Busted Broncos

Corey Norman makes a break against the Cowboys

The Brisbane Broncos are not very good. This is not new information or something no one else is saying, but rather an accepted reality in 2013, albeit one we are not used to. We are used to the Broncos being perennial contenders or at least making the finals, as well as Suncorp Stadium being a near impossible place to go and win for an away side.

Obviously with Wayne Bennett now a few years removed from the club and the retirement of Darren Lockyer, that wasn’t going to last forever. It is a transitional phase for the club but Anthony Griffin had seemed like a good coach and they always have a factory of young players to call on to keep them competitive.

However, this season the wheels have completely fallen off. Now you might argue that it has only been three matches and for all we know they will win every game from now until September, but that still doesn’t change my mind.

One thing the Broncos have always done well is develop talent and typically be able to keep that talent at least until salary cap pressure from too much success forces them to make tough decisions. But in 2013, the Broncos are letting their best young player leave at the end of the season with no real foresight or long term plan.

Basically every footy fan I know believe that Corey Norman is the best young player on the Broncos, as well as one of the best young talents in the game. He is clearly at his best with playing his natural position of five-eighth, but due to the signing of Scott Prince he has been put at fullback so far this season. Now that would be fine, even if I disagree with it in the short term, if it simply ended there. Young players have often had to wait their turn while a veteran filled their best position. But now Corey Norman has signed to play for the Parramatta Eels in 2014 and the Broncos do not seem to be all that fussed by it.

The fact that Norman was available and that the Broncos didn’t seem all that intent on re-signing him was an open secret and the Eels were constantly rumoured to be his destination, especially after missing out on Josh Papalii. It is a fantastic signing for the Eels and gives them a long term spine to build around with Hayne, Norman and Sandow in three of the four key positions.

But why would the Broncos simply let him go without a fight? Do they genuinely believe he isn’t that good, do they honestly believe they are set with Scott Prince and Peter Wallace? Or is there more to Corey Norman that we simply don’t know and they didn’t want the headache anymore?

As far as I can tell, Anthony Griffin is simply choosing to build around the newly returned Scott Prince at five-eighth, despite the fact he is 33 years old and already seems to be a shell of his former self. Prince and Wallace together simply do not have enough attacking skill between them at this stage to lead a team to win more than they lose. They are both solid defensively, Wallace in particular, and overall the Broncos are still a good defensive side. But that isn’t going to do all that much when you quite simply cannot manufacture points.

It is a very similar situation to the one the St George Illawarra Dragons find themselves in. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you have try scorers and game breaker on the edges or wings, if you don’t have the halves to get them the ball in the right situations you will never get the chance to use those weapons.

But let’s say Scott Prince was playing at his best right now. It is still a horrible decision to let Corey Norman leave. No one beats Father Time and Scott Prince is not someone you can build around at this juncture. Even if you continue to play Norman at fullback, until you decide Prince can’t go anymore, fullback is still a vital position and one worthy of paying Norman the money he received from Parramatta.

The problem is that Griffin has a different mindset to the fans/club at this stage. Griffin needs to think short term because his job is on the line right now. I disagree he is making the correct decisions even in the short term, but even if he was right, it still is valuing short term competitiveness over long term success, which often ends in disaster.

I also do not understand playing captain Sam Thaiday at prop. The guy has been one of the best back rowers in the league for a decade or so and the club is not short of props anyway. I understand that they want to play Glenn, Gillett and Parker and therefore figure they can just put 10 on Thaiday’s back, but it isn’t a best use of their squad in my eyes.

I would move Gillett back to the bench to be the most damaging of impact players and let Thaiday go back to his natural spot at 12.

Broncos’ fans expect success because they have grown accustomed to it and I understand there is a lot of pressure on Griffin to be in “win now” mode. Also, despite the fact that they are Queenslanders, I give Broncos fans just enough credit to understand that they are rebuilding and need to develop their young players for the next golden era.

But there is no rhyme or reason to what the Broncos are doing right now and with this current strategy I can’t see success in either the short or longer term. When Corey Norman is killing it in blue and gold next year, I imagine Anthony Griffin will be shaking his head and wishing he was still coaching in the NRL.

We are All Witnesses… Sigh

LeBron throws down a monster dunk over Jason Terry

Sometimes when watching something happen, whether it be in sports or just in the news, we understand in real time that what we are witnessing is historic and memorable. It can be for good or bad reasons depending on the circumstances, but some things are just clearly in that realm of events that stay with you.

