for the sake of completeness

Having been away in Indo-China for the best part of three weeks, these scoreboxes are listed here for the sake of completeness:

An unconvincing win here, but all reports.

SYDNEY 5.6 9.7 1.9 14.10 (94). Goals: O’Loughlin 2, Jack 2, Moore 2, Meredith 2, Hall 2, Shaw, McVeigh, Thornton, Grundy.
RICHMOND 2.1 5.4 9.6 11.9 (75). Goals: Tambling 2, Collins 2, Graham 2, Richardson, Oakley-Nicholls, Nahas, Coughlan, Riewoldt.
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 25,410.

Yet another case of the one that got away:

CANTERBURY BULLDOGS 22. Tries: El Masri (2), Ennis, Goodwin. Goals: El Masri (3)
WESTS TIGERS 20. Tries: Moltzen, Ryan (2), Payten. Goals: Gallant (2)
At Olympic Stadium, Homebush.
Crowd 25,622

Predictable loss:

GEELONG 1.5 8.7 12.10 17.14 (116). Goals :Johnson 4, Stokes 3, Mooney 3, Hawkins 3, Bartel, Rooke, Byrnes, Kelly.
SYDNEY 1.2 4.3 7.4 10.5 (65). Goals: O'Loughlin 3, Goodes 2, Grundy 2, Moore, J. Bolton, Meredith.
At Kardinia Park.
Crowd: 22,050.

Easy two points:

WESTS TIGERS: Bye.

An absolute corker of a match according to those who were there. Heart pills were required in the final quarter.

SYDNEY 5.2 7.4 14.7 16.10 (106). Goals: Hall 5, Goodes 3, J. Bolton 2, Mattner, Ablett, Moore, Jolly, O’Loughlin, Jack.
WEST COAST 4.2 6.6 11.6 15.11 (101). Goals: McKinley 4, Kennedy 3, Lynch 2, Cox 2, McNamara, Cockie, Jones, S. Selwood
At Olympic Stadium, Homebush.
Crowd 33,079

Rabbitohs kicked a field goal in the dying minute to deny Tigers a deserved victory:

WESTS TIGERS 22 Tries: Tuiaki (2), Farah, Moltzen. Goals: Marshall (3).
SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS 23 Tries: Talanoa (2), Champion, Fa'alogo. Goals: Sandow (1),Luke (2), Field Goals: Merritt (1).
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd 29,970.

wouldn’t go that far on me holidays

Swine Swooners,

Watching the Fiasco at Subiaco was a painful experience.
No wonder Andrew Dipierdomenico, whatever his name is, y’know, the AFL No. 1 boss cocky, described Subicao Oval as the “worst ground in the league”, mid week.
“too small, can’t get a cold beer” were perhaps his central criticisms.
Suggested about $20 million might make it better.
Strange then, that the NSW Govt pulls the rug from out of underneath The Showground redevelopment, by reneging on verbal agreements to spend a squillion on the white elephant; telling the AFL oops! sorry! but we can’t find our way clear to spend a single penny on that one anymore.
Besides, we haven’t got the money anyway, and then there’s the potential backlash at the ballot box in labor heartland.
You can imagine Premier Greasy Reecy, the former Parramatta garbo, muttering in Cabinet “Rules!? Game for poofs!”
The Western Sydney Whatevers still born.
Watch the Launceston Devils queue up to have a lash at the entrails.
As someone said along the front bar at The Local yesterday when the question of AFL expansion was raised for debate, “does that mean there will be a bye in the fixture list in 20011-12?”
With BBB Hall missing in action for the past two weeks, given that extensive time on the work bench hasn’t cure his dose of Shagger’s Back, and Magic having gone walkabout for the entire season to date, the Swans are lacking focus when it comes to kicking to the forward pocket.
No matter that you have six goals kicked on you in the first quarter by a team that could muster just four goals for the entire game the week prior.
On that measure, St Kilda will win the grand final by the length of the street.
In the modern game there is rarely any chance of coming back from that far down even at that early stage and certainly game over by half time
The old blokes, with the exception of Brett The Eternal Nirvanarist Never Played a Bad Game Kirk appearing in his 200th, had rings run around them, and the few young kiddies in the side were left clueless as a result.
So that didn’t help proceedings.
As the barkeep at The Local said to me pointedly as he was languidly polishing the martini glasses, “you can get a good price on the Swans making the final eight, or so they tell me.”

