Hey to all ye faithful out there. I hope your Easter was chocofied, electrified and justified even if it was a little stupified by some of the footy we watched and results we saw. Who saw the Cru bouncing back? Who picked the Rebs over the Tahs? Who was silly enough to tip against the Drua with that weather inbound?
As always, I’ll insert here that this is a fan-run site and contributions are more than welcome. Barring the merest check for decency and decorum, feel free to reach out to me at HERE be it with an article an idea, or an opinion piece. And there’s also the ‘Submit a Story’ option on the Home Page. So feel free to have a crack as the more opinions and ideas and folk to share the load, the merrier we (and our wives) all are.
Nutta’s Super Team of the Week:
Week 6 has come and gone and we saw the Tahs and the Rebs try their hardest to wait for the other guy to lose their match. Against that we saw the Force and the Drua really get stuck into an old fashioned game of ‘mum will rouse’ aqua-mud rugby in Fiji. And we saw our two premier sides fairly belt each other to pieces in Queensland. Some of the performances actually made picking a peak team a bit of a challenge, but here’s what I came up with:
A reminder about selection rules: as long as you played for an Aussie Super team on the weekend, you can get picked.
- James Slipper – we have some good #1s but Old Man Slipps is the pick.
- Mahe Vailanu – reliable and possibly the find of the year for me.
- Jeff T- Allen – he played for Qld. He can be picked. And he was awesome.
- Jed Holloway – keeps getting better.
- Cadeyrn Neville – maybe not a young gun anymore, but bloody effective.
- Liam Wright – the modern Fardy.
- Fraser McReight – got the nod but Reimer hot on his tail.
- Bobby V – a bit quiet, but still rock solid.
- Ryan Lonergan – accurate and calm.
- Noah Lolesio – solidifying the jersey surely, especially with 4/4 from the tee.
- Corey Toole – his defensive and off-ball work was fantastic.
- Hunter Paisami – rock hard and generally smart decision-making with 14/14 tackles.
- Josh Flook – solidifying the jersey with a good pie on-top of rockstar D.
- Darby Lancaster – a great debut with a pie and last-passing Dauganu’s game-winner pie.
- Tom Wright – two tries on Saturday and two rippa games in a row for Mr Inconsistency.
- Josh Nasser – with hookers dropping all over the place, he stood up.
- Matt Gibbon – a really solid performer.
- Taniela Tupou – a good spell off the bench. More of same please.
- Seru Uru – Mr Indefatigable and that high/right arm offload is deadly.
- Charlie Cale – does anyone know how fast this bloke actually is?
- Tate McD – played a smart game.
- Oli Sapsford – no mistakes that I saw.
- Hamish Stewart – starting to really consolidate the Force midfield.
Comments on the above:
- Penie Ravai very unlucky to miss out. His first 20min in particular were all smash and power. But Gibbo had a more decisive longer burn to his effort.
- Watching Slipper and Jeff T-Allen step into each other at scrum time was a highlight of the Reds/Brumbies match for me.
- I originally picked Harry over Bobby at no8 at game time. But Harry’s post-match stats showed that he missed 4 of his 7 first-up tackles against the Donkeys. That’s embarrassing for this level.
- I originally picked Jordy Petaia for 14 but on reflection he showed some usual frailties. So I went to Darby Lancaster, another 7s programme convert, who had a cracker for the Scum.
Random Comments from a Random Guy:
Hip-Drop Tackle of Nos Lonergan by Tate McD: my observation of the tackle was that it was not a hip drop. Tate wrapped his legs around Nos legs after contact. Tate didn’t ‘hip drop’ in that he did not deliberately position then drop his hip/weight onto the back of Nos calves/legs in the manner we saw develop in loig in recent years. What we saw Tate do had always been a style of tackle employed by little men on bigger men. I’m sorry for Nos injury and wish him well, but I don’t think this is something we need to create an issue over or start banning.
