left in a debt of gratitude to the Tigers: they played the Cowbores 3 times late in 2005 and thrashed them each and everytime, finally providing real rugby league supporters with some good memories of the Cowbores.
History will probably show that in 2006 the seeds of the Cowbores' downfall were planted. They started the season very strongly and defeated Newcastle in one of the best matches of 2006 (I know...I was shocked too) before their season basically fell apart. The letdown after exerting such a massive effort in Newcastle cost them a few games before the Origin period saw them lose 5 out of 6 games. When a sub-par effort at Penrith was followed by a serious injury to Feral, their season was gone and the realisation of their reliance on Feral had become apparent.
In 2007, they enjoyed yet another strong start before the mid-season malaise kicked in (and some large and very boring losses without Feral). They conceded 44, 64 (to the Anderson-led Roosters incredibly) and 58 points in a 6-week period: with or without Feral, this was not the same defensive team of 2004, 2005 and much of 2006.
Confirmation of the marked change in the Cowbores' attitude came with wins over the Bulldogs, Canberra, Penrith and the Bulldogs (again). Each of these games saw the Cowboys overcome gallant oppositions almost totally on the back of extremely timely attack from Feral, Matt Bowen or both. The Penrith game was not one for the defensive purists: Penrith repeatedly found holes in the Cowbores' defence and should have won, but Feral and Bowen used their time-honoured tricks to carve up the Penrith 'defence' and steal the win in extra time. The second Bulldogs game was even worse: the Cowbores had a huge lead (38-10) when Feral was interchanged. They were lucky the deficit was not closer: only Bulldogs' mistakes kept them from doing so. But when Feral left the game and the remaining 'Bores thought they had it won, the Bulldogs incredibly scored 4 tries in less than 15 minutes, almost snatching the win.
The fact that the Cowbores won these games only made things worse. Eventually, their luck ran out, when they faced a Manly team who were not going to beat themselves.
Perhaps the Cowbores' administration had seen the writing on the wall when they decided not to renew Graham Murray's coaching contract beyond 2008. His laissez-faire coaching style might have been effective early on (and when they had battle-tested veterans such as Campion, Norton and Rauhihi) but they had become lazy over 2006 and 2007 and Murray had to shoulder (no pun intended) a significant portion of the blame.
While the Cowbores had decided to move on from Murray before 2009, alarm bells should have been ringing at their painfully poor start to 2008: conceding over 30 points in their first 3 games, whilst not scoring over 20 in any of these games. They did beat Parramatta, the Dragons and New Zealand, but playing these teams early in the season and/or at home is virtually a 2-point freebie. Despite being favoured by a massive penalty count and a friendly schedule, they couldn't beat Melbourne: since then, elementary defensive lapses have directly contributed to losses against Souths, Cronulla and Newcastle.
The Cowbores are a mere shadow of their team from 2005 and early 2006. Feral Thurston could play after every type of injury there is, back up after an Origin game an hour ago and still fail to inspire and motivate his teammates.
Almost 4 years to the day after the Cowbores signalled their arrival as a contender in the NRL, the loss to Newcastle last night was the end: the end of the run of this Cowbores' team. Sure, Bowen will return, as will O'Donnell, as will Southern and others, but this team will not come close to ultimately succeeding again without some major restructuring (especially defensively) next season. If / when this happens, players such as Matt Hilder, Jarrod Mullen and Kurt Gidley will miss their gift tries the next time they visit Townsville. There is no doubting Feral Thurston's effort, but he only had to look at his opposition last night for an example of real, effective leadership. Danny Buderus had a brilliant game for Newcastle. His aging body meant he was unable to play as many minutes as he normally does, but his contributions (especially after the Cowbores came back to 18-all) were pivotal.
One final point: the Cowbores made a late change before last night's game, bringing Chris Sheppard in at five-eighth. The same Chris Sheppard who last played halfback for Siberia in 2004. The Cowbores have truly come full circle.