In sports specifically it can be an individual event or it can be a broader thing like a team or athlete as a whole. I recently wrote about Black Caviar and Michael Jordan and they both fall into this category as individuals. Jordan’s Bulls’ historic 1995-96 season where they finished 72-10 also falls into it. In terms of individual games we can look at memorable finishes like both Rabbitohs vs. Roosters games from 2012, which fans who watch will always remember.

The 2012-13 Miami Heat and specifically LeBron James are without question in that category; even if they do not go on to win the championship. At time of writing they have just completed their 23^rd consecutive victory after beating my own beloved Boston Celtics in Boston, for the first time in years. The Celtics may have been without Rajon Rondo or Kevin Garnett, but watching the game you could tell it was truly a moment. The crowd was insane, the Celtics who did play were ferocious against their rivals and Uncle Jeff Green was playing like one of the aliens in Space Jam.

Despite having a big lead in both the first and second halves (both times they were run down) the Celtics couldn’t shut the door and then LeBron slammed it shut himself with a dagger three. When LeBron returned to the game with nine minutes remaining the Heat were down double digits and regardless of the crowd or the Celtics’ pressure, he simply wouldn’t be denied.

At the end of the day, one team had LeBron James and the other one didn’t. The same can be said of every game they have played this season and particularly during what is now the second longest win streak in NBA history and counting.

In June, the value of the streak and the season will hinge dramatically on whether they are able to go back-to-back and retain their championship, but even if they do not, I will never forget the quality of basketball I have witnessed during this run. I have watched a lot of basketball in my life and whilst I never saw the Showtime Lakers or Russell’s Celtics, I did see Jordan’s Bulls and even the Shaq/Kobe era Lakers. This LeBron season is the greatest individual basketball performance I have ever seen, in what is arguably the most talented NBA player pool ever.

In any other season Kevin Durant would be on his way to an easy MVP season and people would say it was deserved and not controversial. But yet he isn’t even a close second to what LeBron is doing right now. LeBron always had the physical capability to go to this level but it would require the mental aspect as well as the hard work to improve his game to actually reach it. Clearly all of those stars have now aligned and the rest of the league is in trouble.

Many NBA fans that are not Heat fans hate the Heat and hate LeBron. I certainly fall into that category, especially as a Celtics fan. It is hard to reconcile my hatred for their winning with the appreciation as a basketball fan for what they are doing. But sometimes the joy of the game overtakes the jersey they are wearing and whilst I may hate the Heat, I respect them to no end.

Heat fans however will mostly believe this streak and season is meaningless if it doesn’t end in a ring. Obviously that is true in a large sense, but I still believe that win or lose, this season will be remembered forever and talked about for years.  The 2007 New England Patriots season which ended in Super Bowl disaster will never be forgotten (many other factors in that one too) and clearly it would be a different narrative had they won the title, but that season will always be remembered for them more than anything else.

Even the Houston Rockets 22 game win streak that the Heat just surpassed will never be forgotten and that team never got close to winning the championship and they never displayed quite the level of play the Heat have reached.

It is hard to compare across eras, especially with the rule changes and league expansion, but the peak level of this Heat team could very well be higher than the peak reached by those legendary ‘96 Bulls or ‘86 Celtics, which are considered by many to be the two best individual season teams in NBA history.

The best comparison I can think of for this Heat/LeBron team is across the Atlantic Ocean. Lionel Messi and Barcelona reached a level of football performance that I had never seen before in any team sport, until now. Stylistically the teams are worlds apart, as the Barcelona style would compare better with the aforementioned ’86 Celtics and their passing. This heat team is built around stars and a few key role players; more like Barcelona’s great rivals Real Madrid.

But despite their differences, both the Heat and Barcelona have transcended the game and put on a performance that is more like art than sport. At this stage, both teams are competing against themselves more-so than the team trying to defend them and both are doing so behind the performance of a once in a lifetime athlete.

Barcelona have already won plenty of trophies during this era, whereas the Heat have only won the title once so far, but in both instances we will be telling our grandkids about watching both LeBron James and Lionel Messi dribble a ball.

Love him or hate him, as Nike likes to tell us, we are all witnesses.

So What Did We Learn?

The Sharks celebrating their emotional victory over the Titans

Round 1 of the NRL season is now over and I hope, unlike some of the Aussie cricket team, you all did your homework. What are the takeaways from the first week of matches and what was most surprising?

We don’t want to get carried away by any specific performance or lack thereof, as after all, one match does not a season make and plenty of teams have started slow and ended up having successful seasons. But that doesn’t mean we can’t look at what happened and leave us with some valid thoughts.

For the most part, the games were relatively uncompetitive. The Rabbitohs 18 point victory to open the season on Thursday seemed as though it would leave the Bunnies near the top of the ladder on for and against, but by the end of the round four other teams had won by even more.

