Round 5 (2007) Panthers v Cougars

[Willow]

Round 5 (2007)
Penrith Panthers v Cougars

Game Thread:
Please note - This is a game thread only, therefore only game posts can be made here (Teams, Articles).
Any other posts may result in loss of points and is at the discretion of the referee.
Only original essays, not used in previous games, will be marked by referees.
Rules: http://f7s.leagueunlimited.com/rules.asp
Home team allowed one extra reserve player

FULL TIME: Wednesday 11 July 2007 at 9pm (Syd time)
REFEREE: antonius

Venue: Panthers Stadium

**The Referee Blows Game On!**

 

[Steel Dragon]

Here is the Cougars team for the local derby!

1: Steel Dragon (C)
2: griffo346 (VC)
3: Sanchez
4: Choc_Soldier
5: IanG

Bench

6: lockyno1
7: Dutchy

 

[choc_soldier]

choc_soldier, taking the first hit-up for the Cougars after the kick off...


CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

The last two paragraphs from an article in the Sun Herald on Sunday 8 July 2007:

[Panthers General Manager Mick Leary] denied the club was in crisis.

"That's a load of rubbish," he said.

Who exactly is he kidding?

Here is the defintion of crisis:

[noun] - a time of great danger or difficulty.

Here is what is currently occurring at the Panthers:

Danger: currently anchored on the bottom of the NRL ladder after 17 rounds, with the unwanted wooden spoon surely ours to lose, with the Roosters the only other team capable of snatching it away from us.

Difficulty: clearly struggling with on field performances, with losses heavily outweighing the wins this year by a ratio of nearly 4 to 1. Most of these losses have involved some form of bitter disappointment – the last four weeks, in consecutive order, has seen a loss in the last 30 seconds due to poor ball security against the Roosters, a weak defensive effort against the Warriors, a meek display against the “Baby Broncos” and a second half capitulation against the Tigers.

What is not helping is also the current situation with the players – a number of which are already gone for 2008, including the widely publicised departure of Craig Gower to play rugby in France, and breaking free of his contract two years early. This is alongside a number of other players that have been told that “their services are no longer required”. These off field occurrences are surely not helping on field performances.

So, once again, who is Mr. Leary kidding? I suppose by denying a crisis, it surely is not happening. A nice little spin on things – surely the fans will buy it.

But whichever way you look at it, the Penrith Panthers are currently a club in crisis. There is discontent in the player’s camp, the results on the field are pathetic at best, and the fans are baying for blood – they want answers and also accountability.

And this accountability is sadly lacking. And with comments such as those made by Mick Leary, it is little wonder. To coin a well used phrase in situations such as these, Nero is fiddling while Rome is burning.

I am a passionate Panthers supporter, who rarely misses a home game and goes to as many away games as is physically possible. I am someone who invests a lot of time and money into my team.

The “glory days” of 2003 and 2004 nothing but a distant object on the rear vision mirror, and I want these days to return.

As a passionate Panthers supporter, the current situation hurts immensely. And it frustrates me to no end. But personally, this current predicament is not causing any embarrassment. That is not to say that the lack of embarrassment is a lack of pride. I guess that the slide down to the bottom has been so gradual since 2005, that it is just another occurrence. Like mediocrity is the norm, and to achieve anything higher is just out of the realms of normality.

The current management team is inadequate, at best. We have lost many players, with the recruitment being far from flattering. Sure, this has changed this year, with arguably the biggest signing in the club’s history with the recruitment of Petero Civonoceiva. But in the overall big picture, the management team lacks the “smarts” to run a football team successfully. For example, take the way that the sacking of John Lang took place last year – totally unprofessional, with the signing of Elliott and THEN telling the incumbent that his “services were no longer required”. It was admitted as such later on.

A broom put through the place could be what the club needs. To corrupt a Chris Anderson phrase, it may very well be the culture, one that allegedly stagnated in the last couple of seasons under the helm of Lang. But why stop at just the players? The front office surely needs rejuvenation as well.

But honestly, what would I know? I am just a fan. The club is currently running a “100 point challenge” on its website, challenging all the fans to see if they can do a better job than those currently in charge. Is it a weak backhanded slap at the fans or a cry for help? Who knows.

The darkest light always comes before dawn. The question is when this dawn will break, because I have lost my watch.

