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Willow Cup Round 1 Roosters v Eels

The Piper

Juniors
Messages
1,372
Forum 7s - Willow Cup Round 1 2010
SYDNEY "OZZIE" ROOSTERS (4th) v PARRAMATTA EELS (7th)
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-v-
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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 articles, not used in previous games, will be marked by referees.

Naming Teams:
* 3v3 (+ 2 reserves for both teams)
* No 'TBA' or changing players named
* Captains must stick with original teams named

ALL THE RULES & REGULATIONS: http://f7s.leagueunlimited.com/rules.php

FULL TIME: Sunday 6 June 2010 at 9pm (Sydney time)
REFEREE: Pistol
Venue: Front Row Stadium
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**The Referee Blows Game On!**
CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL WORD COUNTER
 
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Messages
17,427
Ozzie Roosters come into the big stadium with high hopes, and high expectations. Good luck one and all.

Starting Line-Up
06. Bubbles
14. Non Terminator (c)
Lambretta
Bench
02. Adamkungl (vc)
03. Monk
 
Messages
17,427
Non Terminator begins this match for the Roosters.
731 OWC.

******

The Luck Of The Draw

It was nearly seven years ago to this very day. Maybe in a few weeks time. I went to my first Rugby League game with a friend and his father. Their family, it's easy to say the majority were Parramatta die hards. Of course, it was my Roosters taking on the Eels, at the Sydney Football Stadium. It feels so long ago, it was of course known as Aussie Stadium back then.

I remember going into the stadium with high hopes, the Roosters had a convincing 18-4 win over the Eels just weeks earlier. They were one position higher on the ladder than we were, so I still had the usual nerves that I got before any Roosters game. Both sets of fans were participating in a vocal battle on the way to the stadium, I loved it, hell, I even joined in.

I remember Brad Fittler leading the Roosters out. I don't think I've ever cheered so much in my life. A football side, when I look back on it, the line-up was one of a kind. Names like Mullins, Wing, Fletcher, Morley, Fitzgibbon and of course, Fittler. Names I've shouted plenty of times in the lounge room, in front of the television.

I remember how much those first two points meant to me, as Craig Fitzgibbon booted the penalty goal to send the Roosters in front. This is what I imagined it to be...

Until Luke Burt equaled the scores, before Justin Hodges set up a Parramatta try. We all remember the State Of Origin debut for Justin Hodges when he gave New South Wales two tries, it happened this night as well, with Hodges kicking the ball right in front of Andrew Ryan to dived onto the ball, scoring the first try. Before I knew it, Andrew McFadden had set up a Scott Donald try and Parramatta were well ahead. I was gutted. I remember watching these slick movements on television, and as soon as I finally got out to watch a game, nothing was offered.

Luke Burt added another quick two points early in the second half, Parramatta up 12-2. It looked bleak, but Luke Phillips set the world on fire with a great run to the line. Despite my young age, some "positive" expletives might have come out of my mouth with all the excitement. An army of Rooster fans stood up as one. I loved it. I still cherish it. We were loud and proud. As soon as you go up, you must come down.

The Roosters bombed a certain try moments later, more expletives arrived. Possibly, not so positive. The leader of our army, Brad Fittler, set Craig Wing up near the post. All of a sudden, after I spent so long looking away from the dreaded scoreboard, it was 12-all. Craig Fitzgibbon lined up the conversion and I was, quite nearly literally, terrified about the outcome. He kicked it, it looked good. I was cheering. It swerved away. I looked like a dickhead.

From there on, every single thing mattered. Minutes remaining, every tackle, every pass, everything was crucial. Both teams took attempts at field goal, no successful. Everything went back to that conversion. It could've been ours. The full-time siren blew and both teams were equal. No Golden Point, that was it. We hadn't lost, but we hadn't won. Some people might have said they felt empty that night, I didn't.

Because, what do I remember most of all from that night?

It wasn't seeing my beloved Roosters for the first time live at a game.
It wasn't watching Brad Fittler turn the Eels around with every play.
It wasn't even Craig Fitzgibbon's miss.

