The Real Reason

[Hamm.0]

A wise man once said; "if's and but's were candy and nut's, we'd have a merry xmas" LOLZ, haven't heard that for years mate [icon_wink

So all crap aside, I picked the 2 reasons we lost last night as soon as they happpened.

Fact 1;

I told Jebadude, "ZOMG, Australia will get slaughtered for "that" and once again, I was right.

NEVER DISRESPECT OR SHOW AGGRESSION TO A HAKA!!!!!

To all the Aussies (50,000+) who thought it was cool last night, I shook my head. How hard is it, to simply lat a time-honoured tradition be played before you, for a measly 30 seconds?

Mason jaws off during Haka= gets KO by Kidwell
Poms refuse to face Haka= Kiwis thrash them
Australia walks towards Haka= Kiwis thrash Aussies


Fact 2;

Game 1 SoO 2008...no Steve=no win
WC GF 08; no Steve=no win

 

[Nashy]

Aussies doing that just meant it was going to be a brilliant game from the get go. And it was.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Stop taking the limelight of Billy!!!!

 

[Coxy]

Fact 1:

Billy Slater played fullback in a big game, and thought he was superman. He blew it. He's got this mistaken belief he's better than he is, and I believe it still stems back from his 2004 Origin fluke try. Billy, you're not skillful. You're just quick.

 

[Major JW Hochstetter]

No doubt Matty Johns would be filling his head with such thoughts aswell on a frequent basis, with additional messages of steamy, sweaty love from Ray Warren.

 

[Hamm.0]

Whilst Billy made the most shocking of errors, there was a distinct lack of go forward witout Civo's partner in crime. No doubt, the absence of Price was felt last night.

 

[Coxy]

Absolutely. And playing Watmough as his replacement was ridiculous. As much as Josh Perry is a wankstain, he was the only other front row option and he had to be there.

Fitzgibbon isn't a front rower. Watmough isn't a front rower. So Australia played the game with just Kite and Civo...terrible tactics by Stuart.

That and not starting Hunt at fullback.

 

[Hamm.0]

In fact, I think it's safe to say that all those "dubious" selections for Manly forwards, on the back of their GF win proves what I said when the squad was first picked. Eloquently put; they are all shit. Thaiday, Myles would have raped them...oh wait,. they already did in June/July.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Yes the selectors have a lot to answer for IMO the forward pack was never really big enough or strong enough to compete with a rampaging Kiwi pack. Price may have made a difference last night but saying he would have been the difference is a massive call. Watmough and Fitzgibbon should never have been in the squad IMO.

 

[Hamm.0]

100% correct and unfortunatly their selections would have come straight from Sticky himself. I say unfortunatly because apparently the ARL reckon he can have the job as long as he wants........

 

[NPK]

Absolutely. And playing Watmough as his replacement was ridiculous. As much as Josh Perry is a wankstain, he was the only other front row option and he had to be there.

Fitzgibbon isn't a front rower. Watmough isn't a front rower. So Australia played the game with just Kite and Civo...terrible tactics by Stuart.

That and not starting Hunt at fullback.

Perry was injured. And when Price got injured here were no other fit props in the squad.

 

[Dave]

Fact 1;

I told Jebadude, "ZOMG, Australia will get slaughtered for "that" and once again, I was right.

NEVER DISRESPECT OR SHOW AGGRESSION TO A HAKA!!!!!

To all the Aussies (50,000+) who thought it was cool last night, I shook my head. How hard is it, to simply lat a time-honoured tradition be played before you, for a measly 30 seconds?

Mason jaws off during Haka= gets KO by Kidwell
Poms refuse to face Haka= Kiwis thrash them
Australia walks towards Haka= Kiwis thrash Aussies

I don't buy that (especially the bit about you being right again Hammo [icon_razz1 ) I don't think what Australia did while the haka was being done had any bearing on the game or in any of the other games you mentioned. You could put forward a counter case for each game:

1 - Kidwell is a noted hitter and Mason had plenty to say in the lead up to that game, not just in the haka. No doubt it annoyed the Kiwis but that could have happened anyway. Mason is always a target for opposition forwards.
2 - The Poms are shite - if the Kiwis didn't flog them there would have been plenty of questions asked. The semi final proved they were far better than them anyway
3 - We had a lightweight pack and made far too many errors. Kiwis had a great game plan that really exploited our weaknesses

The haka is a challenge - why not respond to it? Why should teams sit back and watch it? I reckon what the Aussies did was outstanding, far better than the cowardly display put on by England.

