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.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Round 15: A look at declining point totals
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.
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Why are NRL teams slow or unable to take advantage of a weakened opponent? Part 2
It was just two weeks ago where the Tuesday Roast highlighted the tendency of NRL teams to perform at a sub-standard level when faced with a weakened opposition. This was again the dominant theme throughout NRL action across the weekend.
However, while the main factor behind the poor performances against weakened opposition in Round 10 was the absence of State of Origin players, Round 12’s complacency took place with virtually all Origin players on the field.
Instead, it was the more common mid-season culprit of taking very capable but struggling opposition too lightly which was behind the majority of complacency in Round 12. Not helping matters for these teams has been the high turnover of players in recent years: this makes week-to-week consistency that much harder to achieve.
However, complacency and/or a drop-off in intensity became apparent in two games over the weekend due to a circumstance much more common in years past: the send off. While Rugby League has changed markedly in recent decades, it appears the age-old outcome of the team with the numerical advantage subconsciously easing off while the other team lifts to cover for their disciplined team-mate is still a part of the game.
The game which changed the most as a result of a send off was the Cowbores Penrith match-up. Despite the Cowbores having sacked Graham Murray as coach before this game and desperately needing to win to keep in touch with the top 8, Penrith was by far the better team in this game over the first 50 or so minutes.
Penrith’s defence was top-shelf (although the Cowbores’ attack was rather monotonous and predictable) and their attack was a threat to score from almost anywhere on the field. Luke Lewis had another strong game at halfback — it’s getting more and more difficult to blame poor opposition defence for Lewis’ lightning-quick adjustment to a brand new position — while the return of ultra-confident Jarrod Sammut gave Penrith another strike weapon.
Penrith’s early game domination only resulted in 10 points, due to a combination of some desperate Cowbores’ defence and bad luck. North Queensland amazingly took a lead to half time after a Feral Thurston kick ricocheted into the path of Burns then a Feral chip took a fortuitous bounce into the path of Daniel Abraham.
The teams exchanged penalty goals before Luke O’Donnell was sent off for using an elbow to fend off a defender (Lewis, who was one of several “divers” in this round — more on this later). From here, Penrith’s dominance disappeared completely, even though they were still 2 points behind. The Cowbores almost monopolised possession as they sought to kill the clock, leaving Penrith with little energy when they did get the ball, but Penrith rarely even made it across half-way in the latter stages of the game.
However, Penrith’s defensive effort was maintained, leading to the bizarre outcome of the Cowbores looking to keep the ball more so than trying to score and Penrith completely unable to move the ball. A rare Cowbores win seemed certain until they spun the ball wide and Penrith centre Michael Jennings gambled, took the intercept and gave Penrith an ill-deserved lead.
Suddenly, a Penrith win seemed certain. The Cowbores never seriously threatened Penrith’s line during this game…until the 80th minute. They regathered the ball from the kickoff and attacked Penrith’s line with an energy not seen previously. It was energy many times greater than when they were trying to kill the game and it resulted in a dubious no-try (Harris surely got the ball down…eventually) then a dubious try (surely Graham lost the ball?).
When the dust settled, Feral had a kick from the side to win the game. However, nerves got the better of him and his trademark hook was absent. Surely Penrith would win the game in extra time?
They did…eventually…but it took most of the 10 minutes and only occurred after the Cowbores lost another player (Steve Southern) to injury.
Despite doing their best to lose, this was Penrith’s 3rd win in a row: this hasn’t happened since late 2005. Incredibly though, they have now won 7 of their last 9 away games where they were the pre-game outsider with the bookmakers. However, it would have been a safe bet that the bookmakers expected a Penrith win once O’Donnell was sent off. They adjusted their game accordingly…
The other game with a send off was in Canberra on Friday night and it possibly saved the game from being a foregone conclusion. Manly dominated the opening half hour in Canberra before the send off took place.
But Canberra often falls behind at home before coming back strongly. There were some early signs of the standard comeback (such as a 40/20 kick from Carney) but Manly was the first team to score after the send off took place. Canberra did cut the deficit to 6 points, but Manly ended up winning quite easily. Manly may have won easily anyway, but it was unusual to see a Canberra comeback at home fall as short as this one did.
The other Friday night game didn’t have any send offs but could have had several. Brisbane and Parramatta have been bitter rivals for many years and this has continued even with the departure of Brian Smith. The corresponding fixture last season saw Jarryd Hayne labelled as a diver. He was again involved in controversy with his dangerous (cowardly?) tackle on an unsuspecting Tonie Carroll. Mark Riddell took up the slack from Hayne and milked Justin Hodges’ very late and very silly near-spear tackle for as much as he could. While the NRL judiciary probably didn’t like this game, everyone else (including Channel 9) loved it.
