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As critics flailed blindly at usual targets, they missed the sportsmanship amid the mayhem
Roy Masters
August 29, 2011
Yet again, rugby league players have been left with blood on their hands.
Friday night's Manly-Melbourne clash was billed in the media as a preview of the grand final and was fought with a rising intensity not seen in the premiership rounds. It was a harbinger of what will be the most bitterly fought semi-final series in history.
Premiers St George Illawarra want to test themselves against all teams, now that Melbourne are eligible for the play-offs after being outed last year for salary-cap excess.
The Storm want to demonstrate to David Gallop's administration that their past premierships were won because the team were bonded through hard toil, rather than secret payments.
Brisbane seek to send captain Darren Lockyer out a winner … the Cowboys want redemption after a poor 2010 … the Brookvale Oval crowd on Friday night bayed for blood, believing Melbourne's 2007 premiership was won via the chequebook.
**(Brookvale, as any observer of Manly's spending powers circa late 1970s knows, continues to be rugby league's last bastion of old-fashioned hypocrisy).**
Earlier, Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy told me, ''I have never seen so many stories about a Storm game in Sydney papers.''
So, when Brookvale exploded with a bench-clearing sideline brawl, it wasn't unexpected, given the crowd, the TV hype and interest from the corporate bookmakers - all of which pay the NRL's bills.
OK, the standard response is, ''No TV reporter or fan threw a punch.'' Nor did any NRL administrator join a brawl - although given Gallop's relationship with the Sea Eagles and Storm, he was probably sitting in the grandstand hoping both clubs would be seized with cholera.
But now we have cries for blood from the media, including AFL acolytes demanding both clubs be evicted from the play-offs. This from a code where melees are common and are punished with fines! About the only thing rugby league can learn from the AFL is to fine both NRL clubs, rather than suspend players.
The NRL must also examine the role of its referees in the explosive play. Melbourne's Adam Blair and Manly's Glenn Stewart were both sent to the sin bin for escalating an incident when the Storm's Ryan Hinchcliffe and the Sea Eagles' Darcy Lussick clashed.
Yet the most serious case of escalation went unpunished.
Manly fullback Brett Stewart and Lussick sprinted over to join a sideline fight between Blair and Glenn Stewart, drawing the Storm bench into the fray.
Since the days when the NSWRL judiciary chairman Jim Comans handed down draconian sentences, the third man into a brawl has been severely punished.
Yet the referee seemed to accept Brett Stewart's defence that he was supporting his brother. Coaches would say every team member is a brother on a rugby league field.
No one rushed in when Australia's Greg Dowling and New Zealand's Kevin Tamati brawled on the sideline in Brisbane in the mid-1980s, after having been sin-binned in a Test.
The referee also erred in allowing Blair and Glenn Stewart to leave the field within a short time of each other. He informed Stewart he was to be sin-binned, reversed a penalty given to Melbourne and called Blair out, while allowing Stewart to stand there before finally directing him to the dressing room.
He then dismissed Blair, meaning the short time gap allowed both players to reach the sideline together. The position of both benches - **on either side of the tunnel at antiquated Brookvale Oval - meant that the reserves could join the brawl. It is unlikely this could be duplicated at any other NRL ground.**
Blair's ''Let's get it on'' sideline taunt to Stewart has been blamed for inciting their push and shove, yet these words echo the pre-game coverage of the match and the expectation of the 2011 play-offs.
One incident in the match deserves far more attention: Melbourne fullback Billy Slater's duty of care to Manly's David Williams when the winger suffered a fractured vertebra. Slater stayed with Williams, cradling his neck.
When it becomes really serious on the football field, players know the boundaries - more so than an overreacting media, or a nervous administration.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/as-critics-flailed-blindly-at-usual-targets-they-missed-the-sportsmanship-amid-the-mayhem-20110828-1jgo3.html#ixzz1WMu4AWQF
Roy Masters
August 29, 2011
Yet again, rugby league players have been left with blood on their hands.
Friday night's Manly-Melbourne clash was billed in the media as a preview of the grand final and was fought with a rising intensity not seen in the premiership rounds. It was a harbinger of what will be the most bitterly fought semi-final series in history.
Premiers St George Illawarra want to test themselves against all teams, now that Melbourne are eligible for the play-offs after being outed last year for salary-cap excess.
The Storm want to demonstrate to David Gallop's administration that their past premierships were won because the team were bonded through hard toil, rather than secret payments.
Brisbane seek to send captain Darren Lockyer out a winner … the Cowboys want redemption after a poor 2010 … the Brookvale Oval crowd on Friday night bayed for blood, believing Melbourne's 2007 premiership was won via the chequebook.
**(Brookvale, as any observer of Manly's spending powers circa late 1970s knows, continues to be rugby league's last bastion of old-fashioned hypocrisy).**
Earlier, Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy told me, ''I have never seen so many stories about a Storm game in Sydney papers.''
So, when Brookvale exploded with a bench-clearing sideline brawl, it wasn't unexpected, given the crowd, the TV hype and interest from the corporate bookmakers - all of which pay the NRL's bills.
OK, the standard response is, ''No TV reporter or fan threw a punch.'' Nor did any NRL administrator join a brawl - although given Gallop's relationship with the Sea Eagles and Storm, he was probably sitting in the grandstand hoping both clubs would be seized with cholera.
But now we have cries for blood from the media, including AFL acolytes demanding both clubs be evicted from the play-offs. This from a code where melees are common and are punished with fines! About the only thing rugby league can learn from the AFL is to fine both NRL clubs, rather than suspend players.
The NRL must also examine the role of its referees in the explosive play. Melbourne's Adam Blair and Manly's Glenn Stewart were both sent to the sin bin for escalating an incident when the Storm's Ryan Hinchcliffe and the Sea Eagles' Darcy Lussick clashed.
Yet the most serious case of escalation went unpunished.
Manly fullback Brett Stewart and Lussick sprinted over to join a sideline fight between Blair and Glenn Stewart, drawing the Storm bench into the fray.
Since the days when the NSWRL judiciary chairman Jim Comans handed down draconian sentences, the third man into a brawl has been severely punished.
Yet the referee seemed to accept Brett Stewart's defence that he was supporting his brother. Coaches would say every team member is a brother on a rugby league field.
No one rushed in when Australia's Greg Dowling and New Zealand's Kevin Tamati brawled on the sideline in Brisbane in the mid-1980s, after having been sin-binned in a Test.
The referee also erred in allowing Blair and Glenn Stewart to leave the field within a short time of each other. He informed Stewart he was to be sin-binned, reversed a penalty given to Melbourne and called Blair out, while allowing Stewart to stand there before finally directing him to the dressing room.
He then dismissed Blair, meaning the short time gap allowed both players to reach the sideline together. The position of both benches - **on either side of the tunnel at antiquated Brookvale Oval - meant that the reserves could join the brawl. It is unlikely this could be duplicated at any other NRL ground.**
Blair's ''Let's get it on'' sideline taunt to Stewart has been blamed for inciting their push and shove, yet these words echo the pre-game coverage of the match and the expectation of the 2011 play-offs.
One incident in the match deserves far more attention: Melbourne fullback Billy Slater's duty of care to Manly's David Williams when the winger suffered a fractured vertebra. Slater stayed with Williams, cradling his neck.
When it becomes really serious on the football field, players know the boundaries - more so than an overreacting media, or a nervous administration.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/as-critics-flailed-blindly-at-usual-targets-they-missed-the-sportsmanship-amid-the-mayhem-20110828-1jgo3.html#ixzz1WMu4AWQF