No, what do I remember most? The verbal battle between Roosters and Eels fans after the game. It was as vocal as before, probably even more. Once again, I got involved, sporting my team on my heart. The draw meant nothing on the table, but it meant everything. After the fierce eighty minutes, both teams deserved to walk away with something.

Sometimes, I guess I wish my first game was a few years earlier, I was about to turn thirteen when I went to this game, mind you. Overall, I wouldn't change that experience for the world. I'm sure every child going to their first game would agree with me on that one.
 
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Bubbles

Juniors
Messages
416
Bubbles takes the next hit up for Easts
_________________________________

Think of the Children...

An addition has been made to the Protected Species Register, officially endorsed by the NRL Judiciary. The species is listed under the scientific name of gigas mentula, or giant penis.

I’d like to state from the outset that I’m certainly no prude and have been guilty of using the F-bomb to excess, as this anecdote will illustrate.

Having been forced to relocate for work reasons, my little family found themselves bunkered down in the Sunshine State. Being a house Frau, raising a son, while working from home, I made the decision to actively plant roots in the local community and in this vein, I joined the local Library. I was not feeling particularly optimistic as I attended the first session of Rhyme Time for 0-2’s, partly due to my aversion to any mother club-style activity, but also because I had no illusions that my boy was going to sit quietly and play nice with the other kids.

And so, the first song began and ended with little fanfare, my progeny curious but uncommitted. As the group dwindled to silence, to my utter horror, the little poppet announced to no-one and everyone in particular, “F@ck you”.

Amidst the gasps and stifled giggles, I was relieved when the pint-sized perpetrator decided it was time for a half hour session of racing up and down the aisles, playing ‘boo’ with unsuspecting patrons. Now, I have to confess at this stage to feeling a perverse pride; such perfect enunciation, so my child - there’ll be no “F@ck ya’s” from this kid! This aside, I had to raise my hand, albeit with red-faced reluctance and take responsibility for my son’s new vocabulary.

You see, after the initial shock subsided, my mind immediately flashed back to the hour I’d spent sitting in the parking lot (otherwise known as Ballina!) alone with an over-active one year old. I had to concede my language took a somewhat bluish turn and I was now reaping what I’d sown.

For the next two months my husband and I spent our public forays cringing every time the little angel opened its mouth, fearing the worst and often getting it. He even put it to music with a few ‘la, la, la’s’ sandwiched between these two words that made up both verses and the chorus.

And so a valuable lesson; that as a significant role model in this little person’s life, my actions and words have an impact hitherto unrealised and I would have to modify my behaviour; it was either that or never drive a vehicle again!

This is a lesson that most parents learn; when you have someone watching closely and parroting your every move, you need to be conscious of what you say and do. But, this extends beyond parental responsibility; for better or worse, fairly or otherwise, it extends to all persons who, as role models, impact the lives and behaviour of our youth.

And so we arrive at the crux of the matter. One of the most elusive traits in humans, I have found, is personal accountability, this requiring a level of honesty and courage that most shy from, opting instead for the easier route of justification and denial and in this scenario involving both Thurston and the NRL Judiciary, there appears not a skerrick.

Now, we on the forum are obviously your hard-core NRL fans and short of firearms being allowed on the field to be used in the ‘heat of battle’ we’ll continue to watch our beloved sport. However, you would be kidding yourself if you thought this kind of behaviour and subsequent condoning of same will not influence at least a few parents of aspiring young League players, and after the AFL has clearly forecast it’s war plan, that is, to attack our game at the junior level, well, there must have been a few glasses of VB clinking together after the decision was made to exonerate a player who abused and disrespected an official of the game in such a vocal and blatant manner.

As for Thurston; mate, here’s a novel idea, how about you raise your hand (and not with a one-fingered salute at the game’s officials, the Judiciary and the fans) and take some responsibility for a change. Oh and by the way, you may as well keep that sucker in the air for the kick to a fellow player’s unprotected face for which you also escaped punishment, you Teflon-coated gigas mentula!
________________________________________

Word count: 746
 

bartman

Immortal
Messages
41,022
The Parramatta Eels F7s squad fronts up to have a go at the new but unfamiliar knock-out format, wishing everyone the best of luck.