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Word count: 748 [including title]

References:
Panthers show club leaders the door but 'no crisis' – League HQ, Sun 8 July 2007
Definition of crisis – www.dictionary.com

 

[Big Mick]

The Panthers take the field:

1) Madunit
2) Azkatro
3) [Furrycat]
4) Paul-the-Cowboy
5) Glockers

6) Big Mick
7) Waken
8) Leaguenut

 

[madunit]

madunit for the Panthers

Art or Rugby League?

One of the most openly and frequently debated topics in today’s modern culture, if you ignore all the other more openly and more frequently debated topics, is that on which is more important to today’s modern cultural society. Art or Rugby League?

Now while some may, in some stupidly incomprehensible way, state that Rugby League is an art, whilst others with no real opinion but intentionally decide to be different, will say Art is Rugby League, I am here to say that Art is crap and Rugby League shouldn’t be deemed as more important than art, it should be deemed a necessity for today’s culture and art should be abolished.

That being said, it’s fairly obvious that art is not even the equal to Rugby League. Therefore, art shall be abolished. Here within is how this shall be achieved.

We should start with art museums, with all those paintings in them. The Michelangelo hall shall be renamed the Minichiello hall. The Dali section to be replaced by the Daley section; Da Vinci replaced by Davico, Picasso replaced by Piccinelli, Monet replaced by Meninga, even Donatello to be replaced by Donato. This would be the first step in eradicating that waste of time and space known as art and bringing a much more viable cultural necessity to the forefront, Rugby League.

Next step is to replace all those crappy paintings with action photographs of the respective players in full flight. Instead of Jackson Pollock’s “Blue Poles”, we’ll have Jason Taylor’s “Busted Snoz”, which is a collation of pictures resembling Pollock’s work, instead of splattered paint though, there will be Taylor’s splattered nose.

The “Mona Lisa” would be replaced by the “Moaning Woolford”, the “Vitruvian Male” would be replaced by the “Vautin Male”, the “Last Supper” painting of the twelve apostles with Jesus would be redesigned, so that Jesus would become Messenger and the twelve apostles would be Churchill, Raper, Langlands, Beetson, Lewis, Meninga, Gasnier, Irvine, Burge, Brown, Johns and Fittler.

Now that we have the painting side of art corrected and abolished, the next section is the relatively annoying art of mime. Marcel Marceau is to be shot and replaced by no other than Martin Masella, who will conduct mimes of Rugby League’s greatest moments.

Next art style to abolish is music. Air waves on radio will have all music destroyed and replaced by the commentary highlights from the golden vocals of Ray Warren, Darryl Eastlake, Warren Boland, Warren Ryan, Ray Hadley and that guy who used to commentate games on Channel Ten back at the start of the nineties.

Finally, we have film and Television. This is the easiest to rectify. All programs will be cancelled and we will have rugby league screened on Television every single minute of every single day. Every game ever televised in the world will be replayed in perfect chronological order, along with live games where possible. Pay TV will be completely disbanded. There will be a half hour ogling program after every game, which will just be a replayed telecast of the cheer girl action from the previous game, just for a bit of variety.

Speaking of cheer girls, they will no longer dance to music; they will dance to the aforementioned golden voices of commentary, calling some of the more exciting moments of the current game.

Any country that doesn’t see Rugby League as the great game it is and dare try to recognise some other ‘sport’ as being better, they will have their country bombed, from about twenty out on the last tackle.

While I’m getting carried away here, the chief of police will be sacked and replaced with Bill Harrigan. When people are in court and a decision is to be made, instead of going to the jury, Harrigan will be made to go to the video ref.

A very black and white case there, Rugby League wins, hands down. Art has also proven that is very easily replaced by Rugby League and any human with a correctly functioning brain will see absolutely no problems with the decisions to be implemented which I have suggested here.

Scrap The Louvre, rename it The League.

Dismantle the Statue of Liberty, replace it with The Gladiators.

Change the Pyramids, to stone carvings of scrums.

Mount Rushmore? Change those heads to the faces of Churchill, Raper, Gasnier, Langlands and Messenger.

This can only be a good thing for mankind.

738 words, including title.

 

[Steel Dragon]

Strapping young Sanchez has busted his pinky putting on a shoulder-charge that went horribly wrong.

He's been stretchered off and Locky No1 has jumped off the excercise bike and handed the #1 card to the sideline official for the Cougars first substitution.