Of more relevance here though was that Brisbane was not at their best for much of this game despite the return of Darren Lockyer. They took Parramatta a bit too lightly — which was somewhat of a surprise, given the rivalry between the teams — but to their credit they lifted their game when needed. The salary cap and age has robbed Brisbane of much of their veteran leadership in recent years, so for them to produce when needed to defeat a much-improved Parramatta was a significant step.
The under-performing but supremely talented Eels were overdue for a huge effort and it was not surprising they produced in a game where few expected them to win. The return of Krisnan Inu and a brilliant effort from Feleti Mateo reminded everyone why Parramatta was a top-4 prediction for so many at the start of the year.
If only Parramatta could help Eric Grothe’s struggling confidence. Opposing teams now know full well of Grothe’s struggles defensively: Brisbane attacked his side of the field repeatedly in this game. He tried his usual rushing out of the line, but Brisbane saw that coming and scored, he tried standing back in the line and they still scored. He did pick the right moment to attack and snuffed out an excellent Broncos’ attacking movement late in the game, but Lockyer’s last second brilliance came at Grothe’s expense.
Last Monday night, Cronulla’s wingers felt like Grothe does most of the time: the Bulldogs feasted on Ricky Stuart’s baffling decision to sack Luke Covell and instead go with a patchwork group of three-quarters. Injury forced Stuart to go back to Covell in Sunday’s game against the Gold Coast where a much better defensive effort was required.
The Titans started almost as slowly as they did in their loss to Wests last Sunday and came back similarly late in the first half: they actually took a lead to the half-time break in this game. Another easy try saw their lead extend before 20 minutes of solid attacking play from Cronulla — as well as increasingly sloppy Gold Coast defence — led to Cronulla running up a match-winning lead. Not just a Cronulla match-winning lead (i.e. 1 point) but a real match-winning lead!
Cronulla scored 30 points for the first time in over a year and this took place after the first time they conceded 30 points since July last year (the only time they conceded 30 points last season). Cronulla’s first match against the Gold Coast this season — a loss — came after they defeated Melbourne at Olympic Park, while this win against the Gold Coast came after an embarrassing loss. This shows just how powerful the mental side of the game can be…
For the Gold Coast though, in hindsight they have struggled for the past month. Their surprising early success has become increasingly difficult to maintain and they now have the added problem of being a much sought after scalp for more teams.
One of the teams to defeat the Gold Coast in recent weeks — with a brilliant defensive effort — was Newcastle. Newcastle also showed signs of class and premiership-winning potential against heavyweights such as Melbourne, the Roosters, Brisbane and Manly so far this season. The accolades many good judges had bestowed upon them were well deserved.
However, a quick glance at the Knights’ team list shows a lot of youth. On Saturday night, this list was missing Kurt Gidley. While very few people expected it, Newcastle’s largely lacklustre showing against the lowly Warriors probably shouldn’t have come as too much of a shock. This was a pale shadow of the team that tackled themselves into the ground against Melbourne or who hung tough against the Roosters before finishing with a flourish. It is a bit much to expect a mostly young team to be so consistent against the best and the rest of the NRL.
That said, the Warriors weren’t too great themselves, but they realised the Knights were having an off game and that they were a chance. Their defensive effort was much better than previous games in Australia and they eked out a close win in the end.
Even a team as chook-full of internationals and Origin players as the Roosters can experience fluctuating consistency levels from time to time. In general they were quite solid against the Tigers last night, but any team who takes on the Tigers in the wet is excused if they ease off slightly, such is the Tigers’ reputation as dry-track specialists.
When Tigers’ centre Dean Collis was tackled into touch in the Tigers’ first set, it looked like more of the same from the Tigers in the wet, but from there they gave a solid account of themselves. They defended their line well, only conceding points after errors gave the Roosters significant attacking field position. After several pieces of Robbie Farah brilliance, the Tigers were only down by 6.
Two key plays in this game gave the edge to the Roosters. What looked like a very promising attacking situation was ruined by a poorly executed Benji Marshall kick. This kick fell nicely for Mitch Aubusson, who was able to shrug off some poor attempted tackles and run over 90 metres for a try. Not long after, the Tigers were finally able to go around the Roosters’ defence and a try seemed certain. A Farah kick sat up nicely for Beau Ryan, but Ryan’s slightly awkward attempt to ground the ball was deemed to be a knock-on.