In other Round 14 games:
* Craig Bellamy proved he was not immune to the NSW curse of winning Game 1 of an Origin series at home and then wondering openly 'Is this really my team?' in Game 2. Special mention goes to Steve Turner, who put in a Colin Best-like performance in his first-and-last Origin game.
* Penrith looked a real threat to make it 7 wins from their last 8 away games as the underdog, but some unlucky video referee decisions and a host of injuries helped the Roosters win by a somewhat flattering 20 points. Still, after their capitulation against Manly last week, this was a positive night for the Roosters, especially with Anthony Minichello showing signs of returning to his best.
* Cronulla won their third game in a row at home and ended a bizarre streak of losing after the last 4 State of Origin matches in defeating New Zealand. New Zealand threatened to defeat Cronulla (like they did in Round 14 at Cronulla last season) for a while, but Cronulla finished strongly on the back of several tries from kicks to remain in equal first (before their traditional second-half meltdown...?)
* Brisbane was missing almost all their players with any semblance of attacking skill, but the injury-hit Raiders gave a very good account of themselves: they led 34-6 early in the second half. Canberra supporters didn't see any more tries from the home team, but did see the most useless halfback in the NRL - Shane Perry - run 50 metres for a try. Seriously, you wouldn't get a more stunned look from someone if you told them you saw a UFO.
Two other points from this game: the aforementioned Colin Best was one of the best players on the field. Could it be that centre is his position and that all the inconsistency, the stupid play and the lack of confidence was due to his playing on the wing?? Also, Josh Miller came up with perhaps the biggest hit of the season: a "shooter" which left Nick Kenny floundering.
* Parramatta thrashed the Tigers. Both teams have a habit in recent years of heading into this fixture with wildly diverging fortunes, but there is little doubt that Parramatta has a major psychological stranglehold over the Tigers.
See you next week.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Round 13: More pre-State of Origin Goodness
If it's 2008 and the next State of Origin game is coming very soon then it must mean a less than satisfactory round of NRL club games is in the vicinity. While the usual victims (Melbourne, North Queensland and Brisbane) suffered the most, they were joined in Round 13 by the Roosters and New Zealand, who both performed well below expectations. Newcastle also suffered mightily without their Origin players but were lucky to get away with a win. Scott Prince's late call-up into the Queensland side would have significantly damaged the Titans' hopes for success but they were fortunate enough to be drawn against the Storm B-team.
When the Gold Coast entered the competition in 2007 (making an even number of teams for the first time since 2001), the NRL realised player welfare concerns meant they had to keep byes as a part of the competition, but decided to give each team only 1 bye (not 2, as had been the case between 2002 and 2006). After further complaint from players, the number of byes returned to 2 for 2008, but in contrast to the status quo since....the mid 90s (at least?), these byes were scheduled relatively early in the season or before State of Origin rounds.
Did the NRL hear anything from the players apart from "we need a second bye"? Teams with a significant number of representative players have always preferred the bye either before an Origin game or after the Origin series, while other teams start to need a bye in the middle of the season or just after (usually due to coping with a mounting injury toll or just to allow niggling injuries to improve or heal). To load up the byes early in the season or after Origin games (thus eliminating a source of pride for many representative players: the post-Origin back-up for your club) is not only ignoring the wishes of players and clubs, but going against what was the status quo for many years.
Whatever the NRL's reasons (do they want even more parity between teams?), the draw has been in place for many months now: those clubs affected by the loss of players to Origin have to do the best they can in the circumstances. Amidst the gloom (literally and figuratively) of a wet byeless long weekend, Cronulla's excellent effort against Penrith on Sunday was a standout performance. While they weren't as short-handed as some, they showed it was possible to play at or near their best despite missing two of their best players.
