It's not like this for consistency, it's like this to stop things breaking the game. We've had 'consistent' rules both ways before, and they both sucked.
Probably minor but his chase to make the conversion harder was critical in the end given Moses missed. Yeah if they take this heart into 2018 and hoping for better luck with injuries the Cowboys will be a force in 2018 imo.
Yeah agree 100%. They've definitely grouped it with the wrapping of the arms calls and I like it. The one in the Sharks game last week was the perfect example of how it should be ruled.
Could see this coming a mile away really. Don't want to upset the Parra fans on here because they're good blokes but fmd I've never seen a more over rated team in my rugby league life. They did play well last week but deadset besides that they've shown very, very little to suggest they're even close to a top 4 team that their ridiculously easy draw handed them. The final third of the season they scraped home against Dogs, beat Melbourne minus 7/8 Origin players, fell over the line against Wests, beat the Dogs again in a bludger of a game, lost to Newcastle, beat a hapless Titans with nothing to play for, beat Broncos in a game that saw more than 80 points scored and luckily beat Souths in the final round. It's seriously like a horse from country Western Australia having a good run of wins against donkeys and the media jumping on it as a chance to win the Cox Plate. I understand the Gutherson injury really hurt them but they were hardly looking like a premiership shot with him either. Was Vave injured? Because he's 100% the best prop at Parramatta. A front row rotation of Alvaro (him going down at the start did hurt), Mannah, Terepo and Matagi wouldn't win you a whole heap of round games in a strong competition letterlone finals IMO.
Oh yeah I agree. Just a lot that were missed. Particularly in the first half, I'd argue at least 3 or 4 of the Cowboys wrap around plays had a forward pass in them.
I definitely agree. But would you say anyone below them was really any more deserving of a top 4 spot? Outside of the Cowboys pre-Thurston injury, you have Manly, Penrith and the Sharks, all who showed very little across the entirety of the season. It's crazy how big the gap between the Storm and everyone else is this season.
Parramatta were the fourth best-performed team across the regular season IMO. They probably only have about the eighth best roster, but in not slipping up very often against the lower sides and beating Brisbane twice, they did more than the teams below them. They did have a favourable draw as well, but I still don't think Cronulla actually performed better than them across the season, and the other teams below them definitely didn't. I never rated them, but they deserved their top four squad insofar as no-one else below them deserved it more.
Agreed with the above 2 posts, but if everything was equal, in terms of the draw, I don't think they finish top 4.
Yeah the Eels finishing 4th is just a sad commentary on the quality of the comp this year. If JT and Scott play all year, the Cows almost certainly finish top 4.
As great as Bellamy has done with Melbourne, I feel Green at least deserves the recognition for doing what he's done with a severely weakened Cowboys. Past coaches and years the Cows win zilch even if just missing Thurston but now he has them winning finals games with plenty of players out.
Yeah the season would've been a lot more interesting with Thurston and Scott involved. I'm not convinced Melbourne are actually better than a full strength Cowboys would be, tbh.
Kevvie's done a great job, don't get me wrong. But Green is the best coach available imo, aside from maybe Bennett.
'Tis a bit of a catch 22 perhaps. I don't know if Morgan would've improved/been afforded the opportunity to improve this much as a genuine playmaker/organiser with JT out there.
Yep if anything its the major positive to take from the toll this year. Cowboys will be better off with Morgan's experience gained from this. Most positive I've felt for their future in ages.
Cowboys have been outstanding. Felt like thye'd limp in to the finals, Sharks would put 30 on them and that would be that. Regardless of what happens in the prelim, you'd think this JT and Scott free success they've had will be great for their roster, should be big things next year, particularly with Jt calling time on origin.
Yeah having Thurston through Origin will be incredible for them. If they stay relatively injury free they'll probably challenge for top 2 imo.
No absolutely no one was more deserving of a spot. I was just taken aback by the hype. Could never understand it and I actually think the media riled up the poor casual and dumber Parra fans into believing they were brilliant too. Have talked a bit about this with Cribb, Gemmell and Read... But we were of the opinion that the severe underachievement of Canberra and to a lesser extent Penrith, coupled with the Scott and JT injuries really hurt the competition this year. I'm not talking about teams deserving shit but the competition would have been a lot more even and interesting if those 3 squads played how they should/could have. But because of injuries and 2 teams supposedly on the up shitting the bed we had teams who shouldn't have made the 8 making it and teams with bottom 8/fringe 8 squads making top 4. This sort of shit happens every season, always will, but was so noticeable this year because you had 5 teams out of the 16 who were just fucking useless from start to finish (Wests, Warriors, Dogs, Knights, Titans).
Warriors to some extent too. I mean, the fact that they were shit was no real surprise, but this year they took up some of the game's best players to do it. In previous years players like Foran and RTS could've made one of those mid-range sides genuinely good instead of being wasted at a dead end. Canberra, Penrith and Zombie Cowboys were the real comp-killers for most of the season though. If they play as they were expected to, Parramatta finish 7th-8th instead of 4th-5th. Massive difference.