 

[IanG]

Ian G for the Cougars

Salary Cap Woes!

Well it seems that not a week goes by where we hear of yet another player either leaving their current club or reveal that they’re going to Union or England because their club isn’t able to keep them under the salary cap. But what could be a solution to the problem of there being a player drain? It’s become clear that even though the salary cap has achieved the purpose of its introduction of evening out the talent across the board. The system in place is flawed to say the very least.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t condone the act of rorting the cap, Let’s not forget the saga we saw back in 2002 where the Bulldogs were leading the competition by a country mile and it was revealed that it was rorted but about one and a half million dollars and they were stripped for all the their competition point bar the four they got from their two byes. But there needs to be a lot more flexibility in the system. The biggest problem is that players making money off their status is that it’s forced to be included in the cap, even if it’s where a player is approached directly and totally independently of their club.

I agree with the idea that as far as players getting individual sponsorship and doing adverts should be completely open slather and not included in the salary cap, along with more concessions for producing your own junior talent. At the moment there’s only about one hundred thousand dollars for local juniors and seven year players. There needs to be more there. Yeah it could be a double edged sword in that year it may not count in the salary cap, but it then becomes a question of can the club afford to play the player what he’s worth?

Then there’s also the idea of players being offered jobs within the club or for a club sponsor after the player has retired. As far as I’m concerned that is just plain stupid. If anything they should be encouraging the clubs to look after their players after their footy careers were over. In fact I wonder if St. George/Illawarra has been questioned about the appointment of Nathan Brown as coach. Thing about it is if his career hadn’t been cut short by a neck injury then he’d probably be still just young enough to be still playing for them. That kind of thing should also be exempted because it seems when a club wants to look after their player this way it’s seen as a rort.

I’d love to see Big League or the NRL to do a punters and a player’s poll with the question “Is David Gallop Doing A Good Job?” I’d be very interested in what the overall answers to that question would be, that along with the rest of his honchos including Ian Schubert.

Sadly I have to agree with David Peachey’s notion of club loyalty effectively being dead. The way it is these days it’s effectively become a case of players looking at their footy careers and thinking well I’m going to get what I can out of it and when it ends it ends. I‘m sure of the idea that all players play and always have played for the love of the game, but when it becomes your livelihood and your required to be training full time at the same time then yes a player need to take the best offer he can get.

In defence of the concept though you only have to look at European Soccer where a salary cap is non existent. The proof there is you getting all the rich clubs getting the cream of the talent and the poorer clubs getting what’s left, which is effectively why the same clubs are winning the premierships year in and year out. So with that in mind the salary cap is good in that even though one club is favoured to win the premiership, you never really know who is going to win it.

So to sum it all up there really is no real one band aid solution to the problem however something needs to be done to prevent top NRL players moving on to other horizons. I dare say that everybody from an NRL Player to the man on the street who parts with his hard earned at the gate would have an opinion on it.

Word Count: 746 Words (including Title)

 

[lockyno1]

Lockyno1 off the bench and into action for the Cougars

THE SALARY CAP- IS IT REALLY FAIR?

One of the most controversial issues in rugby league currently is the salary cap. Now I am not advocating the abolishment of the salary cap but the current situation is just not right.

The salary cap was established to make sure of a “level playing field”, and whilst it has been successful, has it really been an outright success? Personally I believe the quality of play has decreased dramatically as a direct result, and the era of the so called “super teams” will never come again, for me that is an outright tragedy. In the 1990’s we had the great Raiders side which featured Clyde, Daley, Stuart, Mullins, etc, a team that would cost in today’s environment a bare minimum of $6 million, illegal under the salary cap.

This said we now need to realise that the salary cap in the current environment is poor, and so some changes have to happen. The first proposal that I would give is the cap to be bumped up to a face value of $4.5 million, because every club could afford this increase. This would allow clubs the incentive to develop juniors and to put money and time into junior development clubs.

Following on from that point, my proposal would give a 10% reduction in the amount that is said on the salary cap for any local junior in either the Premier League or in the first grade NRL side. This would be another incentive for clubs to nurture juniors through the system. This would also allow clubs to support local junior clubs, which would spread the word of how great a game rugby league is and will encourage juniors to take up the game.

