NRL Finals Week 1

Great game! Now for the main game for tonight.

For the sharkies sake i hope gallen is out for the season, if that was confirmed I'd put money on em winning the premiership

Ethan Lowe with a dolmio grin.

Bren wrote:
Sometimes what you need and what you get are two completely different things.

Not really....

Plus your still a ****





Very impressed with the sharks effort tonight, up against the wall. A week off to ready for the qualifier.

Graham off after minutes, Raiders gifted the Rapana try. Defended multiple sets on the line, some absolutely disgraceful penalties awarded to canberra for laying on the player that were not applicable at all. Prior had his best game for the Sharks ever. Lewis defense was huge at times. Im just banging them out there, no doubt as usual no one will give the Sharks credit.
Disappointed holmes didn't involve himself a whole lot more, has to go looking for it like he has been this year.

Great to see the Broncos/Cowboys relegated to next weeks fixture.

Revraiser wrote:

Great to see the Broncos/Cowboys relegated to next weeks fixture.  

It's a continuation/promotion for the Broncos. Titans where relegated to next year.

Revraiser wrote:

Not really....

Plus your still a ****.  

Excuse me? If you have a problem lets thrash it out now? Spit it out? Whats got you so butthurt?

Maloney's face when Prior didn't pass the ball.......

It went from "I'm open!" to "no, no, no, no, no", to "you'd better f***ing make this work"!!

Then Ennis went up to him after the try , and the first thing he said to him was "you should have passed it". Prior didn't say a thing.

Gold.

surmo13 wrote:

So you think if a player gets spear tackled, just play on if they don't get hurt? And you agree with Roberts not getting penalized then, yeh he kicked, but it was a pretty weak kick in the back, not dangerous at all, so play on? The game outlaws these things because they can be dangerous so they are trying to discourage players from using them altogether, if you allow players to use these tactics as long as they get it right, you just open up a greater possibility for some-one to get it very very wrong, as the saying goes 'an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure'

Also, let me get this straight, instead of making the rule a clear one - don't kick at the ball when a player is in possession of it, you want to make it a judgment call, so you can heap even more shit on the refs when their judgment doesn't line up with yours, which is a problem with this sport in general, too many rules rely on a human being making a split-second judgment call, that gets called a controversy because half agree with it and half don't.

Of course not. Not every incident is black and white. Its not a black and white game - and reffing it like that is what is ruining the fucking sport. If someone does something eg a swing at the ball and misses and cleans up a player then yeah he should be punished. But if there is nothing dangerous about it, it should be play on.

Its like a swinging arm, you arent allowed to do them, but blokes do them all the time and its only when they connect they are punished.

Head High tackles are illegal - but 90% of them are just penalties and they are never spoken about again - when they are addressed further, its because of the severity. The severity is then interpreted by the refs/video/judiciary. It sounds like the way you want it is - if someone does a head high they should be suspended for 15 weeks no matter the severity of it. You went to one extreme for my example so thats another extreme.

Blokes slide in on their knees to try and stop a try all the time - and unless its dangerous or unless it connects - its not punished. Same with blokes trying to stop tries with their feet.

If there is nothing dangerous about a specific incident, then it shouldnt be penalised.

Munster slid in on his knees last night after feldt scored, it hit him in the hip. howcome that wasnt penalised?
Because it wasnt dangerous.

Pieman wrote:

Of course not. Not every incident is black and white. Its not a black and white game - and reffing it like that is what is ruining the fucking sport. If someone does something eg a swing at the ball and misses and cleans up a player then yeah he should be punished. But if there is nothing dangerous about it, it should be play on.

Its like a swinging arm, you arent allowed to do them, but blokes do them all the time and its only when they connect they are punished.

Head High tackles are illegal - but 90% of them are just penalties and they are never spoken about again - when they are addressed further, its because of the severity. The severity is then interpreted by the refs/video/judiciary. It sounds like the way you want it is - if someone does a head high they should be suspended for 15 weeks no matter the severity of it. You went to one extreme for my example so thats another extreme.