While the decision was not as shocking as Fox’s Greg Alexander made it out to be, it did appear to be a very close call. The Tigers were probably a touch unlucky. They did cut the deficit to 8 a few minutes later and had another great attacking chance after a Farah 40/20 in the driving rain, but they would get no closer.
In all, a positive night for both teams, with the Tigers giving a good showing against a big team in the wet while the Roosters put forth the requisite effort in a situation where they were expected to win well.
It should come as a surprise to no-one that Melbourne is one of the two teams who thrashed a weakened opponent, but the Dragons’ resurgence continues: their solid win over Souths was much too composed, much too efficient for a team notorious for shoddy performances when they are expected to win well.
Surely the old Dragons will come back soon…? If not, there is enough lack of depth, enough turnover of playing rosters and enough athletes who aren’t really footballers in the game to ensure enough material for another similarly themed Tuesday Roast in no more than a few weeks.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Round 11: Dé ja vu all over again
Even though Round 11 was played over the weekend after State of Origin 1, the scaled-back round meant only about half of those who played on Wednesday night were required to back up for their club team.
As a result, this was not your typical post-Origin round, especially given that almost half of this smaller than usual pool of Origin players backing up plays for the same team.
However...5 of the 6 games played looked very similar to past encounters between Round 11 combatants. As Yogi Berra - or maybe Rex Mossop or Benny Elias - might have said, it was dé ja vu over and over again.
Despite having one of the best minor premiership records in recent history in 2007, Melbourne struggled when playing days after major representative games. Two of their 3 losses came in these circumstances and they almost lost to a gallant Souths effort at Gosford. Souths once again took their fixture against the Storm to the Central Coast and once again they were scheduled to meet after a State of Origin. Like last year, Melbourne won a close, low-scoring game, but unlike last year, the main reason behind the tight scoreline was not stingy Souths' defence. Rather, Souths dominated possession for much of this game but lacked composure and execution for end-of-set plays.
Or, to put it bluntly, their last tackle plays sucked. Melbourne was not that much better - they couldn't even bring out their standard cross-kick for Folau play they usually use in tight games - but they did enough. Neither team would have been happy after this game. Melbourne looked more vulnerable after a representative game than they ever have, while Souths missed a golden opportunity. Jason Taylor can continue to spout clichés about effort, but they should have scored more than 10 points in this game.
Last night's game (between the Bulldogs and Cronulla) was far more entertaining and had many more points than the Souths Melbourne game, but both teams have plenty to work on in upcoming games. After establishing a reputation of being a fundamentally sound defensive team over the last year and a half, Cronulla's defence was horribly exposed. The Bulldogs have a number of skilful and smart attacking players, but for the most part they are not a great attacking team. When Daniel Holdsworth can find a gaping hole in your defensive line (with the smallest amount of sleight of hand) and race almost 50 metres to score and when Corey Hughes and Cameron Phelps (of all people!!) cause havoc around the ruck after quick play-the-balls, your defence has a LOT of work to do. Even noted defenders such as Pomeroy, Gallen and Bird were found out.
The Bulldogs were brilliant between minutes 10 and 45 of this game, but in the other 45 minutes of the game, they were sloppy. To be fair, any team with a 20-point lead over Cronulla has every right to feel the game is in the bag, but the Bulldogs' intensity dropped off to such an extent that the result was in doubt until the final 5 minutes of the game.
That said, for the Bulldogs to identify a gameplan against what seemed to be a strong opponent and to carry that gameplan out almost perfectly is an extremely positive outcome for a very inconsistent team. The aforementioned Hughes, Phelps, Matt Utai and others utilised their speed against the large but quite slow-footed Cronulla pack (especially after quick play-the-balls: this was more good work from the under-the-radar Bulldogs forwards), while continued attacking of Cronulla's defence out wide - where injuries meant several new combinations - led to all of their tries.
While many expected this game to be a low-scoring bore (with the poor playing surface at ANZ Stadium contributing), it should have come as no surprise that the points flowed: in the previous 4 meetings between these teams at Homebush, the average total points in each game was 55. The feelings of dé ja vu were enhanced as these teams had played at Homebush in the previous 2 Mays and on all 3 occasions Cronulla came into the match on the back of a solid winning streak. The 2006 Bulldogs Cronulla game at Homebush saw the Bulldogs understrength (due to Origin commitments) but they raced to a 24-6 lead before letting Cronulla right back into the game.
The Gold Coast Titans will be hoping the dé ja vu ends there for Cronulla: they play Cronulla in Round 12 and their last journey to the converted swampland of Woolooware Bay saw a very poor effort late in 2007. However, if their effort at the Home of Rugby League - aka Leichhardt Oval - on Sunday is any indication, they should be a good chance against Cronulla.
