State of Origin Post Mortem and NRL Round 21 – Prop in the Canefield: You gotta love footy!

 

 

Origin Birthday Blues!

Our six man Origin birthday started at Harold Street, Virginia where we had a few beers at middle sons Tom’s place before heading to Walters. Our driver was named Severe and that may have been an early omen. Our spirits were sky high as the Uber man took us to what was once Mineral House. Magnificent pre-1900 Brisbane building where another round of beers and deep footy discussion started. At 5.02 pm we were at our table and our experienced Brisbane City Steak man (Jake) put the order in, and at 5.10pm he had us on the Shiraz with the food coming. Baked oysters, pierogi, bone marrow, beef tartare, Hervey Bay scallops, the signature Walters porterhouse with creamed spinach, grandfather potatoes green salad and fries. What a magnificent birthday meal, and at 6.40pm I left feeling a little more corpulent than I had two hours earlier.

We made our way to Lang Park for the big game and, as expected, the Caxton Street precinct was pumping. We headed into the ground to a pre-game function put on by the FOGS – no need to say what we talked about. FOG Craig Greenhill had a yarn to us and, at 7.55pm, birthdays couldn’t have been better. 8 o’clock and we were in our seats, Row 1 Western Stand, 20m line Paddo end, for those of you who know the ground. We were on the fence and could not have been any closer to the action.  We were full of anticipation as the game kicked off, and what a game it was!

There was nothing in the first half, a contest with lots of movement of the ball and we had our money’s worth at half-time. 2-0 Queensland. We were confident that we could take the second half, especially with the booming crowd. But this level of game is determined by mistakes and there were two, both by the same player. Firstly, Nannai, by getting involved in the skirmish, cost us the ball when we were about to go into an attacking position. I’m sure if he had his time again, he would’ve played that differently. The fracas on the sideline was a bad look and, in all my years, when a player enters the field of play from off the bench they’ve been normally sent off. Murray was very lucky to survive that and should have been marched.

Then, after coming back in from the bin, Nannai missed a bad tackle on Luai who set up the first New South Wales try which was quickly followed by another miss that allowed Moses to score. In the space of 5 minutes, the birthday had become a shambles! We left the ground after full-time and headed to the Transcontinental to discuss and dissect what we had just witnessed. Three beers and we decided to make our way to the Pancake Manor in Charlotte Street where the boys had a little more to eat and we had a final dissection of the game before getting back to Harold St at 1.20pm. Finally, home. What a day, it didn’t end how we liked it to but it was a great game of football. 2025, here we come.

 

Round 20 was characterised by the return of the half-backs. We saw Fogarty at the Raiders, Reynolds at the Broncos and Cleary at Penrith all makes successful returns and their teams salute. The Warriors would have to rue their goal-kicking in their match against the Raiders. Fogarty had a big game for the Raiders and his kicking certainly made a difference, but goal kicking by the Warriors was the difference in this game. The very poor miss late in the game was costly.

There were three games on Saturday, starting off with the Rabbits against the Tigers and, as expected, the Rabbits were too good. The Tigers are desperately awaiting for Luai to show up next year and maybe give some hope to their supporters, although Wests Tigers seem to be a complete rabble. The Broncos had Reynolds back and were a completely different team. The Knights were unable to match the Broncos and, maybe, just maybe can sneak into the top four but they do have to win every game and rely on other losses. The final Saturday match saw the Storm up against the Roosters and the Storm were as clinical as usual. They disposed of the Roosters who were affected by some very poor decisions by their players, especially the Radley sin bin. When playing against the Storm you just don’t make these mistakes. Every player seems to know what they’re doing and they just keep coming. They are still a genuine player in this competition. Howarth, who has been highly regarded by the Storm fraternity, certainly looked like he is about pay his way.

On Sunday there were another three games which ended up with two cracking ones. Manly at Brookvale proved way too strong for the Titans and Des Hasler would not have enjoyed that trip back to his old stomping ground. The Redcliffe and Panthers put on a cracking match and the Panthers looked like they were in trouble for a long time. Katoa has been so good this year but chose not to take a field goal in the dying minutes of the match. Unfortunately, you cannot give Cleary a chance and he pumped over a magnificent two point field goal two minutes into golden point. Penrith get a number of Origin players back next week and they are still the team to beat.

The final match saw the Cowboys get home against Canterbury and Dearden, who was one of Queensland’s best in the Origin, again stood up for the Cowboys when it was required. Canterbury was a little unlucky but the Cowboys just had their match. The race for the final four positions in the eight is very congested and position 4 will be a key spot. I think the top 3 are settled.

 

Round 21 starts the run to the finals with no Origin impact. Friday starts off with the West Tigers against the Warriors. It’s impossible to see how the West Tigers could win this match. Likewise, the second Friday night game has the Eels against the Storm and again, barring some catastrophe, the Eels cannot win that match.

Saturday has three games starting with the Broncos at home and they should be beating the Bulldogs as they are back to full strength. The Cowboys have to beat the Sharks to keep their final hopes alive and the Roosters, after last week’s performance, need to beat the Sea Eagles.

Sunday has three games. The Dragons have the Panthers at Illawarra where they may challenge the Panthers but, again, the Panthers will be back at full strength barring Edwards and will be too strong. The Dolphins have the Titans at home and you would think on last week’s performances that the Dolphins will be too strong for the Titans in that match. The final game has the Raiders against the Rabbitohs and I think the Rabbitohs will be way too strong for the Raiders. I’m just not sure the Raiders have the depth that they need to be able to keep and maintain the position they are on the table. Likewise, the Rabbits have to win.

So, my selections are Warriors, Storm, Broncos, Cowboys, Roosters, Panthers, Dolphins and Rabbits.

My season prediction positions after Round 12:  Penrith 2nd, Broncos 11th, Melbourne 1st, Souths 12th, Roosters 4th, Cowboys 9th, Newcastle 13th and St George 8th.

 

Odd Rugby League field facts!  

Paul Langmack is the only player to play in the NSWRL, the ARL and the NRL. From 1983-1990 he played with Canterbury Bankstown, and from 1991-1994 with Wests in the NSWRL. From 1995-1997 he played with Wests in the ARL, and then for 1998 with Wests and 1999 with the Roosters in the NRL.

PS – After the sulking from my Birthday, the Crabman paid me a visit and bought a $5 crab pot from the recycling store and caught 2 beaut muddies at Main Beach!

You gotta love footy!

 

 

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