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Don’t get me wrong, I’m a filthy stop-out for footy. I’ll take it any way I can get it, and it doesn’t even need to buy me a meal or remember my name.
But even despite my disturbing horniness for the game, I sometimes find myself ignoring the booty calls of the newly-arrived version on the scene, that being Thursday night.
Usually a ho-hum fourth-choice fixture for the round, shoehorning Thursday night football into my hobby-less, kid-free, sans-overtime working week has proven quite the task since its inception.
Is it because I already fraternise with football on another non-weekend affiliated weekday? Is it the intrusive obligation of mining for spousal brownie points? Or has years of The Footy Show made Thursday night footy programming less about actual football and more about mocking minority groups?
Nevertheless, despite it being one of my less favoured nights, one thing’s for sure; it’s still good old reliable footy.
Yep, while Thursday games are not up there with euphoric Fridays or cripplingly hungover Sundays, at the end of the day, they’re definitely not malicious nor potentially damaging to my life. So it’s as good as a stomp to the spuds by rugby league standards.
In saying this, tonight’s match at Suncorp is a special exception. Anticipation is high. It almost feels like a three-quarter Saturday, just with less laundry.
Brisbane and Canberra is a game of steamy intrigue. It’s a clash of the ’90s powerhouses, much like Sonic versus Mario, except the only thing 8-bit quality will be the refereeing.
This game would’ve been pencilled in a few weeks back by Channel Nine and the NRL as just another regulation match that held all the usual requirements for a primetime night game: 80 minutes in length, and the Broncos.
But after some changes in fortunes, the match has taken on a different complexion. Both sides are desperately out-of-sorts on uncharacteristic streaks – the Broncos with three losses, and the Raiders with consistency.
For Brisbane, Ben Hunt and Anthony Milford badly need a settler.
After a kinetic opening to the season, both have now plummeted down the Queensland pecking order to somewhere just below Laurie Spina and slightly above a pot plant.
Perhaps they’d be best served feeding some early egg to James Roberts? He’s down on show-stoppers since his meth zinger. This probably means Sam Thaiday could be in for a similar form slump himself.
As for Canberra, while they’ve recently enjoyed the warmth of the upper half of the table, they need something significant to certify their claims they are much more than a top-nine side.
They travel to Brisbane without Jack Wighton, but who cares? They have a BJ Leilua who can fix that.
The centre is in some famously grungy touch right now. If he hasn’t run over the top of you or a loved one yet, it should only be a matter of time. I’m pretty sure his park brake is snapped.
Leilua is providing fabulous entertainment on a weekly basis, and could be a game-breaker against the formidable Broncos defensive line. In saying that, he’d better shed his qualities as a breathtaking attacking threat if he’s serious about being picked for New South Wales.
So is anybody with me on this one?
Are we feeling that Stuart’s side can exert more than quarrelsome value, leaving Wayne to whinge? Or will the Broncos reboot their premiership charge with a stabilising win, leaving Wayne to whinge?