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The title of the article in The Daily Telegraph was ‘Title Pressure On Queensland Clubs’.
It was your standard off-season piece, league journalism’s equivalent of a Seinfeld episode: an article about nothing.
Which is perfectly fine, of course. After all, I’m taking the time to respond to this article and, as we all should know, anything multiplied by nothing is also nothing, so I’m not doing much better in the dark days of January.
Peter Badel of the Courier Mail penned this effort which explores the “pressure” on the three Queensland clubs to bring an NRL title back to their state.
See what I mean about the “nothing” bit? I don’t imagine Sam Thaiday, Matt Bowen and Ashley Harrison are in this moment sitting in a library, legal pads out, brows furrowed, desperately trying to figure out how win another NRL title for one of their teams.
That’s okay, all sports writers are allowed a degree of hyperbole.
When that hyperbole becomes fantasy, however, I must step in.
Mr. Badel writes about the Broncos’ former dominance and documents their fall from the pinnacle of the NRL, having not won a premiership since 2006.
He does take the time to mention the lack of true champions of the calibre of Langer, Renouf, Lockyer and Civoniceva, but then goes on to add this little doozy.
“Perhaps most critically, is Griffin the man to emulate what only Wayne Bennett has done thus far as coach – deliver titles to Brisbane?”
“Most critically”, really? Having the best possible coach is more important than having quality talent on the field?
This is a common thread in sports reporting across a variety of sports. That is, the elevation of coaches and their role in the outcome of games. Yes, of course better coaches add wins and raise standards.
But did Bennett “deliver” titles to Brisbane? I’m pretty sure a few tackles, runs, kicks and passes needed to be made as well. I’m also confident that those had a greater effect on outcome than anything Bennett said or did.
Maybe the two are indivisible. Maybe I shouldn’t be attempting to differentiate between the contributions players and coaches make.
But it’s this kind of thinking that not only drives me crazy, but also gets coaches sacked when they shouldn’t be, and paid gazillions for no reason.
Mal Meninga is not a supercoach (whatever that means), able to “deliver” victories. If he were, Canberra would have been a good team when he was at the helm, mediocre players or not.
And though we’ll never know whether or not another coach might have done better with the same squad, we can at least suspect with some degree of certainty that it came down to the talent level of the players.
Badel also says that the Cowboys “enter the 2013 premiership ruing the title that got away last season after the video-refereeing bungle that cruelly ended their campaign against Manly a fortnight shy of the NRL decider.”
Oh. Huh? That one decision decided the whole game? Yes, it was awful and yes, it did affect the direction of the game in that moment. However, there were many moments after that during which the Cowboys were not able to pierce Manly’s defence and get back into it.
There were also many moments before during which the Cowboys were not able to build a lead which may have insulated them against that kind of pathetic refereeing mistake.
The only way that decision could have truly ended their campaign was if one of the following occurred.
a) It had happened without enough time for the Cowboys to recover;
b) The moment it occurred, the referees said, “okay, that’s enough, let’s call it a day. Manly, you go through. North Queensland, please go back to Townsville and pack for your vacations”.
Neither of those things occurred. So let’s keep everything within sane perspective.
I am not singling out Peter Badel with any intention of disrespecting him. I’m sure he’s an able writer and a good man.
But it’s still the off-season. This writer’s gotta’ do something.
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