Brothers v Norths on the weekend.
Now let me say from the beginning, these comments are hearsay only, as I was not at the match, so I will be cautious.
The game appeared to be a wee bit spiteful with 2 red cards and two yellow cards. One of the red cards (Norths) was for ruffing/throwing a player with attempted punch/s. Apparently the Norths #8 had enough of the Brothers #9 and wanted to finish his game. However, unfortunately it only ended his.
The Brothers #15 red card was for a lifting tackle; some of the people I spoke to said it was probably a yellow and not a red. But that's the argument, one sided.
The Brothers yellow card was for more ruffing/consistent infringements (#4). Don't know about the other Norths yellow, but it is probably safe to assume a similar position as the others.
Sounds to me like Norths have had enough of losing and want to draw a line in the sand. Good for them. Just gotta watch how they achieve this.
The first half was littered with penalties for Norths, mostly infringements at the break-down. Now I don't want to get into a blame the ref. situation and I don't think what I'm going to say is. The referee was the same lass from the Brothers v Bond game earlier in the season. I do remember wondering at the Bond game why the attacking team was penalised a lot at the break-down? And Bond was, probably 4-5 times when attacking Brothers line, which saved Brothers bacon (HTC confirm?).
Now the Brothers team has a number who have played at higher levels (4 out of the 8 forwards) and usually they do not have a large count against them for this type of infringement (break-down). So I asked one of the forwards and it seemed to be a timing issue for the ref. She would make a call after the whatever was the infringement had occurred and not before, which would lead to a penalty. I sure hope her mentors can assist her here because I believe she will be a good referee and has a likable disposition.
Anyway she did have her hands full. The penalty count was between 10-15 in the first half, mostly to Norths, which does stifle the game. The Norths try again came from a Brothers error again. GOTTA RESPECT THE BALL GUYS! The winger tried to grubber his opposition number, 40 m out from his own line (wtf! were you thinking, chip or kick long....only grubber 20 m from the line!) bounced into the oppositions hand and TRY!.....too easy.
Brother had a disallowed try early in the second half. They controlled the ball and spent just about the whole half in the Norths half, but unable to score.
The Brothers forwards did well in the scrums, took a head?? Won all their line out and stole 2-3 of Norths. Won 5 or so break-downs. So the forwards and particularly the back-row did function well, so that's a positive. Didn't get much feedback about the backs.
A fairly ugly win, but a win.