The NRL, a place of momentum and injuries

 
Steve Kaless Roar Guru

By , 18 Mar 2008 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru

9 Have your say



Righto, well off the bat you’ve probably spotted this is a column for rugby league fans.

And if you are a fan, you’ll know all about the weekend results so I won’t go into specifics but rather look at a couple of discussion points arising from the weekend’s action.

The thing about the first round is, well it’s the first round.

Teams can easily excuse a below par performances by saying it’s a long season, in the same way coaches will tell their victorious sides not to get too carried away as…you guessed it, it’s the first round.

However, if you can take anything out of round one it’s that the m-word, momentum, rules rugby league and you have to take full advantage of it when it comes your way.

The Bulldogs and Eels played a game where each gave the other 40 minutes to score as many points as they could, neither could get a look in when the other was firing, but in the end it was Eels that came back from the dead to take the points and next week the Bulldogs might just consider asking the referee if they can play through halftime.

I felt pretty sorry for Steve Folkes. The bloke has been told he has seven weeks to save his job and I’m pretty sure he didn’t get the boys in the shed at half-time and say “Job done fellas, go out there and kill time and I’ll leave the win bonuses in your locker!”

Ditto Nathan Brown. Insiders confirmed to me that the Dragons off-season was not spent ensuring his side played as though they’d just met.

On the flip-side the Broncos simply never gave the Petero-led Panthers a shout as the Broncos looked pretty impressive and with points all over park.

They got momentum in minute one and it stopped around the 80 minute mark.

I’ve already had Broncos fans telling me that Wayne Bennett is going out in style, well let’s just hold on until at least April before calling the engravers.

However, two teams will now be worried about how that other key word in the rugby league phrase-book “injuries” impacts on their season.

The salary cap means most teams don’t have a lot of depth outside their top 17 so injuries can really hurt and the rugby league gods were particularly cruel to Souths and the West Tigers.

Okay, most of us thought Benji Marshall would succumb to an injury at some stage of the season. But minute two of game one! Fair dinkum.

Craig Wing’s return to the Rabbitohs lasted just six minutes longer. Furthermore, you might need to turn up to the season opener of 2009 to see anymore action.

At least, the Rabbitohs have a replacement in Jeremy Smith who has some experience; the same can’t be said for the Tigers who might opt for some silent prayer this week.

While we are on number sevens, while most of my interest in Canberra is just what are they doing with my taxes, I thought it was good for the game that the Green Machine could hold onto Todd Carney.

The Raiders have shown plenty of loyalty to Carney and while they also showed him a big juicy contract it was good to see some old fashioned values still knock about when the price is right.

Footballers are asked to show more loyalty than the rest of us when it comes to selecting an employer, but that is just how the big wheel turns isn’t it.

But what is more, I think that more needs to be done to allow clubs to keep local juniors and players they develop.

It is the most sensible discount in any salary cap system and one few fans would argue with. No one really kicks off when a journey man is forced out the door, that’s what a journeyman does isn’t it, no point him sticking around.

But fans really hate it when a club sees a kid they have developed raid the stationery cupboard one last time before joining someone else just as they were about to either kick on or notch up a milestone (to be fair players probably don’t do that, but I like the idea than even rugby league players appreciate a good pen).

I can’t see the problem with handing out discounts for players from the local system.

Sure, some clubs will kick off and say it is unfair to clubs without the juniors, say the Roosters and the Storm, but bugger off, sport isn’t largely fair and it doesn’t seem to me that other clubs with good juniors should then be punished.

For what it is worth the Storm seem to have had one of the best production lines going so they should have few complaints, although I notice their recruitment manager Peter O’Sullivan has headed to Bondi (do those people even poach their cleaning staff? Is the catering staff at Penrith being eyed off by the Roosters board?).

MAN OF THE ROUND:

Every kid on the Gold Coast wanted to be “Air” Jordan Atkins on Saturday morning as he became the first player in 66 years to score four tries on debut as the Titans saw off the Cowboys, and every punter who thought they were a good thing when they heard Jonathan Thurston was returning.

But this week’s award goes to Souths fans who’s banner directed at Willie Mason “Once a Dog, Always a Cock!” showed that rugby league fans can certainly be word smiths. More please.

What game or player was your pick of round one?

Do local juniors deserve a discount in the cap? Or will that just lead to more problems?

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