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Matt23
bartman
phantom eel
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Lambretta

First Grade
Messages
8,679
Apologies if this is all over the shop.
I have a new Word that I'm not used to.
Hope this is legible. 746 words.......


Organisational Defections on the Park
This week we learned that another NRL player has decided to take a financially beneficial offer to play Australian Rules football, this time out in Sydney’s Western Suburbs.

Just as Karmichael Hunt succumbed to the temptation of a fistful of dollars, now Israel Folau has decided to grab a few dollars more. But I get the impression that the AFL’s dig for gold in Sydney’s West has the potential to be good and then bad and then rather ugly.

The good is the initial media attention. The bad and the ugly will come later with the performance of the club itself. I truly believe that the AFL has seriously misunderstood the market in which they so desperately wish to grow. The AFL has been in Sydney for thirty years and on the North Shore and Eastern Suburbs they have been relatively successful, yet in all that time they’ve barely scratched the surface of the Western Suburbs and there are plenty of reasons for that.

Firstly Rugby League is deeply entrenched in Sydney’s west. AFL wishes to take over as the premier winter sport in Sydney and yet what they haven’t grasped is that they’re targeting completely the wrong market. The areas the AFL has been successful gaining a foothold in Sydney are exactly the areas where Rugby League isn’t traditionally strong. AFL is a sport followed by the middle classes and it is a sport played by very few. Parents of middle class children are quite happy for their children to play the less physically confrontational code as an activity, but it will never match being a doctor or accountant as a full time occupation. It’s because of this reason that the AFL desperately needs Western Sydney, but I think they’re going the wrong way about it.

Admittedly an outsider myself, but from what I can ascertain the people of Western Sydney appreciate loyalty, trust, toughness, honesty and integrity – traits the extremely talented Folau has shown little regard for in his short career.

I’d like to explore these traits.

Loyalty: He burst onto the scene with the Melbourne Storm, but within three years he was citing a desire to live close to family in Brisbane for his move north. Apparently a large increase in his salary was not a driving factor. However this need for family support is no longer an issue as he will re-locate to Sydney. Of course people will say that he has family in Sydney but I get the feeling he’d live on the moon if the money was right.

Trust: When the going gets tough you need your mates with you and you need to be able to trust them. Earlier this season the Brisbane Broncos looked to be doing it tough. Plagued by injuries and outside of the eight people were talking of their demise. Its times like this when you need your leaders, your best paid players, your stars to stand firm. Israel however, starting shopping his services for life beyond the Broncos after just two years with the club. Maybe this is the reason Darren Lockyer doesn’t want Israel to play Origin again.

Toughness: Now I’m not going to question Israel’s personal toughness because he’s shown playing for Queensland that he can match it with the toughest men on the planet, but will the people of Western Sydney really see these displays in a sport where contact is slowly being phased out?

Honesty & Integrity: Whilst Israel wasn’t being exactly honest about his decision to relocate to Brisbane two years ago, he is being honest about his decision to play AFL. Binning the Karmichael defence and claiming it’s all about new challenges, Israel has admitted it’s all about setting himself up for life: Which could be a mistake. Western Sydney, as he knows from growing up there, is a tough area with a lot of people doing it tough. How will the people of Western Sydney take to a massively overpaid player who has walked out on Rugby League playing for “the enemy”? I should imagine about as well as people reacted when Israel chose to represent Queensland where he lived for three years over New South Wales where he lived for fifteen years. Forgiving someone once is understandable, but a double betrayal is different.

The people of Western Sydney will hopefully see this for what it is: A desperate act by an administration in Melbourne that truly doesn’t understand them.
 
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bartman

Immortal
Messages
41,022
Confused, and not knowing if it's kickoff or fulltime, the Eels F7s team bus arrives at the FRS. Bartman leads the knock-out charge with the first hit-up....

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The 7,572…

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To fully appreciate the events of Friday June 4 2010 you simply had to be there in person. Where? Parramatta Stadium of course, for the game that was billed as a Grand Final re-match, and the first time the illegal Melbourne Storm were playing in Sydney since news of their salary cap breaches had come to light.