So the first question to ask is how bad were the teams that got smashed and does it mean anything?

The Tigers were handed the worst of the thrashings on Monday night by the Knights and looked awful. I don’t think many had huge expectations for the Tigers and a lot of the result comes down to how well the Knights played at home. More importantly, the Tigers were dealing with one of their own passing away only a week earlier in Mosese Fotuaika and I can’t imagine how much that would have been on the minds of the Tigers players. I am willing to give them a pass for their Round 1 efforts, but Mick Potter needs to get his team looking more like a football team in time for Round 2, or else some real questions will have to be raised.

The Warriors are another team with a new coach who looked like they were ill-prepared in Round 1. Matt Elliott would have wondered what he signed up for whilst watching the Warriors inept efforts against Parramatta. Whist Parramatta were clearly on fire, I honestly think this one was more about the Warriors defence than any long term sign about the Eels improvements.

Yes, Parramatta will be better than last year, but I could have made a line break against the Warriors on Saturday given the size of those holes. The Warriors have so much talent and Matt Elliott is a pretty good coach, but it looks like the more things change the more they stay the same for New Zealand. Talent stops meaning much when discipline, effort and concentration go out the window and the Warriors consistently put up efforts like this in away games. The fact the players wanted Tony Iro to get the job over Elliott may mean that Elliott will never really be able to get through to this team, but we will have to see if they can turn it around and make use of the roster they have on paper.

On the subject of discipline, the Roosters have got to be one of the most frustrating teams to support. I am unfortunate enough to be friends with several Roosters fans, frankly it probably would mean I know most of the Roosters’ fans, and they were left shaking their heads at the continued lack of improvement to their discipline.

The commentators during the game had an interesting conversation about why the Roosters have such poor discipline year after year and Gus suggested it could be a lack of respect for authority. I have to agree with that assessment. The Roosters have such a great roster, but they shoot themselves in the foot by thinking they will get away with murder over and over again. They try to make every single play a match winning one rather than just completing their tackles and sticking to the game plan.

The last few years has seen the Roosters have several off field indiscretions and their players tend to get away with minimal punishment. Sure they will stand a player down, but then they bring him back a week later like nothing happened. I’m sure many of you have seen or heard stories of partying Roosters around the Eastern Suburbs as well. That’s fine, but I believe it has a direct correlation with how many penalties they give away on game day.

Change the culture off the field and you will change it on the field.

Trent Robinson will get through to them eventually and I think they’ll make the finals, but it has to start by preaching discipline and patience. They will score a lot of points this season though, win or lose. They have so many weapons.

Penrith handily beat Canberra, with the score blowing out late and I thought Penrith showed clear signs of the culture change Phil Gould is implementing coming to fruition. The Panthers have an ok roster, with some decent additions, but they are still quite a no-frills team. They are only going to win matches by playing harder and smarter than their opponents and I was impressed with their defence against Canberra. They might not have an amazing season, but they won’t go quietly against anyone it seems.

Canberra on the other hand looked poor, but they are an enigma. You count them out and they go on a run to make the finals. You predict them to make the finals and they barely win a game. They always seem to win enough home games to be decent, but I honestly have no idea what to expect from them week to week. Next week they might win convincingly or lose again and nothing would surprise me.

The Manly win over the Broncos was about what I expected. Manly should be a better team than the Broncos, but both teams should be solid enough. I really didn’t take too much out of it besides the fact that I think Corey Norman should be playing at 6 and is wasted at fullback.

The Cowboys win over the Bulldogs was also relatively expected, with all the outs the Bulldogs had. The match was played on neutral ground in Gosford and I think both teams will still be pushing for a top 4 spot by the end of the season.

No result was more obvious than the Storm over the Dragons though. That is what happens when the reigning premiers host a team I think will be trying to avoid the wooden spoon. If you didn’t see that result coming, I don’t know what to tell you.

Finally the Sharks. Bless their cotton socks. The match was a bit weird and had quite a lot of errors and thus few points were scored. But the fans were incredible and I legitimately had goose bumps as they sang ‘Up, Up Cronulla’ after the win. Regardless of what happens with them now, I was really happy for their players and fans that they could at least enjoy that moment. That being said, that game lived inside the vacuum of the moment and I don’t think it can be used to gauge much about either team going forward.

That does it for Round 1 and I already can’t wait for Round 2 to start in a couple of days.

Oh football, how I missed you.

Trial by Team List

Matt Ryan was surprisingly selected on the bench for the Eels

We are finally a day away from the start of the NRL season and that means we now have the team lists for the Round 1 matches. Whilst I already had thoughts on teams that would do better or worse in 2013, sometimes you really need to see what a team is putting out on the field to realise where they have improved or gotten worse.

