Registered Nurses,
It had that air of all-too predictable inevitabillty about it.
Little wonder with no less than eleven [needless to say, that's two short of a team in this caper] rostered first grade players in The Sick Bay and The Best Leb In The Game afflicted with some disease/injury of/to the goddam pubis, for gawd sake.
West Tigers website thoughtfully maintains a regularly updated injured players list.
You know the sort of thing; name of player, cause of problem "knee", "groin", "shoulder", and earliest expected round of return - four of them are listed as "indefinite", but thankfully, at this stage, no one appears as "season".
With the very bad luck they've been having in that department so early in the season, the pessimist would say its only a matter of time before all hope is lost.
Balmain are not short on fitness; with the coaches they've got they'd be being flogged on the training paddock, so why the seeming fragileness?
The Club Doctor confesses that he doesn't have a clue.
To make matters worse, mid-week before the game three players, to wit Bryce Gibbs, Beau Ryan and Liam Fulton, were reprimanded and fined for failing to adhere to the no alcohol whatsoever rule for players in injury rehab, the weekend previous.
Seems they were spotted in a dark corner of the leagues club ordering the steak and chips and a couple of beers while settling in to watch some other rugby league game on the big screen.
No one is quite sure why they did it, or if it was an act of open defiance against the ban.
They're not saying, maintaining their right to silence.
The Coach and The Board took a dim view of it, but the Club Secretary eventually, wisely, downgraded the charge to a "breach of protocol" given that no one was anywhere near drunk or doing anything unusual or offensive.
Crikey!
If you were buggered and couldn't play and had little prospect of turning out in the forseeable future, the first thing you'd be tounging for would be a large drink, wouldn't it?
You have to wonder if anyone has officially replaced the "assistant coach" and go-to-man The Great Royce Simmons, who's departed for a full-time head coach job in the dark satantic mills of northern England.
Roycie would have simply advised the trio in question to get their grog home delivered.
Pleasing to see that SC Sheens continues to play ducks and drakes when it comes to team selection, naming the untried 18-year-old half back called Jacob Miller who was plucked from obscurity while playing for the Mullumbimby Giants, at half back, when he never intended to play him there, sensibly preferring the experienced Timmy Moltzen, who's more of a full back, to play half back.
Left Miller on the bench and gave him no more than 10 minutes in the centres in the second half, while Moltzen played the full 80 minutes for the first time in a good 12 months, according to the stats guru's.
After giving a regulation display in the first half with the limited resources they had, things were not helped for Balmain when that dirty rotten scoundrel Minichielo scored his 104th career try for The Chooks.
Things looked up when the Bamford saw fit to sin bin the very same player for ten minutes with nine minutes left in the match for a professional foul, aka a deliberate strip in a two-on-one tackle, with the Tigers in a choice attacking position.
The Bamford took that view that Minichielo had been doing it all day, and enough was enough.
Unfortunately the Tigers came very close but couldn't complete the set off the back of the penalty.
They battled on gamley with a few genuine chances in the denoument, but it didn't come close to paying off against a rugged steadfast opposition defence.
As expected, beaten fair and square.
Farah has a stark choice for his inner groin problem.
Surgery and two months off, or battle through the painkilling injections right into the rather delicate places, and play on.
Seems he might have taken the second option, given that he is permanently in dummy half and never gets tackled unless he wants to be, so he doesn't get bashed up like the other forwards.
Reckons he can still do his job on two crook nuts and get away with it.
No one's going to argue with that and good luck to him.
SC Sheens on interview after the game briefly ruminated on lost opportunites, principally the inability to convert some clever set-plays into points, but was at his tacitern best when he remarked..."well, we'll have to be better next week, otherwise Souths will murder us".
SYDNEY ROOSTERS 24. Tries: Kenny-Dowall, Kennedy, Minichiello, Carney. Goals: Anasta (4).
WESTS TIGERS 6. Tries: Woods. Goals: Marshall (1).
At Sydney Football Stadium.
Crowd: 20,479.
Found myself in a car on the way home from a picnic at Towradgi listening to the radio call of the last quarter from the Western Paddock, so didn't see a single frame of the game, not even the highlights reel on the crystal bucket news, so not really in much of a position to offer comment.
But from what could be discerned from the wireless, Mr Ed would not have been entirely happy.
Suppose he would have been relieved that the Swans managed to take the Get Out Of Jail Card Free, when it looked for all the world like yet another tie at the death.
Had to reach for the heart pills immediately on coming through the front door.
Seasoned observers suggest it was the club veterans who provided the glue to keep the sinking ship afloat after the long break.
But the likes of The Goodes Train (31yo), Rhino (30), Bolton, J. (31), Mad Marty Matts (28) are getting rather long in the tooth and can't have more than this year left in them, surely?
Looks for all the world, at this very early stage, like a repeat of last year looming - a reasonable show of making the 8, only to be eaten alive for breakfast in the finals.
Apparently one of the highlights of the match was one of the Bamfords being completely bowled over by Son of Gary, with the official going down like a sack of potatoes.
Talk about larf!
Worth the price of admission alone you would have thought.
Not that there were many there to see it; less than 30K at Homebush is an out-and-out poor attendance.
Perhaps the staff on the turnstiles somehow forgot to count the phantom members who didn't turn up?
My spy at the ground, a long time loyal member, sent me a message on the bush telegraph.
"Coach Horse appears to be trying something a little different. No-one quite knows what this is"
Time will tell, you'd be guessing.
SYDNEY: 1.5, 6.8, 10.11, 14.14 (98). Goals: J.Bolton 3, McGlynn 3, Bevan 2, White 2, Goodes, Kennedy, Rohan, O'Keefe.
ESSENDON: 4.4, 8.7, 12.9, 13.15 (93). Goals: Crameri 2, Hurley 2, Ryder 2, Winderlich 2, Leroy Jetta, Davey, Hocking, Watson, M.McVeigh.
At Olympic Stadium, Homebush.
Crowd: 28,082.
