blogging it real

An interesting start to the year.

All the fancied teams didn't do as well as expected while those who were variously written off either won or did better than picked.

I didn't see the Friday night games but the Titans obviously took care of the Cowboys easily enough while the Roosters made fairly short work of the bunnies. My father (the expert) reckons the Rabbits are too light weight in the forwards. I reckon they have too many NZers in their lineup but won't go quite as far as to take a Murray Deaker stance on team selection.

I did manage to see the Eels v Bulldogs which perfectly summed the Bulldogs up. I've written it many times before and they didn't let me down. Only the Bulldogs know how to drop their bundle the second the opposition gets their tail up. They capitulate quicker than the French. Perhaps they should rename themselves the Bullfrogs.

I also saw Ben Cross get ironed out (then bounce off the turf unconscious, then get jumped on and then get smacked with a cheap shot in the head). Seriously, hammering the crap out of a guy in a legit hit is one thing but must players really jump on the guy when its pretty obvious he's not with us. He's not the first and won't be the last. That was a bloody gutsy performance from the Sharks. As long as they can get some more out of their attack (which they will struggle to do given they play with 12 forwards and a goalkicker) then they should make the playoffs on the back of their defence. Although in saying that Gary Freeman had just finished mentioning how the Sharks had the 3rd best defence last year and thats what wins games when I recalled him 5 minutes earlier saying that the Sharks finished in 14th spot. So, yeah, it might be helpful but if you can't score any bloody points yourself you won't win games.

Then there was the wooden spoon matchup between the Raiders and Knights. The Knights looked quite slick at times on attack but couldn't put the Raiders away for ages. Both teams just look too lightweight and don't have the talent in the backs or the forwards to play the style of game they need to. Which was basically the style Tim Sheens had going with the Tigers when they won the premiership a few seasons back. Namely a draw and pass, side to side, hole running type game which I was hoping would revolutionise the game. Unfortunately we went back to the old hitup for three, wide for two style game. Or hitup for 5 and kick that the Sharks use.

Speaking of the Tigers, they put a "disgraceful", according to Nathan Brown, Dragons team away yesterday which is great news. They did it without Benji Marshall who went off after the 3rd minute when he injured his glass body once again. If he's out for the season he will be one more serious injury away from needing to look for a new job. I love it when the Dragons lose.

And then there was the Panthers getting gang banged by the Broncos. I didn't see the full game, only highlights so not really sure how it unfolded but to flag it like the Panthers obviously did indicates that they are not a happy bunch of campers. Look for Elliot to be out of a job in a month or two if that crap gets repeated a couple more times.

And then there's the Warriors who have kicked off v the Storm (Billy Slater has a hat trick after 25 bloody minutes!). I get too nervous listening on the radio as I can't see what is happening so will tune in for a couple of updates and tape it if we win. 1am on Prime just ain't doing it for me.

Incidentally I could do with Prime not changing their scheduling on the same day all the time. It really fucks me off to wait for something all day and find it doesn't come on. And a brickbat for the NRL website as well. It takes forever to load and has so many bells and whistles you can't find what you are looking for. It also slows to a crawl any other sites you may have open.

It's not necessary guys. People want live scoring, results, points tables, reviews, previews and news and thats about it. They don't want player blogs, tipping sections, competitions, flash ads, and one hundred and fifty eight links. That's right, I counted them, their are one hundred and fifty eight links that you can click on and that's no counting the drop down menus under the top banner. My cursor keeps freezing every 10 seconds when in the page and takes 5 seconds to come right again. God help anybody on dialup.

adios amigos

Labels: nrl, nrl website, rugby league