It’s THAT time of the year again. Usually this time of the year means that I have already moved onto cricket season. Its Grand Final week and for a South Sydney supporters there hasn’t been a reason to care for a very long time.
This week is different though, everything in life has taken a backseat to the Grand Final this week. On Tuesday I even forgot to eat although I could tell you all about Issac Luke’s judiciary hearing. I had big plans for a blog a day, hell I even planned to get some schoolwork done at stages this week, but the way things have panned out it just hasn’t happened. Now it’s Thursday and I find holidays creeping to a close and the big dance drawing nearer it really has become decision time - schoolwork or rebooting the blog for some incoherent musings
Alas A View from the Top is back in its very first Grand Final Special.
I wasn’t joking when I talked about incoherent musings either. Here they are;
Issac Luke. In the wake of Alex McKinnon’s injury it’s hard to argue with a week suspension for the Rabbitoh’s tyro and the way in which he threw SBW’s lower body by releasing control of the tackle certainly didn’t help. My only issue with the suspension is the inconsistency across the game in which Jackson and Moa were able to escape punishment for offences I expected to see them miss up to a month for. And don't get me started on 'allowing' him to join celebrations or commiserations after the game. This shouldn't even be an issue, it's bad enough he will miss the biggest game of his career for a Grade 1 offence.
George Piggins. Disappointing that he is used by the media for Souths stories in the same way that Tommy Raudonikis is for New South Wales.
Michael Ennis. Canterbury are foxing. Ennis will play. Take it as fact, Ennis will needle up and give it a red hot crack. I don’t for a second believe that the injury is as bad as Canterbury have made out and have no doubt he will take the field. Just remember A View from the Top broke the big story first.
Battle of the Poms. Sam Burgess is the most talented forward to have played Rugby League. Unless he returns from Rugby Union for another 5 year stint he won’t have the longevity to be called the best forward of all time but make no mistake he has no peers on the field.
James Graham is a super footballer. No doubt he is a tremendously gifted ball playing front rower but he has neither the work ethic, consistency or the quality in his game that Sam possesses. Graham’s biggest skill, his ball playing ability, is often the Dogs Achilles heel, triggering a propensity to go side to side rather than directly through sides. Styles make fights though and the ball playing ability in the Dogs forward pack means Souths will not be able to unleash the physical onslaught that was so devastating against the defending premiers last week. The concern for the Dogs is that they must remember to go forward as well as complete at close to 90% to stay in the game on Sunday. I have no doubt they will do both and cause plenty of problems for Souths.
In his final game for South Sydney I expect Sam Burgess to cap a superhuman season with another superhuman performance. I’m going to say he will finish the game with stats pretty close to 23 hit ups for 200m with 2 off loads, a try and a line break. Throw in 35 tackles for good measure and no matter which way the result goes I can’t see anybody but Sam walking away with Clive after 80 minutes (EDIT: Sam indeed did finish with 22 hit ups for 225m with 35 tackles and 3 offloads. Although he didn't score a try he was pulled up inches from the tryline and while he finished without a line break he did make two tackle busts and one line break assist. In what I call the greatest individual performance I have ever witnessed he walked away with the Clive Churchill Medal just as I predicted four years ago. All with a broken cheekbone and eye socket. Imagine what he could've done fully fit). I will be backing George for first try scorer and Thomas for last try scorer hoping for a repeat of the Glenn, Brett Stewart family double a few years back.
The media. Dead set, how boring is the Rugby League media? Seriously, I could have sat down Sunday morning and mapped out the week’s stories for you - so far we’ve had the inevitable George Piggins angle, we’ve rehashed a Luke Keary article from about a month ago in which we list all the sides that he didn’t make as a kid, along with Adam Reynolds ‘coming of age’ for the 14,000th time in his career. The Daily Telegraph even managed to exclusively reveal the ‘real’ reason Greg Inglis reneged on a Brisbane Broncos deal, which believe it or not has been exclusively revealed four different ways by the same paper over the last four years. Of course the Issac Luke and Mick Ennis sagas have been ongoing which has brought Campbelltown City Captain Coach Russ Aitken back into the spotlight and reminded everyone of the answer to a trivia question they are likely to get a few times over the next forty years.
All in all it’s a great time to be alive. I am thoroughly enjoying every moment up until 7pm Sunday night, but once the game starts there’s no denying that the words of Vince Lombardi will ring truer in my head than ever before.
‘If winning isn’t important, then why do we keep score?’