To the Melbourne Storm players’ credit, they have been actively competing in all games since the NRL announced their penalty restricting the Storm to zero competition points for 2010, while the club takes the time to untangle all the enhanced contracts and get their squad legal again. There was every indication that the Storm players would take this match just as seriously, knowing that a loss here against their illegally defeated Grand Final opponents could haunt their collective psyches for years to come.

Had the Parramatta Eels been travelling in the top half of the table this season, or even showed glimpses of their form from late last year that took them to Grand Final day, then this match would have been built up as a contender for match of the season well in advance. But we haven’t been showing any consistency, and off the back of a 30-point drubbing from the Dragons last week, this match was rightly consigned to the delayed broadcast timeslot of 9:30pm.

When looking at each other’s “Premiers 2009” tattoos in the dressing sheds while preparing for this game, the Storm players knew that a win against Parramatta now would go a long way to backing up their belief that as a group they are – or were – rightfully the best, regardless of the NRL penalties and whether two points were on offer or not. Put simply, Friday night’s game should have loomed as Melbourne’s must-win match for this season, and despite Cam Smith’s whingey mid-game protestation they had everything to play for.

But due to the widespread misgivings throughout the rugby league community about having the illegal Melbourne Storm squad still playing matches while not competing for points, and due to Parramatta’s failure to consistently recapture their late 2009 form, a game that should have been the clash of the year turned into a really hard sell to get bums on seats. The ongoing Storm salary cap scandal has seen many fans on internet forums and in real life express concerns about having the Melbourne club still play matches while they remain over the cap, and some admit to feeling less inclined to go and watch a game featuring a playing roster that had been assembled through illegal means. Perhaps among the Parramatta fan this feeling is more prevalent, due to the Storm being the side that eventually stood between the Eels and a premiership victory on that fateful Sunday in October last year?

Throw in two weeks of wintery rain in Sydney (culminating in roads flooded and a twister in Maroubra on game day!) and it was all a recipe for a low, low crowd at Parramatta Stadium on Friday night. While watching the torrential rain through my office window that afternoon, I half expected to get a text message from my Dad saying that conditions were too dismal for him to make the one hour trip down from the central coast for this game. I even had second thoughts about committing to a cold night in the stands watching my out of form team play an illegal squad of stars still in denial that their club had done anything wrong. But Dad made it down safely, and I headed out to join him – we were two among the 7,572 hardy souls that witnessed what turned out to be a fantastic rugby league experience.

If you watched the game on TV you’ll know that the players from both sides gave their all for the whole 80 minutes, but the crowd really made their feelings felt about the Storm’s salary cap breach – again, for the entire 80 minutes! The Storm were well beaten, and their psyches truly damaged. The Melbourne bench lost their composure and reacted to the crowd’s taunts, and even the captain Cam Smith started making excuses to the referee when things weren’t going the Storm’s way.

It was the night that a small crowd and formidable opposition team got under the Storm’s skin, and that was more than worth the price of admission. To understand why, you simply had to be there in person and be a part of it.

- - - -

750 words

Pic: An unnamed LU forums member at the game...
 

phantom eel

First Grade
Messages
6,327
Phantom Eel puts on the grease under his eyes and hits it up for the Eels.

- - - - -

Knockout



This inaugural Willow Cup Forum Sevens knockout competition evokes memories of another knockout tournament that played an important role in the development of rugby league and the NRL as we know it today.

I’m referring of course to the mid-week Amco Cup, staged (under various names) for sixteen years between 1974 and 1989. Twenty-one years later, it might seem strange for today’s youngsters to imagine their favourite club team playing three games in the space of eight days, but it was an exciting reality for rugby league fans during the late 1970s and throughout 1980s.

But if you can cast your imagination back to 1974, rugby league and indeed Australia were both very different beasts. Gough Whitlam was our Prime Minister and for the first time had introduced policies that we all now take for granted – such as Medicare and access to Universities for kids whose families weren’t filthy rich. The Australian soccer team (largely a team made up of the sons of first generation Australians who had migrated from Europe) qualified for and played in its first ever World Cup, and the pioneering music television show Countdown with Molly Meldrum first came to our screens (and lasted two years less than the Amco-KB-Tooth-Panasonic Cup).

