Roar Guru
Joined June 2014
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It’s been a week since Game 3 of Origin and with pretty much any discussion on the game revolving around post-match drama I figured I’d take the opportunity to remind everyone that a game did in fact take place prior to the awards ceremony.
I’ve been putting this article off for a while now. It has been sitting in my hard drive under various iterations since the Game 1 State of Origin loss for Queensland.
After the retirements of Queensland stalwarts Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk, the state’s first Origin team for 2018 was always going to have a different flavour to it.
Well here we are, nine rounds in and already the football is starting to distract from the true purpose of the early season – providing context to present fans their preferred NSW Blues line-up for Game 1 of State of Origin.
If you’ve been following this series you’ll already be aware which teams have made my all important top five, but now it’s time to place them in order and list arbitrary reasons for doing so!!
Well here we are. With part 1 and part 2 covering teams 9 through 16, it’s time jump into the top eight.
With the bottom five teams established in part one of this series, we find ourselves about to delve into the meat of the season.
‘Tis the season to dress up complete guesswork as research and statistical analysis.
Watching the eighth-placed Cowboys knock out both the fifth-placed Sharks and the fourth-placed Eels in succession got me thinking.
Referee-bashing, it’s existed since the dawn of sport. Yet here we are at the business end of the season and it’s all anyone can talk about.
It’s that time of year again. Queensland have walked away with yet another State of Origin victory and every man and his dog is laying into New South Wales over various perceptions as to why and how they lost.
What just happened? The dynasty was over, Queensland had been weighed, measured and found wanting.
In hindsight it was probably best possible preperation for a dragons ambush. Completely written off by everyone, bogus reports of broncos deliberatly engineering the match up, Broncos coming off a couple big wins but carrying a couple injuries.
I don’t think its a surprise that the Dragons early points came from close range through the middle third. Broncos came into the game with a weakened pack with Glen out and TPJ still carrying an injury, so once they lost Joe O early (and eventually benched Sims) the middle were basically pulling a double shift and just couldn’t stand up to the Dragons middle. It’ll be interesting to see how the dragons forwards go against the Bunnies pack if they read too much into this game.
I’ll be honest, i was worried coming into this match, teams down on form always seem to use the broncos as a target to bounce back and if I remember correctly Bennett doesn’t have a great record at Suncorp when these two teams meet (regardless of which side he’s coaching), at least that’s was the case for a while.
Six talking points from Brisbane Broncos vs St George Illawarra Dragons NRL elimination final
Are we gonna get one of these articles for every team that loses a final this year?
Where to now for the Brisbane Broncos?
Calm down son, it was 30 after keeping them scoreless for the first 39 minutes then losing Boyd to injury and then the storm piled on 3 trys
Where to now for the Brisbane Broncos?
Ah JT. Seen a lot of great players retire but he’s the only one I’ve been genuinly sad to see the last of. Thatk god for youtube highlights
Nine talking points from NRL Round 25
I was just trying to think of somewhere that would create someone that cares enough about politics to actually lable something socialist, sweeping generalisations and all that
The salary cap is socialist garbage and should be binned
Close enough! I was reading it thinking “which club hasn’t been successful since the salary cap was introduced”. Shouldn’t affect Brisbane though, we have magical TPA’s.
The salary cap is socialist garbage and should be binned
Strong anti socialist sentiments, concerned about losing “homegrown” players, everything is the Nrl’s fault – I’m thinking Raiders.
The salary cap is socialist garbage and should be binned
Your second point is an interesting one, if there’s anything socialist in the NRL then surely handing out equal amounts of money to every club is top of the list. I really doubt that too many clubs would actually want to do away with the cap anyway and it’s as much about ensuring the financial survival of clubs as it is about fairness.
This article has gotta be the strangest take on the cap I can remember reading.
The salary cap is socialist garbage and should be binned
Wait, I’m confused, how does taking the cap away from rich clubs stop them poaching talent other clubs have developed?
The salary cap is socialist garbage and should be binned
It’ll be the administrations fault that there’s nothing to talk about though. That or they’ll just keep quoting “to our knowlege” as if it implies anything other then legal speak.
NRL confirm 2018 finals won't be impacted by salary cap investigations
Out of their first 10 games they scored 21 penalty goals in just seven of those. That’s 42 points right there.
I’m not suggesting that’s the only reason they were winning games, just that it’s a contributing factor in their dominant start to the season
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
Hodges often went to dummy half in the big moments and was good for a big play when needed
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
Broncos started the $1.2m rumour? Huh? It was first reported as being just under $1m and gradually grew the more people talked about it (even by the same journalists that initially reported it). Happens with every relatively news worthy contract.
