The NRL is boring, says Finch
Greg Prichard | July 26, 2008
PARRAMATTA admitted they were boring and that their game against North Queensland was boring, but they also declared that the game at large had become boring - because wrestling is king.
It was a bad night for the game and for Parramatta centre Jarryd Hayne, who was reported by referee Steve Lyons after his boot had scraped the face of Cowboys second-rower Dayne Weston. Eels halfback Brett Finch always tells it like it is and he didn't even wait to sit down, let alone field a question, at the post-match media conference before providing his opinion on what everyone had just witnessed. "How boring was that?" Finch said. "It's a wonder you weren't asleep."
Finch later added: "It wasn't a good game to play in. It was very slow and that's the way the game is headed now, with the ruck. It was a boring game to play in and, I'd reckon, a boring game to watch."
Finch said the ruck speed had slowed down to such an extent that it made breaking through very difficult, because the defence was inevitably set.
"You've just got to get through your sets and wrestle," he said. "It's a boring game now. Cronulla are on top because they defend well and give you nothing. That's the way the game is going and if you don't play that way you get left behind."
Coming at the end of a week that has been filled with drama surrounding the off-field behaviour of players from the Canberra and Bulldogs clubs, that sort of assessment of what we're seeing on the field would have been the last thing the NRL needed to hear. But Finch, whose father, Robert, is the referees' boss, was just giving his honest opinion and thank God there are some players out there who still do.
But, since we're being honest, we can't go on without summing up another poor night at the office for Parramatta. Their win didn't solve any of their problems, when it comes to the team's form. In fact, it may have added to them, since Hayne was reported. Hayne was trying to get his leg clear after making a tackle and Weston made it difficult by wrapping his arm around it.
"It didn't look pretty, did it?" Cowboys coach Ian Millward said of the contact. "We've got a bloke getting stitches at the moment. That will be up to the league to work out, how it transpired."
Hayne was adamant he hadn't meant to do anything wrong and that Weston grabbing his leg had a lot to do with the way things turned out.
"I think it looked bad, but there was no intention," Hayne said. "He grabbed my foot - I don't know why. That was it. When he grabbed my leg, he pulled me off balance. I apologised to him. I told him there was no intent. He had a little cut, but if someone had really tried to stomp on him he would have had a bit more than a little cut."
Parramatta led 8-0 after 11 minutes against the team that is the long odds-on favourite to claim the wooden spoon. It should have been a cakewalk from there, but once again the Eels made it difficult for themselves. As soon as they had extended their lead to 14-0, in the 27th minute, they dropped off in intensity.
North Queensland cut the lead back to 10 points through a John Williams try two minutes later and then the small crowd of 7253 that did turn up had to watch as the Cowboys tried to hang in there while the Eels failed to put them away with any conviction. Four times, in the 34th, 52nd, 54th and 78th minutes, the Cowboys came within centimetres of forcing the ball for tries, only to be held up or lose the ball trying to put it over the line.
Eels coach Michael Hagan praised his team's goalline defence, but Millward argued that two of the Cowboys' tries that were disallowed by video referee Chris Ward should have been awarded. Prop Carl Webb and winger Williams were both judged to have been held up over the chalk.
The Eels had to battle to beat the worst team in the NRL. They got the two points - and in their position they will take those under any circumstances - but their game on the road against Newcastle on Monday week looms as a much, much tougher one.
