Entries Tagged 'Rugby League' ↓

Heading into Round 24 of the 2008 NRL, and my tipping is good.

On vodafoneonetribe.co.nz I’m ranked 21 out of 3200.  Not sure how many are active tippers tho.

On the Sky TV tipping comp, I’m ranked 7 out of not many .. maybe a few hundred.

Just a few rounds to go, and maybe I can still win.  Nope, but it’s been fun/frustrating all the same.

No doubt about it, I can’t see anything topping the Sonny Bill Williams story this year.

Olympics  . . . nah
Deans V Henry . . . nah
Drysdale v Waddell . . . nah (a great story tho)

No, I confidently pick that come the end of the year, this will be THE biggest story of 2008

Surreal . . Sonny Bill William’s as been issued with a subpoena to appear in a NSW court.

Naturally he’s overseas at the moment - a bit busy you see.

The Aussie department of Immigration have also been subpoenaed.

Crazy stuff.

This is now a battle between the NRL/Bulldogs and the Toulon/SBW

Who’s gonna blink first?

Almost a surreal situation whereby Sonny Bill Williams has left Australia and the NRL already to get mega bucks playing in France.

It’s a messy situation, he’s in breach of contract (according to the Bulldogs) and may be headed to court.

But the real fault here lies with Australia and the way they have screwed up the game.

Nice one guys.

Of more concern to me is the fact that along with Frank Pritchard, the Kiwi’s have lost another superstar for this years Rugby League world cup.

I’ll be interested to see how this pans out, I’d suggest it won’t go to court, but SBW will no longer be a Bulldog

One of the key strike weapons for the Kiwi’s rugby league team, Frank Pritchard is out of the rugby league world cup later this year.

He’s going to have off season surgery on a shoulder or something . . .

I’d love to know if Penrith (his wage payer) pressured him into this, or weather he was comfortable missing the league world cup.

It’s a massive blow to the Kiwi’s chances, the bloke has the X factor required to carve up the opposition.

Let’s hope we don’t lose anyone else between now and the start of the rugby league world cup.

Ok, so this is a huge blow to the NRL and rugby league. Mark Gasnier has rightly accepted an offer to play Rugby in France for loads of cash. Good on him.

It should start ringing alarm bells at NRL HQ . . . actually the alarm bells have been ringing for a while, but HQ is staffed by deaf people only.

So, in any situation like this, an organisation has but two choices.

1. Do nothing
2. Do something

A monkey could tell you which option the NRL has taken.

The Gasnier situation is just a symptom of the huge problems rugby league is facing.

I’ll outline these, and try and come up with some solutions over the next few weeks.

Stay tuned NRL, sportsthought.com is here to clean up your mess.

Ahh .  .the sweet taste of humble pie . . .

I won’t be surprised to see Brent Tate’s rep career over. Quite simply he is not getting enough opportunities to shine now that he’s playing for the Warriors.

I blogged about Brent Tate when news broke that he had signed with the club - mainly around the pressure he would face being the marquee player in the backline.

No doubt the guy is a very good player, worthy of Queensland and Australia, but we now have a situation where we have a (reported) 400k marquee signing wasting away in the centres.

It’s rather obvious to everyone now that the Warriors needed to buy a decent half back instead.

For Tate’s rep teams, Queensland and Australia, there are no shortage of centres and wingers ready to step up - think of Slater, Hodges, Inglis, Folau, Bell, Tonga etc.

So what now for Brent Tate?

Well he looks frustrated, angry even at times, especially during the away game hidings they have had so far in 2008. In one respect, it’s probably going to develop his leadership skills - as there seems to be a lack of leaders on the field he is taking matters into his own hands and trying to fire up the side. That can only be good for the Warriors. Plus there’s not actually much else he can do anyway.

All he can do is hope things get better, and that coach Ivan Cleary picks a decent halfback.

We should also look at the bigger picture for the Warriors. It won’t go unnoticed in Australia that Tate is struggling, so the next time we attempt to purchase a big name, they will no doubt think twice about crossing the Tasman because of the impact it would have on their career.

Unfortunately they have lost Steve Price and Wade Mckinnon, and the team is stuttering as a result. Neither Tate nor the Warriors could foresee this situation arising.

It will be interesting month as the team becomes more desperate to gain form and confidence. If they do, then we may see Brent Tate show his skills.

Sadly for Tate it’s probably going to be too late to save his rep career.