Blokes slide in on their knees to try and stop a try all the time - and unless its dangerous or unless it connects - its not punished. Same with blokes trying to stop tries with their feet.

If there is nothing dangerous about a specific incident, then it shouldnt be penalised.

How did i take it to an extreme? You said it yourself, that you are fine with dangerous plays like shoulder charges and kicking at the ball when it's in a players possession, so long as no-one gets hurt, i was just taking it to the next logical step. Of course when someone doesn't connect they can't be penalized, because an illegal play didn't take place.

I call bullshit on the bolded, the biggest complaint the refs cop these days is that there's no consistency, which there would be if we had set in stone rules, instead, a lot of our rules are "you can't do this thing, except when the referee decides it's play on" followed by the commentators & media crucifying him if he follows the rule for lacking common-sense, then crucifying him if he ignores it for not enforcing the rule.

Of course Munster wasn't penalized you idiot, he was sliding to make the tackle, the knees were incidental contact, if he had slid at Feldt knees-first, it would've been penalized.

Gotta love Des passion at half time. What about Tolmans stats from the first half? 39 tackles and 78 metres!

surmo13 wrote:

How did i take it to an extreme? You said it yourself, that you are fine with dangerous plays like shoulder charges and kicking at the ball when it's in a players possession, so long as no-one gets hurt, i was just taking it to the next logical step. Of course when someone doesn't connect they can't be penalized, because an illegal play didn't take place.

I call bullshit on the bolded, the biggest complaint the refs cop these days is that there's no consistency, which there would be if we had set in stone rules, instead, a lot of our rules are "you can't do this thing, except when the referee decides it's play on" followed by the commentators & media crucifying him if he follows the rule for lacking common-sense, then crucifying him if he ignores it for not enforcing the rule.

Of course Munster wasn't penalized you idiot, he was sliding to make the tackle, the knees were incidental contact, if he had slid at Feldt knees-first, it would've been penalized.

Taking it to the extreme - the spear tackle comment. Totally wrong and a different point to what I am making. One complete extreme. I also said "if its dangerous". A spear tackle is always dangerous, a guy using his foot to stop a try is not always dangerous.

He slide in on his knees "you idiot", as feldt was scoring the try, and it hit him in the side/hips. You arent allowed to slide in on your knees in an attempt to stop someone scoring a try - so why wasnt it penalised? It wasnt penalised because it wasnt dangerous. The rule is - you arent allowed to slide in on your knees - by your line of thought - he should have been penalised for it, because he broke the rule. If he slid in and hit him in the head/upper body, he is penalised, because its dangerous.

Thats how shoulder charges and eg the Hurrell/Kahu thing should have been judged on.

You arent allowed to come into contact with the head when making a tackle, yet there is contact with the head in just about every single tackle. Why arent they always penalised for it? Because the contact isnt dangerous.

As I said, its not a black and white game and therefore not every rule needs to be black and white.
Refs get fucked either way - interpreting a rule a way it wasnt meant to be interpreted, ruling black and white on things that should be allowed a little wiggle roomy, giving lee-way on things that should be black and white.

I agree with you, If the refs stuck to the rules for every single thing and actually penalised blokes for breaking them or binned blokes for intentional stuff and fucked off the blockers on kick chases and shit, if they stopped players from tackling blokes after they kick and pass it - if they actually followed all the rules - i would be more than happy to accept the consistency. But they dont, they pick and choose which rules they apply interpretations to, they totally ignore some rules and enforce fucking shit rules when ever they feel like it. Sometimes they get it right but it seems like they get it wrong a fucking lot of the time. I dont exactly like it but I would prefer that they were consistent with everything, even if people dont agree with it, rather than picking and choosing what to be consistent with and what not to. its choosing one form of evil over the other.

Same with the video intervening, It should never over-rule the on field ref, or it always should.

