Round One of the NRL belongs to the veterans

 
Steve Kaless Roar Guru

By , 16 Mar 2010 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru

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Antonio Kaufusi is stopped Matt Gillett and Mitch Dodds. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Colin Whelan

Antonio Kaufusi is stopped Matt Gillett and Mitch Dodds. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Colin Whelan

Round One over, tips stuffed, but what did we learn? Personally, I felt that round one showed that the early rounds are great for rookies but in the end it is experience that shows their worth.

Friday night saw a fantastic Queensland derby between the Broncos and the Cowboys.

The Broncos showed off their production line for the umpteenth time as Corey Norman played a headline catching debut. Some went for the easy option and likened him to a debuting Karmichael Hunt, but I was taken back to 1991, watching a young Julian O’Neill rip them up.

Hopefully Norman avoids as much controversy off the field.

But after the Broncos unraveled due to the guile of Jonathan Thurston, it was Mr Reliable Darren Lockyer who got them over the line.

I’ll predict that match could be a mini-version of the Broncos season: some sensational highlights and when the young guns click, some great footy, but they’ll wilt when under the blow torch and surely Lockyer can’t do it every week.

Can he?

Another side already missing their veteran is the Bulldogs. A truly woeful performance saw them humbled by the Knights.

At the end of last year, all the headlines were about boom rookie Jamal Idris. He was to be the face of the game in Western Sydney in the future, and big Dell even said he’d be better than Inglis and Folau.

Well, young Jamal is only a few years younger than those two, so he’d better get a move on.

A hundred drop balls, a turning circle of a battle ship and a brain explosion when the match was suddenly there to be won and suddenly Idris looks like a classic case of second year syndrome.

How the Bulldogs remedy it will be Kevin Moore’s first big challenge of the year, maybe even his career, given last year’s dream run.

But how the Dogs miss El Masri not just for the goal kicking but his mistake-free professional play on the wing. Play the game long enough and you pick things up.

Look at match winners Jamie Soward and Benji Marshall, derided early in their careers for being all-flashy, but with no grit. Just look at how they have matured. The Roosters’ Mitchell Pearce is another set to join the group, if he continues his development.

The season is long and hard and it will be the veterans that help balance the winner’s conundrum of not getting carried away but keeping the momentum going. It also puts the wind back in the loser’s sails.

No losing team looks forward to the return of an untried rookie. The answers always lie in blokes who have been there and done that.

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