Thanks for the article Tim. Plenty to think about.

Just for your info re: Indigenous participation, I’d draw your attention to the following:

“While 12 per cent of NRL players are Indigenous, compared to 4 per cent of the Australian population, the aim is to increase that to 15 per cent, while also boosting the game’s Aboriginal work force from 4 per cent to 5 per cent.”

My understanding is that this is originally from the NRL’s revised Reconciliation Action Plan but I came across it in a recent Brad Walter SMH article.

Cheers

I think you’re onto something here Con.

Imagine the spectacle of fathers playing next to sons: Wayne rucking it up alongside Mitchell Pearce, Paul and Curtis Sironen tackling together, Brett and Josh Morris on the same field as their father Graeme Wynn.

Hallmark moments.

A la Monkey Magic on his cloud?

Surely Milford is more valuable right now due to his age.

You’re right, Alf shouldn’t be on the field at all.

Surely we have the technology now to fit the players with earpieces so that the little Prince can put his feet up on the sideline and still tell the troops what to do?

Thanks Tim, good stuff.

That metres conceded stat is a really interesting one isn’t it? It says it all when the Broncos, Dogs, Cowboys and Storm were the four teams that conceded the most metres per game. The days of rushing off the line to make first contact and then swarming/ gang tackling are over. Now it seems to be all about maintaining a structured line, even if that means conceding extra metres in the middle of the park.

When analyisng defences I think we need to start talking about a “red zone” in the NRL (similar to the NFL). Good teams are happy to give up yards in between the 20 metre lines and then change into a completely different style of defence when the opposition gets to within 20 metres out (or when the opposition is trapped in their own 20 – the Broncos in particular seemed to run defensive shooter plays consistently when the opposition was returning a kick/ pinned on their own goal line).

I think that this defensive approach will be even more pronounced with limited interchange and coaches looking to conserve energy of their big men where they can without conceding points.

I’m glad we’re getting to a point where rugby league has outgrown a simple “metres conceded” stat and requires more nuanced apporaches to determining defensive efficiency.

Nice review Lachlan. Cheers

The Raiders look like a team that could be on the cusp of something special.

For mine, Sezer looks like an ideal partner for Austin in the halves. Part of what makes Austin great is his one-man show performances but often that comes at the expense of a more cohesive and organised attack. If Sezer can stay healthy he should be able to lead the rest of the team around and provide Austin with the ball he needs to do his thing.

There is firepower in the backline and Wighton could be anything. The forward pack is full of blokes bursting with potential, some of whom are surely on the fringes of representative selection. I do agree that the Raiders may be tested a little for depth if a few injuries strike up front though. Also, I think you’re wrong about Fensom. Sure, it’d help if he could find better lines to run on the edges of the ruck or add an effective offload to his game but his defensive contribution to the team is invaluable.

My primary reservation with this team is, predictably, the coach. Stuart has complained before about not having the cattle to really compete against other teams but that argument won’t wash this year. Stuart needs to find a way to help the younger players improve. Talent is all well and good but as the blown finishes last year have shown, sometimes you need smarter decision-making and a cool head. It’d be nice if the coach displayed some of those traits once in a while…

If Watson believed at that time that he was being injected with Thymosin then he could have disclosed this belief when he was drug tested by ASADA. He could have disclosed the injection program that he was a part of. That’s what he, or any of the Essendon players, could have done.

The CAS clearly viewed the non-disclosure by players of the injection program as a significant issue when determining the reliability of any other statements.

It’s all about the clicks.

If the take isn’t hot enough then your “journalist” will just be middle of the pack and if the eyeballs/ ears aren’t there than neither are the sponsors. It’s lowest common denominator stuff but it’s, apparently, what works.

I think you’ve overstepped the mark when you refer to these clowns with a column or a radio show as “journalists” too, and it goes to the crux of the argument. Most are just blokes with a profile and an opinion. If you’re after any semblance of journalistic ethics or rigour from them then you’re barking up the wrong tree.

There are enough reasonable opinons out there now on sites like these, the Almanac and any number of other aggregated sports sites and personal blogs to avoid having to do anything more more than skirt the edges of the MSM, take away the general narrative that’s been concoted and then duck back to more fertile gorund where saner and more considered opinions lurk.

From the Guardian’s website, NCN:

“…should have bowled for Western Australia last weekend but was given a one-match ban for showing dissent at an umpire’s decision in the domestic second XI league.”

Though to be fair, maturity has never been part of the criteria for selection to the Australian team…

Nice article Cam, thanks.

Very difficult to go past Press Statement, although I hear that Bowman is out for 8 after having been found guilty of careless riding on Winx last Saturday. Unsure of the status of any appeal? With any luck I think Tulsa can finish close.

The Thousand Guineas is a tough race with so many coming out of that odd Tranquil Star. I’m a Pasadena Girl fan but it is certainly a go with your gut type of race.

Thanks Paul.

Luke, When JB was on his last legs I often wondered whether keeping him around was doing the young blokes a disservice because it seemed like every entry into the fifty was aimed in his direction – even if it was to the Lions’ detriment. Now that he’s gone it proves how bloody good he was (even when he was old and could barely run).

I can only hope that acquiring a half-decent tall forward will change things for the better but I think the problems run a little deeper unfortunately.

Paul, you’ve summed it all up perfectly. It does appear to be a confidence thing at this point and the players seem to avoid pushing the pace and taking a risk moving the ball where there is a half chance because they’re trained to play this switch/ wing/ long roost type of footy.