Living on a prayer: The coming weekend sees the Tahs face the Donkeys in what is a game that Tahs fans must be dreading and anyone even vaguely associated with anything KenBerren will be paranoid about losing.
Just to recap, on the weekend just gone, the Tahs surprised precisely no-one by snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and letting another win go begging against an otherwise hapless Rebels. Ok, so the Tahs were clearly missing the go-forward of Bell, Hanigan and Gamble, who are all expected to return for the Donkeys match. And yes, the Tahs got another reasonably handy no10 back on-field to take some pressure off the flailing Tane “but Stan says he’s wonderful” Edmed. But for the life of me, the Waratahs can’t seem to find their arse with one hand right now, let alone with two hands. And while they remain struggling off the tee and at scrum time, combining with some serious penalty counts against them (18 last week), the Tahs simply don’t pose an on-paper threat to the Petersham ‘Shammies’ 4th XV right now, let alone the best of the Aussie teams, the Donkeys.
Against that, it must be said the Donkeys are solidifying as the nation’s front-runners after a shaky start. But it’s not all apples as Larkham’s Achilles heel is still showing like a neon sign via a porous defence. Luke Reimer’s 15 minute cameo off the bench against the Reds had immediate impact for the Donkeys and will surely see him starting against the Tahs. A backrow shaping as Reimer, Cale and Bobby V looks both balanced and dangerous, particularly as it’s supported by a consolidating midfield and a dangerous back 3 with Tom Wright finding form again. But again, it’s the Donkeys defence which concerns me. They leaked 27 missed tackles for three tries against an enthusiastic but very predictable Reds. And those sort of stats won’t cut it come finals time.
Louis Rees-Zammit: So the 1.90m and 90kg winger Welsh winger has been picked up by the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL on a 3yr deal that includes U$900,000 as a base salary guaranteed and a signing bonus, plus a stack of KPIs. The chat on NFL pundit sites is that he will likely get opportunities as a kick-off returner, a punt returner, and possibly even a running back. He got his chance via the NFL International Pathway Programme which started in 2017. For those interested, what happens now is that he will take up a spot on the 69-man Chiefs’ practice squad to learn the game until the season opens in September when the NFL teams name their 53-man player squads and their 16-man practice squads. So his next challenge is to establish he’s good enough for selection within the Kansas active 53-man roster, or be left on the practice squad hoping for a break (and not to get cut).
Late Edit: I confirmed some quick numbers about the NFL Draft and recruitment to give an insight into the level of competition for spots (for those interested):
- Apparently there are approx 3.4 million high school graduates in the US every year.
- In that number are approx 15,800 high schools with football programmes supporting some 1,000,000 players across all ages in total at any one time.
- From that pool, some 74,000 (6.8%) youngsters go on to compete in NCAA college football programmes (across 3 divisions) each year.
- Of that, 16400 are eligible for drafting (generally by graduating), and they are competing for the 253 draft slots.
- Once (if) drafted, according to a 2016 study analysing over 20yrs of data, 50% of draftees are cut/out/released within 2yrs, and less than 10% of any draft cohort make it to 5yrs as a pro. The average career length is 3.3yrs.
- So of the 74,000 college first years who start in programmes, 0.34% will get drafted and 0.17% will get past 2yrs as a pro. That’s competitive.
NT Rugby News: And while I’m a week late, a big shout-out goes to the Casuarina Cougars who took out the Northern Territory XXXX A-Grade Men’s decider 33-30 over University Pirates last weekend in what’s been reported as an all-time classic match. But Uni Pirates weren’t to be left with empty hands with the Uni Women’s defeating Darwin Dragonettes 24-0. While in B-grade, Swampdogs stole the choccies, snatching a tight 17-15 win over Casy Cougars to deny them a finals double. I’m sure the post-match festivities were a sombre and sober affair for all concerned.
Punch on comrades and feel free to comment away below.
