Author: Raven Nation

NRL Round 20 Update

             The National Rugby League is heading into the business end of the season (for a review of the NRL and an update through Round 16 see here).

The League has now played 19 rounds with 7 remaining. All the teams have had their two bye weeks, the annual State of Origin series is over (the universe was kept in balance as Queensland won the last two games after losing the opener, taking their third series in a row and 11 of the last 12 series overall).

The end of the State of Origin also means club teams welcome back those players who were playing in Origin. Going into Round 20, although none of the 16 teams have been mathematically eliminated, some of them will have to face up to reality. At the bottom of the table, Newcastle, Wests Tigers, and South Sydney are basically done with Canberra, New Zealand, Gold Coast, and Canterbury needing to win most of their remaining games and hope for teams above them to lose. However, the latter four do have the ability to put together a run.

Two points (one game) outside the top 8 teams which will contest the finals (playoffs), are Penrith with St. George-Illawarra and Parramatta the teams most likely to miss out if the Panthers go on a tear. It is likely the current top 6 teams—Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Manly, Cronulla, and North Queensland will all make the playoffs. It is less clear which will finish in the top 4 – which guarantees a second chance should a team lose early in the finals series.

More than half the Round 20 games have ramifications for teams fighting for playoff places but two of the most important will be Penrith vs. Gold Coast with the Panthers desperately needing a win to stay close to the playoffs while a loss for Gold Coast will basically end their season. Likewise, Canterbury face a tough must win game on the road at the Brisbane Broncos, made tougher as the Broncos need the win to stay in the top 4. The other key matchup is 10^th placed Canberra, who also have to win, hosting top of the table Melbourne.

Although no one will be guaranteed a playoff spot after Round 20, it’s likely a few teams will be mathematically eliminated.

 

By BP

AFL  Roundup 7/16-7/17

This weekend in Ozzie Rules the big match featured the top-of-the-ladder Adelaide Crows versus the 7^th ranked Melbourne Demons. Adelaide didn’t disappoint (their fans), winning handily – 17 goals, 14 behinds for 116 points versus 10.10.70 for the Demons. Fuck you, Adelaide.

2^nd place Geelong won against Hawthorn, and although the result is no surprise, the fact that they squeaked out only a 3 point (13.10.88 v. 12.13.85) win against a team that’s been mediocre for almost the entire season was.

3^rd place GWS Giants managed to snap their 2 game draw streak. (Draws are usually a rarity in AFL). They did so by losing. A resurgent Sydney Swans (6^{th place}) continued its rise, defeating the Giants for the Swans’ 6^th straight win, showing that the bookies predictions for their current year top performance were not the result of hallucinogens. Sydney’s terrible performance starting the year remains unexplained.

4^th place Port Adelaide stomped on the N Melbourne Roos, as did 5^th place Richmond on the hapless Brisbane Lions.

The West Coast Eagles took St. Kilda’s place as the last (8^th) team in the playoff form, crushing Freemantle, while Essendon dealt with the Saints.

For Glib interest, the Western Bulldogs won against the Carlton Blues, although that didn’t move WB up the ladder (or the Blues down), and Collingwood beat Gold Coast, resulting in them swapping 14^th and 15^th places.

 

Preface by Swiss Servator: Only because this is so well written do I not intrude into this column to proclaim the obvious superiority of Rugby Union. I will get my chance in future, after we have done a couple more of these – stand by for an Aussie Rules “explainer” in our next thrilling installment).

 

A Brief History of the National Rugby League

 The National Rugby League (NRL) is a club-based competition in Australia and New Zealand, generally considered the best such competition in the world.

 Rugby League vs. Rugby Union

Before embarking on a history of the NRL it may be helpful to explain the origin of rugby league and how it differs from rugby union. Many cultures have a history of games involving the movement of a spherical or ovoid objection. However, the specific origin of rugby comes out of England sometime in the mid-nineteenth century (sadly, the story of William Webb Ellis, the boy who “who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it” at Rugby School is apocryphal). The Rugby Football Union (RFU) emerged in 1871 following a number of clubs in England refusing to adopt the rules laid out by the new Football Association. Rugby League broke from the RFU after a schism which resulted from disagreements over payments to players (won’t bore you with the details). Today, in England, rugby league’s heartland is in the Midlands and the north of the country. Because of the popularity of soccer and rugby union in England, in 1996, rugby league in Britain switched to a summer season.

Rugby spread to Australia (& other parts of the world) mainly through the agency of British imperialism. In Australia, there was a split in rugby in the early twentieth century, again over professionalism. Both sports faced competition in other parts of Australia. In large part, this stemmed from the country’s colonial past: each state was originally a colony with its own imperial government and with the main population centers far apart. Rugby League is the most popular football code in Queensland and New South Wales, but lags far behind Australian Football in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania.

To the uninitiated, Rugby League & Rugby Union appear similar and they certainly bear much closer resemblance to one another than they do to soccer or Australian football. There are three main differences: rugby union teams have 15 players, league teams 13; when the ball goes out of play in union, it leads to a lineout, in league, it usually leads to a scrum; in union, at each tackle, both teams can enter the ensuing ruck; in league, the team with the ball retains it uncontested through a maximum of 6 tackles.

The National Rugby League Competition

(A completely unbiased account).

