They are the only outside chance of stopping the Storm. It will be 5yrs that one of those 2 have won it.
NRL is getting boring. But like EPL
I have tuned out on so many games it isn't funny. It is bad enough that Parra is so sh*t, but most of the top teams are basically always the same so makes it even more uninteresting and add in the lack of softening up period and the NRL's determination to remove the huge collision and even the slightest incidental love tap to the head that doesn't cause any real damage and they have taken out the real edge of the game.
I'm not talking about violence or dirty tactics that can really hurt someone, but making it all so black and white(and still getting it wrong so often anyway) has taken the feel of the game out of the refs hands and watered down the passion and emotion that used to be under the surface bubbling along in so many games before. Now you get it only when it is a major game sometimes.
That's what I miss from before, that feverish sub surface niggle and anger that existed in the game. Again I'm not talking about violence, in fact I would have been much more server in sentencing JWH with his latest discretion and suspended him for 8 weeks and ended his career on that note. He is a disgrace as far as foul play goes. He has had it way to easy over the years and gotten away with way more then should have been allowed in the modern game and media types that love or fear Politis ignored or don't call him out enough over the years. He no doubt has been the best front rower enforcer of the last 15 years or so but that has come at the cost of a lot of other peoples health and careers which I don't think should be tolerated in todays game. Also Kafausi too is in the same sh*t club too. I would have rubbed him out of the game years ago.
I still love the game and it is more skillful now then ever before with the exception of the halves. It is a wonderful modern sporting product and in my view still the best in the world when played by two quality teams in front of a big crowd, but it just needs to find that balance of eradicating true reckless or intentional violence offenders versus the incidental or non injuring accidents which most players have now learnt to play for the penalty.
Well anyway Parra is sh*t and missed the semis yet again this year and the Panther will still win the Premiership even with a half busted Cleary because the comp is so way weak. I can't believe we can't win a Premiership in probably the weakest comp era I have ever witnessed in the 50 odd years I have been following the game. It really says a lot of where our club standards are and how off the pace we are. It's not that the top 3 clubs are so strong, even though they are reasonably strong, but how week the rest of the teams are. If we don't get at least one new able prop to replace RCG then it won't matter how much we fix our backline. We will go backwards. Look at the Dolphins with probably the best backline in the league at full strength and the best coach in the business and they still couldn't get to the semis and they don't have the same metal aversion to tackling that our club does. No matter what the idiots on the telly keep telling you. Big quality forwards still win games when it counts while ably supported by big strong wingers too.
Sure smaller packs with the six again rule can and do well, but in the most important games quality and fit big boys will almost always dominate the quality and fit smaller boys, just look at this years SOO series. No contest when it mattered.
But anyway my rant is over. Go the WEELS!!!
