Waiting patiently for a real game

Close your eyes and imagine this, folks. You’re a team who have worked hard from the start of the season to get to a competitive position on the ladder. You managed your Origin stars, used your backups judiciously and survived the six-week minefield that is the Origin and bye period, coming out the other side in good shape.

You hit round 24 and you’re set in the top two, unable to be dislodged. You’ve played teams that have plenty to prove and they’re pretty good, but your heart’s not really in it and you lose. All you really want to do is get to sunnier weather and bigger crowds.

The media and supporters start to doubt you, saying you’re dropping off, that other teams around you are peaking at the right time, ready to sweep all before them. They don’t know what you know, though. That finals football is a completely different beast to the regular season. That only fools show their hands in the regular season. That you are so bored waiting for your ’real’ season to begin that it might look like you’re not 100 per cent on the job.

Your team craves the intensity and high stakes of finals football and all of this preamble is just getting in the way. Sure, you might look ordinary now, but just wait until that kickoff in week one of the real stuff. You know that the path of rugby league history is strewn with the bodies of exciting, fast teams that lit up the regular season.

This week, Melbourne travel to Brookvale to play Manly and Cronulla have a Monday night assignment against South Sydney. In their heads, they’ll be analysing and strategising how to beat Canterbury, Canberra, Brisbane and North Queensland. Look for another potential ‘upset’, but remember not to be sucked in when the doom and gloom predictors start up again…

Happy days at Channel 9…

The Broncos are back! Well, that’s the conclusion some are jumping to after two wins on the run. Brisbane clouted the fast-fading Parramatta after scraping over the line against St George the week prior. Conveniently ignored in these jumped conclusions though is the previous fortnight, a home loss to Penrith and a belting by the reborn Roosters, but I digress…

This winning ‘streak’ is manna from heaven for the executives at channel nine, who are relying on Brisbane to keep ratings bubbling along before the finals kick off. Late season match scheduling seems to reveal a strategy to suck as much finals anticipation out of the atmosphere as possible, using (with respect) marquee free-to-air match-ups like Manly v Newcastle, Roosters v St George and Knights v Rabbitohs.

September will be a golden period for publications like Rugby League Week, when people who don’t have Foxtel search for information about these exotic teams in the finals called the Sharks, the Storm and the Raiders. Who says print is dead?

This Thursday, Brisbane face a tough test against Canterbury. Brisbane are desperate to claw back into the top four and if the Bulldogs win, the four is all but set. Brisbane need their halves pairing of Anthony Milford and Ben Hunt to maintain their newfound spark and secure the win, which will make the 2016 finals situation a whole lot more interesting.

The Bulldogs are just treading water. Against lower teams, they do the bare minimum required to win, then they move on. Des Hasler prefers to test his team against the best – his Bulldogs fear no one and they will relish their next two games against Brisbane and the Cowboys, a perfect finals tune up that leaves no room for complacency. Look for Canterbury to give Brisbane’s ‘revived’ attack a thorough defensive examination… and the ratings to be huge.

Who wants to play finals? Anyone?

Everyone has had a chance to get involved in the final eight in the last few weeks. The last two spots are up for grabs, but you get the distinct impression that some teams are pretty impressed with their end-of-season holiday destinations and don’t want to delay their arrivals.

Last week I sang the praises of the Wests Tigers, who went on to lose to Gold Coast in Campbelltown, with James Tedesco breaking his jaw just to rub it in. The Tigers were in business class, now they are on a mystery flight. This Friday night they play Penrith, a team in better form and with similar finals aspirations.

Penrith have quietly gone about winning four of their last five games, but losing one of their one CEOs after Corey Payne resigned this week. How this will affect the team is anyone’s guess. As a guide, after the CEO resigned at my workplace, I was a wreck and couldn’t go to the office for weeks.

Now for the New Zealand Warriors. Given the chance to lock away a finals spot, they collapsed in a screaming heap against South Sydney. The 19-point loss may well prove to be the death blow for 2016 across the ditch, because on Saturday night they travel to North Queensland and play a quite annoyed Cowboys team. It is the Warriors though, they are just as likely to beat the Cowboys by 40.

Last year the Warriors lost eight straight games to finish the year, dropping from fourth to their eventual resting place of 13th. Rounding off this year in similar fashion may not be a surprise, but it is a giant waste of talent.

St George Illawarra (I cannot believe I’m writing this and I’m CERTAIN you can’t believe you’re reading it) are still an outside chance to reach up and grab that eight rung. On Sunday, free-to-air viewers are blessed with the spectacle of the Dragons taking on the Roosters and I think I speak for all when I say please Roosters, put this one away. Please.

The Gold Coast Titans head to Newcastle, where a big enough win will sew up a finals spot, thus rendering this section of ‘Three Things…’ pretty much irrelevant. I think we’ve had enough of teams blowing their finals chances. Look for Gold Coast and Penrith to put things beyond doubt.