Redneck Redfaces 2

[Rhino_NQ]

finding an extra gear in the last 15 when everyone is tanked is going to be the difference. What got us over the line against the donkeys

 

[POPEYE]

Thank f**k Melbourne now have some seriously great IQ running the joint, can't be much longer before people start asking 'how is it so'. One thing for players wanting to stay/go to RLU but another to explain the vacancies available. How important is a university degree in footy compared to the obvious sacrifice in wages Storm players are suffering

Not only Melbourne who are managing to now keep who they want, even if they deserve to, imagine how accurate the very astute new boss of the Sharks is going to have to be to juggle the books next year if they win the cup. How good are the blokes running the Raiders, bet they didn't expect the need to develop new food supplements for next year, hope their chef is imaginative

Cowboys are also adding and subtracting well, no failures in administration there. The Eels have been skinned and are no longer slippery.Their management will be well and truly abreast of the latest innovations in bookkeeping, especially now they have a coach capable of turning a paperback into a hard cover. Broncos will always keep in step, helps when you never get asked to leave the dance floor

I could go on and on about nothing in particular as usual, suffice it to say anyone standing in the corner has swapped his dunce's hat for a salary cap . . . and I f**king loves it

 

[POPEYE]

Another season almost done and dusted where I finished happy as Larry, if you haven't tried looking on the bright side you don't know what you're missing. If the sponsors of your team are getting their money's worth that's all the incentive you need to watch the game with both eyes . . . I really do pity one eyed wankers

So, what are a few points of interest tonight. It could be Mick Ennis's last game, what will he do to try and ensure it's not. I can't wait to watch tomorrow's replay in slo-mo to see what Silent Niggler Maloney got up to, the little magician could pull a grub out of a hat

Can Prior make Mary feel more uncomfortable than he already is, will Barba finally prove me wrong, I'm not as convinced as I want to be. If Townsend bounces back Flanno is a genius, funny how the coach's season could hinge on the player least expected to succeed

Hess's name is as ominous as his ability is evident, to forget him and concentrate on Taumalolo will be irresponsible. Coote can be no worse than Barba, imo he'll be better and the return of Linnett is notable.
Not sure what I fear most will ruin the game, vibes or refereeing

 

[Rhino_NQ]

From what ive read Hess isn't too far behind taumololo in the weights room which for a bloke who still qualifies for the 20's and spent a good chunk of the season is just scary. Good lines, hard worker and just eats up the metres without being a hothead. Basically a tariq 2.0 minus 1 step of pace.

 

[POPEYE]

Last night's game won't be over until we see how the players pull up but it's obvious Flannigan's efforts in keeping the Sharks' minds on the job for two weeks surpassed Green's one more week. People who didn't know the game plans a week in advance read in braille, Cronulla never gave NQ the respite they were hoping for

My son-in-law 'bellyache' and I, both with a gutful of grog, spent most of the night taking the piss out of each other as to the value of Flannigan . . . naturally I was in the coach's corner. Still, I've always advocated no Maloney no Warriors/Roosters/Sharks and the little street wise mercenary didn't let me down, he's harder to discourage than a f**king feral cat . . . and how good were his team mates in the middle

Not sure the long lay off will be as generous to Melbourne, maybe the NRL surely getting the crowd they want next week will remove the need for refereeing skullduggery. I'll have to watch a replay today to confirm how much of it went on last night, still the Raiders getting through would be a nice touch and I wouldn't mind too much.

Then again, if Melbourne win Flannigan will have be the poor man's coach of the year, something I will not hesitate to remind bellyache of

. . . belated as it is I just watched a great Cronulla press conference

 

[POPEYE]

Not been able to connect for LU for 12 hours so here goes without any information gathering. I wonder why Sticky thought he had to play the game Melbourne's way, why didn't he continue on with bamboozling since it's what got him to the finals. Did he think Melbourne were the best team of the year by default, had the headlines gone to his head . . . whatever the reason he convinced his players Melbourne's style had to be replicated

The Raiders did a piss poor job of it, in the end they embarrassingly resorted to lying down for penalties when they shouldn't haven't got involved in the 'wrestle' in the first place. Maybe Sticky's weekly call to his best mate had Bellamy conning him into changing tactics.