Since Ricky Stuart took over as coach, Cronulla have shown a tendency to lift their game considerably when taking on the NRL's best teams, when playing away from home or both. This has seen them win record wins at Manly, Melbourne and North Queensland against the expectations of most.
Not surprisingly, these wins also coincided with Cronulla's often dormant attack showing rare signs of life. When Cronulla's attack is off and they have to fight for every single point, their ambitions of playing in September can seem far-fetched. They know this, but too often, they lapse into a mentality of "a 1-point win is the same as a 20-point win, so 1 is all we need".
So, in hindsight, falling way behind to the Bulldogs a few Mondays ago was the shock they needed: since then, they almost caught the Bulldogs, they started slowly before thrashing the Titans last Sunday.
They fell behind early to the confident Panthers, but they spent the remainder of the first half executing a well-devised strategy: pressuring the rookie Penrith playmakers and attacking the new combination on Penrith's right-side defence. Devising a strategy is one thing, but executing it is another thing entirely: to help ensure this, Ricky Stuart reshuffled his team to bring in young halfback Blake Green. Having a third playmaking option (in addition to Kimmorley and Brett Seymour) on the field was crucial in overwhelming Penrith's defence in the first half.
Cronulla put 4 tries on in the first half, exploiting Tighe, Sammut and others on Penrith's right-side defence. Penrith didn't seem to expect such a targetted attack (their other centre, noted sieve Michael Jennings, would be rapt not to be mentioned in a discussion about poor defensive centres) but their attack wasn't so crash hot either. Cronulla's defence was typically strong, but Penrith was making mistakes to kill potential try-scoring chances, Luke Lewis' dream run at halfback was in the process of ending (although he didn't play that badly) and Penrith wasn't utilising the try-creating talents of Sammut on the right wing (as they often did last week against the Cowbores).
Another of Cronulla's faults is that they treat a 2-3 try lead as a match-winning one: they did this again here. Their strong defence and another try down Penrith's right-side saw their half-time lead of 12 extended to 14 with under 5 minutes left, but incredibly Penrith almost snatched victory: a seemingly consolation try was followed by a Cronulla dropped ball and another try before a last-ditch cross kick by Rhys Wesser (of all people) saw Luke Rooney and Frank Pritchard up against Misi Taulapapa as the ball drifted towards them. Taulapapa continued to ruin his 2007 repuation as a liability by smartly forcing Rooney to knock the ball on, thus ending the game.
Penrith could point to the absence of Civoniceva (and his leadership and calming influence) but overall they were thoroughly outplayed and outcoached by a Cronulla team that continues to surprise - even without Origin players Bird and Gallen. In hindsight Penrith was probably due for a loss, but it took a very good effort to beat them.
The same could be said about the Roosters. Despite their talented roster, their fortunes seem closely linked with their intensity levels. In other words, they win when they are fully motivated and ready and they lose when they are flat. To the Roosters' credit, they had only been flat in 2 games before Round 13: losses to Newcastle and the Dragons (these came after 5 strong games to start the season). Their last month had been very good, with strong wins over Canberra, Parramatta, the Warriors and the Tigers. While they managed to defeat Parramatta with a weakened pack before the last State of Origin, they were never in the hunt against a fired-up Manly. They were probably due for a loss, but the absence of Origin players expedited this.
Manly had already lost 2 games at Brookvale, including their last start against the Dragons. They had seen the "second string" Roosters pack dominate Parramatta in Round 10. In short, they had a number of motivating factors. Manly was dominant throughout, controlling possession, forcing mistakes on a wet afternoon and scoring a combination of well-worked and far too easy tries.
There was little, if any, rain at Homebush on Saturday night, but a very slippery surface greeted the Bulldogs and Newcastle. As both teams realised how poor the conditions were, they adjusted their games accordingly: the result was perhaps the most boring game of the season. Running from dummy half became the most effective way to move the ball down the field and it quickly became apparent the Bulldogs were the better team in the battle of the ruck, had the better players to make metres from dummy half and create holes in defence and most importantly had the smarter and more experienced players (as Newcastle was missing Buderus, Simpson and Gidley).
