Wednesday, August 10, 2011
NRL Power Rankings - Round 22
1. Melbourne Storm Last week: 1 Change: N/A
Just keep on keeping on. A minor premiership beckons, although the Storm still have to play Manly and the Dragons.
2. Brisbane Broncos Last week: 3 Change: UP 1
Got home in a nailbiter against the Warriors. Those sort of wins are priceless this time of year.
3. North Queensland Cowboys Last week: 2 Change: DOWN 1
Just pipped by a Bulldogs side that still has everything to play for. Thurston’s comeback back this week is a massive boost.
4. St George Illawarra Dragons Last week: 5 Change: UP 1
Another week, another narrow loss. While they’d rather these setbacks come now than in the finals, signs aren’t good.
5. Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles Last week: 4 Change: DOWN 1
Jason King is gone for the season, putting an unreal strain on the Sea Eagles’ forward pack.
6. Wests Tigers Last week: 6 Change: N/A
Big win against the Dragons. Coming good at the right time.
7. New Zealand Warriors Last week: 7 Change: N/A
Just pipped by the Broncos. Looking scary as the finals near.
8. Newcastle Knights Last week: 8 Change: N/A
Scored a regulation victory over the Raiders. Odds-on to hang onto the eighth and final play-off spot.
9. South Sydney Rabbitohs Last week: 9 Change: N/A
Wow. Since the second half of their game last week against the Dragons, they’ve been the best team in the comp. Pity the hot streak didn’t come sooner.
10. Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Last week: 12 Change: UP 2
Beat the Thurston-less Cowboys to keep their slim finals hopes alive.
11. Penrith Panthers Last week: 10 Change: DOWN 1
The bottom is falling out of these guys, fast. Touched up by the Storm.
12. Sydney Roosters Last week: 11 Change: DOWN 1
As bad as they were on the field against Manly, things are going worse off it.
13. Canberra Raiders Last week: 14 Change: UP 1
Season over. Nothing to see here.
14. Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Last week: 15 Change: UP 1
Dropped a stinker to the Titans. A month ago, people were talking about these guys as finals contenders.
15. Gold Coast Titans Last week: 16 Change: UP 1
Got a win, but paid for it with their best player breaking his arm.
16. Parramatta Eels Last week: 13 Change: DOWN 3
Embarrassing. Calamitous. Terrible.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Kearney to stick with beaten bunch
Under-fire Parramatta coach Stephan Kearney is likely to stick with the players who guided the Eels to a historic loss to South Sydney when they face heavyweights Manly on Saturday.
Despite losing 56-6 to the rampant Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium tonight, Kearney admitted the Eels didn’t have the depth to ring the changes before their Parramatta Stadium showdown with their archrivals.
Parramatta have suffered a number of gallant defeats in recent weeks but the ANZ Stadium thumping - Parramatta's worst defeat against Souths since the 1950s - has many pundits tipping the Eels for the wooden spoon.
“The way these guys have performed over the past 10 weeks, except for tonight, has been pretty good,” Kearney said.
“We have a couple of choices, our commitment and attitude wasn’t good enough.
“There’s four weeks to go, the choice is ours.
“We play Manly on Saturday night.”
Kearney, who was a premiership-winning assistant at Melbourne and has led New Zealand to World Cup and Four Nations triumphs, admitted Parramatta’s performance was unacceptable.
“They jumped on us, we didn’t get back into the game,” Kearney said.
“I was very disappointed with the commitment levels tonight.”
Parramatta skipper Nathan Hindmarsh refused to blame his side’s torrid recent run for tonight’s spectacular flame-out.
“I certainly don’t want to make excuses, whether the past 10 weeks have taken their toll is not acceptable,” Hindmarsh said.
“It’s not so much the scoreline as the way they scored their tries.
“There was some easy one-on-one tackles we missed.
“If we do that against Manly they’ll put double that on us.”
Five-star Merritt helps sink woeful Eels
Tonight’s 50-6 thrashing of Parramatta – highlighted by a five-try haul to Nathan Merritt - showed that the Bunnies were going to brutal, not brittle, in their charge to September.
