State of Origin Rant

I notice that the world is picking on Queensland. I heard Phil Gould say the other day that the Queenslanders thrive on a siege mentality, even if they have to create the siege themselves. They have to feel that the world is against them. Wow, they lost a dead rubber. You'd think they lost a war. There is a bible saying about seeing the splinter in another person's eye when you have failed to see the twig in your own. We see the failing of others a lot more clearly than we see our own. The persons from north of the border love to feel that they have been wronged. They complained that the penalty count was horrendous. Sure it was lop sided. NSW had all the ball and therefore got all the penalties. You don't see many penalties given away whilst in possession of the ball. The other way of looking at it is that finally the Refs noticed the slowing tactics of Queensland when NSW have the ball. It has been an abuse of the Bill Harrigan method of refereeing (aka no penalties in origin approach) that has been a major factor in Queensland's strong defence over the last decade. When NSW have the ball the game slows to a grind. Referree's are afraid to penalise the big names. Queensland have more of those so they can get away with a bit more time in each and every tackle. The reaction to Wednesday night's game shows what happens when a ref grows a pair and stands up to the them. He is unfairly shouted down as an incompetent. It's only a shame that it took until a dead rubber game for him to get there.
Cooper Cronk is rightly sin-binned. Commentator blows up that it is an error. Should be in the bin every day of the week. He is probably unlucky that on this night the referee makes the right call and gets him on his way to the bin. Queensland are praised for hanging tough in defense. The side with only 12 players on the field realise that the officials won't want to be seen to kick them when they are down. They take advantage and lie all over the tackled players. The game grinds to a holt. Heroic, hardly.
Then we get to half time breaks. They are getting as long as the lunch breaks at the cricket. No wonder these old Queenslanders can hang in so well in defence, they get a 25 minute break. Take Matt Scott for example. One of the elder statesmen and a fine player. He plays 20 minutes at the start and 20 minutes at the end. He has a break of over an hour in between. That's not rugby league. That is a joke.
The old experienced champion side are getting the match to be played in a way that benefits them. The young guys from New South Wales should be able to wear them down and come home stronger, but the modern game is designed that the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. In the grand old era of rugby league, when Great Britain were the side with the technical knowledge and higher skill level the matches were balanced by Australia having the advantage of being fitter than their wily opponents. And so it should be here. Queensland's greats with the advantage of years of playing alongside one another should and do have the better combinations on the field. But, the younger New South Wales side should be able to wear them down. The inability of match officials to control them means that they will never be able to wear them down. 25 minute half time breaks are ruining the balance of the game. Rugby League is about endurance, it's not American football.
A couple of other incidents in the game stood out. The try to Andrew Fifita. Origin interpretations are always weird. Take the Greg Inglis knock on try that decided a series a few years back. It would have been a knock on in every other game of footy ever played. Not in that game. Maybe we got one back here. In truth though had Justin O'Neill not illegally held Michael Jennings out of the play he would have been a lot closer to the ball and then it most definitely wouldn't have been a try. Swings and roundabouts.
The other point of note and this is not an attack on Gavin Cooper, though his behaviour is an example of an attitude that has filtered through the NRL as a whole. When he scored his try, no doubt something he will remember for the rest of his life, he celebrated by throwing the football in the face of the gallant much smaller defender who had failed to prevent him from scoring. Andrew Fifita then responded by replacing his head with a pumpkin and ran a long way to stand up for his little mate. Yes he deserved to be binned. But, there also seems to be something wrong with that story. Surely the big guy standing up for his little mate shouldn't be the recipient of the greater penalty. The person behaving like a school-yard bully should receive at least some kind of warning about his behaviour. But this incident is part of a wider problem throughout the game. It is hurting the image of the game. Do the rule makers really believe that more damage is done to the game by the actions of big Andrew running 30 metres to stand up for his little mate against the actions of a bully or by the man doing the bullying. If you are a 10 year old kid sitting at home watching this game after spending another tough day being picked on at school, who are you latching on to as your hero? IT'S NOT GAVIN COOPER. This is not an isolated incident in the modern game. When a player makes an error, drops the ball in a tackle there is usually an opponent there patting him on the head to belittle him. This happens in almost every match, every week of the season. Little acts of bullying. I again put to you that this is the kind of behaviour that drives people away from the this great game.
Another incident of this similar type of behaviour was when NSW scored the winning try. Why did James Maloney feel the need to shove Corey Parker after the try? I don't have an answer, perhaps he does. Maybe Corey had a go at him first, who would know? Having said all of that, I am sure that in some instances players are reacting in retaliation to earlier incidents which can't be seen from your living room. I get that they are grown men and are playing a tough, physical game.We should cut them some slack on some occasions. But I think it is becoming too much.
And so we got to the end of the match, but even that was not done properly and rarely is it ever in modern sports of all kinds. The winning team celebrate amongst themselves whilst the losing team stand and wait for an opportunity to shake hands and congratulate the victor. This one is perhaps a little old fashioned but the winning team should go to the losing team and commiserate, not the other way round. After that they can run around like lunatics to their hearts content.
As for the walking away whilst the speeches were being made, that appears from the outside to have been poor. If they felt they were slighted in some way that doesn't justify the snubbing. If you feel that an opponent has failed to behave properly then you need to hold yourself to a higher standard, not allow yourself to be dragged down into the mud with them.
Rugby League is a wonderful game played by some great human beings. We need to make sure that those great human beings are not allowing the lowlife's in their ranks to decide the behaviour of the the group as a whole. When you are done with the game, don't just be remembered for your great skills but be shining examples of humanity as well.