FREMANTLE 6.4 11.9 16.10 18.13 (121). Goals: Mundy 3, Pavlich 3, McPharlin 3, Peake 2, Schammer, Murphy, Johnson, Thornton, Crowley, Sandilands, Hayden.
SYDNEY SWANS 2.2 5.3 11.3 16.4 (100). Goals: Goodes 3, McVeigh 2, Jolly, Mattner, Jack, Shaw, Malceski, Thornton, Buchanan, Grundy, Barlow, Meredith, O’Keefe.
At Subiaco Oval.
Crowd: 32,884.


“Campbelltown!”, the Good lady Wife exclaimed, “I wouldn’t go that far on me holidays!”
And so it is with the Wests Tigers third home ground, the home of the Western Suburbs Magpies…at least a 50 minute drive from here on a normal day…it’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.
And so missed another classic two weeks in a row, with the most rousing come-from-behind win seen at the ground in many a season.
“he beats one, he beats two, he beats three, he beats four! he’s beaten five would you believe, [!screaming by now!], Marshall’s found a hole, can he go all the way? great dummy there to beat the full-back, and he’s got it out to his winger, who’s away, to scooooorrre!”
Or so the ABC radio call went as I recall.
“that has to be one of the best rugby league tries you will ever see”
Benji floats like a butterfly across the width of the football field while making twenty yards with the jink, the step, the weave, the dummy here, the dummy there…beating tackles left, right, and centre…then stings like a bee.
The kiddie could be anything this season on the strength of that, particularly coming as it did very late in the second half to put the Mighty Tigers back in the match with a chance of winning.
It was a game where match fitness really counted, and yes, aware that there’s been some criticism from these quarters of Balmain’s match fitness over recent weeks, but the hard men finally stood up.
When you look at it askance, you realise that it must be a clever ploy on the part of SC Sheens to ramp the blokes up slowly, only get them really toughened up by game five or six, and then have them playing out of their minds approaching mid season, in the hope that they don’t break to pieces by season’s end and the club suddenly finds there’s more players on the Rugby League Players Association Injured Players Benevolent Fund list than not.
SC Sheens is thinking all the time, and it might just work.
It has before.

WESTS TIGERS 26. Tries: Collis (3), Ryan, Morris. Goals: Marshall (3).
NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 24. Tries: Hilder, Houston, Wicks, Mullen. Goals: Gidley (4).
At Campbelltown Sports Ground.
Crowd:17,898.

PS. Will be in Indochina for the best part of the next three weeks, so the Winter Game wire will be in abeyance for a while.
While the Bangkok Post and the Vientiane Times do print international cricket scoreboards on their back pages, they don’t extend to Aussie football scores as a rule.
As always, any eye witness accounts, lunatic rantings, studied analysis, drunken delusions, views from The Hill, etc, much appreciated to help fill in the gaps.

"the Sydney way of going"

Opportunists,

By all accounts, missed a classic upset at the spiritual home of Balmain rugby league on Monday night.
Call me a weak poof, if you will, but the gale force sou’wester and the scudding low clouds with short sharp bursts of sheeting rain was rather off putting.
As the Good Lady Wife remarked very early in the day “be buggered if I’m going to get a wet arse at the football. those days have gone away”.
In the event, the Mighty Tiges won the toss and kicked with the not inconsiderable breeze and wound up leading 10-6 at half time, then managed in a humungous defensive effort, to maintain the same score line for the vast bulk of the second stanza, to within about a minute and a half from the end when from an innocuous scrum, the Balmain backline caught on fire for no apparent reason and the try scoring freak Chris Lawrence was sent on his way from about sixty metres out to score under the posts for a famous 16-6 victory against last year’s Grand Finalists.
Those at the ground suggest that the wags operating the score board took down the scores at the end of the reserve grade game, and then put the number 10 in the Wests Tigers score box, to acknowledge the fact that playing at Leichhardt Oval is worth ten points to the home team before they even start.
And so it was.
Mad Gus Gould without hesitation awarded the man of the match award on MMM to Robbie Farah, when in truth he spent much of the game as traffic cop, with a handful of good busts over the advantage line, while the Moltzen kiddie at full back was probably a better candidate for best.
Keefy “Bloodnut” Galloway is playing out his mind in the forwards and now appears to be the most valuable off season re-signing given that he was being targeted by the Gold Coast, the team probably has the best wingers in the caper, a very serviceable forward pack led by The Refrigerator, but there remains concern that Benji is still playing too far back at half back and isn’t hitting the advantage line with the required gusto in order to create opportunity in broken play.
Needs to match that with his judicious kicks in general play and his by and large excellent goal kicking.
Still, in the grand scheme of things, the coach’s curse of inconsistency continues to dog.
The Tigers game record so far this season is W-L-W-L-L-W.
At that rate, SC Sheens will not have a single hair on his head by season’s end.