Now furthermore it is important to establish one of the major issues in today’s game- long serving players leaving clubs. Now I for one would never have thought a player like Petro Civonoceva would play against the Broncos, and this is only one case. Another famous case in recent times was when Matthew Johns left the Knights to sign for Cronulla due to salary cap pressures. Now my proposal is as follows:

-A 4 yr player receives a 10% discount
- A 5 yr player receives a 20% discount
-A 6yr player receives a 30% discount
-A 7yr player receives a 40% discount
-A 8 yr player receives a 50% discount
-Any player that stays at a club over 9 years would receive all money exempt from the cap.

These measures are essential as it will enable clubs to keep long serving players. The last thing we as rugby league supporters want is great players playing for different clubs. As a fan nothing annoys me more than for a club to release a long serving player due to salary cap pressure.

By the introduction of these rules we would gradually see the increase in the standard of play which has been quite poor for a few years. Take the five eighths for example, apart from Benji Marshall is there actually a proper five eighth in the competition? Nowadays due to salary cap pressures clubs are playing makeshift five eighths in order to help their salary cap as it is cheaper. This has a devastating affect on the quality of the competition.

The final factor that needs to be considered is the player drain to the English Super League. Whilst most of these players have gone to the ESL at the end of their career, we have seen Matt King, a current Australian test player go overseas due to money. I propose that if you sign for the ESL, you forfeit your right to be selected for any rep sides both now and into the future.

Therefore, it can be stated that there are some genuine concerns that most fans have regarding the salary cap. The quality of the competition has reduced and whilst we have seen new winners most years, the quality has been poor. The proposal that has been listed in this response provides clubs the ability to nurture juniors through the system and to be able to hold onto long-serving players. This in turn will create a better quality competition.

701 words

 

[Big Mick]

Panthers Substitution:

Paul the cowboy off....Waken on

 

[griffo346]

griffo346 defending for the Cougars as he hits the panthers substitute Waken with a tackle that leaves him unconscious.

My Summary of the Panthers 2007 season

It started at the end of 2006 season where we found out that Johnny Lang wouldn’t be with us for the following season. So the search had began for a new top grade coach and he was found the fans were formally told on the clubs website that it be Matthew Elliott that will take our glorious club into the 2007 NRL premiership.

The club signed no high profile players for the 2007 season with the exclusion of Nathan Smith coming from the Canberra Raiders with Coach Matthew Elliott and assistant Wayne “Snoopy” Collins and the Panthers also recruited Matthew Adamson as assistant coach to Elliott.

The club broke for the end of season break before resuming training in December; they then broke for the Christmas and New Year break where the “so called media” reported on an incident that was embroiled in controversy with our skipper Craig Gower allegedly striking a patron is a night club is Sydney’s club district.

The players came back from the break what seemed to be fresh and with the controversy surrounding the skipper and the club, with the club standing by there skipper in what happened at the night club in January.

The season started in March this year admits the expectation from the fans after the last few years being patchy at best. There was a feeling of expectation with new coaching staff and Matty Elliott having more talented playing pool at his disposal then he did at the Canberra Raiders while coaching them he managed to get them into the finals in the last consecutive years, so anything less then the finals this year you would be forced to think it would be unbelievable to think it could happen.

But it has happened and to the disbelief of the panther fans currently at the half way mark of the season we sit by ourselves on the bottom on 10 measly points, These 10 points coming from 4 wins and a bye.

The season started okay for the Panthers with 2 wins in 3 rounds but this wasn’t going to be a breeze for the Panthers who then went on a 5 match losing streak before defeating the cowboys in Townsville in round 9.

The fans where thinking maybe it was the pre game entertainment from a opera singer, that’s right an opera singer at the footy that bemused me as did it the other fans, but from what I heard the fellow has talent but just not for a footy game.

The management decide to take it away and the boys beat Manly at CUA Stadium, and unfortunately this was to be the boy’s last win until anther one of those 5 match losing streaks started.

Over the last set of 5 match losing streak we had rumours of our loyal skipper wanting out, he first denies he wants out of the club that has employed him since he was 15 he is what you call a “local junior”.

Amidst the rumours of our fearless leader leaving the news got worse when it was actually formally asked and was granted the Panther fans learnt there worst had dreams came true the fearless leader was leaving bound for rugby in France for Bayonne.

