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.