Radical Rabbit’s Final Fling for 2009 PDF  | Print |  E-mail
Monday, 28 September 2009 21:34

Ultimate showdown

It's the mouth-watering showdown of speed and skill which has every league fan licking their lips.

You look at all the other players in your position and you feed off them... Billy Slater

Rabbit Stew as published for the Southern Courier newspaper.

All good things come to an end so they say and so it is with this column for another year. It’s been fun and apparently it’s been controversial at times too but I never have been one to verbalise about things that everyone agrees with, so while holding onto that thought, here is this weeks offering for your cerebral digestion.

The Rabbitohs feeder club, the North Sydney Bears exited the NSW Cup on the weekend at the hands of the Balmain/Ryde Eastwood team, who just had the right luck when it counted. The game went into sudden death extra-time and in the end it was a field goal to one of the Tigers playmakers that proved to be the difference.

The Bears had the chance to win the game when they scored in the 70th minute but unfortunately the conversion was waved away as the game headed to golden point. The 21-20 result was no doubt disappointing but the players can be proud of their efforts as they at least got as far as a game away from the grand final.

Realistically, not much has been happening in the world of the Rabbitoh this week that I’ve noticed, though Souths have seemingly signed yet another prop from the Old Dart who goes by the name of Sam Burgess and at 19 years of age, he weighs in at a hefty 114kgs.

Add the new bloke to the other ‘16' props we have secured for next season and I think we are looking good in the ‘go-forward’ department, so there shouldn’t be any excuses for not making plenty of yards in 2010 should there? Time will tell.

This weeks NRL Grand Final looks like being famous for all the wrong reasons.

Jarryd Hayne’s finding of guilt on a Grade 1 dangerous tackle charge must have left a bad taste in a few mouths, especially the Rabbitohs own Nathan Merritt who served a weeks suspension for a far more innocuous incident earlier in the season. Nathan also had a clean slate at the time but that didn’t seem to make a difference then, so apparently things change when you’re the flavour of the months and the NRL’s favourite pin-up boy don’t they?

Actually, I don’t begrudge Hayne a spot in his first Grand final but there are undertones of favouritism and the decision, though expected certainly stunk to high heaven. The ground rules have now been re-set for this charge and it will be interesting to see what happens the next time the same type of incident occurs.

I wonder what Bryce Gibbs from the Tigers thinks of it too? He still has a week to serve next year from a similar offence to Hayne.

I guess you have to take your hat off to the Eels though for even making it to the grand final as at the halfway stage of the season they were a real show of ending up with the wooden spoon but hung in there, toughed it out and eventually turned the corner to become a very polished outfit. Even if they do appear to be a ‘one-man-band’!

Is it also any coincidence that around the same time as their magical transformation, their CEO was replaced and along with the Board elections, sweeping changes were made to the club which had an instantaneous effect on morale and the way the team represented itself.
I think there is something in that for us all to ponder. I wonder if thats what Souths needed around about the same time in order to keep our flagging semi final prospects alive?’ Oh well, just thinking out loud for now I guess.        

My final task for this year is to make some sense of this weeks Grand Final. Can Parramatta continue to play a grand final every week and get better with age or will Melbourne stamp their authority over this one as they have over the past few seasons?

For what its worth I think the Storm will win by 14 and Man-of-the-Match will be Cameron Smith, who has a lot to make up for after being suspended from last years decider.

From myself and The Burrow I would like to wish everyone good luck and good punting with their selections and may you all have a very safe and happy festive season and I look forward to possibly re-visiting a few Souths matches next season when it is hoped that 2010 will be the “Year of the Rabbitoh”.    

For those of you on Facebook you can look me up any time for a chat.    

Cheers, beers and 10-4's.

                               

 

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Last Updated on Monday, 28 September 2009 21:44