The good, the bad and the ugly report - rd 25

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.

cf2 is back

Reserve Grader
THE GOOD:
My god where to start. The smell of blood was thick in the air, and that was before kick off with 20,000 packing into Brookie. The game that was billed as the match of the year. Wow it sure lived up to it.

1st half:
Has there ever been a bigger 40 minutes of football? I mean ever? The whistle goes and we botched the kick off letting Melb set themselves to dominate in our 20. Pretty quickly though our forwards let them know this is Fortress Brookie and asserted their dominance. The stage was quickly set for a fight of epic proportions. But little did we know how literal that would become. A brilliant attacking raid sets up one of the best tries of the year when Robbo cleverly leapt and tapped back a cross field kick to the left, followed by a sweeping move all the way to the far right before Jamie put in a superb cross field kick into the in goal for Foran to beat even lightning Slater to score. 6-0 after 5 minutes. More brilliant defence and more aggressive attack saw us totally dominate Melb and pin them in their 20. It just seemed like a matter of time before try and 12-0. But Melb were holding tight. Joe G is running like a man possessed and somehow knocks himself out. He gets up to run back to the defence but falls flat on his face Toovs 1987 style. Those smelling salts must be incredible because he comes back to life believing he's now our halfback and stuns us all putting in a Joey Johns inch perfect grubber. What the?!

Then major incident no 1. Wolfie crashes into the corner and in seconds everyone knows it's a serious injury. No matter what you want to say about Melb and their cheating spoiling tactics (more on that later) there's something extraordinary about seeing an opposition player so concerned for an opponents welfare. Slater literally sat on the deck cradling Wolfie without moving. It's an act of sportsmanship I've not seen in a long while with the injury stopping the game for more than 5 minutes. That's a very long time in the NRL. So long that players stood in bunches talking, others doing stretches or little runs to try and keep warm, or in Watmoughs case sizing up who he was going to belt next.

Finally Wolfie was carted off to huge applause and the game resumed, but the problem was everyone had gone cold. Slowly tackle by tackle the heat returned and the arm wrestle continued. We looked far the more likely but Melb held on in more ways than one. From my seat in the Jane Try it seemed painfully obvious they were constantly cheating the 10 and wrestling and turtling us in every tackle. Shane Hayne is the best ref in the game and he soon let Melb know they were going to get pinged. We tried hard to score that 2nd try but in the 27th min the sensible option was to take 2 for an 8-0 lead.

Incident no 2. Wow. Lussick playing the game of his life gives them a shove and it's on. The fight we all knew was going to erupt. It's a big mess for the refs to sort out but Glenn and Blair get 10 in the bin. Hayne sensibly sends Glenn first to get him up the tunnel, then Blair. But whereas Glenn wanders off, Blair runs to catch up with him.

Incident no 3. They reach the sideline and words are exchanged. I reckon we can all guess what the subject matter is seeing given what happens next. Glenn's suddenly overcome with a red mist of fury and unleashes hell. Brett runs from 30 metres away and literally hurls himself at Blair to be joined in a mili second by 6-7 other Manly players. Mili seconds later every single player on the field has run to join in with the brawl spilling out all over the sidelines. It's total chaos. There's barely a punch landed with a baseball mound of players buried on top of each other. Officials are way too close but can't escape it. The benches, the trainers, the ballboys, the sideline commentators. Everyone's in there. In fact I'm nearly out of my seat to join them. God I hate Melbourne and I think I've got 20,000 mates.

Hayne calls for calm and instructs Glenn and Blair to return back down the infamous Brookie cage and back onto the ground. We all know what's coming. Both sent off. I love Glenn like a brother but I'm sorry doing that is an act of stupidity of enormous proportions. Yes there will be cries of this is our turf and you can't sledge and he's got a right to protect himself. But the fact is Glenn and only Glenn threw the first punch and it was Glenn who erupted hell. I will bet you a million to one that Glenn wishes he could take it back and just blast Blair with a 40 nil verbal and then get the hell out of there up the tunnel. But an act of sheer madness now sees us all sweating on the judiciary. Surely it's only 1 week for a stupid fight? Right? Please.

Back to the game. T Rex is forced to be a winger for the night but Jamie Lyon is so good he gives golden pearls of opportunities to whoever lines up outside him. In the 36th minute he sets up T Rex for a mac truck barnstorming try and a very, very tasty 14-0 lead.

What a half of football. Our forwards have totally monstered Melb in every sense of the word. We are so up for this game. The crowd as one are connected by an electric currant. This is what we live for, but can it possibly keep going?

2nd half:
We dominate and assert ourselves from the get go. But something strange is in the air. Where's Brett? We soon learn he's succumbed to a knee injury and not returning for the 2nd half. Huh? When did that happen? Oh my god please please tell me it wasn't when he came flying over Blair to protect Glenn. We all silently pray it's not season ending.

Again Melb dig in, but it's getting really frustrating to watch cos they are constantly wrestling, turtling, delaying, gang tackling and creeping up inside the 10. There's another word for it. Cheating. Smith questions every call. God he's annoying. But Hayne's on top of it and the penalty count mounts heavily in our favour. Finally in the 57th minute Jamie sends T Rex over in the corner. The conversion looks perfect but Jamie's towering kick slams into the post. Gee he's had a few of those in recent times.