The management said there was a few reasons why Gowie was granted the release and that’s of his superior community involvement and the service he has given the Panthers over the last 15 years his been apart of the club, including a premiership and numerous representative jerseys along the way be it City Origin, NSW Blues or the Kangaroos.

Amidst the release of one of the skippers the rumours are still rife that players like Rhys Wesser, Luke Priddis and Tony Puletua may not be wanted by the NRL club after the 3 have been down on form this year. After all it was 4 years ago Penrith was at the top of the tree.

The club said that Luke Priddis won’t be needed next year and it’s still scratchy over Tony and Rhys.

The players play the bulldogs this week that are on fire with there star player Sonny Bill Williams back to his devesting best, as a Panther fan I will sit back and pray and watch from my television screen as they look to break this 5 match losing streak.

731 Words including title
according to the f7s offical word counter

 

[glockers]

After the Daily Telegraph rumours of an early retirement to spend time witht he family, Glockers sprints onto the field.

Why bother?


Why do I bother even contemplating a trip to Suncorp Stadium to watch the Wests Tiger fail to perform once again?

Why do I bother putting up with drunk and stupid Queenslanders, as well as the ridiculous cost of funding such an expedition?

It might be the best rugby league stadium, have an awesome atmosphere and just a general aura that Telstra Stadium lacks. But why go through that for a flogging?

I should have known better then to make the trip. Two years ago I timed a two week Gold Coast holiday around the Tigers and Broncos clash. I made sure work gave me leave around it so I could attend the match and see my beloved team in another state. I booked flights and a hotel stay. An expensive little trip for sure. But at least I had a beach holiday to enjoy and friends to catch up with.

I even had two friends drive me from my Gold Coast hotel to the ground to witness a 40 point flogging.

My last memory of being at a game in 2005 is seeing my team slaughtered by 40ish, even though we won the premiership that year.

So why did I bother to do it this year?

I guess logic came into play, I now live in Queensland and Suncorp is the closest venue to my new home town. I even reasoned a road trip with my mates. I could split the cost. But I live in Bundaberg and it is still a 4 hour drive and overnight accommodation. Still I thought a group trip would reduce the cost and make it worthwhile. We could go to Conrads Treasury and clean the poker tables out, maybe shop Queen Street and party it up at the clubs.

Then the stupid NRL schedules the match on a Monday night. Suddenly my friends had no interest in skipping two days of work for the game and I was left on my lonesome. A four hour drive, a tank of petrol and overnight accommodation was before me.

Yet, despite this and the likeliness of the Broncos killing the Tigers, I chose to go.

Why?

I don’t know, I assume it was some sense of logic still. It is the closest venue to Bundaberg (though I was going to Sydney just two weeks later and would see the Panthers clash). Also I don’t get to see my team every weekend and well it was a chance to see the boys go around.

So I made the most of it. I booked two nights accommodation and came down a day early so I wouldn’t be tired for the match after a long day’s drive. I pre-booked a seat in the away team bay. I organised to meet up with a few beautiful Brisbane women I know. Everything seemed good.

I should change that and say everything was good until Monday evening. I had seen two nice lady friends. Had a good time in Queen Street, ate good food and well was enjoying Brisbane (a miracle I guess).

Then my bus got caught up in traffic as I left Queen Street and suddenly I was hopping in my car just 20 minutes before the game. Luckily it was just a few suburbs away and I jumped on the cross city bypass thingy.

At the Suncorp exit I got off and it looked great. Still 10 minutes to the game.

Apart from the sign didn’t say whether to turn left or right. I chose left.

I chose wrong.

I spent the next 10 minutes circling the CBD and trying to find an exit back towards the ground.

A few hundred swearwords, while listening to Brisbane lay on some early tries, and after well some tears I made it to the ground. Just eight minutes late.

I prayed to Benny Elias and said after this disaster I deserve a Tigers come back. After saying amen and smiling I walked into the ground and the stadium roared. The Broncos scored again to go three tries up.

I realised then that sitting in my seat would be a futile effort. Yet I still did it. I still witnessed the slaughtering.

I can only hope that once again my trip to Brisbane helps another eight game streak and Payten will lift the trophy on grand final day.





Edit - I forgot to add the word count. 725 words without the heading. 727 with it.

 

[Azkatro]

Azkatro for the Panthers.