What resulted was the Raiders didn't get the ball to their game breakers often enough and the forwards expelled too much energy trying to do something they're not accustomed to. Melbourne only played as well as we'd expect given their record after long layoffs but Sticky's mob failed badly to capitalise . . . no f**king rocket science here

It's a shame because the Raiders last 10 minutes should have been their 80, a perfect example of why the 'finals series' means sfa in the context of a season. Now that Melbourne have run themselves into match fitness for next week it's imperative the Sharks don't try to outdo the undoable . . . Sticky has taught Flanno a valuable lesson

 

[POPEYE]

Age is making me weary, can't remember the last time I watched the Dally M's, certainly way before the start of this century. Don't get me wrong, there are some great awards given out but it would be too big a dose of hypocrisy to swallow for me to condone the 'big one' by sitting through the media money maker

If a panel of 3, say Roy Masters, Mick Cronin and Ron Massey, had been chosen to spend the following week of every game analysing the performance of all 34 players and allotting each points out of 10 . . . well, that would've been different

Anyway, Coach Of The Year in waiting Flannigan did something remarkable in hooking Townsend from an important game, not an ordinary 'pull you're f**king head in' to rebuke a supposedly key playmaker. Worked a treat maybe, Townsend on his haunches with tears flowing in relief the following week but Flannigan risking not only COTY but maybe his job . . . the RL gutter press would've had a field day

How many other players would've benefitted by the Townsend Medicine. Dare I say Shaun Johnson could have done with a few doses of it, Milford one or two and maybe Brooks amongst others. Admittedly many players are dubiously 'rested because of injury' or 'given another chance' but Flannigan hooking Townsend and persevering with Barba should have him COTY on guts alone

 

[Rhino_NQ]

Reading RLW luke lewis said townsend got hooked because he had a very painful sternum injury and he wasn't coping very well with it after a few contacts

 

[POPEYE]

Could be right, Flannigan said Townsend wasn't performing up to scratch for a few games for whatever reason but all that matters is the Sharks are heading for the great pie-in-the-sky and the main populace hope they get a feed . . . at least a better feed of fish than I'm going to get

 

[POPEYE]

Dearie me, I reckon the off-season began weeks ago for at least 50% of RL supporters but that's neither here nor there, if enough people can be gathered to make a motza from f**king Hillsong there's no reason enough shouldn't fill the 'grand' final stadium. I will certainly interrupt everything to make sure I don't miss any of the anticipated 80 . . . not a minute more than necessary mind you

How lucky are we it's Melbourne v Cronulla in the 'big one', imagine how hard it would've been for the Raiders to stir the faithful without Croker, Leilua and whoever else didn't survive last weekend. I should check the team sheets before I say too much but fingers crossed, in both hands, what we're left with has a chance of being a fair contest

As with Hillsong the faithful will be mesmerised by a large entourage of 'know alls', Tate proclaiming Melbourne will win must have garnered a few amens but expect a crescendo either way from the scripture readers in the days to come. Does it really matter who wins as long as the plates being passed around are full

No apologies for the above, I'm just as entitled as anyone to fill minds with crap, I'm hoping for a good catch in the off season. Being serious for just one minute, does anyone know of a bookie who will give odds on the number of referee f**kups . . . with Archer as the sole judge of course

 

[Rhino_NQ]

an over/under option for bunker referrals would be a handy option to select

 

[POPEYE]

Hope Maloney doesn't let himself or me down, all these years wishing he'd stayed at Melbourne and championing him everywhere he went since will never be more important than this weekend. Freddy may think Bellamy is the best thing since sliced bread but one mistake he made was not finding time to dig through Maloney's persona and discover what we know now . . . maybe Cronk took up too much of his time

Maybe we can credit JM's mercenary attitude in conjunction with 'f**k anyone who gets in my way' to being badly overlooked in Melbourne. The mind boggles at the thought of a Slater/Smith/Cronk/Maloney spine still together . . . minus Waldron of course

What we have now is the hopes of Cronulla and the rest of the RL world, including some Storm supporters like myself, that JM will finish the year with the biggest "I f**king told you so" of his career. I see the reason why he always gives his extra best against Melbourne and I know how much winning this game means to him.