I’d prefer to see them try and bust open the middle with more running and handballs and short kicks. Sure, they might get pumped by triple digits from the counters when it breaks down but at least there’d be a new attacking mentality being bred into the young stock at the club. The way they’re playing now concedes that the squad can’t match it against other teams from the opening bounce and all it takes is a defensive free man to pretty well jam up the entire Lions attacking strategy.

Ah well, we watch on…

He’s allowed to train despite not being named in the team (yet).

You should have put a jersey on and joined in too. Don’t let not being in the team stop you from being in the team.

Jay C, I’ve never let the truth get in the way of some good hyperbole (I mean, can you really imagine Hodges doing anything outside the rules on a footy field? Me neither…)

If NSW are able to pull off this cunning plan I think it may backfire on them. While the weakness for NSW is currently Farah’s right hand, when Ennis comes into the weakness will be his entire body. Fine club player, not State of Origin material.

Nice write-up Adam. Concur with Will that your write-ups have been top notch this carnival. I hope you had a few sheckles after spruiking Grand Marshall last week. I was deadset laughing at your statement that the Magic Man off for Cassidy was beneficial but you’re clearly a better judge than me!

Have to agree with Chautaqua. That TJ Smith run was the biggest of the day by a long margin and if there’s even a remote chance of pace in the race (which there should be) there’s no reason to think he won’t be coming home with a wet sail over the top of them. A good track should just means he wins by more.

In the Champagne I think I’ll go the other way between the two chances but they’re about right in the market given the question mark on how Pasadena Girl will recover after that big effort. For mine she’s the more talented of the two but I guess we’ll see.

The only other standout I can find on a day of tough racing is Burbero in the last. $5.50 fixed at the moment seems juicy. Has the George Ryder form and is back to a benchmark 100. I guess with Medcaut on the up and a couple of other decent things coming back fresh the biggest question mark is whether he’s over the top. If he falls off the cliff my money will go with him!

Johnno for what it’s worth the amount of fighting in NHL is on the decline (apparently it’s at 0.3 fights per game this year compared with the peak of 1.31 in the 87-88 season).

To use Mascord’s terms, the NRL is certainly no ‘rebel’ in moving towards heightened player safety. Plenty of sporting administrators, including the NHL and NFL, have enacted rule changes to keep players safe and specifically limit head injuries, including greater penalties for the biff in ice hockey. Aside from better research and findings into the long-term impact of head injuries, in 2011 three ex-NHL pros were found dead, two apparently from suicide and one from an accidental overdose. The three ex-pros were known as being designated fighters within the league.

Even if the public is baying for blood, the NRL has a duty of care to players it should rightly be focusing on.

You blokes are classic.

Should get together and do a podcast called ‘The Halcyon Daze’…

Nice article.

I think Peyton is a lock to get both of Favre’s records this season if his O-line can keep him standing up. He’s still so good that the alleged drop-off in talent at WR and TE shouldn’t be a problem (although I’m with you that E. Sanders is gonna have a big year). I’m also very interested to see how effective Thomas is catching passes from the Bortmeister. Manning has earned a few TEs and WRs some big paydays throughout his career. Eric Decker should be sending him a christmas present every year for the rest of his life.

If last year’s playoff quad injuries were real – and you’d have to think they were given the astounding decline in his play – being back to full health this year should see him revert to his usual excellence.

I’m really interested to see how the Kubiak/ Manning relationship ends up though. Manning really doesn’t need an offensive coordinator anymore, hopefully the new coaching staff just let him go out there and do his thing.

This is essentially the crux of the article.

On the one hand it would be positive for local clubs to have financial security and a guaranteed future in the game. On the other, what sort of future is it if a club is only there to serve the the national competition?

Perhaps this is a more sensitive issue in Queensland due to the legacy of the breakdown of the BRL following the Broncos inclusion into the national comp?

Patrick, trust me when I say that I really did the hard yards getting first-hand experience of lounging at the footy.

I hope that grassroots participation will always exist too and in many ways an ARLC takeover would probably secure this future to an even greater degree. I think what’s also important is establishing the balance between each level of rugby league; it can’t just be about juniors and the NRL. There’s also got to be a focus on establishing the Intrust Supercup and the NSW Cup (and the grades below it) as meaningful elements of the game with meaningful clubs who contest them.

To be fair, and I can only speak to the Queensland competition here, I think that there is growing interest in the Intrust Supercup which is a promising sign. Perhaps it’s because it offers a genuinely different ‘match day experience’ to the top flight national comp.

Lyon took 23 wickets. The next best Australian was Johnson with 13 (in only 3 tests).

Are you arguing that there is a better spinner in Australia that should be in the team? If so, who is he? In a 4 test series that lacked game changers, Lyon effectively won the Adelaide test. That’s got to count for something.

If you thought Lyon was inconsistent in his role, what did you make of Watson or Shaun Marsh?

Logically, overlap should actually work as a ‘truer’ (more true?) indicator of popularity. If I’m forced to choose between three games I will have to decide which team I really want to watch, rather than just watching all of the game because I like the sport.

Super Saturday for the NRL just means most league fans watch all three games, rather than being forced to decide which team they prefer. So I do agree that it works against the ratings numbers for AFL though.

First time I’ve seen this column/ concept. Bloody tricky one Mister Football, anything resembling reliable, consistent, publicly available data that could help would be difficult to come by imagine. Probably better that we all just argue about it below the line 😉

Umm you do realise Kyle Orton is Dave Grohl’s doppelganger don’t you? Keep up…