WESTS TIGERS 16. Tries: Lawrence (2), Moltzen. Goals: Marshall (2).
MELBOURNE STORM 6. Tries: Hoffman. Goals: C.Smith (1).
At Leichhardt Oval.
Crowd: 12, 646.

There was no window opportunity to attend the first Australian Rules game to be played on a Saturday afternoon at the Sydney Cricket Ground since 1952.
Good to see the Swans go around in the traditional South Melbourne strip of white with red sash, but did they really have black numbers on their backs in the 1909 Grand Final?
Thinking that the numbering of players guernsey’s in the VFL didn’t become commonplace until the 1920’s, given that everyone at the ground back in those days before vast stadiums, knew who they were looking at simply by body shape and the visage on the players faces.
Noted that the young Shaw kiddie on television interview after the game admitted that the Swans were all at sea in the first quarter, until they found “the Sydney way of going” in the second quarter.
Something that SC Roos later referred to as “Plan B”.
Don’t know if it was an oblique reference to the Doncaster Handicap being run and won on the same afternoon at adjacent Royal Randwick, or the now time honoured Swans tactic of shutting teams down across the half back line to prevent them from scoring, while not overly bothering to attack the big sticks at the other end themselves.
Low scoring, ugly win is as good as any other win, or so the theory goes.
Plan B certainly seemed to work after BBB Hall was ruled out on match day with a mild dose of Shaggers Back; the Swans ten goal kickers in a score of just 12 goals points to an increasing tendency of SC Roos to switch whole backlines into the forwards from time to time and vice versa just to confuse the hell out of the opposition.
It might just work in the long run as the modern footballer realises that you have to be able to play everywhere, multi-skill, while jumping through all the hoops at the same time.
Still, for all that, it’s a dull game when you find yourself nodding off on the lounge in front of the unblinking eye before half time.
Lord save the AFL’s “push” into western Sydney if the new team also adopts “the Sydney way of going”
Potential fans living in The Great Armpit will find themselves running a hundred miles away from that.
Can see the experiment resulting in a whole lot of people losing a whole lot of money, and it all ending in tears and a quivering mass of nerve endings after a couple of years.
Why bother?

SYDNEY: 3.0 7.2 10.7 12.12 (84). Goals: McVeigh 3, Bird, Jolly, Barlow, J Bolton, Moore, White, Thornton, Ablett, Mattner
CARLTON: 3.5 3.12 6.12 9.13 (67). Goals: Betts 3, Fevola, Cloke, Judd, Simpson, Murphy, Houlihan.
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 30,834.

singing from a hitherto unknown hymn book

Inquisitors,

Spent the first part of Easter attending to helping with the end of a 40+ year old era [another story] so only managed to pull myself in front of an unblinking eye to see the Championship Quarter at The Gabba.
It wasn’t particularly inspiring.
A cursory glance at the scoreboard did not bode well.
Four goals to half time and you could have been forgiven for thinking that the Swans were thinking that they were playing Irish football, except that they were also six goals down.
The half-time/full-time points margins were pretty much the same.
There was a suggestion on the radio afterwards that the Swans have a “fundamental problem” this season that will prevent them from making the top eight.
To wit, SC Roos has always been renowned as an outstanding technical coach who stands back and looks at the big picture, which is generally a good idea and is often best got from ground level, but now appears to be out-thought when it comes to the lock-out game, with opposition coaches routinely finding gaps in the minefield
It worked in ’05, but with an already ageing roster now four years older, and a hopeless young kiddie talent recruiting strategy, it was no wonder that the band of Brisbane youngsters ran rings around them, and were widely considered as the best players on the ground.
Swans boys can hardly be blamed at this early stage in the piece for playing to a well worn game plan, as instructed, only to find it’s not working as often as it should.
Perhaps the coach should leave the old blokes on the training track banging away at a pair of big sticks, while he books himself in for session in The Room Full of Mirrors down on the Balmain Road?

