Roar Guru
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There has certainly been no lack of drama in the league world since the final siren sounded on the last day of September.
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.
“oooh, did he get the bat on the ground there?”
“are we sure he got the bat to the ground there?”
“are we sure he got the bat to the ground?”
“did the bat bounce up when it hit the ground maybe?”
“are we sure the bat stayed down?”
“is there a gap between the shadow and the bat?”
“are we sure the bat stayed down?”
I’m not sure if he needs to be more objective or just needs glasses. Though, to be fair, after watching the scorchers game afterwards that passage of commentary didn’t seem all that bad…
Sloppy Australia hand India 2-1 series win
Cheers for the clarification, my main point with the storm was to counter the authors claims that what the storm did is now legal under “Tpa’s” now. I know the boat thing was cleared, but it’s often used as an example of how clubs could breach the cap with unrecorded “gifts”, and something that certainly can’t be solved by scrapping tpa’s.
Third Party Agreements: Should they be limited or scrapped altogether?
He’s been too impatient even for the BBL lately
Patterson ton versus Sri Lanka upstages Test rivals
If I remember correctly the Broncs were held back in using him by second tier cap constraints.
Deliver or bust: Five big NRL names at a career crossroads in 2019
The Titans are just downt he road from the Broncos and have some of the lowest official TPAs, there’s a lot more then geography needed to be successful
Third Party Agreements: Should they be limited or scrapped altogether?
I can understand that, but it’s not always as simple as it may seem. In Cootes case it’s not like he was playing for crumbs- he was still on half a mill a year which wasn’t actually much less then what he was offered per year elsewhere, it was just a shorter contract (and that kind of money goes a lot further in Townsville then it does in Sydney). He was also in a successful team that literally just won a premiership, pretty decent arguement for taking unders to stay
Third Party Agreements: Should they be limited or scrapped altogether?
To be fair Wayne, the NRL already knocks back a lot of contracts where players appear to be suspiciously undervalued (it just doesn’t get widely reported). Ironically enough, its generally the lesser known players that get undervalued with promises to be “topped up” rather then the marquee players as they’re less able to source their own sponsorships.
Third Party Agreements: Should they be limited or scrapped altogether?
I’ve liked the idea of player payments going through the NRL rather then clubs for a while (especially with the NRL covering the cap anyway) but all it really does is regulate the legal application of the rules around the cap. It might stop clubs faking contracts (which has only been found once to be fair) but it’s still pretty easy to bypass if you want to make unreported payments (and certainly can’t stop cash payments) which has been the biggest issue with clubs gaming the system. It doesn’t stop players being “gifted” boats or recieving brown paper bags in parking lots.
As far as TPA’s go, I’m not sure how legal it would be to force external companies to pay your own employees through your own accounts system for work unrelated to your own business. That raises all sorts of ethical issues.
Third Party Agreements: Should they be limited or scrapped altogether?
To be fair, I reckon their batting line up let them down much more then their bowlers in their poor start. They’ve been lucky to get 3 or 4 guys make more then 10 runs during their losses.
The just-past-halfway BBL report card
Have the Heat been that bad in comparison with the rest of the competition? They’ve played less games then most of the comp and if they win tonight (though they don’t have the best record at home) they’ll leap frog teams that’ve played more games into 3rd spot. They didn’t have a great start but they seem to be warming into things now and things usually seem to collapse for them with national call ups ,which doesn’t appear to be on the table this year.
The just-past-halfway BBL report card
I’m not sure you actually understand what TPA’s are or how they work mate (which seems to be a theme with these sort of articles). The Storm didn’t use TPA’s to cheat the system, they faked entire contracts. Giving Inglis a boat wasn’t a TPA, it was essentially an unreported payment (which is not the same thing). None of that has been made legal under the current TPA system.
TPA’s aren’t the issue when it comes to salary cap breaches, issues arise when clubs illegally arrange sponsorships or (more often) illegally guarantee payments if a sponsorship falls through. Clubs deliberately and flagrantly breaking the established rules are the issue. You think that’d stop if TPA’s didn’t exist?
I’m not sure people know what they’re asking for when they ask for TPA’s to be scrapped. Player appearences and interviews in the various footy shows, presenting short reports for the news, writing columns in newspapers and online, public appearences for events, big money sponsorships with gatorade/nike/under armour etc, book deals, practically anything that isn’t playing footy – they’re all TPA’s. Do you really want to ban all of that?
Third Party Agreements: Should they be limited or scrapped altogether?
