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Post by Hairynosedwombat on Mar 16, 2018 4:28:21 GMT
The problem with the sharks is that without Gallen and Lewis they look too unpredictable. Thus the relying on old hands comment. Parramatta will be okay with Hayne as long as they don’t expect the 2009 edition of Hayne. He’s always played his most consistent football in the centres. Nothing brilliant, but rarely the “trying too hard” Hayne we’ve seen a lot of. They will be a better side when Gutherson comes back in too. If they can somehow find Kane Evans’ best form and he becomes really punchy off the bench, they will be a very hard side to beat. What is the attraction of Hayne? Sure, he has great ball skills, anticipation and running skills, and if he uses them all can win a game. But he is asleep most games. He is frustratingly inconsistent. If Parramatta are to get near the premiership (and they showed last year they have the potential) Gutherson and Moses are going to do it, not Hayne. But will French step up and not let Gutherson into the fullback job?
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 16, 2018 4:45:08 GMT
I've made it pretty clear that I disagree with Parra signing Hayne. I just don't see him as a required player on that list. Add to that tbe fact he's a massive distraction and I can't see him helping them at all. If he wins a Dally M or a Clive Churchill or is man of the series in SoO I'll stand corrected, but I think I'm pretty safe.
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Post by weststigersbob on Mar 16, 2018 8:41:31 GMT
The attraction of Hayne is primarily that he can (and has) single handed won games of football all by himself. There have been maybe 4 or 5 players in RL history to have the ability of a Hayne. The beauty of signing Hayne was that he was always going to play centre for the Eels. In that position, he doesn’t have to be a miracle worker, and doesn’t have to overthink anything. He isn’t the game manager, ball player, and doesn’t have to have the running fitness to play fullback.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 16, 2018 17:31:41 GMT
The Chooks/ Dogs game was such a lackluster contest, I didn't survive the first half. Chooks won 30-12 in a truly rubbish spectacle. Cowboys came back hard to seriously threaten the Broncos (because of course they did) but couldn't quite keep the Golden Point streak going, losing the best game of the season so far 24-20.
In the Super Rugby, Brumbies host the Sharks today, while the other 3 Aussie teams are in action tomorrow. Reds are travelling to Argentina while tbe Waratahs head to Melbourne to battle the fast starting Rebels.
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Post by weststigersbob on Mar 17, 2018 0:40:03 GMT
Every Roosters fan must be scratching their head thinking “Where the actual f—- was this in Round 1 ?” It was like a different side ran out yesterday. Despite being 0-2, I still think the Dogs are finals bound. Most of their problems are easily fixed. The Broncos got really lucky (not for the first time). I thought over the 80, the cOwboys were the better side.
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Post by weststigersbob on Mar 17, 2018 15:45:37 GMT
Tigers Win Again ! 10-8 against Melbourne in Melbourne. I’m in absolute dream land at the moment, I simply cannot believe it.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 17, 2018 17:34:20 GMT
Yep, they seem to have found a sound mathematical formula for winning. Hold your opposition to 8 points and score two tries.
In other games, Warriors brought the Titans back to earth 20-8 and Penrith downed the Bunnies 18-14 in a fluctuating contest.
Brumbies beat the Sharks, Labor won Batman to show the Greens what a delusional rabble they are, and the Libs won the SA state election.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 18, 2018 7:10:50 GMT
Good grief. Parra have given up 78 unanswered in their last 2 hours of football. Manly were ruthless, but they didn't really need to be. Early crisis point for the Eels as that's the type of loss that can derail a season even this early.
Waratahs also brought up the half century as they burst the Rebels bubble 51-27. Reds won in Argentina.