The Kiwis won because they executed a brilliant game plan. Australia left their worst performance of the tournament for the final which was a shame.

 

[Jeba]

The Haka has been around since New Zealand teams were travelling to Australia in the late 1800's. Over the years it has been one of the most awesome sights in world sport and always sets the scene for a fantastic contest. Obviously the challenge from the Australians last night created an awesome sight and an awesome atmosphere, but I just honestly cannot see the point in why they did it. Either a coordinator told them to do it to create some theatre in what could've potentially been a very boring game of Rugby League, or some knob in the Australian camp thought it would shake the Kiwis up a bit. It was never going to do Australia any favours, it would only fire the Kiwis up.

If the Australians wanted to really set a challenge for the Kiwis, they needed to (and I know this is an old cliche) let their football do the talking. I've no doubt a few of the players would've thought to themselves "I can be a hero here and after an introduction like that I will go down in Rugby League history" and cracked under the pressure. *cough*Slater*cough*Williams*cough*Monaghan.

I, for one, never want to see anymore bullshit during the Haka ever again. As Hammo said, it is a time-honoured tradition that should be just let to give the Kiwis their chance to fire themselves up. If the Australians want to retaliate, bring back the Aboriginal war cry that was used by the Kangaroos during the 50's.

Adding to your argument Hammo, I remember the Wallabies doing some training drills while the All Blacks did the Haka in a Test match in Wellington in the mid-90's. The All Blacks beat them by a record score.

 

[mick]

Fact 1;

I told Jebadude, "ZOMG, Australia will get slaughtered for "that" and once again, I was right.

WTF? That was respect shown, not aggression or disrespect.

The Haka was a challenge. Walking towards them, together, facing them, was simply a way of telling them and showing them that they were ready for the challenge.

Turning your back, or mouthing off at them, sure. But they showed absolute respect IMO.

 

[Coxy]

it's alright. Hammo's just one of these people who has a few mates who are Kiwis and suddenly is an expert on Maori culture.

Tee, you'll back me up, the bloke next to us was standing and applauding while the Aussies were walking towards the haka. He thought it was choice.

As if it had anything to do with the loss. The Kiwis didn't need additional motivation to want to beat the Aussies, it comes naturally. It was simply a beautiful moment of sporting theatre.

 

[Emma]

Whilst Billy made the most shocking of errors, there was a distinct lack of go forward witout Civo's partner in crime. No doubt, the absence of Price was felt last night.

That's exactly what I said throughout the game, even when Australia were leading. I don't know how many metres he made, but to me Civo seemed to go missing a bit during the game and the Aussie's just never seemed to get consistently on a roll up the middle.

Selectors certainly have a lot to answer for with the side they picked. As many have mentioned, how Fitzgibbon was selected is beyond me, same goes for Tupou. Well, it's not really beyond me, they are/were in teams Ricky Stuart coaches. Watmough I didn't think was too bad, but he wasn't really what the side needed, they needed a decent prop to help Civo out and that selectors simply didn't provide that.

 

[mrslong]

I reckon Watmaugh should've been in the team from the start instead of Flopsgibbon. (Still not over his selection in the squad).

We need another prop, Ryles, Bailey, O'Meley, Hannat all better than having a 2nd rower, poor old Kite and Civa had to do all the hard work!

WTF are we going to do when Price retires????!!!????

 

[Je$ter]

I reckon Watmaugh should've been in the team from the start instead of Flopsgibbon. (Still not over his selection in the squad).

We need another prop, Ryles, Bailey, O'Meley, Hannat all better than having a 2nd rower, poor old Kite and Civa had to do all the hard work!

WTF are we going to do when Price retires????!!!????

Probably mass suicide.

I was actually impressed with how Watmough and Stewart went. However we did need another big bopper up front, it defeintley showed that we lacked the firepower when we needed it. At stages in that game we were really carving the Kiwis up, and without the extra prop we couln'dt capitalise on them slacking off.