ethos
BroncoKiwi
Thoughts on the week just gone..
September 28th 2008 04:05
Category: Opinion
Will it be the year of the Sea Eagles?
Hey folks!
Apologies for the lack of content on the site over the past week or so – it’s been a busy few days. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on the week gone by…
As you would know by now, the Melbourne Storm and Manly Sea Eagles have set up a grand final rematch with convincing wins over their semi final opponents. In my mind it’s a fitting matchup – these have been the two best sides in 2008.
Melbourne toughed it out against the Sharks after a tumultuous week headlined by the loss of skipper Cameron Smith (I’ll talk a bit more about that later). Considering I was enjoying a beverage or two at an Irish pub I didn’t play close attention to the match but from what I saw, it was business as usual for the Storm. Kudos must go to rookie hooker Russell Aitken for filling in at dummy half. However, the performance of their opponents Cronulla could probably put an insomniac to sleep – in attack they rarely threatened Melbourne.
The other semi final was a similarly one sided affair with the Manly Sea Eagles juggernaut disposing of the New Zealand Warriors 32-6. But this was just a case of Manly being far too good and, as commentator Peter Sterling put it last night, “the Warriors are only playing as well as Manly are allowing them to play”. The Sea Eagles dominated from start to finish and should take slight favouritism into the big one next week. From a Warriors perspective, it has been a very positive season, with both the first grade and U20s sides making in to within one game of the grand final. The game also marked the retirement of stalwart Ruben Wiki – a true gentleman of rugby league.
Now I’m going to grapple (pun intended) with the Cameron Smith issue…
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy launched a stunning attack on the NRL administration, claiming that Smith was hard done by. The decision to suspend Smith was the right one. Why did it receive so much attention? Because it was a dreadful tackle. And if we start censoring coaches and media as Bellamy wants to, the game will become very stale. Rugby league thrives on controversy.
Meanwhile, the Brisbane Broncos and Canberra Raiders are the two grand finalists in the inaugural Toyota Cup under 20s competition. The Raiders narrowly beat the Dragons 18-14 in the first semi, while the Broncos snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a 28-26 win over the Warriors. Remarkably, Brisbane scored two tries in the last six minutes of play, with a four-pointer on the very last play of the game proving the difference! Second rower Michael Spence grubbered ahead and regathered before finding Tom Butterfield in support, who dived over under the posts. Quite an amazing finish.
For anyone who hasn’t seen any U20s footy this season, I highly recommend you check it out – it’s often far more exciting than the NRL. The grand final kicks off at 2:15pm next Sunday, and will be telecast live on Channel Nine.
And Sonny Bill Williams is reportedly homesick over in France. Who cares? Not me.
...
Please stay tuned to NRL Live for a NRL Grand Final Preview and all the news surrounding the upcoming World Cup!
| 34 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by sharks fan
Comment by ethos
NRL Live
It must be pretty disappointing, from your perspective, to see your team put in such a sloppy performance after playing so well all season.
Maybe the Sharks were just overawed by the occasion? They'll be better for the experience though and there's always next year (although it's a long way away at the moment..).
Thanks for the kind words as well, it's always nice to have comments on the site. The more discussion the merrier!
Comment by sharks fan
Probably were overawed and seems we find a way to beat ourselves everytime finals comes around, but I still think if we didn't have the week off we would have competed a lot better (although Gallen and De Gois wouldn't have played so probably would have lost that off week anyway!). But yeah very sad end to a great season. Cheers looking forward to reading your future comments on the outcome of the Grand Final.
Comment by ethos
NRL Live
Anyway, the Grand Final preview has just been posted. Please feel free to comment on that article as well mate.