AS the weather warms this Spring the footy appears to do the same. Over the 4 finals games in the first week of post competition action, 3 of them lived up to the hype, one of them was just like a competition proper clash.
Let’s look at the four games that were played last weekend, as well as a brief overview of what to look forward to in week 2 of finals footy.
Game 1: Friday night at Allianz. Knights upset the highly fancied Souths Sydney Rabbitohs 20 points to 10. The Knights burst out of the gates, to basically leave Souths shell-shocked! 90 percent of pundits saw this game going to the home team, but no-one told Newcastle this. Their forwards were fantastic and their outside backs even better. Kayln Ponga, Dane Gagai, Jermaine McEwan, and Sandon Smith should be given special accolades for their performances, but to be frank there wasn’t one bad player for the Novacastrians.
Souths on the other hand, only had 2 players deserving of their pay cheques – Keon Kaloamatangi and Campbell Graham. Dane Gagai’s man-on-man stoush with Latrell Mitchell just about set up the win for the Knights over the hugely disappointing Rabbits.
Game 2: Saturday in New Zealand saw our 2nd upset in as many days when the Dolphins clawed their way back for an amazing 26-16 victory. The Dolphins came home like a train to show how fit a footy team they are.
The Warriors string of injuries continued, with the ‘Wreka” Leka Halasima hurting his hamstring in the warmup, and recent comeback kid Jackson Ford injuring his ankle and is doubtful for this Sunday’s blockbuster. Amazingly, the Warriors chose to go up in points by increments of 2 instead or 4, kicking a total of four penalty goals – in turn giving the Dolphins confidence in their own defence.
Ironically, the 3 players spoken about lately re contract rumours, all starred. Herbie Farnworth, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, and Jack Bostock. The Warriors were clunky while the Dolphins are now in a prelim four years after entering the comp.
Game 3: Sharks prevailed in a dour contest against an even ‘dourer’ Cowboys outfit, who were obviously only making up the numbers this final series, 26 – 16. This game didn’t resemble finals footy at all and at times was a hard watch. The Sharks MUST find something this Saturday against the Roosters, or they’ll suffer the same fate as their opponents last Saturday night.
Game 4: Saw the Panthers topple the Roosters 19-12. After what was a ferocious first half, the intensity dropped dramatically in the 2nd stanza. The half-time sinbinning of Nathan Cleary could have been catastrophic, yet the Roosters offered nothing in his 10min absence. Dylan Edwards and Liam Martin were the two standouts for Penrith with Blaize Talagi giving coach Ivan a nice headache for their prelim in a fortnight.
Looking ahead the Sharks and Roosters meet this Saturday with the loser saying goodbye, the winner playing the Dolphins in a fortnight. While the other knockout semi is in NZ this Sunday at Eden Park, where over fifty thousand Kiwis will be roaring to try and help their team get through to fight another day. At the minute it looks real likely the Panthers will meet the Dolphins in this years Grand Final! Who’d have thunk?!
MG (random Westie) OAM
