Has there ever been as much negativity surrounding a Dragons combination at season’s start in the history of the game? It’s a wonder the players and the coach can get out of bed for the new day.
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Even before a ball had been kicked last night, Steve Price was tipped to be first coaching casualty after Storm boss Craig Bellamy was ungettable. Some players are in contract limbo and no one has tipped the Dragons to make the eight.
The catch-22 is the players’ need certainty for their careers and there’s not too much for the coach at this stage.
But skip through the line-up and there are combatants you’d want on your team: Matt Cooper, Michael Weyman, Ben Creagh, Brett Morris, Jason Nightingale, Trent Merrin, Jamie Soward and a host of others. Yet the smell of death is overpowering. Maybe it’s time for some closed-door therapy. Time for a few legends to grace the room and remind the assembled of the power of the Red V. Because at the moment, that smell is unacceptable for the grand club.
The game is still coming to grips with the outlawing of the shoulder charge. The ‘‘againsts’’ had plenty of ammunition with Saturday night’s Richie Fa’aoso’s tackle, which saw Ashley Harrison stretchered off. The ‘‘fors’’, including Andrew Johns, still see the tackle as an integral part of the game. Fa’aoso was repentant, saying he forgot the rule change. And that is the real dilemma for the game.
For many players, the charge to unseat the ball is an embedded reflex, like sucking for milk from the mother’s breast as a youngster. To remove it from the game, when tackles are made with split-second thinking and reaction time, is a tough ask. Hopefully, during the weaning-off period, which has to happen, we won’t see too many more tackles of the like that blindsided Harrison on the Gold Coast.
As for Billy Slater, it’s impossible to rationalise the athleticism that allows Slater, under pressure, to climb that high to take the ball as he did in the GF replay. Maybe it’s incumbent on the chasers to stay out of the way. The panel made the correct decision in not making a charge against the best player in the game. On the form of both the Storm and the Bulldogs, we may well be seeing the same two teams again contest the grand final.
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Men in the middle back in the spotlight
The A-League delivered a spectacular banquet on Saturday night where the entree overshadowed the main course.
That main course was the Sydney derby in front of one of the most passionate crowds ever seen in the city for a round ball football game.
While the contest was highly dramatic at Parramatta Stadium, the occasion affected players and officials, with too much tackling exuberance and the wrong sort of control for a match of this stature by the referee. That might seem contradictory with a spate of yellow cards and two reds blotting the landscape, but some of the yellows were unnecessary and some of the general decision-making questionable.
In these sorts of games, one needs to take an iron fist early, not necessarily in the shape of cautions and cards. It’s called ‘‘feel’’ of the game, much as Bill Harrigan did in his State of Origin career.
The match turned on the sending off of FC’s Brett Emerton for open sprigs, which was an unfortunate outcome.
The recipient of the tackle milked it for all it was worth and Emerton, who already had one dicey yellow to his name, was off.
The tackle was not malicious, the sprigs caught the ball first on the downstroke and Shannon Cole clutched his shin where the point of minimal contact appeared to hit the top of the foot. The punishment didn’t fit the crime.
The decision to award the free kick, which led to the Wanderers’ equalising goal (which was converted by Cole) was also soft. The grand game in a sense was cruelled by expectation, but was a drama from start to finish nonetheless.
In contrast, Perth Glory after going behind early against Melbourne Victory played some superb football to win 3-2 despite conceding a goal where the ball had gone out of play.
Why football doesn’t have the capacity to change a decision in these circumstances is mind-boggling. This was an end-to-end contest with many twists and some spectacular goals and goalkeeping.
Justice did prevail when Perth scored in the last minute or so to continue a mediocre run of points accumulation from the Victory. The finals series is going to be intensely close given the form of all sides.
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Black Caviar's run not perfect
The one niggling, disconcerting aspect of Black Caviar’s incredible run is the opposition.
Again, on a spectacular Friday night at Moonee Valley, Black Caviar made an average field look average. Yes, the mighty mare does scare opponents away, and is in blistering form as evidenced by the previous record-breaking time in her return in the Lightning Stakes in February.
However, the champion’s polarisation of some of the racing industry is the only small scar on her wonderful achievements. There is just that sense of Harlem Globetrotters’ style exhibition tour in some of her wins.
Hopefully for next month’s TJ Smith Stakes the anticipated crack field will materialise and Black Caviar can show how true the champion status is.
One unequivocal point is the interest Black Caviar has generated in racing. Unmatched in my experience and I’m sure people of more senior years. Moonee Valley looked like Flemington on Melbourne Cup day such was the atmosphere generated by the Cav.
One fascinating aspect of the Caviar story is the jockey Luke Nolen. He is a charmer, but he often looks like a man in pain, not fully enjoying the experience due to the pressure every time he goes out. Imagine being part of a large chapter in Australian racing history and realising that a less than perfect ride could result in a nation virtually mourning.
While trainer Peter Moody does an unbelievable job, Nolen deserves praise for his delivering 21 out of the 24 Black Caviar victories with weights accruing on the shoulders with each race.
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Old cricket guard can hold their own
FAR from alleviating pressure on coach Mickey Arthur, the selectors and the absentee captain, Nathan Lyon’s wicket-taking haul in the first innings in New Delhi should inspire an investigation. How could he have possibly been dropped for Hyderabad?
One freewheeling innings from MS Dhoni sent a panic through the Aussie camp which wasn’t relieved until the Indian opening partnership in the dead Fourth Test was broken. At last, some fight, and a session or two worthy of inspection even if it was relegated to the back blocks on Pay TV. Really, you couldn’t blame them.
Lyon’s performance aside, and some worthy if inconsistent pace work, the cracks in the Australian batting are as large as the blotches on this substandard Delhi pitch. When you have to rely on the last few batsmen in the order to secure barely a pass mark total, it’s grim. One can only hope the Indian spinners, who would have been salivating at some of the spit and turn Lyon was getting on the deteriorating pitch, haven’t embarrassed the Australian order in the second innings.
One couldn’t help feel a little bemusement at the calls for the return of one Mike Hussey and the form of Ricky Ponting. Uncomfortably, both are still two of the top three batsmen in the country. Unfortunately, the penchant for retiring ‘‘old blokes’’, even if their replacements aren’t up to the mark, has benched Simon Katich, Ponting and Hussey before their time. Look at Kelly Slater, Ryan Giggs or Mark Schwarzer for affirmation that the late 30s and even 40s are operational zones for highly motivated professionals.
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Tiger Woods back on prowl
The aura was said to have gone in light of personal dilemmas and a form slump, in part based on injuries, yet there was Tiger Woods, a couple of weeks from the Masters, mesmerising the galleries again at Bay Hill in Florida.
His form coincides with a settled off-course life with his new skiing love Lindsey Vonn. What do they say about balance? It’s just incredible how fortunes can swing.
Would-be Woods replacement Rory McIlroy switches clubs and loses it (perhaps briefly) and Tiger himself charges back into the spotlight. I’m not sure the Masters odds on Woods will be anything flash, but it might be time to start showing some confidence in the world’s greatest golfer as he bids for another four majors to equal the Jack Nicklaus record.
It would be surprising should Woods not win at least one big one this year.