| The week that was. | | Print | |
| Wednesday, 20 May 2009 15:37 | |||
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The week that was. Recent events in the NRL certainly have fans spiralling through a range of emotions, thoughts and expectations. When the judiciary decided that Gallen had no case to answer in the lead-up to Australia's next game, then the next week knocked Issac Luke out of contention for the same Test match, it became obvious that the NRL was degenerating into a farce. The ensuing week has only seen the situation become worse with ridiculous refereeing decisions costing sides deserved wins and the geriatrics in the video refs box blatantly denying tries because of incredulous rules of interference that would have also given teams the win.(No matter what you think of the Dogs, they shoulda won the other night!) Then onto this weekends apparent clampdown on play the ball infringements resulting in more sin-binnings in one weekend than we've had all season and we have a seemingly dysfunctional system in desperate needed of resuscitation. Throw in the odd sex-scandal or ten (and who would have ever thought that Matty Johns would become a bigger disgrace than his drug taking brother) and we have a game in crisis. Quite frankly, the game of rugby league is simply looking like a joke to the many outsiders who would wish to see it suffer and indeed fail, not to mention those at the coal face as well. When will it all stop I hear from many people. Good question I reply. Truth is, these occurrences aren't really isolated incidents and have been happening since time immemorium but with the advent of frame by frame video scrutiny, blanket media coverage and a desperate need improve our game out of sight in relation to the other footballs sports, you would have thought we could get it right by now. It seems that rugby league is turning into a scene from Independence Day but who will save the world from the aliens this time around? Anyway, back into the real world and I ventured to Wyong this week to watch the 'Central Coast' Bears go around against the Central Coast Storm. Confused? You probably should be! By the time the Storm had smashed the expectant Bears though, I was convinced that our feeder club didn't contain too many players that would be helping out the Souths first grade squad any time soon. Good luck to the Bears in their quest to become the new NRL franchise in 2012 but they have so much more work to do to make the challenge succeed. I wish them well anyway. It was good to catch up with Dave Teague from the Western Australian supporters groups at Wyong and from what I heard, the level of support for the Mighty Rabbitohs is at an all-time high in the west and the approaching game in Perth against the Storm in a few weeks should be a sellout. Another Souths signing during the week for next season in the form of big Dave Taylor from the Bronco's is a positive step for the club for 2010 but I wonder how many current players will now be looking over their shoulders and will it in any way affect what they do for the remainder of the season? Time will tell I suppose won't it? Onto Sundays game against the old enemy the West Tigers and the anticipation of a good showing far outweighed anything circling around the airwaves during the previous week. All that mattered now was beating the Tigpies and moving further up the table and if in the process we took no prisoners, then that would be fine for any Rabbitoh supporter to deal with. The first half went to plan in some small way as Souths kept themselves in the game by the skin of their teeth with big defence. Realistically though, after hitting the front early the team played pretty ordinary footy for much of the half and perhaps the Tigers should have been further in front at half time but somehow the scoreline was kept to 10-all at the break. Straight after the restart however a couple of quick tries saw the Tigers skip away to a 12 point lead and at this stage it seemed that if they were able to score again then it may have been time to head for the gates. Thankfully for all concerned some fantastic defence combined with some lucky bounces kept the Bunnies in the game until what now must rate as one of Nathan Merritt's most important kicks sent the ball sailing between the posts for the winning field goal and a 23-22 scoreline with only 3 seconds left on the clock. A well deserved victory in many respects but it could have been achieved so much easier with competent and consistent ball control and a much better kicking game. Regardless, the one point victory sent the Burrow into raptures and kept the group singing for some time after the final siren. Chris Sandow suffered what looked like an ankle sprain midway through the second half and without his persistence for kicking instead of getting the ball out to the backs, Souths were finally able to get the ball into Colin Best's hands. He was then able to make a bust downfield to set up the second try for Fetuli Talanoa which got us back into the game. It seems like we try so hard not to win games at times, not necessarily to not lose them. If that makes sense to you, then maybe there’s hope for all of us in this crazy, mixed-up season.
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