However, Newcastle led this game after scoring in the early minutes and held this lead for the remainder of the game. The Bulldogs hurt themselves by making too many mistakes (although the poor conditions were a factor here), but they suffered far more than they deserved to from poor refereeing decisions or bad luck on uncertain refereeing decisions.
Newcastle's lead was 4 points at half-time, but to call it tenuous was an understatement. They had made far fewer errors than the Bulldogs (this figured to become more even over the second half), their kicking game was not as effective as the Bulldogs' kicking game and refereeing decisions usually even themselves out over the course of a game.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half saw the struggle continue before Newcastle finally made a major error: a pass thrown behind the runner just 10 metres out from their line. As the ball bobbled near their tryline, Newcastle's Jarrod Mullen tried to force the ball, but seemed unable to, before the Bulldogs' Andrew Ryan appeared to put the ball down for a try. Incredibly, referee Sean Hampstead was certain of Mullen grounding the ball and elected not to consult the video referee.
When the replay was shown on the big screen, Bulldogs' supporters (and players) were aghast: a likely try to Ryan and a lead was gone. The anger had barely died down when Wes Naiqama broke a tackle: the end result of this play was Newcastle's second try, which basically ended this game as a contest. The Bulldogs tried hard to come back but in doing so made more mistakes. One of these led to an Adam MacDougall try, which took Newcastle's lead to 16.
Someone had to win this game, but Newcastle was at about 20% of their performance when they played Melbourne and the Gold Coast in recent weeks. This game encapsulated so much about what is wrong with the NRL in 2008.
Luckily, the round was salvaged somewhat by an entertaining game between New Zealand and Souths on Friday night. New Zealand built upon their shock win over Newcastle last week by racing to a 14-nil lead, but the game deviated from the usual at this point, as Souths displayed attacking play and self-belief (in the face of a significant deficit) not seen in red and green in...decades maybe. Sure, New Zealand's defence was often poor but this didn't detract from what was becoming a very good game.
Souths' run continued after half-time and became 22 points without reply until the Warriors became Mr. Hyde again: in the space of a few minutes, a stumbling, unsure team became free-flowing, brash and exuberant. They ultimately matched Souths' try-scoring feats, but the ongoing absence of Michael Witt cost them perhaps 8 points in missed goals.
The Warriors returned to their Dr. Jekyll status, which again involved poor defensive play. Souths scored two tries quickly and far too easily to return to the lead. When first-gamer Chris Sandow boomed a field goal in the final minute, Souths' 12-game and 9-year losing streak to the Warriors was officially over.
The remaining games were a massacre of the weak: the Dragons went another step further in dispelling their repuation as extremely inconsistent as they took care of business in defeating an understrength but typically solid Brisbane. The Entertainers of the West blasted the Cowbores off the park in the opening half hour (save for Travis Burns' misguided aggression). The 'Bores made a nuisance of themselves coming to within 12 points, before the Tigers wowed the crowd again to finish off the game.
Canberra may have the worst injury toll in the NRL and may have suffered another major loss (Adrian Purtell) on Saturday night. Parramatta's reputation of taking it easy against weak opposition could have surfaced here, but Feleti Mateo continued his stellar play from last week and a relatively easy win over the gallant Raiders was the result. Sadly, Canberra elected not to play Michael Weyman, thus denying fans of sledging worldwide another instalment of Weyman v Riddell.
Last (as well as least), Gold Coast was missing Prince, Laffranchi and Harrison but still easily took care of the Origin-decimated Storm. Fans of watching players who go back on their word facing angry supporters of the jilted team would have been upset at Steve Turner missing this game due to his late State of Origin selection.
Enough has been said about the NRL's absurd byes policy for 2008 - until the next pre-Origin round anyway. See you next week.