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
I dunno, I reckon the trouble the Broncs have had finding a fill in for left centre shows where he was supposed to be at
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
6. fix up your profile pic, the roar doesn’t like it any more 😉
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
none of those teams finished lower then 3rd though
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
Especially considering he was on much less at the Broncos and Bennett (interestingly) always had back up halves in the squad (which he interestingly doesn’t have now). Iirc Hunt was around the $400k mark at the Broncs (though at the back end of a 3 or 4 year deal) so it’s not like the teams success was built around his form
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
5. How much did the team buy into their own hype? The great coaches, like your Bellamy’s and Bennetts, are very quick to hose down too mauch praise. Even Hasler loved going “under the radar” while enjoying his successes. But this year there’s been two coaches that have apeared pretty eager to lap up praise for their teams – Mary and Nathan Brown. When the Knights were going good (or better at least) Brown was on Fox every other week as were either Ponga or Ross. Brown even managed a jibe at Bennetts sex life at one point. When the Dragons were on top there was a healthy representation of their players on various pannel shows and we were constantly hearing stories about how important a shuttle bus was to their success etc etc.
I get that the media want the successful players on their shows but the more experienced coaches generally limit the media workload their less experienced players have to deal with. I mean, I’ve seen more of Hunt in the media this year then I did in his last 4 years at the Broncos (and they had their own show).
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
You missed 2015 Tim when they went form being top of the table in round 12 to 8th by round 26 and getting knocked out in the first round of finals, that’s 4 out of mary’s 5 years as coach (and they weren’t great in 2014) so I’m not sure you can dismiss him as a major factor, if not the biggest.
Mary also went out of his way to get Hunt, a player that already had a reputation for patchy form, and was eager to promote how they had the support networks to get the best out of him. That just hasn’t worked and the first dip in Hunt’s form around round 10 just hasn’t gone away and if anything his form has gotten worse since then.
I don’t really buy the idea that getting benched in Origin started Hunt’s issues either. He got the wobbles before Game 1 when he suffered a corked thigh where he couldn’t finish 2 games and ended up not being able to train in the first origin camp. Historically his biggest form issues have started with injuries. I’m not saying that origin fallout wasn’t a contributing factor, just that the issues were already there (and his performances in the first 2 origins hardly showed an in form player).
I reckon that the Dragons fade coinciding with the Origin series may have a lost to do with the “crackdown” also fading at the same time. One of thier biggest advantages as a team early on was Widdops boot, and a drastic drop in penalties seems to have coincided with a drop in both points and results for the side. They weren’t exactly beating teams through try scoring ability but goal kicking ensured that they’d have a decent buffer against most sides as long as they could keep pace with trys scored. They even beat the Raiders at one point by 7 or so points despite both teams scoring 3 trys each.
The Dragons' disaster: It’s not something about Mary
Seems like the Roar’s looking to move away from the forum style (recent comments removed from the main hub and downgraded comment functionality) and towards a more mainstream media outlet (more focus on articles/advertising space and general prettieness). Ah well.
Also, what kind of potato are you using to access the internet to notice web pages running more smoothly? 😉
What happened to rugby league in 2018?
Forget League, what’s happened to the Roars home page??? That’s the real issue today
What happened to rugby league in 2018?
McCullough’s pulled of a couple great ones, but that’s in midfield with other defenders in range to clean up. Out wide it’s a bit of a risk if it doesn’t come off and herding them towards the sideline is a bit safer, and if they do score it’s a more difficult conversion
NRL team of the week Round 24
It’s probably closer to 90%, but that’d be mainly due to those same callers having columns and TV spots to fill during the week. It’s also escalated by the amount of callers picked for their connection to the game rather then any relevant ability in the role or just being able to string two coherent thoughts together in a row. Then you’ve got massive conflicts of interest permeating the major media coverage and an over abundance of journalists picked for their reputation of creating controversy rather then anything actually insightful and we wonder why the coverage is poor
Dylan Napa’s recklessness must be punished, accident or not
Have we really got to the point where Hunt kicks it out out on the full off a kicking tee and no one even mentions it?
St George Illawarra Dragons vs Canterbury Bulldogs: NRL live scores, blog
He was the one organising the defence with Macca out though. Not saying they could have won if he didn’t get injured, but it certainly seemed to contribute to gap between the scorelines and the scoring really opened up once he left the field
Where to now for the Brisbane Broncos?