Pyschoanalysts,
Robbed blind.
A more disgraceful and deplorable display by legally blind umpires with only a fleeting acquaintence with the rule book has not been seen all season, in any code.
The incompetance of rugby league referees knows no bounds, it seems.
Never mind that the Bulldogs were playing from an off-side position all day in defence, there were some plain shocking decisions in the in-goal.
Take the Robbie Farah try for the Tigers that the Bamford ruled as "held-up" but then sent it upstairs to be reviewed by the idiot in the video referee's box, who couldn't made up his mind, so sent it back to the ref, who then upheld his own original decision.
What the?
Farah fumed and went up to the Bamford and said "Look, mate. I put that ball down. One thousand percent".
In a brazen admission of utter failure to do his job, the Bamford replied "I can't pay what I can't see".
Lord, save us.
And then there was the last 'try' of the match awarded to the Bulldogs, who clearly had a player run around one of his own players to deliberately obstruct the defence.
The rule book says that that's not allowed, under any circumstances.
The ref, bewlinderingly, awarded the try, but again sent it upstairs for some kind of confirmation/justification, where it was ruled "defender not impeded", quote unquote.
What the?
My spy at the ground tells me the Tigers fans who were brave enough, or some say, foolish enough to attend a Bulldogs home game [the class Canterbury supporters regularly get into fights and trash trains from Olympic Park when they lose] went absolutely ape-shit and there would have been a riot if the match had been played at somewhere like Leichhardt.
Lord save us.
The Best Leb in The Game, with his Captain's hat on, was so livid he started screaming into the Bamford's face at point-blank range "tell me! tell me! tell me how that wasn't a sheperd?! Even Blind Freddie could see it was obstruction!".
With his eyes spinning around on their stalks and steam coming from his ears, thought for moment that Farah going to grab the Bamford by the scruff of his neck and snot the fool.
Farah was promptly banned by the club's Football Dept from making his customary appearance at the post-match press conference as he would have just exploded and had a melt down.
SC Sheens was more circumspect afterwards saying he felt "hard done by" and would be having a quiet chat with the Bamford's boss on the Monday morning.
So the full time score should have been at least Balmain 26 Canterbury 18, but, oh, no siree...that's not what the scoreboard said, and as we all know, they scoreboard doesn't lie, nor does it account for criminal acts of highway robbery.
As you might have guessed, nothing gets on my goat more than stubbornly stupid buffoons masquerading as officialdom.
Maxwell & Cummins, we know who you are.
Farah would have also been very filthy with himself for fluffing the first chance at field goal in extra time from good field position, when he set the set-play too deep, found himself cramped for room, and the ball scooted off the boot and under the cross bar.
Inu, in the last minute of extra time, potted a hail-mary long-shot to snatch victory for Canterbury from the jaws of an extra-time draw.
Joisus.
SC Sheens did what he does best, and stated the bleedin' obvious on interview after the game: "We needed to score one point. We didn't score one point. So we lost".
A Bloody Point, eh?
In this week's minor miracle, Balmain again somehow manage to cling on by the skin of their teeth to 8th spot on the ladder at 11 wins/11losses with two to play, but the real shame of it is they are just now coming into some hardened late season genuine form with the forwards back in harness and the backs finding their mojo again, and would have given September a real shake if they were higher up on the ladder.
But it's season over now, for mine, after the shocking news that came through on the Sunday morning that Farah had been to the hospital complaining of a sore mit, and the x-rays confirmed that he'd picked up a season-ending busted hand.
To lose one of your marquee players at this stage of the year, especially the one who drives the engine room, makes it curtains, surely?
It's cruel game, rugby league.
It's becoming close to unbearable living in the heart of the Canterbury-Bankstown district now that the Bulldogs have won their 12th straight game and will easily pick up the JJ Giltinan Shield for the minor premiership - what with blue and white flags poking out of souped-up car windows, doof-doof, and various mongs and dingbats wandering about the streets aimlessly, dressed in full Canterbury Bulldogs kit.
Sick-making.
CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS 23. Tries: Barba, Reynolds, Tolman, Wright. Goals: Inu (3). Field Goals: Inu (1).
WESTS TIGERS 22. Tries: Koroibete (2), Marshall, Woods. Goals: Marshall (3).
At Olympic Stadium, Homebush.