The Titans endured a fast start from a typically fired-up Tigers to be down by only 8 points at half-time. Not only were the Tigers motivated by their sub-par overall effort against Newcastle last week, but they felt their disciples were owed significant reparations after their meek capitulation to the leporine invasion in AD 2007, Chapter 25 on the Sabbath. That said, many of the disciples felt happy for the leporine invaders: after all, they spent what felt like 40 years in the wilderness and now must make bi-weekly journeys to lodgings far removed from their spiritual home. This is not due to all alternatives being booked out but solely to take advantage of the 40 pieces of silver on offer.
The Gold Coast sensed their chance, much like they did against Newcastle a few weeks back (despite being well behind at the half). Alas, committed Tigers defence kept them out and when Hodgson scored from a well-worked set play, the situation looked grim for the Titans.
Still, they didn't give up. The Tigers must have figured such an effort would break their back; the Gold Coast came back as their resilience and continued effort finally started to wear the Tigers down, especially in the middle of the field. Preston Campbell had a sensational final half-hour: his speed and side-stepping ability tested the tiring Tigers forwards and eventually saw the 14-point lead cut back to just 2.
The Tigers held on for the 2-point win. Since the Tigers' resurgence in 2004, they have enjoyed many a win over big-name opponents at Leichhardt, with many of these being sealed only in the game's final minutes. Meanwhile for the Titans, this was their 2nd straight close loss in a high-quality game in NSW. Their reputation as strugglers out of Queensland looks set to be on borrowed time.
The Queensland State of Origin team had a similar reputation for many years - even after securing a famous draw in Sydney in 2002 - before finally breaking their duck in Sydney in 2007. They entered the first State of Origin game of 2008 as favourites, with their highly rated backline and solid forward pack expected to be too good.
Meanwhile, the NSW team looked to have an edge in the forwards but ongoing uncertainty over the ideal halves combination and an inferior set of backs. In other words, this was much like 2006, and just like in 2006, NSW jumped out to a strong half-time lead. But unlike 2006, NSW won quite easily. Their defence in the heart of the second half was key and when Bird put Gasnier into a gap to set up Laffranchi, the game was won.
Two nights after this success, Gasnier led the St George Illawarra Dragons into battle at a venue where they have had much success in recent years: Brookvale Oval. While this success came with the much stronger Dragons team prior to 2007 (and against a weaker Manly team), it became evident from early on that the Dragons were a strong chance of winning this game. Their pack was enjoying an edge over the highly vaunted Manly pack, they were getting more attacking field position and they looked more likely to score when they had attacking field position...at least, when they could hold on to the ball.
Despite a high error count, the Dragons never lost touch with Manly and even though Manly had the lead for much of the game, they were not able to put the Dragons away. It came as no surprise when the Dragons took back the lead for good inside the final 5 minutes. While this try was the Dragons' first not coming from a Manly error or involving some degree of controversy, there was no question the right team won the game.
There were a number of similarities between this game and the meeting between these teams at Brookvale in 2006. In that game, the talent-laden Dragons always looked the better team and defeated Manly in the final minutes. In both games, Manly tried very hard, but their self-belief against the Dragons must be called into question. Coach Des Hasler called the Dragons "our bogey team" and Manly's collective attitude was not quite up to their usual standard for a Brookvale game. The mind is a powerful instrument...
Roosters Coach Brad Fittler would most likely concur with the above statement. His team made an emphatic statement both early and later in the first half in their defeat of the Warriors in Auckland. Firstly, they kept the ball for over 10 minutes as they put on 3 consecutive tries to start the game. The Warriors didn't give up and narrowed the deficit but were forced to endure several minutes of bruising Roosters' defence in the late minutes of the first half.
It was only a 20-12 half-time lead (just as it was in Gosford when Newcastle finished over the top of them) but they were never seriously threatened in this one. Shaun Kenny-Dowell had a hat-trick, but Braith Anasta starred, even scoring a rare win over referee Ben Cummins (when Cummins conceded Anasta had been elbowed by Brent Tate in an incident which preceded a push-and-shove between these players). Some may remember Anasta and Cummins came together in Round 26 last season when Souths' David Fa'alogo hit Anasta in the mouth with a right hook, but Souths received the penalty.
In the end, the Roosters thrashed the Warriors, showing what can be done despite the obstacles of having several important players backing up from Origin, being without other important players altogether and taking on a team undefeated at home so far this season.
So ends this week's dé ja vu Tuesday Roast. One can only hope the similarities end next week (especially the hastily cobbled-together Biblical metaphor). See you next week.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Why are NRL teams slow or unable to take advantage of a weakened opponent?
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.
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.