In what will be known in myrtle-and-cardinal circles as the Massacre of ANZ Stadium, the Redfern club ran in 10 tries to one and raised doubts about Parramatta’s chances of avoiding the wooden spoon.
With four rounds remaining, the Rabbitohs (22 points) moved into ninth spot above the Bulldogs and Panthers (10th, 20 points).
Souths have to make up four points on the eighth-placed Wests Tigers (26 points) and face a challenging run home with a home clash against the fourth-placed Cowboys in between a visit to the Raiders and away games against the play-off Broncos and Knights.
However, on tonight’s form, it would be difficult to bet against them clawing their way into the finals, despite the absence of plenty of first-grade talent.
One unfortunate punter did, laying out a reported total of $40,000 in bets on the Eels, only for any hope of a collect to vanish by the 30-minute mark.
By then, Souths led 22-0 thanks to doubles from star centre Greg Inglis and Merritt.
Most of the damage had been done down Parramatta’s left edge, with Inglis, Queensland Origin teammate David Taylor and five-eighth John Sutton in ominous touch.
While Souths were devastating, the Eels were woeful, constantly dropping off tackles and conceding penalties as the score mounted.
Merritt then touched down for a first-half hatrick in the 31st minute before Parramatta-bound halfback Chris Sandow scored in the 35th minute for 34-0 at halftime.
Dylan Farrell and Parramatta’s Luke Burt exchanged tries in the opening ten minutes of the second stanza before Merritt scored his fourth of the evening in the 69th minute.
Chris McQueen took the Bunnies to within touching distance of the half-century in the 75th minute before Sandow punished his future employers with a from-the-sideline conversion for 50-6.
Merritt then became the first Rabbitoh to score five times in one game since the 1950s to complete the massacre.
The winger-cum-fullback is now the NRL’s leading tryscorer, eclipsing the Bulldogs’ Ben Barber.
"It was a great performance by the whole team," Merritt told Fox Sports after his historic haul.
"It's a great achievement for me personally, probably something I will look back on more when I've retired.
"Right now I'm just enjoying running around at fullback."
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
NRL Power Rankings - Round 21
1. Melbourne Storm Last week: 1 Change: N/A
Showed their championship quality by coming back from the dead against the hapless Eels. Minor premiership looks a formality now.
2. North Queensland Cowboys Last week: 4 Change: Up 2
Did the business AGAIN without JT, this time against a Penrith side that had everything to play for. When the maestro comes back, they’ll look good for the finals.
3. Brisbane Broncos Last week: 5 Change: UP 2
Bounced back to form against a Cronulla side that has given up. Have a decent draw to finish the year and have every chance of climbing the ladder.
4. Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles Last week: 4 Change: DOWN 2
Shocking second half against the Tigers. Manly will be hoping it was the lost they had to have rather than a sign of softness at the wrong time of year.
5. St George Illawarra Dragons Last week: 3 Change: DOWN 2
When Wayne Bennett uses a post-match media conference to question your attitude, there’s problems. Still on paper the best team in the comp, but they have to switch on, now.
6. Wests Tigers Last week: 7 Change: UP 1
Benji was at his brilliant best against the Sea Eagles and engineered the Tigers’ gutsy win. Coming to the boil at the right time.
7. New Zealand Warriors Last week: 6 Change: Down 1
Scored a regulation victory over the sad-sack Raiders on the weekend. Probably the team no-one will want to face in the first round of the finals.
8. Newcastle Knights Last week: 8 Change: N/A
Racked up a half-century against the terrible Titans. Uate is in fine form and everyone is healthy. With a four-point lead over the chasing pack, look safe for the finals.
9. South Sydney Rabbitohs Last week: 15 Change: UP 6
This blog has been fairly merciless on the Bunnies, but credit where credit’s due. After being down by 20, they roared home to stun the Dragons. They still believe they can make the finals, but they’ll have to keep producing the way they did last Sunday.
10. Penrith Panthers Last week: 9 Change: DOWN 1
Finals hopes took a blow with a loss to the Cowboys. Have the hardest run home of anyone and look likely to miss the finals.