__________________________________________________

The things you do

On Sunday the 6th of May this year, I sat down to watch the Bulldogs take care of the Newcastle Knights 30-16 at Telstra Stadium. The Doggies’ outside had a great outing, with Patten scoring a double and the wingers scoring a try apiece. Hazem El Masri was typically deadly with the boot, kicking 5/5, and became only the sixth player in history to surpass 1,900 career points.

Injuries affected the Knights but it was a good turnaround for the Bulldogs who played abysmally the week before.
It’s at this point I’m sure you’re sitting there wondering why I’m talking about such a pointless, mundane round 8 NRL game of rugby league.

No, I’m not a fan of either team, nor was I at the game. And no, I didn’t place any bets on any aspect of the result either.

So why is this game so significant to me?

Well, it was the last game of rugby league I got to see for one month, 23 days, 21 hours and 30 minutes.

You see, the day after I watched that fateful clash won by the Dogs, I hopped on a plane and flew off to Europe to see the world.

Europe was fantastic. But they don’t talk much rugby league in the news over there. The only chance I got to reconnect with my beloved sport was via occasional Internet access and phone calls back to home. But I still didn’t see a thing. Don’t get me wrong, I tried to look at highlight videos and the like via Fox Sports and NRL’s websites, but trying to connect to Australian hosted websites from Europe is like riding to Canberra on a BMX bike. You get a tiny bit of the way there, but soon realise that what you’re attempting to do is going to take far too long and give up trying. So I had to do without.

There were two moments in particular though that were pretty tough to handle. You see, in the time I was overseas, Queensland took out the 2007 State of Origin series by winning games one and two. As hard as I try, I genuinely cannot remember the last Origin game I missed. I can comfortably think back past Langer’s comeback, Wayne Pearce’s blues blitz, the Broncos-dominated lineup of the late 1990’s, Paul Vautin’s miracle 1995 series win, the miracle try of game 1, 1994… actually now that I think of it 1993 is a bit difficult to recall. But that is 14 years ago now!

The bottom line is, I was born in the same year the Origin concept was and for virtually every single match I’ve been in front of a television watching the action as it happened.
While Origin 1, 2007 was being played, I was on the M25 motorway in England on route to Stonehenge, a mysterious bunch of rocks on a grassy hill in the middle of nowhere. It was late in the second half that I actually arrived there, paid the ridiculous six pounds, looked at them and took a bunch of photos. Not something I ever thought I’d do while an Origin game was being played.

And after the European leg of the holiday, I ventured to Central America to meet and greet the distant family of my partner. That was where I remained while Origin 2, 2007 took place. I was sitting around in a dilapidated concrete house (which doesn’t have regular running water), watching cable television, in a suburb of El Salvador called Soyapango. I’m guessing that I fanned myself through more heat and slapped more mosquitoes during that Origin game than I ever have before or probably ever will again.

So what has this completely out of the box experience taught me?

As much as I was probably already aware of it, it taught me that the whole world doesn’t stop while Origin is on. In fact, most of the world doesn’t even know what it – and rugby league – is. The only television news bulletin that even acknowledged it was Britain’s Sky Sports news.

It also made me realise, deep down, that no sport in the world will ever truly compete with soccer.

But to me that makes rugby league all the more special. As nice as it would be for the whole world to realise how entertaining and exciting the sport of rugby league is, I like knowing that it’s still “our” little secret.

__________________________________________________

747 words. Liftoff!

 

[The Piper]

Waken rushes off the bench and sticks his head into the scrum

The 2037 National Rugby League Year That Was

The 129th season of rugby league was spectacular during the year of 2037. It was a year of firsts for many sides in both divisions of the sport, which has grown in team numbers, grades and popularity over the past ten years. With 12 teams in both First Grade and Second Division, at least one team from all mainland states in Australia, it is now truly a national competition and definitely the greatest of all the Australian sports.

It was the Illawarra Steelers who topped the second division this sterling season. The Wollongong based team collected the title as the year’s premiers of this division after taking out the ‘big one’, 24-20 against Redcliffe, newly added to second division only this year.

Only ten seasons ago, the team did not even stand solely as a single rugby league club. Great numbers in support, especially at WIN Stadium, saw a financial up burst within the St George Illawarra Dragons club that made it possible for them to pay back the NRL the huge loan given to them after the merge. The debt paid, the league fans on the southern coast were rewarded with their own team back - the year of the first relegation/promotional division competition. Crowds now soared higher as their team deservingly got to play a lot more games in Illawarra than in previous years. Starting in the lower grade, the ‘white and reds’ have now made it back to the top grade in NRL after they merged back in 1999.

