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The crazy results continue in the NRL, where it takes as long for Wests Tigers fans to get to and from Leichhardt as it does for the Warriors to arrive in Sydney for another demoralising performance.
Cronulla v New Zealand
Men Of League Heritage Round, and with a 3pm Saturday afternoon kick-off it could only have been more “heritage” if Warren Boland had been commentating, resplendent in an ABC standard-issue green jacket and red tie.
The Sharks were desperate for a win after a disastrous and fruitless start to the season, but who could have imagined that the word ‘saviour’ would ever be used in reference to Jeff Robson?
While Robson has been out with a broken jaw, Daniel Holdsworth has shown why he went to English Super League in the first place. Robson took control of directing the team around the field, which freed up Todd Carney to return to his creative role.
The result was the Warriors returning to their heritage traits: baffling inconsistency and coach killing erratic play. Last week Glenn Fishiahi scored four tries as they carved up the Tigers, and the Warriors returned the favour here, allowing Cronulla’s Nathan Stapleton to score four.
In their first 320 minutes of 2014 football, the Sharks had scored an anaemic 28 points, yet managed to score 30 points in 56 minutes on Saturday.
Penrith v Canberra
It was a dour struggle out at a waterlogged Penrith with Jamie Soward’s kicking game proving the difference, bagging a try, a 40/20 and decent field position.
Soward must have been hyped up on something pre-game as he ran the ball and got a tackled on more than one occasion in the early going. Unheard of!
Jamal Idris attempted to have a brain explosion. Canberra had one last shot to tie the game, and threw a pass that was intercepted by Idris. All he had to do was accept a tackle, run out of bounds, throw or kick the ball out and it’s game over.
Instead he somewhat optimistically set off to run the length of the field. When he was unsurprisingly run down he attempted a miracle pass that was picked up by Canberra, giving them another chance at their own miracle finish.
It didn’t cost Penrith this time, but there’s no need to tempt the football gods like that Jamal.
St George-Illawarra v Souths
Lots of positive footballing karma for Souths leading into this game – playing back at the scene of so many of their glory days, coinciding with John Sutton taking over as holder of most games for the club from Bob McCarthy, playing back in his more familiar role as five-eighth and giving the team a better-looking balance on paper.
The outlook didn’t get any worse after the Rabbitohs received eight of the first nine penalties, enabling them to set up camp in Dragons territory. They took a handy 14-0 half-time lead after Dugan was ruled to have ‘unconsciously uncoupled’ from the ball during a rare Dragons attacking raid in the first half.
In a tradition that dates back to Dally Messenger, the losing coach blamed the refs for the loss. Steve Price was true to form, complaining about the lopsided penalty count as the Dragons wave goodbye to the top of ladder – I don’t expect we’ll see them there again this year.
Melbourne v Gold Coast
Gold Coast have won only once in Melbourne in their six attempts. For the sake of sequential beauty, if we remove the one win, the losing margins have been 44, 40, 28, eight and one; a steady improvement over the years, and if the sequence was to continue then this would be a Gold Coast win.
Gold Coast held a couple of handy leads throughout the game, but it all came down to one fateful penalty when the scores were tied in the last minutes of the game. The referees incorrectly ruled a strip penalty against Melbourne when the Titans player dropped the ball in the tackle.
Social media reacted immediately, with opinions polarised between “Sucked in Melbourne – serves them right” and Melbourne fans.
Almost as shocking as the Titans winning the game is the realisation that they sit alone at the top of the NRL ladder with a negative for and against, which seemed impossible given their capitulation against the Tigers in Round 2.
Wests v Manly
Over 16,000 hardy fans turned out at Leichhardt Oval for this game, braving two hours sitting in the rain and five hours sitting in the traffic getting to and from the ground.
Only the most one-eyed of those 16,311 Tigers’ fans could have anticipated the pants-down spanking they delivered to Manly as they raced to 26-0 lead before half-time.
Fortunately the Manly try scored after the half-time whistle should have been blown didn’t cost the Tigers as they coasted through the second half. Given the way Manly performed, the refs would have had to let the game run for a couple of hours past full-time for Manly to have a chance at winning this one.
Daly Cherry-Evans laying an elbow and knee into the head of Liam Fulton was out of character, and a particularly ugly look.
For those clubs chasing the signature of James Tedesco, let the buyer beware. Following his unfortunate debut, in which he tore up his knee and missed the entire 2012 season, I’ve lost count of the number of times he’s stayed down injured clutching his legs – including this game where he was forced off with an ankle injury.
I hope I am wrong, and we won’t put him in the Lachlan Coote category just yet, but there’s already the expectation that it’s just a matter of time before he suffers another serious injury.
Twitter: @Armchair_Guru
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