Crowd: 29,194.
Who would've thought, as we get down to business time?
Fancy that...the Swans kick 26 goals...that featured 14 different goal kickers for only the second time in the club's history, including some bloke called Morton.
Morton?
Who's Morton?
Even at an unlikely 3-6 goals down at quarter time, it was clear that a Swans win was never in doubt as they were always going to kick a cricket score against a team that's done nothing all year.
It was terribly nice of those pretenders Adelaide and Collingwood to lose games they were expected to win easily to hand back top spot to Sydney, with a win in hand and a better percentage, and two games to play.
Thank you very much.
The Stats Guru was quick to point out Sydney/South Melbourne have equalled the club record set back in 1945 for most number of games won in a season at 16 [with the caveat that South went down to Carlton by a handy margin in that year's Grand Final; a match that was apparently characterised by "extreme on-field violence". Sounds like it was just one long brawl. Pity those days, when punters would walk for miles and pay a hefty admission fee just to see that sort of thing, have gone away].
Swans have also won more Championship Quarters than any other team this season, which just goes to confirm the critical importance of the third stanza.
Of course the strength through the spine was where it was won again, and some students of the game are now talking up the prospect of the entire Swans mid-field being picked holus-bolus in this years All-Australian team [now there's a very curious institution. It must be the only instance in any sport in the world where a national team is selected, but doesn't play a game against anyone, because there is no-one to play].
Special mention should be made of that Canadian rugby union player Mike Pyke.
It's only taken him a couple of years, but it now appears that he's got the hang of this caper, long after most clubs would have given up on persevering with him.
As Mr Ed says of The Pantsman "his ability to listen and learn is second to none".
Had a blinder in the ruck, squashed anyone they cared to put on him, and kicked three through the big sticks to boot, until he was subbed out of the game with a hobble, and replaced by the mystery that is Mitch Morton.
Again, Mitch who?
Coach Horse dismissed the result out of hand on interview after the game, saying it signified nothing and even professed to having no interest in winning the minor premiership: "all we are focussed on is beating really good sides, like the two really good sides that we have to play in the next two weeks".
Very interesting that the rugby league match in Sydney had a bigger crowd than the Australian Rules match in Melbourne by a fair way, for most likely the first time this season.
The Western Bulldogs obviously have no supporters, as there were a lot of South fans in - as far as you can tell on the telly - while support for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs is going through the roof, and Balmain Tigers fans travel, and are everywhere.
Maybe that's why Channel Nine coughed up a lazy billion for the rugby league TV rights mid-week.
Who knows?
But you would have thought people who shell out that many beans know what they are buying.
Let's face it, in terms of the pure entertainment factor, the rugby league has a lot more going for it on the crystal bucket than the Rules does.
The league game is over in a guaranteed 80 minutes plus ten minutes for half time, as opposed to the Rules game which is always a long, drawn-out affair where the result is often decided well before the thing finally ends after the best part of three hours.
And the Rules is definitely not made for television as the machine fails by its very nature to capture any more than half of what's going on as it shows virtually none of the leading for marks, the positional play, the jostling and general carry-on behind play that's all intrinsic to the game and that you can only see when you are at the ground [once knew a television camerman who worked on the AFL live coverage for a full two seasons before he realised the teams changed ends after every quarter - his sole purpose in life was to keep the ball in the dead set centre of the shot every time].
In stark contrast, 100% of the league game is up there on the screen for all to see.
Little wonder, with everyone belatedly crowding onto the band wagon, this weekend's blockbuster against Hawthorn at the building site that is the SCG with a considerably reduced capacity was sold-out three weeks ago.
Win that, and the minor premiership is in the dilly bag and everyone else can go suit themselves.
WESTERN BULLDOGS: 6.2, 8.3, 11.5, 13.7 (85). Goals: Addison 4, Dickson 3, Giansiracusa 2, Lake, Cordy, Picken, Johannisen
SYDNEY: 3.2, 10.5, 16.9, 26.11 (167). Goals: Pyke 3, Roberts-Thomson 3, Goodes 3, Mumford 3, McGlynn 2, Reid 2, O'Keefe 2, Hannebery 2, Jack, Parker, Morton, McVeigh, Kennedy, Jetta.
At Docklands Stadium.
Crowd: 19,396.