Grand final opponents the Dolphins and third placed Wellington Orcas also go up a grade with the Illawarra Steelers. The Broncos, Bulldogs and Central Queensland Comets drop from the top after making up the bottom three in first grade.

Most impressively out of all clubs, throughout both levels of divisions in the rugby league, were the major premiers of first grade.

After the 22 rounds, it was the South Sydney Rabbitohs who took out the minor premiership, defeating arch rivals Central Coast Roosters in the last round convincingly. With the top four finals system in place, Souths won the 1st v 2nd match against the Titans and won their place in the grand final. 3rd and 4th squared off, and it was indeed an upset when the Newtown Jets, who scraped into the 4th spot by for and against, defeated Newcastle and knocked the Knights out of the year’s competition. The Gold Coast played Newtown in front of 120,000 screaming fans at the relatively new stadium in the heart of Sydney, most notably known as “Crowe and LaPaglia Park”. The men from Henson Park took the second spot in the GF with a four point victory over the Queensland side. So it became 1st playing 4th for the Tooheys Premiership. In what was a stunning display of both skill and determination, the Newtown Jets took the led, five minutes to go, for the first time in the match with a great solo effort try to young up and coming forward, son of the former great Australian rep. The “boys in blue” brought down the “red and green army” in a match to be remembered for a long time to come. There were guts, glory and great goal kicking in the two point victory to Newtown, 17-15. Congratulations to them.

If someone from, say, thirty years ago were to travel in a time machine to today, they would not be able to comprehend the changes the game has gone through in such a little time. They would not believe the average crowd for any of the 12 matches each round was more than 50,000. They couldn’t consider that every club was doing so well financially, that a salary cap was not needed any longer. The time traveler would lose his mind finding out that the sport has become so much more popular in the Hunter region that the Mariners have reformed, joined the NRL and host a huge fan base! But the people in charge of the game thirty years ago looked at what they wanted to achieve in the game and set out on a path to make it one of the best games the world has ever seen. They did.

In the year 2038, we suspect no less an enormous season again of the world’s greatest game of all.

730 words including title

 

[Steel Dragon]

Steel Dragon - skippering the Cougars again!

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They Say Clothes Maketh The Man.


If this is true – then what does that say about those that maketh the clothes?

Sponsorship in sport is a necessary evil. The world has long come to accept this as fact. But at what point does the sponsorship begin to dictate the management of the club?

Of course I am, in a round about way, referring to what most St George Illawarra Dragons supporters deem an abomination – the all red ‘away’ jersey.
The jersey in question is coloured completely bright red with the exception of three thin parallel white stripes running up the length of either arm. The St George part of the joint venture club first wore their traditional ‘Red V’ strip back in 1929, but adopted it as their full time strip during the mid 1940’s. Ever since, the ‘Red V’ jersey has become one of the most recognizable in Australian sport, thanks in most part to the Dragons run of eleven straight premierships. Today as part of the merged St George Illawarra club, they still retain the “Red V’ strip. However, as is the way of most professional sports, teams are required to provide an ‘alternate’ or ‘away’ version of their uniform.

In the professional sports of the United States, clubs have a ‘dark’ and a ‘light’ version of their uniform. Usually one uniform is dominated by the team’s official colours, and their alternate uniform is white, with the official colours used for numbers and trim.

However, in the United States, the major leagues and associations have teams in up to and in some cases, well over thirty cities. Meaning appealing colour combinations soon run out. So they revert to their ‘home and away’ alternation of light and dark uniforms.
Here in Australia, and in particular, the NRL – the sixteen team competition – is barely congested enough to make ‘home and away’ strips mandatory.

But I digress. I’m willing to accept the fact that ‘yes, enforcing a club to have a second jersey increases the marketing opportunites’ and from that perspective, is possibly an o.k. idea. Although, when it comes to changing jersey designs for pure profit – the Parramatta Eels take the cake. Apart from seeming to change their jersey every year – this season they have three different official uniforms to choose from week to week; A predominantly blue jersey, a predominantly yellow jersey, and a rarely used white version.