As there are every year, there were certainly a few things I found surprising when I read the team lists yesterday, including some players I hadn’t even realised had changed clubs or had forgotten they had changed clubs until I was reminded by seeing their name.

Manly are still going to be a good team and have one of the best young halves combinations in the league, but their success is finally catching up with them as I was surprised by some of the names they picked. I knew Glenn Stewart was out and that Jamie Buhrer would fill in at 13, but I didn’t realise how weak they had become at prop. Brent Kite and new recruit Brenton Lawrence would have to be up there with the worst starting prop combinations in the league. They get the trusty Jason King back in Round 2, which helps enormously, but losing Darcy Lussick to Parramatta in the offseason means the Eagles will be hoping their youngsters (and Ritchie Fa’aoso) really step up and fill the void, because one thing we know is you need a platoon of props to get through the NRL season.

Justin Horo starting in the second row will also be interesting. He is one of those guys I forgot changed clubs and perhaps the change of scenery away from Parramatta will do him wonders as he is very talented.

Parramatta kick the Ricky Stuart era off on Saturday against the Warriors and I must admit how shocked I am that Matt Ryan is named on the bench. I thought he was going to be the direct replacement for Nathan Hindmarsh as the no nonsense tackle machine every team needs, especially Parramatta. Reni Maitua, Ben Smith and Joseph Paulo aren’t a bad back row, but for mine Ryan should be starting and playing near on 80 minutes. Also I still think Ben Roberts might just be the worst player in the NRL, but at least he isn’t starting anymore so that’s an improvement I guess.

The Warriors in the same match have named back rower Elijah Taylor at hooker and he has got to be the biggest hooker I can remember, at least in the modern era. The Warriors have a solid pack, strike weapons outside and I like Matt Elliott as a coach, but they are one of those teams that will live and die by how many points their halves can create. Shaun Johnson took a step backwards last year and needs to find an instant partnership with Thomas Leuluai for the Warriors to get back to winning ways.

The Bulldogs come into the season with four big names all out with Barba and Graham suspended and Kasiano and Pritchard injured. It is a testament to their depth that they are putting out a very solid team across the park anyway. A few years ago whilst at Canberra, Drury Low tore the Under 20’s competition apart, so it will be interesting to see how he goes on the wing for the Bulldogs while Barba gets his life together.

The Cowboys bench is scary. The idea of the Sims brothers and Jason Taumalolo coming on when the likes of Scott and Tamou need a break is frightening. They need young halfback Ray Thompson and new English hooker Sam Moore to complement Thurston and Bowen, but if they do they should be good. That being said, the Cowboys have underachieved before and if they do again this year it might spell the end of Neil Henry.

The Raiders backline depth is also quite staggering. In a game where both Dugan and Croker are out they have still named a fantastic backline. Reece Robinson would start at fullback for half the league and is only playing there because Dugan is out. Frankly if I were David Furner, Croker would struggle to get back into the side given his defensive frailties. Also… EDRICK LEE!

If I didn’t hate the Dragons (as any good Rabbitohs fan should) I would feel sorry for them. Their team just isn’t particularly good this year. Their best player is a winger and as good as he is a winger can’t carry you through a season. I think they have the worst halves combination in the league and whilst their forwards are all serviceable, they don’t have enough attacking potency in the squad. My tip is that Steve Price will be first coach fired in 2013 and watching them in the Charity Shield only made that belief stronger.

The Sharks team is interesting. They had a good year in 2012 but tapered off towards the end. As per usual their forward pack is very good and the signing of Michael Gordon is a big one (should he stay fit) and Beau Ryan should continue his solid play. I do wonder if they should have found a spot for Nathan Gardner somewhere as he is too talented to play reserve grade. I would have picked him over Jono Wright on the wing, despite Gardner’s lack of size. Once again the Sharks fortunes will rely on Todd Carney and he is coming back from a pretty nasty injury, so it is a real wait and see thing with the Sharks this year.

Finally I was surprised and happy to see the Tigers pick Jacob Miller at halfback and move Benji back to five-eighth. They signed Anasta but at this point I think the back row is the right place for him and Miller has been so good at Under 20’s level for so long that it is time he gets a real opportunity to make the halfback spot his own. They have to be patient with him, but if the Tigers want their premiership window to re-open I think Miller at 7 has to be part of that plan.

Obviously I didn’t touch on all teams but that is because the others were all right about what I expected of them. The Rabbitohs and Roosters should be a cracking season opener, even for a neutral and I’ll see you all at the footy.