BRISBANE 4.4 10.6 12.9 15.10 (100) Goals: Brown 4, Bradshaw 4, Sherman 3, Notting, Adcock, Drummond, Rich.
SYDNEY 1.2 4.5 7.10 9.13 (67) Goals: Hall 3, Jolly 2, Meredith, Barlow, Moore, White.
At The Gabba.
Crowd: 24,984.


Barreling down the Pacific Highway towards the Emerald City early Sunday morning, for about three seconds considered a detour across to Brookvale Oval, but then recalled my rather poor experience at my last appearance at the home of the Silver Tails in ‘88, and subsequently being chased out of the Manly leagues club and escaping with my life on a passing Palm Beach bus, and thought better of it.
The innovation of two refs on the field at any one time has done little for the integrity of the Bamfording caper, as they were both singing from a hitherto unknown hymn book throughout.
How the Marshall try, at a crucial moment in the first half, was disallowed on a technical foul when the defender who was inadvertedly tackled without the ball had a snow flakes of getting to the try scorer, let alone ball carrier in the running play, is beyond me.
And “The Refrigerator” being sent off for a ten minute rest in the sin bin in the second half for a “professional foul” that no one at the ground, least of all the officials, could properly explain, defies description.
Given that help, they should have been beaten by a lot more for mine.
Soon after the traditional softening up period, the Balmain forwards were officially listed as missing in action; Farah did a couple of good things and Our Benji played alright, but the inability to complete sets of six tackles/and or finding the try scoring freaks on the wings, cost ‘em dearly in the first instance.
Didn’t help that the Tigers were playing an untried full back against a Manly full back who in his first game back after a four week suspension for getting absolutely maggoted as, at a sponsor’s function and then rogering a 17 year old girl in a stairwell after she’d said “no”, scored three tries off his own bat, and looked serious about it.
B.Stewart doesn’t smile much anymore.
Also, noted mid-week that the Wests Tigers RLFC Chief Executive Officer, Scott Longmuir, tendered his resignation after less than five months in the job, after he tried to implement “performance indicators” for the coaching staff, to which SC Sheens responded, “well listen here sonny, you can go and jag that one clean up yr runter, You’re speaking to a bloke here who delivered a long awaited premiership – how does that measure up on the indicators? --, and as a result has been admitted to the Pantheon and officially annointed as a Super Coach. What have you ever done, buddy?”
Board agrees with the coach = CEO’s position; untenable.
Another one for the scrapheap.
I’ll be the one right behind him in the long queue down at Centrelink.

MANLY SEA EAGLES 23. Tries: Stewart (3), Hall, Brett. Goals: Lyon (3). Field Goals: Orford (1).
WESTS TIGERS 10. Tries: Ryan, Morris. Goals: Marshall (1).
At Brookvale Oval.
Crowd: 17,942.

rarely if ever seen

Supreme optimists,
Something very rarely if ever seen at the Western Paddock on Saturday night.
The stadium rise as one to give the Sydney Swans a standing ovation at three quarter time, after a pearler of a championship quarter.
An eight goal belter that really put the issue beyond doubt.
The not inconsiderable Hawthorn cheer squad just around from the cheap seats behind the goal were speechless.
For a team that was written off in the pre-season by those who should know better as a bunch of old blokes getting about in wheelchairs, it seems there is life in the dead horse yet.
Although, you wouldn’t have known it from the off with the usual sluggish start as the Swans rubbed the sleep out of their eyes, and when the Buddy Franklin kiddie, just after quarter time, shrugged off three Swans defenders as if they were some kind of nancy boys, piroqutted on a sixpence, and slotted the ball through the big ones, the pessimists among the faithful were ready to hang their heads in their hands.
The youngest daughter has learnt well over the years as she turned to me right on the half time siren and said “well, I guess it’s all down to the championship quarter then, isn’t it, Dad?”
Who knows what SC Roos said or did at halftime, maybe he called for the electro-shock therapy equipment, but whatever it was, it worked.
Haven’t seen the Swans play a better second half of football since probably the premiership year.
Jolly running riot in the ruck, with The Goodes Train expertly playing a position that has become all but obsolete these days – ruck rover – [no room for the Canadian rugby player in the side], Malceski was strong, sort of a backliner who thinks he’s playing in the forwards, the Ugliest Man in Football was busy with Marty Mattner and Oddhead McVeigh, knocking up a dingo proof fence across the half back line.
Cap’n’ “never played a bad game” Kirk and C.Bolton probably tied for best on ground for mine as they tossed the Hawks about like soft toys through the centres, with Rhino Keefe assisting, and the Bird kiddie leading the charge of the few youngsters in the side.
BBB Hall spent most of the second half swatting opposition players like flies; the big fella believe it or not has bulked up even more during the off season, maybe putting on 5-10 kilos, and looks like he’s been spending time in the gym, so if he wasn’t a massive intimidating unit before, well, he is now.
Kicked four, but it could have been six or seven if he’d bothered to put in some goal kicking practice.
Probably thinks he’s too old for that now
Welcome to the $6.30 beers at Olympic Park this year; next to useless for mine, luke-cold Toohey’s New including that trademark nasty metallic taste.
Found much better value in the cheeky $7 shiraz out of a bottle into a generously sized plastic tumbler…went well with a couple of stolen pies…will they ever learn?
On the event bus home, it was a good thing the smattering of Hawks supporters were deep in thought and didn’t hear the Good Lady Wife referring to them as those “sad little beige jobbies”