Back to the disgruntled Dragons supporters. On one hand you could understand that the joint venture club had two uniform combinations; A St George Dragons styled version, and an Illawarra Steelers styled alternate version. Therefore attempting to satisfy previous supporters of either club. On the other hand, they could do what they have done. Kept one team’s jersey and then created a second that neither group of the previous club’s supporters can relate to. A second that resembles the Liverpool Premier League team in England. A second that is used far more often than any previous St George Illawarra alternate jersey has done in the past.

And why? Is it that other clubs have altered their uniforms so much that the traditional ‘Red V’ jersey now clashes with other teams in the competition? Is it that the alternate strip wasn’t selling well in sports stores and the like? Was jersey manufacturer and club sponsor, Adidas, upset from the lack of sales and suggested to the club’s management that the team should play more often in the totally red jersey?
We may never honestly know the truth, but we can speculate.

I will suggest this however; the Ferrari Formula One team is known throughout the world for their prancing pony badge, their bright red cars and their constant success on the race track. But even an organization as well known as Ferrari weren’t above caving in to sponsors when the team’s major sponsor Marlboro made the team change the cars’ shade of red to match that of their cigarettes packaging.

So if an organization with a reputation like Ferrari’s isn’t above sponsor’s pressure, what chance does the Dragons have of maintaining any sense of tradition, when tradition can be bought and sold in corporate boardrooms.

Clothes my indeed maketh the man. A white jersey with a big red v emblazoned on the front may invoke passionate feelings of the tradition, history and success of a bygone era in a young player pulling on the strip for the first time.
But when the corporate heads and boardroom boys prefer to satisfy the sponsors and not the fans, all it does is proves that tradition is able to be bought and sold to the highest bidder.

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References
http://www.theleader.com.au/2007/07/to_v_or_not_to_v_1.php
http://www.rl1908.com/Clubs/St-George-Dragons.htm

Word Count - 749

 

[Willow]

 

[Steel Dragon]

Way to go Cougars! Congrats.

Best of luck Panthers - cant wait to hear that fat chicks first song!

 

[antonius]

Panthers Scores

madunit
Art or Rugby League?
738 Words
Humorous piece on replacing art with Rugby league. I found the article mildly amusing, without being out and out funny.
Score 86

Waken
The 2037 National Rugby League Year That Was.
729 Words
Good reading. This has been done before, but this one is one of the better efforts.
Score 87

Azkatro
The things you do.
747 Words
The writer relates a trip to us. A trip that makes him realise what a little known sport League is outside of Australia.
Score 87

Glockers
Why bother
727 Words
If nothing else the writer is a true fan. He recalls 2 recent trips to watch his team.
Score 86

Total 346

Cougars Scores

choc_soldier
CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?
The writer talks about his teams slide down the ladder, and asks some questions as to why. He puts forth some of his own ideas as to how things have gone wrong. The writer is obviously very passionate about his team. To a neutral reader (non-Penrith fan) though it struggled to keep me wanting to read on.
Score 84

Ian G
Salary Cap Woes!
746 Words
A piece on the salary cap. The writer expresses his opinions on what is wrong with it, and soe areas that could possibly be used to bolster player payments. It’s and age old problem, and one that is very complex. The reading of the piece was a little disjointed with some poor grammar contributing to that.
Score 83

griffo 346
My Summary of the Panthers 2007 season.
731 Words
Poor grammar and spelling made this piece almost unreadable. My advice would be to get your articles proofread before posting.
Score 65

Lockyno1
THE SALARY CAP-IS IT REALLY FAIR?
700 Words
Some well thought out suggestions to make the cap fairer.
Score 86

Steel Dragon
They Say Clothes Maketh The Man
778 Words
Good article, asking the question, are playing strips mearly a money making item, governed by sponsors? It’s a shame that the word count error has cost you 5 points.
Score after points deduction 84
Total 402

Result Cougars 402 defeated Panthers 346. Player of the match Waken, and Azkatro

 

[The Piper]

Thanks antonius and well done Cougars
Bad luck Penrith, but it happens
And well done Az, great article! The break served you well

 

[glockers]

87,86,87,86

Damn man if only we played 5 guys.

 

[Steel Dragon]

Motherf*cker!!!!

I copy and pasted my article into the word count and got 778 - so I trimmed it down to 749.
But then I must have pasted the original [longer] article back in.

AAaAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!