It matters not. 18-0 is an unbeatable lead. We know it, they know it. The fatigue factor sets in and the errors start to come. Sloppy plays and dropped balls on both sides. The contest is over. It's just a matter of us keeping them to the perfect nil which seems more and more inevitable as the clock ticks down. 15 mins. 10 mins. 5 mins. 1 minute. 30 seconds and Melb put on a scattered attack, the ball pings around like it's stuck in a pinball machine. Slater swoops on it and beats one, two, three. My god he's a freak and as we fall over in exhaustion he slides over for a try on the siren that is bloody annoying given we so fully deserved the nil headline. But again it matters little.

We've won the fight by total knock out, but at what cost?

Wolfie in hospital. Brett's knee gripping our throats with fear. The Glenn/Blair moment of madness now up for the judiciary. Will any other players get called up? Can't see it given it's a baseball wrestle.

Individual performances. Brett was quiet in the first 40 and we wonder if that knee has been the factor holding him back in 3rd gear. Wolfie is so monumentally unlucky it's not funny. Prayers for both. Robbo is a hero doing everything and more we could ask and taking the fullback role over without missing a single beat. Matai is superb (but still hogging too much, pass it Steve pass it). Lyon plays one of those legendary captain knocks. Foran and DCE total 80 minute warriors. DCE gets better and better each week and we have a 6 and 7 you wouldn't swap for the world. Our pack are men mountain tonight and Lussick has come of age. Every one of them, Kitey, George, Joe, Choc, Lussick, Rodney and Ballin played like men possessed. T Rex and Buhrer have slotted in seamlessly in the backs.

Man of the match? I don't know. Give it to Des the architect.

THE BAD:
The 1st fight was necessary, brilliant and showed Melb who's boss. It was the moment when we told the cheating Storm to f*** off back to Melb. It was perfect theatre, perfectly timed. But all that came undone with the 2nd fight. It was dumb plain dumb and it forced Hayne to show who's boss. Glenn should have been in the dressing room counting to 10. Instead he's off to the judiciary counting for mercy.

THE UGLY:
The terrible injuries. We can only pray for Wolfie and Brett and the speedy return of Hoppa. Please footy gods.

What a night. A win for the ages, yet an eerily strange cast of gloom over the outcome. Undefeated at Brookie is a truly magnificent and incredible achievement. The Brookie faithful left in disbelief they won't be back until March. Let's hope it might be with an undeniable premiership glow that you could taste last night.

The Broncos next week? Who cares we're 2nd and gunning for a week 1 win and a week 3 leap frog. That's the big picture. Let's do it.
 
Goosebumps what an amazing read.

Your point about hayne is a good one I thought he and badger had a great game.
 
WAMF said:
Great work cf2.
Yes we definitely kicked their ass' back to Melb but at what cost?

That may well be the case mate, at what cost.

The worst case scenario(prior to last night) was that we would suffer season ending injury's to key players.

Didn't expect that we'd add season ending suspensions to that list as well.

We may wel have won the fight (literally not last nights melee) but lost the war......let's hope I am wrong.
 
Great work cf2. I was back at the Fortress reading it.
Loved your pick up on the glint in Choc's eye during injury time - he revelled in it last night.

The only point missing in your review was that Manly were forced to play only in the Melbourne half due to the substandard Brookvale Oval :D

Total domination by the Oldest pack in the NRL.
 
Great summary. You easily put into words what everyone else is thinking.

Thank you sir :)
 
Jesus, I take a holiday and miss this. Thanks for the report. I was very confident we'd win this one but the injuries and possible judiciary charges take a hell of a lot of the gloss off it. Fingers crossed for everybody.
 
you cant be a sports journo when you are this biased!!! Although i agree with all your comments 100%
 
Excellent summation cf2. Loved the Watmough comment.
The electric currant... is that a grape, or similar?

Yes, we have a somewhat aged pack... but like good wine, we just keep on getting better!
 
This is your best match report. Why not, last night was the best match of the year by galaxies.
You're right the vibe was electric. It was so good to see us dominate the cheats. Also you're right about Hayne. He leaves the rest of those tool refs for dead. Excellent report.
 
I don't agree with your assessment of Glenn's actions.
Maybe you're trying to sound unbiased but to blame the guy who was chased after for the actions of the person who chased him is baffling to me. Blair ran over to him to fight him. How can that be seen as Glenn letting the team down?
 
Fabulous report. I can't think of a match I've enjoyed more - except of course for the 40-nil. That was surreal. Last night was tribalism and theatre.
I, like many, are torn between the feeling of elation and concern about our finals tilt. If only this was the GF.
My one hope is that other contenders could suffer injuries to their star players over the next few weeks. Tigers and Broncos are no hope without their no. 6s, and they are the teams to fear most now that we've shown everyone how to beat Melbourne. We have class and guts all over the park. Whoever is selected to wear the maroon and white will do us proud.
 
Duff said:
I don't agree with your assessment of Glenn's actions.
Maybe you're trying to sound unbiased but to blame the guy who was chased after for the actions of the person who chased him is baffling to me. Blair ran over to him to fight him. How can that be seen as Glenn letting the team down?

As I said Duff I expected many to disagree, although strangely I think you were the first. The simple truth is that Glenn threw the first punch and ignited mayhem. Not much more to say. If Glenn had run up the tunnel nothing would have happened.
 
Good report. I think Glenn has some mitigating factors in his favour. Blair grabbed him by the jersey and verballed him. What was he supposed to do? He should never have been sin-binned in the first place as he went in to break up the fight.

Brett and the others have more of a case to answer.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom