NRL 2022 Finals Week 1 Discussion

[Bull Shark]

Cronulla are boned next week. No chance they are in any condition to take on Rorters or Souffs.

Hold that thought until you see what Souths & the Roosters do to each other tomorrow afternoon

Those teams playing each other two weeks in a row is going to drain both of their fuel tanks considerably

 

[Big Pete]

In the end, it came down to the Cowboys kicking game. Both teams play a very similar brand of footy where it's flat find your front footy. The difference is that while the Sharks like to go through the hands, the Cows like to kick across field and play the percentages.

What makes the Cowboys such a good team in 2022 is their ability to play till the 80th minute. They don't play the flashiest brand of footy ever, but they've been playing with that finals mentality all season and it came to the fore here. You can say they were fortunate that Tracey took Val off the ball when he could have jostled for it, but the presence of mind to kick early and force the play deserved to be rewarded.

I'd be interested to see that final Cowboys captain's challenge again. That turned out to be a major call and while I'm happy to back the referee on first view I have seen those go the other way at times. Credit to the Cowboys for the way they played off of it regardless.

With the Sharks, I think you're seeing a team going through a transition. They've got the right approach to the modern game but don't have the personnel to dominate for long stretches. They still have periods where they zone in and out and come up with errors at bad times. There's still plenty to like about them moving forward, but I get the sense they overachieved this year.

As an aside, I thought the 12,500 was a really paltry number for a final and made for a bad atmosphere. It's such a shame this game wasn't in North Queensland where the atmosphere would have been so much better. It was a far cry from the Panthers/Eels game which I thought made a great argument for suburban grounds.

Panthers/Cows in the box-seat for the grand final, and it's a really fun narrative to look at. Payten's stint at the Cowboys began in Round 1 against the Panthers and it was a nightmare evening for him. Since then he's slowly been building towards beating the Panthers, he achieved it in the final week, but it was against a NSW Cup squad. If they get there, can he take that next step?

 

[Fernando]

Payten is the reason I won't rule them out beating the Panthers, he's gonna be a star coach. It's early on bit I think i'd only take Bellamy, Robson and Cleary ahead of him.

 

[mstreet]

I think that was already obvious considering Canberra finished 2 points ahead and had a +99 better f/a.

Water is wet too.

 

[Super Freak]

What a game that was. How did the Cows win that? They are specials for the GF.

Sharks constantly fucking up helped a lot.

 

[Big Pete]

Credit to the Raiders as well, I thought they'd step up and make a contest of it, but didn't expect them to keep fighting after NAS scored. Too many teams just go into their shell when they play the Storm and just let them put on an avalanche of points. What Canberra did well was stay with them, pepper them with good kicks and attack their weaknesses.

Tapine has just about been the form prop of the competition and he was in the thick of it again. He just kept Canberra on the front foot all afternoon and made life so much easier for the Raiders to target Meaney 1-1 on the line.

It's still a credit to Melbourne they made it this far and made a game of it despite the disruption to the spine but you saw the effect it had.

It's good experience for the Raiders and while it's difficult to see them continuing this run, hopefully they can hit the ground running next year.

 

[Morkel]

Cowboys were carried by the refs, you say? So if those calls start to go against them, when they have been benefiting them all year, it would have a massive effect on them? Who wants to bet they'll be playing the Eels in Week 3...

 

[Mightybroncs2k17]

The interesting thing about the cows is its very much a full team mentality in the sense that 1-17 all contribute. Most teams have 1 or 2 super stars and the team forms around them but the team they have just seems to work.

Its almost as if they have their own moneyball type system when you look at their team and you can see why people were predicting they'll miss the 8.

A halves pairing of Deardon and Townsend, Peta Hiku in the centres a former hooker in ruben cotter in the front row and forwards that look a shaddow of themselves in Hess and McLean but it just all seems to work.

I'm intrigued to see how they perform next year. Its got that feel about it that they just happen to have a bunch of average players in rare form all at the same time. Not saying they wont perform next year but they have a Raiders 2019 feels about them where all 17 players were in rare form for that one season.

Conpare them to teams like the panthers who are built around Cleary or the Rabbits who have Latrell, the cows don't really have a big match winner.

 

[theshed]

On first look it seemed an obstruction but it became apparent Holmes dived

Good gamesmanship from Holmes. Obviously a dive but it was a clear obstruction. Kennedy hit the wrong shoulder

 

[Super Freak]

Ramien doesn't even make contact with Holmes. For it to be an obstruction, they have to initiate contact which doesn't happen. He doesn't even get in the way of Holmes. Holmes then takes a couple of steps, realizes he's not going to get there and suddenly falls over. It was one of the most bullshit obstruction calls I've ever seen.

 

[Morkel]

Ramien doesn't even make contact with Holmes. For it to be an obstruction, they have to initiate contact which doesn't happen, Holmes then takes a couple of steps and suddenly falls over. It was one of the most bullshit obstruction calls I've ever seen.

There doesn't have to be contact for there to be an obstruction. A good old-fashioned shepherd is just running behing your own player. The argument would be in this case his running line was obstructed so he tried to go around and lost his footing doing so. With no obstructio that doesn't happen so he was denied the opportunity to get there.

 

[Mr Fourex]

It's still a credit to Melbourne they made it this far and made a game of it despite the disruption to the spine but you saw the effect it had.

The bounce of the ball certainly didn't favour Cam Munster.....he has better luck on a few occasions and Melbourne get up.

Credit to the Raiders though....

 

[Big Pete]

The bounce of the ball certainly didn't favour Cam Munster.....he has better luck on a few occasions and Melbourne get up.

Credit to the Raiders though....

Thought he got pretty lucky when he spilled the bomb, albeit I think Kris played the man and not the ball. However I was thinking more about how exposed Meaney was in the defensive line and Hughes didn't bring his A-game.

 

[Mr Fourex]

He didn't have a happy night.....

 

[Scorchie]

Would be great if Roosters and Storm both lost

 

[Fozz]

Would be great if Roosters and Storm both lost

 

[Fozz]

Jesus, the hard on the Nein commentary have for Radley must make it uncomfortable to sit under a desk

 

[Wolfie]

They cant argue. Wasnt much of a punch, but it was a punch. He had to go.