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Post by weststigersbob on Mar 18, 2018 9:02:46 GMT
Yep, they seem to have found a sound mathematical formula for winning. Hold your opposition to 8 points and score two tries. In other games, Warriors brought the Titans back to earth 20-8 and Penrith downed the Bunnies 18-14 in a fluctuating contest. Brumbies beat the Sharks, Labor won Batman to show the Greens what a delusional rabble they are, and the Libs won the SA state election. The thing is Hosko - in neither game have we scored 2 tries. 1 try and 3 goals each time. And both tries have come in the 70 something minute. Im not carried away by the Warriors yet. Although the signs look good. The Titans are always going to struggle without Ash Taylor. Penrith are going well, Rabbitohs not so much. Can’t quite put my finger on what’s wrong with Souths. If Labor lost Batman, I’d would’ve been a political disaster approaching Hindenburg proportions. F**k the Greens. Honestly, despite being stark raving mad and completely unhinged, I’d rather the tinfoil hat doomsday prepping wankers following Bernardi and Hanson than the Greens. For supposedly intelligent people (and they’ve all gone to some form of university and have high paying jobs to afford the inner city living) Greens voters have a very tenuous grasp on things like: simple economics - production, income and taxation; simple arithmetic and budgeting; and are clueless when it comes to the word ‘hypocrisy’. as for South Australia, wasn’t Xenophon supposed to win ?
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 18, 2018 9:33:37 GMT
Agree with pretty much everything you said re: Greens. Nick was a little unlucky. He had two major parties ganging up on him through the media and both the Greens and Bernardi's (around 13% of the vote) preferenced against him. He finished second in enough seats to have caused some damage had the minor parties not worked against him. 15% of primary vote is a good result, more than the Greens have ever managed (unless it was in a Vic election), just couldn't turn that into seats.
Newcastle won another thriller against Canberra, who are desperately unlucky to be 0-2.
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Post by weststigersbob on Mar 18, 2018 12:41:21 GMT
I’ve always wondered what the Australian political landscape would look like if we had a state based (or even national based) proportional senate style representation in the lower house. 15% of the primary vote for what is looking increasingly like nought isn’t a good look.
I used to be a agitator for political reform in Australia, a) It is pure insanity Tasmania and South Australia have the exact same amount of Senators as NSW and Victoria. And b) The federalist system is so ridiculously outdated (as it’s only getting worse) that it’s becoming a hindrance to good governance at both National and State level.
Canberra Raiders have to look long and hard at their discipline. It been costing them games for 4 seasons now, and hasn’t improved an iota. Newcastle - much like Penrith and WT, far from perfect, many things to work on, but 2-0 is 2-0.....
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 18, 2018 16:29:03 GMT
The senate situation seems ludicrous now as it's a hangover from Federation. 12 senate seats was the demamd from TAS and SA in order to join. TAS also got a minimum of 5 lower house electorates when their population can only justify 3 at the most. If you were drawing it up from scratch in 2018, there's no chance you'd end up there. Just like you probably wouldn't exclude people from parliament due to dual citizenship or some of the other sub sections in the same clause that were designed to stop the King of England from stacking British parliament with his cronies.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 21, 2018 20:07:24 GMT
Big night in football tonight with the AFL season opener going head to head with the NRL Grand Final rematch. Interesting games with the Cowboys and Storm both at 1-1.
AFL are really good at plucking "events" out of nothing, and the annual kick off between Richmond and Carlton is a prime example. These are rarely close games and one or both of these teams are always coming off awful seasons and yet there'll be a massive crowd in and a big TV audience.
Non story of the week: Wallabies refusing to change the date and start time of a test match against Ireland because it clashes with the Socceroos. How inconvenient for a million or so band wagoners who wouldn't watch a soccer match under any other circumstances than it had the words "World Cup" attached to it. No word about how inconsiderate both the AFL and NRL are for not calling off this weekend's round so we can watch the cricket in Saffer though...
Fun fact: multiple times this year the NBL match of the night has drawn better cable ratings than the A-League.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 22, 2018 11:04:35 GMT
Two games with fairly misleading scorelines. Melbourne won 32-14 in a poor game filled with errora that they only led by 6 with 5 minutes left. Both teams look a fair way off their best.