Arthur Hennessy : Rabbitoh's founding father

I was watching the movie "Chariots of Fire" the other day and really enjoyed the historical story of the Scotsman, Eric Liddell. Obviously, I had seen it years ago but was digging through my CD collection and thought I would give it another go. Eric's wonderful story, or at least the small part covered by the movie compelled me to look for more historical sporting figures and the stories behind them. So today I bring you the story of the Founding father of the South Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby League Football Club, Arthur Hennessy.

1908&09 Kangaroos Arthur is in front row 3rd from right

Arthur was born in 1876 and died in 1959 at the age of 82. He packed in quite a bit to those 82 years. Sporting achievements of the man include being Australia's first Rugby League captain, the first captain of New South Wales, the Founding father of the South Sydney Rabbitohs and more.

As an 18 year old he played Rugby with Boys Brigade before moving to Bayview in 1896. By 1901 he was a regular first grader at "Souths" Rugby Union. He represented NSW in 1901, 1902, 1904 and 1907. By 1907 he was captain of Souths. In Rugby Union he played breakaway and hooker. He was only small and when he represented against New Zealand the Kiwis mistook him for a halfback because of his diminutive size. He played above his weight and they were forced into a change of mind by game's end.

The New Zealand All Golds toured in 1907 against a breakaway New South Wales Rugby League team and it was Arthur who captain coached the side. These initial games were played under the old Rugby Union rules as the new laws of the game had not arrived from England as yet. On receipt of the new 'laws' of the game Arthur is understood to have proclaimed that "this is a game for racehorses". Arthur worked as a Labourer and perhaps this is part of the reason he enthusiastically jumped on board with the Rugby League when it arrived in Australia. Rugby League was formed in the mining areas of Northern England as a break from the Amateur game of Rugby Union, primarily so that workers could be compensated for time off work when they were injured during matches. Arthur, whose work involved physical labour would have been easily imagined to be in the same boat as his mining brothers from England. I think I am right in saying that by taking part in the matches for NSW the players were expelled from the Rugby Union. On the back of that move, Hennessy sent a circular to all the Rugby Clubs in the area to attend a meeting at his home in Chapman Street, Surry Hills. To say that the meeting was not well attended (at least numerically) is an understatement. There were, including the host only 4 attendees. As Paul Kelly said "from little things, big things grow" and so it was in this case. One of those who attended was Samuel George Ball whose name is on the trophy for the Under 18's junior representative competition of the NSWRL.

From the 4 and 1 apology for the first meeting, things built. By the 17th of January, 1908 a meeting was held to officially form the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Redfern Town Hall. The 3 founders of the Rugby League in Australia Henry Clement Hoyle (Politician), J.J. Giltinan (entrepreneur) and Victor Trumper (test cricketer) were on the podium to make South Sydney official. South Sydney were the 3rd club to be formed behind Glebe on January 9 and Newtown on January 14.