11. Sydney Roosters Last week: 13 Change: UP 2
All but ended the Doggies’ season on Saturday night. Will be kicking themselves that performances like that didn’t come while their own season was still alive.
12. Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Last week: 10 Change: DOWN 2
Pretty poor against the Roosters. Still a mathematical chance to make the top eight, but they need a massive turnaround, ASAP.
13. Parramatta Eels Last week: 14 Change: UP 1
Had the Storm shot to bits, then they collapsed in diabolical fashion. Keep finding ways to lose matches.
14. Canberra Raiders Last week: 11 Change: DOWN 3
Didn’t have the stomach for a struggle against the Warriors. The Raiders are planning for Mad Monday.
15. Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Last week: 12 Change: DOWN 3
Season is well and truly over. Did not show up against the Broncos.
16. Gold Coast Titans Last week: 16 Change: N/A
First team this year to give up 50 points in one match. No surprise there.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Storm back from the dead
The Melbourne Storm came back from the dead to defeat Parramatta 22-18 tonight, adding weight to their claims for a fairy tale minor premiership 12 months after the club’s name was dragged through the mud by the salary cap scandal.
Melbourne looked dead-and-buried when trailing 18-0 after 52 minutes at Parramatta Stadium, but their big three of Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater took over to take the competition leaders four points clear at the top of the table.
The Storm looked anything but premiership favourites in the first 50 minutes of the final match of a round where fellow heavyweights St George Illawarra and Manly lost as a determined Eels outfit dominated.
However, four tries in the last 30 minutes delivered what Storm skipper Smith declared was their most difficult win of the season to date.
“That was probably our toughest win of the year, we had a few words at half-time,” Smith said.
“They were making too many yards up the middle in the first half.”
Smith believed their come-from-behind win – Melbourne’s ninth on the trot – would fill his camp with confidence as the finals neared.
“I think so, especially coming here and winning, we’ve got to take a lot of confidence out of this win.”
The result doomed the hosts to their third heartbreaking defeat in as many weeks – tonight’s reverse came after back-to-back golden point defeats to archrivals Penrith and Canterbury.
“Up 18-0 with 28 minutes left – don’t ask me what happened,” Parramatta talisman Nathan Hindmarsh said.
“We had it in hand, but they are a good team and that’s why they’re leading the comp.
“We haven’t given up, we’re not going anywhere.”
Parramatta looked determined to end their sorry losing streak early on, despite losing halfback Jeff Robson with a depressed fracture of the cheekbone in the fifth minute after a collision with Melbourne winger Sisa Waqa. Chris Keating came off the bench to take over the halfback duties.
Luke Burt then gave the Eels at 2-0 lead in the 14th minute through a penalty goal.
However, the Eels’ advantage would have been much bigger except for a monstrous blunder by Jarryd Hayne in the 20th minute.
The transplanted five-eighth intercepted the ball on his on 20m line and raced downfield pursued by Cronk and Maurice Blair, only to drop the ball while attempting to force it from outside the field of play.
Had Hayne had his time again, he would have realised he would have the strength and pace to get the line.
Reni Matua scored in the same corner three minutes after good lead up work by Justin Horo and the recalled Chris Hicks for 8-0 to complete the scoring in a first stanza that belonged to the Eels.
Taniela Lasalo scored four minutes after the restart before Burt hit two more penalty goals to give the hosts what looked to be an unbeatable lead.
However, Melbourne’s comeback started in the 53rd minute when Waqa took capitalised on a clever tip-back from Slater to touch down for 18-6.
Slater crossed the stripe himself six minutes later off a flawless Smith grubber – Parramatta complained that referee Tony De Las Heras impeded Burt’s pursuit but the four-pointer was allowed to stand for 18-12.
Justin O’Neill scored the try of the match in the 64th minute when he raced 80m after being released by Slater from a scrum. Smith’s conversion just missed, preserving Parramatta’s slender 18-16 lead.
Dane Neilsen charged over with four minutes remaining to give the Storm the lead for the first time in the match and send the Melbourne club (36 points) four points clear of second-placed Manly.
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