If the Sharks win and James somehow has a bad game I'll be pissed off but if the bloke leads the way to the greatest psychological prize since 1967 I'll be over the f**king moon

 

[myrrh ken]

Hope Maloney doesn't let himself or me down, all these years wishing he'd stayed at Melbourne

Are you talking in hindsight? At the time you had Finch and Cronk that led you to *premierships and Maloney had only played 4 games then.

I don't reckon Maloney himself thinks he got shafted by the Storm. The roosters on the other hand...

 

[POPEYE]

He had no right to think he got shafted at the time but did he get enough of an opportunity to show his potential . . . if I think not he most certainly wouldn't. He's as street wise as any player I've seen, not easy when so much time is needed to prepare for RL, as a result the hum and hawing by the Roosters is like waving a red flag to a bull and Maloney doesn't cop bullshit

I've often thought the NRL should allow 'temp' players; say Widdop broke a leg and because the Dragons weren't allowed value for money in the cap 'freelance' players could step in temporarily for a set fee per game. I'd bet Mary would run over Widdop in his car at the thought of hiring a part time Maloney

All jokes aside, I'm not being charitable, Melbourne are never going to go away whereas the Sharks may come and visit now and again . . . on this visit we should all hope they go away fulfilled. Maloney on the other hand lives for the moment and as such perpetually has a point to prove

 

[POPEYE]

What a merkin of a night, been up for most of it shitting through my mouth and pissing through my arse, then to sign on here I had to battle my way through f**king Subway. Imagine how worse it would've been if for the first time in 20+ years I watched the Dally M's. All I've seen is a picture of Cronk and Taumololo so I'm not game to read any further

Best thing about the M's is they are over, worse thing is they signal only one more game to go, let's hope it is nowhere near as f**king orchestrated as the awards. I'm going to dare myself to go to bed, the way I feel I'll probably dream of the times Hayne won the DM and again wake up spewing

 

[POPEYE]

Great to see the mighty Crow and the '86 Eels reunited, if ever a statue was commissioned of a player to represent the game of Rugby League there could be no better model than Mick Cronin

Other than that this week in RL as usual this time of the year is downright f**king embarrassing . . . sfa worth talking about

 

[Rhino_NQ]

Great to see the mighty Crow and the '86 Eels reunited, if ever a statue was commissioned of a player to represent the game of Rugby League there could be no better model than Mick Cronin

Other than that this week in RL as usual this time of the year is downright f**king embarrassing . . . sfa worth talking about

rugby league week this week has a pretty interesting GF special, tales from yesteryears premiers

 

[POPEYE]

Thought I'd gotten over the bug, just popping in to tell anyone with a stomach ailment not to get stuck into bacon and egg rolls too early, now I'm back to f**king square one. To pay penance for such stupidity I'm going to do something this arvo I've never done before in my 68 years, watch an AFL game from start to finish . . . any more than 20 minutes in fact. Crikey I hope it's not as bad as NFL

 

[Nice Beaver]

Thought I'd gotten over the bug, just popping in to tell anyone with a stomach ailment not to get stuck into bacon and egg rolls too early, now I'm back to f**king square one. To pay penance for such stupidity I'm going to do something this arvo I've never done before in my 68 years, watch an AFL game from start to finish . . . any more than 20 minutes in fact. Crikey I hope it's not as bad as NFL

Geez,. Pops. Not sure watching AFL is the best thing to stop inducing rampant arse piss and vomitting!

Add Bruce Macavaney and you have a sure fire mess coming up this afternoon.

 

[Jason Maher]

Thought I'd gotten over the bug, just popping in to tell anyone with a stomach ailment not to get stuck into bacon and egg rolls too early, now I'm back to f**king square one. To pay penance for such stupidity I'm going to do something this arvo I've never done before in my 68 years, watch an AFL game from start to finish . . . any more than 20 minutes in fact. Crikey I hope it's not as bad as NFL

Pop Roy and HG on. Might lighten the load a little.