Aghastee's,
It's been a while since there's been a low dog act on a Rugby League field - it's a thug's game played by gentlemen, after all. So, you can imagine my horror. The disgust and outrage was felt across the entire Balmain diaspora. Stay with me on this.
Early in the piece against the hated South Sydney, Tiger's legend Robbie "The Best Leb in the Game" Farah was underneath the black dot and about a foot and half from the try line, pinned to the ground on his back by two Souths players, when that filthy Pommy scumbag George Burgess came in over the top and gave Farah's left eye a bloody good gouging. That is, straight up, a send-off offence. It was no mere 'facial', oh no siree, and it went on for a long time and word filtered through that one seasoned veteran on the radio commentariat exclaimed, "oh my Lord, he's gone in down to the second knuckle there!". On the telly, Whispering Johnathan Thurston AM was moved to comment "it doesn't look good and I don't like it. That, and biting, are the two lowest acts on a rugby league football field and I think he's in a lot of trouble". The ugly suppurating pusball should have been given his marching orders on the spot, but no, the Bamfords only reported him. Surely with all the technology today, the bloke in The Bunker could've just told the ump to send Burgess off. Not to mention this character has got form. He's from West Yorkshire for a start. He copped a four week suspension for gouging some New Zealander while playing for Great Britain in a test match late last year. And now he's done it again. Thankfully, the Souths coach had the decency and sense remove Burgess from the field in short order and bench him for the rest of the game, knowing full well that he was a marked man. If left on, Balmain would have bashed Burgess to buggery - from pillar to post - and he would've come away alot worse off than Farah, who thankfully, only got a real good shiner. What a shocker. Unconscionable conduct on the highest order.
It's a shame the send-off rule fell out of favour many seasons ago. Back in the Bad Old Days nigh on 30 years ago send-offs were routine watching more games of rugby league than you've had hot dinners as a sports reporter; the cry from the crowd on the hill "off! off! off! off!" was commonly heard. Foul play was rampant. The capital offences of biting and gouging apart, you could also get sent off for a classic "Coathanger" or "Clothesline" swinging-arm head-high tackle. Blokes were diving trying to milk a send off. Tripping aka the 'leg tackle' could see you banished. Squirrel grips and Christmas holds were given the blind eye and fighting was tolerated, but you could find yourself all alone in the sheds with no one replacing you for starting an all-in on-field brawl, "The Stink", by really hitting some bloke in the head more than a few times, some times, toe to toe, and more often than not sending him down like a sack of potatoes with a freak right hook. You could even get sent off for patting a referee on the head as you were being sent to the sin bin; just ask Steve "Blocker Roach", he'll tell you. Jokes aside, Guvna, gouging is simply not on. In a game that's always had high ethical values, unlike rugby union, a team guilty of foul play of the high crimes and misdemeanors order should be penalised by being reduced to 12 men for the rest of the match. Simple. What ever happened to that?
In the denouement, the vile pile was sent straight to the Judiciary without the opportunity to take a guilty plea, and The Three Wise Men took a dim view of it, and the great steaming turd got rubbed out for nine weeks. Some say ten weeks was about the right freight, but nine will do. There was no mea culpa, just weak self-centred excuses: "I've been pretty upset. My career is probably in the balance. What I've done looks pretty disgraceful on the footage there. It's a shame really". Even though he'll be eligible to play in the finals with Souths looking good for the top four it's a season ender for all intents a purposes. Why does some shitty thug come along to ruin it for everyone? What possesses someone to do such a thing to a Balmain Living Legend is beyond me, and at his age and off contract he'll be very lucky to get another start at Souths and will fall one short of playing 150 games. Serves him right. By the time he's had nine weeks off when they could really use him, he'll be unwanted in September, and no one else will have him. Finito. Kaput. Back you go to the Dark Satanic Mills, where you belong, sonny Jim.
And oh, that was before the Mighty Tiges beat the bastard arseholes, in some very tasty comeuppance.The Rabbitoh's thought they had the game in the dilly bag, potting a field goal to break the 8-8 deadlock with six minutes left. Then Chee-Kam loomed up out of nowhere while Balmain were pretending to be setting up for a shot at goal, busted the Souths line with a neat dummy, the jink and the step, and he ran away to score without a hand being laid on him at the finish. Unbridled joy, right there. Chucked the walking cane aside and leapt out of the Jason Recliner lounge chair screaming. Cop that! Oh, how sweet it is.
WESTS TIGERS 14. Tries: Thompson, Chee-Kam, Goals: Marsters 3.
SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS 9. Tries: Allen. Goals: Reynolds (2). Field Goals; Reynolds (1).
At Western Sydney Stadium, Parramatta.
Crowd: 9,807.
Well, well, well...it looks like there's life in the Old Girl yet. After a cracking wins over arch enemies West Coast and Hawthorn in the the weeks previous, the Swans took fully three quarters to finally put the hapless Suns away in a very dour affair. And let's face it, if Sydney couldn't beat the stone motherless Gold Coast, then they richly deserve the Wooden Spoon. At 6-8 with eight games to go, The Red and The White can only afford to drop one or two games to squeeze into the top eight, and they have a negative percentage that desperately needs improving. The draw is favourable with only two current top four sides to face, and while there's faith, there is hope, however misplaced.
It's a season that's perpetually on the brink of being cruelled by injury, with Lance Franklin yet again on the sidelines as his ageing body faces the wrack and eventual ruin of throwing his weight around like there's no tomorrow. It's the only way he knows how to play. A classic case of doing a mischief is Callum "Sinkers" Sinclair, Sydney's one and only ruckman, who took a heavy head knock the week previous, and then dislocated his shoulder, not once, but twice...forcing him from the ground and Aliir Aliir into the ruck. Been saying for yonks that that "Chands" Aliir should play more in the ruck; he's got the build, and he acquitted himself well. The problem then is, there goes your goalkeeper, who seems to be essential in the current game.
Based on the "No Buddy, No Cigar" principle, it looks like SC Horse has now turned to Plan B, deciding that bombing it long and getting the crumbers to kick in hope is not the sure way to kick goals it seemed to be under the current rules and regulations. Maybe try holding things up, pin-point kicking from the midfield along the wings and then fire the pill in to any old Joe inside the 50m mark and have a shot. Longmire's got enough talls in the arsenal, Reid, S, The Ronk, The Lizard Blakey, the McCartin Kiddie if you like, all spring to mind. So why not use them? They should all be kicking a thousand goals at training every week. Every club seems to have a goal scoring problem at the moment, and when it's all said and done the scoreboard, never lies.
SYDNEY: 3.3 6.3 10.6 14.9 (93). Goals. Reid 2, Blakey 2, Ronke 2, Papley 2, Heeney 2, Jones, Aliir, Kennedy, Hayward.
GOLD COAST: 2.3 5.5 6.7 7.9 (51). Goals. MacPherson 2, Wright, Sexton, Scheer, Day, Miles.
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 26,194.