Hennessy was Souths' inaugural captain coach. Souths' went through the 11 match season losing just 1 game. That being to Eastern Suburbs 13 points to 12. They did however win the match that mattered and take the premiership. The premiership decider was played whilst both Souths and Easts had 6 players each on the boat to England for the first Kangaroo Tour. Amongst them was Arthur Hennessy. During the first season Arthur was Souths' hooker. He was also one of two of the clubs delegates to the NSWRFL. During the season Australia played it's first 2 test matches, against New Zealand losing both. Arthur was Australia's first captain. When in 2004 the Australian Rugby League gave a number to each of it's Rugby League representatives Arthur was given the number 1. Also during that first season, Arthur captained NSW in the first interstate match against Queensland. NSW won 43 to nil.

As mentioned earlier Arthur toured England with the first Kangaroos in 1908&09 but did not play a test due to 2 broken jaws. He did however play in 7 matches on the tour. There was some drama on the tour as Arthur was a selector as well as a player. Arthur weighed in at 79 kg and was 173 cm tall. In those early days of rugby league there was no 6 tackle rule as there is today. Tackles were unlimited. Arthur implemented a no kicking policy at Souths, which was the foundation of the teams success. The running and passing style of game which Arthur implemented in those early days was what gave South Sydney the title "the pride of the league". His footballing creed was Position, Possession, Penetration and Pace. Through much of the South Sydney Rabbitohs' glory days this remained the root of their style of play. It remained that way until the implementation of the limited tackle rule came into the game in 1967. In around 1953 Arthur wrote a book titled "Winning Rugby Moves : and how to play them". A copy is still available at the NSW state library. 

In 1909 Arthur played 4 games for Easts including captaining them in a semi final. He also appeared for Souths in the same year. 1909 saw Souths win the infamous no show grand final against Balmain by forfeit. The match was scheduled to be played as a curtain raiser for the Wallabies V Kangaroos match to which Balmain protested and did not play. Souths played a match against a fill in team to appease the crowd. They won the match 18 to 10. In those first 2 seasons Arthur played only 6 matches with Souths and 4 with Easts. In 1910 and 11 he played a further 20 games in Red and Green. Souths made the grand final in 1910 where a 4 all draw was enough to secure the premiership for the mighty Newtown side. Souths 1911 side were knocked out in the semi final by Eastern Suburbs. Souths season lost impetuous when the Australian side left for England in early August. Arthur would have been 35 by the end of the season and did not play for Souths again.

It appears for there he moved into coaching and did so for many years. In 1913 he coached a New South Wales side on a tour of New Zealand. The coach notably implemented a steak only diet for lunch on game days. Arthur coached both codes of Rugby at school and higher levels for much of his life. He also spent time as a boxing coach. He coached Australian lightweight champion Sid Godfrey. Arthur coached Souths' in 1918, a season in which they won their fourth premiership. This win occurred during the final year of the first world war which has given me cause to wonder what kind of players they would have been whilst most young men were away fighting a war.

Arthur's other coaching credits included St Ignatius college, Riverview, the King's School and Waverley college. In 1929&30 Arthur coached the Australian Kangaroos on their tour of England where they were unlucky not to bring home the Ashes. He was the first non playing Australian coach to tour. The next such appointment was Clive Churchill in 1959.

In 1946 Arthur again coached the Rabbitohs', this time without success. That is an understatement. Souths went through the season without a win, losing all 14 games. Coaching careers usually don't end on high otherwise they wouldn't usually end. I guess this is also the case with Arthur's career.

When not playing or coaching Arthur spent his time as a bookmakers' clerk or similar, he invested in Maroubra Speedway, a Maroubra cinema opposite his home and a mini golf course.

Arthur had lived a sporting life to the full with a range of achievements that shine brightly for all to see. When you watch your Rugby League team run around this weekend spare a thought for Arthur and where it all began.


Bibliography

Photos of Arthur By : State Library of New South WalesDirect link, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19273020
The first Kangaroos : https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16602048

South Sydney : Pride of the League by Ian Heads 1994
Wikipedia : Arthur Hennessy
Australian Dictionary of Biography : Hennessy, Arthur Stephen (1876 to 1959) by Chris Cunneen
Rugbyleagueproject.org : Arthur Hennessy