Only the NRL can Launch a Season like the NRL

Its back......

And not a moment to soon as its been a sporting desert out there since october 2010. Sure you might point out that there has been a cricket season in between but what a fizzer that was. Australia picked its best team for the one day series and got smacked in the tests as a result. Still at least the Poms have some recent achievement to talk about now, I'm sick of them banging on about World War II.

Sure there has been the rugby to keep us occupied for the last few weeks, but once your start following it closely it starts to hurt your head as you wonder - so what was that for? I was watching on Saturday and the Brumbies thoroughly dominated the Reds scoring four try's to one but still lost.

Anyway enough of the inferior sports and back to the main game, and god bless the NRL for reminding us all that the season was about to start with the traditional season launch.

AFL is desperate to consolidate some public interest in its expensive loss making gamble into Western Sydney by having a NRL style season launch. If you recall, thats where you call on the press together to view the upcoming advertising campaign and the main star of the add gets drunk on the day of the launch and ends up in jail. This effectively means the NRL is on the front and the back page of the paper at the same time. Brilliant.

This year the AFL has the same approach but it decided to sacrifice a player manager to the wolves by assigning him Nick Reinwalt's cast off. While he might now be so embarrsed that he will never work in Melbourne again, I am sure he will be welcome at the Sharks. Who knows, they might find a spot for him next to the trophy cabinet.

This solid gold publicity doesn't happen by accident this is a deliberate approach by the NRL. But lets face it if they didn't want their players disgracing themselves in order to generate pre season publicity they wouldn't force feed them copious amounts of alcohol in the same room as all the media hungry for the inevitable story.

If they wanted to keep the actions of the players quite they would hire Charlie Sheen for the season launch, load him up with cheap booze and then let him lose on Sydneys adult entertainment sector. There wouldn't be a photographer in Sydney not assigned to the case of stalking out Sydneys strip clubs - thereby leaving Benji in peace.

Still I have to have some sympathy for NRL players. Its all well and good when some 20 year old groupy is following yuo everywhere. But when your stalker is a bloke its not as much fun especially if its Madi Gras week.

The No issues guide to finals refereeing

Well if your a Dragons fans its the two weeks that you have waited all year for. Due to the unpredictability of the season there is a whole host of unfamiliar faces in this years finals series. Teams like the Tigers, Raiders and Penrith haven't been playing football this late in September for years. Whats even more shocking is that they have all survived the first round. Of all the teams in this years finals only the Tigers have a good albeit small winning record in finals. Teams like the Dragons have barely won a finals game in the last decade while other teams like the Raiders and Titans have never won a finals game.

It will be hard to know who to support in the grand final, usually I go for the team that hasn't won a final before or not for a long time. This year that could be both teams qualifying. It could be like a few years ago where two teams played in the grand final who had a lot in common, Melbourne and Brisbane. Both had never lost a grand final... and of course the other thing they share in common is that they are both salary cap cheats.

So once again it will be up to the referees to decide who gets to win. Is it just me or did anyone else notice the change in refereeing in the finals. It seems to follow a predictable pattern;

No Penalties for the first 10 minutes. At this stage of the game teams are just trying to hold onto the ball for a full set before a long kick. If both teams are adept at holding onto the ball this can prove to be a fairly dull spectacle. Luckily for us there are referees who can tip the balance of the game by awarding the....

No Tries for 15 minutes - deadline breaker penalty. This is usually awarded to the home team and is for either failing to get back on side or incorrect play the ball.

One team gets two tries in front - score balancing penalty. This is usually awarded for the team who is behind on the score board and is often given on the fourth tackle.

Balance the ledger penalty - Otherwise called the square up penalty - this is where one team has received all the penalties but is still behind. The ref needs to give some penalties to the other team to appear impartial, but they dont want these penalties to have a material affect on the game. So these penalties are given on the first or second tackle and are often given twice in the same set. These are always given when to the attacking team when they are close to the side line so they can't kick the ball very far when finding touch.

The Bills made another error in the box penalty - these are always given in the second half when the referee is compelled to deem a try with a ludicrously forward pass as acceptable to make up for another one of Bill Harrigon's, Britney Spears moments..... Öops I did it again.....

The No penalty penalty - this is anytime after the 65 minute mark if the scores are close or tied. The referees don't wont to be seen as deciding the game. (Even though of course they have probably disallowed 5 tries and manipulated the play throughout. This is where you can rip an opposing players head off, play the ball with your arse or stand five meters offside in the defence and suddenly the game might as well be reffed by Sargent Schultz... I zaw nothzing....

Still the predictability of the refereeing is what we love about the game and its all designed to give teams a 50% share of possession. So instead of players coming to the ref saying what was that for they just need to ask what type of penalty was it or whens our turn. If you don't like it and would like to see a return to the days where refs blew the whistle every time they hadn't been heard on sports ears for 5 minutes then the next All blacks test is in two weeks.

In Other News
Boxing fans in Western Australia would be pleased to hear that Danny Green has announced that his next fight will be in Perth. Usually Danny schedules his fights in Sydney, unless of course the Government refuses to allow him to fight some washed up has been (Although how Anthony Mundine is allowed to get away with it is beyond me. If you recall Danny's last fight lasted mere seconds as his opponent Paul Briggs was bought down by a devastating combination of intense stage lighting and a flury of Green's air swings. Still at least Paul Briggs and Manly's finals campaign have something in common - neither survived the first round.