SYDNEY 3.4 8.7 16.9 22.11 (143). Goals: Goodes 4, Hall 4, Jolly 3, Malceski 3, O'Keefe 2, Kirk, Bird, McVeigh, Moore, White, Mattner.
HAWTHORN 5.4 8.9 12.12 15.15 (105). Goals: Roughead 3, M.Williams 3, Morton 2, Franklin 2, Brown, Rioli, Stokes, Moss, Dew.
At Olympic Stadium
Crowd: 33,116.


It would be enough to do an ordinary coach’s head in.
Win by a wide margin one week, get thrashed mercilessly the next.
A 5.30 pm start at the foot of the mountains coincided with a trip to the Swans game, so at the risk of sounding like a broken record, haven’t seen a single frame of this game – again.
Seasoned observers at the ground who have been watching the Chocolate Soldiers go around for ages conceded that “The Best Leb in The Game” continued to put his hand up for NSW State of Origin duties, while Our Benji has found a rare early season purple patch, but beyond that, for the small mob of away fans, there wasn’t much to write home about
They reckon the game hung in the balance until the last ten minutes or so, when the Tigers simply ran out of legs, and the floodgates opened.
It’s taking a helluva long time for them to find match fitness – perhaps SC Sheens isn’t flogging them hard enough on the training track.
In any case, he will need to wave his hands around a crystal ball for a while to find a cure for the coaches curse of inconsistency.

PENRITH PANTHERS 42. Tries: Lewis, Sammut, Jennings, Pritchard, Graham, Lachlan, Coote. Goals: Gordon (9).
WESTS TIGERS 22. Tries: Hanbury (2), Galloway, Tuiaki. Goals: Marshall (3).
At Penrith Stadium.
Crowd. 15,813.

in the Viper's Nest

Fellow RevHeads,

Fresh from the utter madness that is Formula One qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix, found myself on Saturday night in the Viper’s Nest.
The Prince of Wales Hotel on Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, to be precise, with a noice view over the bay and Coopers Ale on tap.
And only a drop kick from the Junction Oval, and then a banana punt to the now all but derelict Lakeside Oval, for that matter.
In for the local derby given that the only thing that separates St Kilda from South Melbourne is Albert Park.
There was some consternation among the patrons just on kick off as the televisions continued to show the Brisbane v West Coast game, as die hard Saints fans berated the bar staff along the lines of “What the fcuk is that crap on for! Don’t to know where you are, you fool?”
It was then that my mate Trev decided it might be a good idea to remove his Sydney Swans “loyal member’ cap that he had been wearing all day, but it was too late, he had already been spotted, and of course, couldn’t hold his tongue.
Someone with a frightened look on their face soon scurried out from behind the front bar with a channel changer and all was right with the world.
The Swans, uncharacteristically, opened the new football season on fire, with loose men everywhere and winners all over the park.
Then, inexplicably, they went to sleep.
On the snooze, siesta time baby, comatose, not back from the tropical islands just yet.
Soon after half time it all became too much as yet another goalless quarter loomed, and the lure of the tapas bar just up the road became irresistible, after which Trev dipped back into the pub just in time to see the last minute dénouement and a miserable 15 point defeat.
Taxi!
Noted in The Age the next morning SC Roos quoted as saying that he questioned “the commitment” of some of the senior players [crikey! this early in the season?!] given that kicking five goals in the first quarter looked good on paper, but then just four more for the entirety of the rest of the duration cruelled any chance, given that “it is very difficult to win games” when you can’t even kick ten goals in a match.
Earlier in the day, had spotted a wild eyed bloke with a shock of sandy coloured hair barreling along Fitzroy St as if he was unstoppable.
He was wearing a t-shirt that read “I Bring Nothing To The Table”.
Perhaps he was referring to the Swans ageing roster and ‘leadership group’?
Probably a bit harsh with what seems like autumn barely upon us, but the proof will be in the pudding come spring.
Will refrain from comment on individual players given that tickets in the cheap seats are in hand for the Hawks game this Saturday night at the Western Paddock, where you’d expect the bookies to be offering a generous price about a Swans win and the umpires to be given a frightful bollocking.
Considering dressing myself in my newly acquired bright red Ferrari polo-shirt; in solidarity with losers.