 Beginning in 1908, the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL), based in Sydney, organized a club competition. This was followed by multiple regional and city competitions. By the 1940s, there were two dominant club competitions. One was the NSWRL, an evil empire operated by very bad men and whose clubs raised money using corrupt instruments known as poker machines. The other competition was based in Brisbane and known as the Brisbane Rugby League (BRL). This competition was one of pureness and light promoting the highest levels of decency and eschewing the use of the evil poker machines.

Unfortunately, from time to time, some of the good men who played in the BRL fell upon hard financial times and in order to support their families (and for no other reason) accepted transfers to clubs in the NSWRL (for more on this, look up State of Origin series for the story of how good won a partial victory over evil). Over the decades, the NSWRL began to expand, first accepting new clubs from western Sydney, then from Newcastle and Canberra. In order to keep up with the growth of Australian Football, in 1998 the NSWRL eventually accepted a club from Brisbane. This led to the demise of the BRL although the governing body in Queensland established a successor state-wide competition known as the Queensland Cup.

The Sydney-based competition went through several names changes until adopting National Rugby League in 1998. Teams have left the NRL, gone defunct, and new teams have been added. Some of the current teams are mergers of teams from the old NSWRL days. Today the competition consists of sixteen clubs: eight in Sydney and the surrounding area and one each in Brisbane, Townsville, the Gold Coast, Canberra, Melbourne, Newcastle, Wollongong, and Auckland, New Zealand. Most clubs are run by corporate boards although some of the older Sydney clubs still have a local league club which has some say over the running of the club. All clubs sell memberships to individuals.

Since 1998, 12 different teams have won the championship. During the season each teams plays 24 games (along with 2 bye weeks) with the top 8 teams making the finals (think playoffs). Teams are awarded 2 points for a win, 2 points for a bye, 1 point for a draw, 0 for a loss. During the regular season, “golden point” is used if scores are level at the end of regulation. Teams play a maximum of extra 10 minutes, 5 in each direction. However, any score ends the game. A team losing in “golden point” receives no competition points.

The finals series is more complicated than the straight single-game process in the NFL. Teams placed 5-8 are eliminated by one loss, teams 1-4 would need to lose twice to go out. The last two teams standing meet in the Grand Final, played on the first Sunday in October. The 2016 Grand Final was watched by 3.7 million Australians (total population: 24.5 million). The extra time scenario is a little more complicated for the finals series.

Scoring: teams are awarded 4 points for a try (think NFL touchdown except the ball must be grounded rather than just being moved across the goal line), 2 points for conversion (think PAT but the kick must be taken on a line drawn perpendicular to the goal line), 2 points for a penalty goal (think field goal but only taken after a penalty has been awarded), and 1 point for a dropped (or field) goal.

The 2017 Season To Date & Round 16

The season started March 2. Among the favorites were: Melbourne, Canberra, Cronulla, Penrith, and North Queensland. On June 12, at the end of Round 15, the top 4 were: Melbourne Storm, Sydney Roosters, Cronulla Sharks, Brisbane Broncos. Position 5-8: Manly, St. George, North Queensland, Penrith.

Round 16 was played June 23-25 with 14teams in action (byes: South Sydney and Parramatta).

• The highlight of the round was the Roosters (2) vs. Storm (1) game which was actually played in Adelaide, South Australia – another of the NRL’s almost certainly futile attempts to break into an Australian Football stronghold. In something of a repeat of the previous week’s close run against North Queensland, Melbourne took an early lead before blowing the game, giving up 13 points in the last 10 minutes. This time, Melbourne were unable to find a late game-winner. The Roosters’ win sees them close to within 2 points of the Storm.
• The other highly anticipated game of the round was the match up between 3^rd placed Cronulla and 5^th placed Manly. However, the games turned out to be one-sided as Manly easily overcame last season’s premiers 35-18.
• Seventh-placed North Queensland came into its crucial clash with #8 Penrith on the heels of the news that its superstar Johnathan Thurston (think Bart Starr levels of greatness) was out for the season. Trailing most of the game, the Cowboys scored a score-levelling try with 3 minutes left when winger Kyle Feldt caught a chip kick and managed to get the ball down. Ethan Lowe kicked the game-winning conversion.
• The number 4 Brisbane Broncos travelled to Canberra to take on the Raiders who were just outside the top 8. After trailing 14-12 at half-time, the Broncos outscored the Raiders 18-6 in the second half for a 30-20 win.
• Second from bottom Newcastle started strong against St. George-Illawarra building a 28-10 half time lead. However, form asserted itself in the second half with the Dragons scoring 22 unanswered points to win 32-28. The loss was Newcastle’s 22^nd straight road loss setting a new record.
• The 11th New Zealand Warriors took a big lead then held on to beat the 12^th placed Bulldogs 21-14. The result led NZ media to declare the Warriors “within striking distance” of the top 8. While true (the win leaves the Warriors 2 points outside the playoff spots), it’s likely they will fade by season’s end.
• In a near bottom-of-the-table clash, the 14^th placed Gold Coast Titans—led by former NFL wannabe Jarryd Hayne—defanged the last-placed Tigers, 26-14. The Tigers have no chance of making the playoffs while the Titans win will serve to give their fans false hope for a few more weeks.

So, at the end of Round 16, Melbourne retain top spot but are now only two points ahead of Sydney. The Brisbane Broncos move to 3^rd with Manly jumping to 4th ahead of Cronulla on points differential. Positions 5 thru 8: Cronulla, St. George, North Queensland, Parramatta. Position 3 through 7 are separated by only two points. A further 5 teams are only 4 points outside the Top 8.