Manu Vatuvei has been copping flak across the Tasman because of his error rate, and general issues fielding kicks (high and low)

Now, I’m not too worried about our players getting criticised by Australians, that’s par for the course.

What interested me, was that the Warriors saw fit to defend Vatuvei with an article on their website that points out the mistakes of Manu’s peers (other wingers)

The article uses statistics to show that other wingers made more handling errors this season and last.

But it sets an interesting precedent - are the Warriors going to now defend their players that cop criticism in the media? And if they don’t, does that mean they accept the criticism?

Case in point. A week earlier, former Warrior and Kiwi Matthew Ridge was highly critical of Ruben Wiki yet there was no response from the Warriors. Does this mean they believed it?

I’d suggest that when their players cop criticism, they forget defending them in this manner. The best PR for Manu Vatuvei, Ruben Wiki and any other Warrior could ever get is just to go out and play well.

There’s something inherently beautiful about a rookie before he’s taken the field at the top level for the first time. It’s a purity borne of hopes for the future and excitement about the present. These are players who still hold their senior teammates in awe, much like a fan might.

I first encountered this phenomenon during a Warriors open day in the build up to the 2005 season. My wife and I spotted a relatively unknown junior player who we caught completely off guard by requesting his autograph. This stunned teenager, Simon Mannering, has since become a regular fixture of both Warriors and Kiwis teams. For some inexplicable reason, something deep within me insists ours was his first autograph opportunity.

I saw a similar innocence in another rookie during the first round of 2008, when the Warriors played away to the Storm. The club had put on an away match function – a chance to mingle with non-playing team members and then watch the game at a movie theatre – and I found myself talking with Herman Retzlaff, our most recent signing. He asked me my name, and we conversed briefly before going our separate ways.

The half time break saw a stampede of bodies as people rushed to take personal pit stops before the second stanza. As I waited outside the toilets for my wife to accommodate nature’s requests, Herman came by, headed for the men’s.

“Dave!” he called to me. “What did you think of the first half?”

“Nail biting stuff, mate,” I grinned back, surprised that he’d even remembered my name.

“How do you think we’re going to go in the second half?” he asked as he passed by.

“It’s only going to get better,” I replied, revealing in a single sentence just how poor a tipster I am.

It was such a simple and brief exchange, and yet it provided powerful evidence of a positive club culture, something which hasn’t gone unnoticed by recent signing Brent Tate.

After spending seven seasons in first grade with the Brisbane Broncos, (regularly perceived as the benchmark club for off field professionalism), the representative centre recently referred to his new club as “a really professional outfit from the front office right down to the coaching staff”.

And when a player of Tate’s experience says something like that, it pays to listen.

This is a far cry from what the culture used to be like – big personalities getting in the way of the on field excitement, and players of the ilk of Nigel Vagana and Stacey Jones becoming uncertain as to whether or not they would actually get paid as the club spiralled towards bankruptcy.

Fortunately, those days are long gone.

The Warriors are now a club that is respected by fans and players alike. The mere fact that former players Jerry Seuseu and Stacey Jones – both of whom were involved in “that try” in the 2002 grand final – along with foundation captain Dean Bell have returned to work with the club after hanging up their boots, is further testament to the administerial turnaround. In fact, Bell was approached by the previous management but declined because he “didn’t get a good feeling about it”.

Another positive sign is the amount of fan involvement that is not only welcomed but actually sought after by the club. Fan forums have been held, as have away functions allowing for fans to meet players, win prizes, and watch away games live on the big screen. An open and approachable CEO has replaced his somewhat standoffish predecessor. And an away fan season membership is in the works for Australian-based fans of the Auckland club.

This turnaround from management has afforded a similar about turn from the spectators.

When new crowd favourite Wade McKinnon was ruled out for the entire 2008 season through injury following an anterior cruciate ligament tear which required a knee reconstruction, fans on an internet forum organised a large get well card, filled with messages of encouragement, to be delivered directly to the player.

This simple act of kindness – appreciated by McKinnon, who, through a club staff member, thanked those responsible – wouldn’t have been possible in years gone by. Most fans wouldn’t have even tried for fear of being turned away by an impersonal organisation.

If anything, this proves that the gradual process of regaining faith and earning trust from sponsors and fans has finally begun to pay dividends.

And long may it continue.

Herman Retzlaff (L) and David Taylor.