Peach season!

Man how good are the Panthers to watch? So entertaining, playing actual football. It might not win games against the likes of the Storm but it's ten times more entertaining

I think the way they play might actually rattle Melbourne a bit. So unpredictable. They play a great brand of entertaining footy. Lve watching them. Jeez moylan has stepped up too. He is the teams fullback AND 6, just keeps getting better and better.

Still hard to believe that Cleary is only 18. He is the best halfback from NSW at the moment. so calm and composed, hes great.

Raiders V Panthers if both attacks click could be the most entertaining game you'll ever seen

Honeysett wrote:Raiders V Panthers if both attacks click could be the most entertaining game you'll ever seen

Here's hoping!  Not so worried about the Raiders but depends which Panfis team turns up.

another things - the standard of the finals games compared to the standard of regular round games is just so vastly superior. Its crazy how much better and more exciting these game are.

The season needs to be shortened IMO - the period during and after origin really drags out. The entire game needs a massive schedule overhaul.

Teams need to be split into divisions IMO. Origin needs to be played after the gf after a shortened season.

Fuck Finals footy is good!

Pieman wrote:
The season needs to be shortened IMO - the period during and after origin really drags out. The entire game needs a massive schedule overhaul.

Teams need to be split into divisions IMO. Origin needs to be played after the gf after a shortened season.

Fuck Finals footy is good!

Whilst I don't agree with splitting teams into divisions, the schedule overhaul is something that shits me each and every year.

It's not only the period between SOO and finals.
I love League but deadset by the end of the season I am over it and hanging for the spring carnival and Cricket season to start. It's no wonder the International game sits so far down the pecking order.

Anyway enough of that for the time being.
Twas a sensational Week 1 of finals and it's set up two amazing Semi's next weekend.

Can't fathom the controversy from the Broncos vs Titans game and can only conclude that it's the anti-Broncos thing rearing it's ugly head again.
I was at the game with Titans supporters and they were calling the penalty try before I did.
Some iffy call's went both ways (haven't seen anyone mention the non awarding of the possible 8 point try for Kahu's second) but at the end of the day the best team won.

As for the Roberts 'kick' I can't believe that was charged in the end.
Fuck there was nothing in that and I think Roberts was more trying to milk a penalty rather than kick the bloke - anyway he will probably get off I reckon.

Personally I am glad the Sharks won (I'd rather face them than Canberra) and Moylan was a standout in his game - I thought he struggled in the halves in SOO but yesterday his passing game won me over. He may yet be a great half.

The season is at least 6 rounds too long.
The bye period around origin is fucking horrible - and the games without the origin players are fucking terrible.

The season needs to be drastically shortened, origin needs to be played after the GF, then the international stuff.

The NFL gets it right by having a fairly shortish season. It makes the games more special if there arent as many of them and would increase crowd numbers IMO if there are less games on. Money wise they prob take a bit of a hit in the tv deal and sponsorship deals but fuck me the season just drags on - and they weaken their own product by having heaps of byes and taking the good players out of teams for like 6 weeks every season.

Its not anti bronco's stuff at all. Its anti shit decision from the refs stuff. They had a terrible weekend.
The moments in the titans v broncos we have spoken about.
The Morris no try in the bulldogs game.
The same non-tackle in the air call in the raiders game.
They have the bunker in place to stop this shit but it just keeps on happening and its very very disappointing.
Human error is fine, its expected even. But when they have the safeguard in place to correct it - why the FUCK dont they use it.

I really enjoyed watching penrith play this weekend, they are deadset so entertaining. Moylan had a career game on the weekend I reckon.
The sharks had the grittiest performance of the weekend, such a great comeback after losing their captain then their fill in captain a few mins into the match. The raiders will fucking struggle to beat Penrith without Hodgson too, he is as valuable to them as smith is to the storm.
Couple of really really entertaining games, marred by some shit decisions from the refs.

Looking forward to this weekend's bouts!