Richmond and Carlton were tied at the ten minute mark of the last quarter, but the Tigers pulled away late to deny us of what had looked likely to be a tight finish. Carlton attacked a lot more than they did past year, and showed a willingness to run hard both forward and back. They look much improved. Difficult to read a lot into Richmond. Not a great performance from them but they got the win. Entertaining game in front of 91'000.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 22, 2018 20:25:04 GMT
Tonight's games NRL: Bulldogs vs Penrith winless vs undefeated and every chance it'll stay that way. Tigers vs Broncos: Tigers are 2-0 and Broncos have been patchy. Big test for both clubs. Essendon vs Adelaide: again big chance for both: Bombers to sneak one at home against an Adelaide team coming off a short pre season, and Adelaide to get an early win in Melbourne. Rebels v Sharks: Melbourne trying to get back on track after suffering their first loss last week.
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Post by weststigersbob on Mar 23, 2018 5:19:26 GMT
Last Night : North Queensland were poor IMHO. They look a bit sluggish in the middle. Melbourne did enough, but aren’t the side they once were without Cronk. Richmond did enough to win. Carlton were better than I thought they’d be. Whoever thought those grey shorts were a good idea though - ugh.
Tonight : Panthers should win handsomely. Big test for my Tigers at Campbelltown. A win over the Broncos will setup the season nicely. I’m still not convinced by the Broncos, even less by Bennett and his bitter old man routine. “Only our club could have overcome the adversity we faced last week” The broncos and Bennett wouldn’t know adversity of it walked up and slapped them in the face. Adelaide win stamp their flag credentials with a resounding 5 goal win over Essendon. Rebels v Sharks - Sorry Hosko, it’s the who cares Cup in this neck of the woods......
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 23, 2018 5:34:11 GMT
It probably sounds mean, but the Who Cares Cup for me is whatever they call the trophy in the A-League. I appreciate that they're trying hard to make a respectable competition, but....nahh.
Ultimately I can remember every Australian team who's won the Super Comp, I couldn't tell you who the reigning champ is in the A-League, let alone any other winners.
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Post by hoskotafe3 on Mar 23, 2018 11:31:28 GMT
Well, as someone who specifically watches Rugby League to see the referee blow their whistle, I found the end to the Tigers/ Broncos game completely satisfying...said no one ever.
Ultimately though if you're going to average 9 points a match, at some stage it's going to catch up with you.
Another thing that catches up with you is giving up 14-0 starts as Penrith discovered against Canterbury. Another rather unsatisfying finish with the Bulkdogs running down the clock taking nearly a minute to take a late penalty and then taking 49 seconds to go through 4 tackles. If a player lies on the ground for 10 seconds not playing the ball it should be a penalty.
Crows ran out of puff late against Essendon, their shorter pre season proving the difference. Bombers should be a finals team again this year. While I'm not writing off the Crows, that's another dissapointing performance in Melbourne.
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Post by weststigersbob on Mar 23, 2018 15:57:57 GMT
Well, as someone who specifically watches Rugby League to see the referee blow their whistle, I found the end to the Tigers/ Broncos game completely satisfying...said no one ever. Ultimately though if you're going to average 9 points a match, at some stage it's going to catch up with you. I actually applaud the NRL for their new found stance on off-side play and incorrect play the balls. They need to keep going with it, and hopefully teams get it in their head that basically cheating won’t be stood for anymore. When they actually start clamping down on tackle/wrestling and giving legs tacklers more time to get to marker, then we will see some proper Rugby League again. i have repeatedly stated my utter distaste for Golden Point. Tonight only reinforces it - regardless of the result. The game is simply refereed differently in the last 5 minutes and during golden point - and a 50/50 call can easily be a result maker. Tonight was a dead set 50/50 call. The marker wasn’t square because the guy playing the ball wasn’t facing the dead ball line. Could’ve been a penalty either way. Tigers attack was abysmal. Again. We will get there - hopefully.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Mar 23, 2018 18:24:07 GMT
In the Super Rugby, Brumbies host the Sharks today, while the other 3 Aussie teams are in action tomorrow. Reds are travelling to Argentina while tbe Waratahs head to Melbourne to battle the fast starting Rebels. I opened the thread because I like to keep informed about other sports even if I don't follow them. What's this Super Rugby thing? There is a tournament involving clubs from countries as far apart as Australia and Argentina? When did that start?
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