ST KILDA 1.1, 4.4, 9.6, 12.8 (80). Goals: Milne 3, Koschitzke 2, Gardiner 2, Dal Santo 2 McQualter, Goddard, Gram.
SYDNEY 5.4, 5.6, 5.6, 9.11 (65). Goals: Grundy 2, Goodes, Hall, Jolly, Jack, Mattner, Bevan, O'Keefe.
At Docklands Stadium.
Crowd: 32,442.

It’s remarkable how the legion of Melburnian sports fans, who are well known for gathering in numbers to watch two flies crawl up a wall, display no interest whatsoever in the rugby league, despite having an NRL Premiership Cup in trophy cabinet.
They will tell you the Storm’s home ground is always full of ex-pats and it’s best left that way.
So of course, not seen a single frame of the Mighty Tiges game, not even on the news reels.
Some correspondents who were at the ground suggest that Benji had his best game ever, while others put Robbie ‘The best Leb in game” Farah down as man-of-the-match.
Farah is certainly putting his hand up early for the vacant spot in the NSW side, while the Tigers are well aware that for them to go anywhere, Benji just has to have a stellar season.
It’s as simple as that.
SC Sheens would have been down in the Secretary’s Office on Monday morning opening up the Coaches Ledger, and scratching the appropriate mark in one of the two neatly ruled columns headed in copperplate with “we’ll take our wins” and “we’ll learn from our losses”.
Perhaps rugby league is too easy to understand for those south of the Mexican border?

Sydney Roosters 24 Tries: Aubusson (2), Kenny-Dowall, Anasta. Goals: Fitzgibbon (4).
Wests Tigers 40 Tries: Lawrence (2), Collis, Farah, Ryan, Tuiaki, Moltzen. Goals: Marshall (6).
At Sydney Football Stadium.
Crowd: 14,426.

the legion of tifosi

Bear baiters,

Found myself on Saturday night tidying up a few loose ends from a minor mid-life crisis, so didn’t see a frame of the Tigers effort in Townsville.
Probably a good thing too, if you take a glance at the scorebox.
Appears the Balmain boys were competitive in the first half, but then were overwhelmed by the tropical heat and humidity, and the floodgates inevitably opened.
Seasoned observers at the ground were also reported as suggesting that Benji Marshall appeared to be “gun shy” in his new role as half back.
They say he looked to be unwilling to take the ball up over the advantage line in apparent fear of getting monstered by the opposition forwards [and who could blame him after two shoulder reconstructions?], and is therefore delivering the ball well inside the ten metres, producing a set of flat rucks and a flat-footed backline, that then finds it difficult to conjure anything much at all as they start running into brick walls.
It’s just a shame SC Sheens can’t hide him on the wing.
But then again, there’s probably no place to hide in modern rugby league anyway.
The first result of the new year, taken with this score from the second, and the tea leaves suggest that it could be “one of those seasons” – yet again.
In Melbourne mid-week on another pilgrimage to the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, so there is a very slim possibility of getting along to The Dome on Saturday night for the Swans first season hit out against the Saints.
Much more likely be joining the legion of tifosi as they make their way around their favoured watering holes in the old home of the Swans – good ol’ South Melbourne – imagine with a few under the belt could get the “keep South at South” chant going.
There’d be a few takers.
Probably be more profitable to get along to The G on Thursday night and have a better time baiting Cuz.
The Iceman cometh.

North Queensland Cowboys 42. Tries: Kaufusi, Webb, Bowen, Burns, Payne, T.Williams, J.Williams, Goals: Thurston (7).
Wests Tigers 14. Tries: Tuiaki, Morris, Moltzen. Goals: Marshall (1).
At Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville.
Crowd: 19,879.