They weren’t given to players as TPA’s, they were given unrecorded cash payments. THat’s a completely different issue and would still be viable if TPA’s didn’t exist
Third Party Agreements: Should they be limited or scrapped altogether?
Seriously mate? Are you going out of your way to take things the wrong way at this point. It’s one thing to misread a fairly innocuous comment, but it takes a special kind of insecurity to misread someone and then go on the offensive when its pointed out…
The choose your own adventure sex tape
I reckon Issako is a far bigger hurdle for Kahu then Bird. Kahu at centre has only ever been a bandaid solution when playing stocks are getting short, he’s always been a winger primarily that can fill in at fullback or centre in an emergency. And he would have been struggling to get a start last year after Issako burst onto the scene if it wasn’t for injuries
Deliver or bust: Five big NRL names at a career crossroads in 2019
Isn’t that why Norman’s there? I find it hard to believe that the Dragons would jump on an availible 5/8 without knowing that their own was moving on at the end of the season
Dragons silent on Widdop 'Brexit' strategy
I’m sure there are plenty of players that would rather play in another position, even Brisbanes own Lockyer finished his career at 6 after moving there “for the team”. But there’s a big difference between prefering position x and leaving a club because you’re not playing in position x. I’m not sure the Oates example helps your case, he’s wanted to play in the back row for going on five years and still just re-signed.
Bird and Bryce under pressure to perform in NRL 2019
Thank goodness someone invented the cut-out pass
Bird and Bryce under pressure to perform in NRL 2019
Gotta say, I’m looking forward to seeing that left edge of Milf/Bird/Oates with Boyd chiming in. Will we finally see Oates actually getting the ball off someone who can pass?
Bird and Bryce under pressure to perform in NRL 2019
Come on mate, that was an interview from years ago of a rookie player in his second season of first grade.
Here’s one from just before he moved to Brissy (https://www.sportingnews.com/au/league/news/jackbird-opens-up-on-why-he-moved-to-the-broncos-sharks-nrl/wgnxxbrx6mv6z62kel7e3ybs)
Bird and Bryce under pressure to perform in NRL 2019
That’s not entirely true, when he was being courted by clubs he said that’d he’d prefer to be closer to the ball, he also said in an interview when he arrived in Brisbane that his prefered position was lock but that he’d been told by Bennett he’d most likely be playing at left centre so it’s not like that’s a sudden change. And Bennett moving on has been known about since early last year, if those are the reasons he’s supposedly moving on for then they’ve been on the table for a long time and he hasn’t moved yet.
At any rate, he seems pretty happy at the moment judging by the preseason reports
Bird and Bryce under pressure to perform in NRL 2019
To be fair, he was a rep player when he was signed
Bird and Bryce under pressure to perform in NRL 2019
Bird’s got plenty of excuses for me 2018- multiple surgeries before and during the season, no preseason, started the season pretty underdone physically, only had 8 games to show his worth and was playing injured (as well as the effect that has on one’s confidence) and also had to fill several positions (again, with no preseason to learn the teams structures) due to others injuries. Even Gillett was well below his best while he was playing injured. We’ll find out soon enough what Bird can do with a clear run into the season.
Bryce’s issues, on the other hand, just seemed to be entirely mental. That’s much harder to know how to fix.
Bird and Bryce under pressure to perform in NRL 2019
I understand the sentiment, but I think you have to keep things within reason. There’s not too many careers where you could forfit up to a quarter of a million bucks or more for playing up outside of work hours. People always want to enforce discipline until someone actually gets punished, remember how people were saying that pierce getting fined $75k was way over the top? Will Knights fans (or any fans for that matter) still support this if it drives a promising player out the door?
NRL players union vs Newcastle 'sledgehammer' fines
I don’t wanna get into a whole thing about Hunt but I don’t understand why people seem to think he created more in attack. QLD went from dominating the Blues to the back foot within minutes of Hunt replacing Macca and it got so close at the end that Macca was brought back on for the final couple minutes. Hunt made a grand total of three runs, didn’t contribute to either of the tries scored while he was on the field and was the key man guiding the forwards when they surrendered the upper hand while being the worst defensive player in the team. I don’t get it, Macca at least made a 15m break at a crucial time but Hunt does nothing and is apparently the saviour of QLD’s attack.
As far as Granville goes I reckon he’s got a lot to work on before he’s anywhere near rep level.
Are there any winners from the Broncos-Rabbitohs coaching swap?
Sure about that? I’d say a large proportion of Broncos fans hail from Ipswich and Logan
There are too many NRL clubs in Sydney