Back in those days there was no internet with live video streaming or delayed highlights of rugby league games – in fact there weren’t even videos! All you had was radio and television (still largely black and white), with nowhere near the wall-to-wall coverage of our sport that fans can enjoy today. If you wanted to follow your team you had to go and see the games live, and each week’s selected match of the round was routinely transferred from a club’s home ground to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground!

It is in this context that the idea for a mid-week televised rugby league knockout competition was born. It wasn’t just a new competition for the sake of having a new competition and recycling the same clubs. It was a bold idea that would for the first time bring rugby league teams together from the Sydney-based NSWRFL competition, the Brisbane Rugby League clubs (that predated the existence of the Broncos), the Country Rugby League Group areas, and even the provincial regions of New Zealand. It would create an interesting rugby league spectacle that would be beamed into weeknight television screens throughout the season, also reaching out to families who might have other priorities on the weekends when rugby league had always been played and broadcasted.

Another thing that set the Amco Cup aside in 1974 was that it was played at night, under lights in four twenty minute quarters. This was done to allow for time for advertisements during the TV broadcast, because it was the money from Amco jeans company and other advertisers that allowed the idea to become a reality in the first place. Channel Ten was the broadcaster of the Amco Cup for the duration, and it was through these mid-week games (while Channel Seven and the ABC held broadcast rights to one weekend game each) that the legendary Ray “Rabs” Warren got his start in commentating rugby league on television.

The knockout format created a few surprises, none more so than in the first year of competition when country rep team Western Districts won their way through the tournament to take out the inaugural trophy. The Eastern Suburbs Roosters were the first team to take out the Premiership and Mid-Week double in 1975, a feat only equalled by the Parramatta Eels in 1986. A Combined Brisbane side also featured in finals during the middle years, and probably provided some incentive to form the Brisbane Broncos and include this side in the expanded 1988 NSWRFL competition that we all now know as the NRL.

Players of the time usually trained two nights a week and had to hold down other jobs in order to play rugby league, so a mid-week game in-between two regular weekend games would make life and training pretty hectic for a team. The memories of these mid-week matches themselves are etched in the minds of those who saw them live, mainly at Leichhardt Oval – the only ground with suitable lights back in the 1970s – or watched the broadcast from their suburban lounge rooms. But in the end club complaining about scheduling saw the demise of the Panasonic Cup at the end of the 1980s, and a great knock-out tradition in rugby league was sadly no more.

- - - - -

750 words
 

bartman

Immortal
Messages
41,022
Apologies Roosters that we didn't get three for this one.

Congratulations on a well-drilled and prepared team effort, and best of luck in the coming rounds of the Willow Cup :thumn.
 

Lambretta

First Grade
Messages
8,679
I enjoyed the Amco Cup read.

Nice bit of history that I missed out on.

Thanks for that.

PS Bubbles. lol @ your kid. That was funny. (I have two of my own - girls)
 

Pistol

Coach
Messages
10,216
Easts

Non Terminator with The Luck Of The Draw = 84

A good account of the experience. A bit stuttery in places.

Bubbles with Think of the Children... = 88

Well written account and perspective about how Thurston’s brush with Jason Robinson has implications on the younger generation.

Lambretta with Organisational Defections on the Park = 87

I liked this one. The writer looks at the AFL bound NRL stars and the implications of their defection

Eels

Bartman with The 7,572… = 86

Ahh yes, the Storm vs the Eels. What a game it was. The writer put forward a good account of the game and the elements of the fallout of the decider last year.

Phantomeel with Knockout = 89

A great yarn about the old Amco Cup. Those were the days. Well done




Easts defeat Eels

259-175



POTM

Phantomeel
 

bartman

Immortal
Messages
41,022
Cheers for the marking Pistol. Well done Easts, well deserved win having three articles in by the earlier full-time. And congrats Phantom on POTM.
 

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