Congratualtions to all St George Illawarra supporters on your first premiership.
Pity some St George supporters are trying to hijack it as their own and get offended when anybody suggests otherwise.
As Bob Millward said, "They had the money and no players and we had the players and no money". So does money win you a premiership or players?
Anyway, now that all the hype is more or less over, let's put this year into perspective.
After winning in 2005 the Tigers have had to endure a period of many supporters calling their win a fluke. Why I am not sure.
So was 2010 a fluke?
The Tigers did not receive the massive gifts from the NRL in 2005.
1/ Did the NRL remove the best team in the 2005 competition?
No, they had to beat all other 15 teams.
2/ Did they get gifted an international player midway through the competition?
No. What irony that the NRL kick out a team for salary cap breaches yet allow an extra international on top of the other 12 representatives that St George Illawarra already had for the remaining $50K in their salary cap. How many rep players do the Storm have? No doubt it is all above board.
3/ Did they put in place a referees boss who was an ex-player?
No. Some of the decisions in the last couple of years have been as dicey as the Tandy tackle. That Eastwood "holding back" of Soward. The Gasnier try against Manly. The knees in Lote's back which broke his ribs with Jeremy Smith being found guilty. If the Tigers score that goal, how different would this year have been? Yet all Finch can say is "Sorry we got it wrong. That video ref is taking a week off to get it right".
4/ Did they have an Archer refereeing their games?
No. Interesting that Archer has come out defending his 15-1 stats saying they have been the best team the last two years. Amazing how none of the other referees have similar stats vs St George Illawarra. If they revert back to the one referee system, goodness help the team playing St George Illawarra if Archer is the referee.
So was this year a fluke? St George Illawarra have been a blimp on the radar when it comes to Grand Finals this century with what has been one of the best player rosters going around. Nothing. Zilch. Zero. Not even a runners up cheque. All of a sudden they win a Grand Final in a year where they get all the favours (see points 1 to 4).
So it begs the question that if they don't win the Grand Final in 2011 with the best player roster in the competition with 12 representative players and arguably access to the best juniors in the country coming out of the Illawarra plus the best coach in the world plus with ex-Dragon Finch moving on plus an independant commission to hopefully properly police the salary cap and referees, will people say that the asterisk on the 2010 NRL premiership actually means a sporting fluke? I think most will.
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