2011 is remembered for Manly’s premiership, Queensland’s sixth Origin victory, Darren Lockyer’s retirement, the Titans’ dreadful wooden spoon, and even the Adam Blair versus Glenn Stewart brawl at Brooky.
What most fans (and the bookies!) seem to have forgotten in relation to the 2011 season is the number of star players that suffered serious injury. Although injuries happen every year, in 2011 we saw injuries play a very significant role in the outcome of the competition.
This is the kind of oversight that could be very profitable for the more attentive punters. The bookies are only looking at what they saw happen in 2011 and have failed to consider that which is not seen. Here is a chronological list of key injuries that I think defined the 2011 season.
Sam Burgess was injured in a Four Nations match at the end of 2010 and he never recovered enough to make an impact on the 2011 season. When you throw in serious injuries to Roy Asotasi, Luke Stuart and Ben Lowe, it is not hard to see why Souths didn’t get going until much later in 2011 (in the end, their late-season charge was just not enough to make the finals).
Terry Campese injured his knee (requiring reconstruction) against Wests in the 2010 finals series. He returned mid-season, but lasted less than 20 minutes. The Raiders’ play-maker and on-field leader was a massive blow (comparable to the Cowboys losing Thurston, or the Storm losing Cronk).
When you throw in a series of recurring injuries to David Shillington, Tom-Learoyd Lars and Josh Dugan, I was not surprised to see the Raiders finish so far down the ladder.
Jonathon Thurston was leading the NRL point-scoring and Dally M count by a significant margin when he suffered a serious knee injury in Game 3 of the Origin series.
The best player in the competition was ruled out for a long spell and despite returning before the finals, it was clear that he had not fully healed and lacked his typical intensity and confidence.
As a result, the Cowboys went out of the 2011 finals campaign with barely a whimper, getting humiliated in a second half onslaught by Manly.
Cooper Cronk suffered an injury against the Titans in the Storm’s Round 23 victory Although Cronk returned for the finals campaign, it was clear that his injury (along with Gareth Widdup’s and Justin Oneil’s) disrupted the Storm’s charge to the grand final.
The usually clinical performance of the Storm was lacking against the Warriors in their semi-final. In front of a shell-shocked home crowd, the Storm surprisingly bowed out of the competition, and I think the injury to Cronk was a major factor in their unexpected exit.
Josh Hoffman came of age with a three-try, man-of-the-match performance against the Cowboys in Round 23. The slick fullback was hitting top form towards the back end of last year. Representative duties were a certainty for the 2010 Broncos player of the year.
But coach Griffin made the idiotic decision not to rest Hoffman in the dead-rubber game against Manly in Round 26. Hoffman suffered a serious knee injury and was ruled out for the season.
Darren Lockyer was later also ruled out with a fractured eye socket, and these two injuries alone cruelled any chance the Broncos had in 2011.
I know there were other key injuries, but in my view, these were the ones that changed the direction of the 2011 NRL competition.
Looking at these injuries is not about making excuses or taking anything away from the performance of the Warriors and Manly, who deserved to be grand finalists. The value in such analysis comes from a realisation that in 2012, things will be different – potentially much different!
Some of the above teams (Raiders, Cowboys and Broncos in particular) are all a chance of surprising on the upside as their star players are back and fully fit.
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Fans were sceptical that Izaac Tu'itupou Thompson grounded this properly. How did you see it?
Channel Nine's Allana Ferguson and Billy Slater put Souths under the microscope after this lacklustre defensive effort. Penrith beat South Sydney 42-12.
If South Sydney had put up this much fight earlier in the season, Jason Demetriou might still be their coach. The Rabbitohs responded strongly…
Sunia Turuva scored the first try of the game for Penrith, and by the end of it he was setting them up with ease.
South Sydney copped their second binning of the game, with Jacob Host marched for this kicker contact.
Two horror moments were scrutinised by the Nine commentator with the Bunnies defending Dylan Edwards. The second one resulted in a Taylan May try.
