The Chewsday Chew – is it ever enough? (Ep17-2024)

Konnichiwa Cobbers!

Lead pic – massive congratulations to Murrumburrah Public School who won the ACT 10s gala day recently.

I hope all is well in your world and here’s hoping this missive makes it a wee bit better on this fine May Tuesday with a ‘Team of the Week’, some ‘Random Super Comments’ and we will then close it out with the now usual ‘Around the Campfires’ section.

Before I launch into my musings, I’ll insert here that this is a fan-run site and contributions are more than welcome. Please feel free to reach out to me (HERE) be it with an article, an idea, or an opinion piece, and barring the merest check for decency and decorum, you can then tell your mum you’re a published journalist. Or there’s also the ‘Submit a Story’ option on the home page if you want to do your own thing. So feel free to have a crack as the more opinions and ideas and folk to share the load, the merrier we (and our significant others) all are.

Nutta’s Aussie Team of the Week (wk14):

For the fourteenth time this year we’ll dive into the team of the week selected from the Aussie Super teams. As a reminder, the selection criteria is merely if you played for an Aussie Super franchise then you can get picked. But be aware, I’m not specifically picking on the basis of Wobbly qualification, merely who in those teams played well enough to get picked.

I’ll wrap up the Team of the Week series for this Super Season next week with the closing of the regular rounds. In doing so, I’ll probably name a few sides: the Pure Selection (regardless of injury, suspension or eligibility), and then a Still Standing Selection (so excluding the injured or suspended) and lastly I’ll name a Wobbly Selection (naturally leaving out OS based players) for Saint Joe to consider in his wisdom.

But for today, here’s my TotW for week 14 as it stands:

1. Harry Hoopert – has chosen a good time to resurface and put in some solid shifts.
2. Matt Faesller – gold awaits.
3. Taniela Tupou – he turned that 2nd half on its ear.
4. Josh Canham – wasn’t much else he could have done for the Rebels.
5. Jeremy Williams – gets better every week at the moment.
6. Liam Wright – just class.
7. Fraser McReight – Jahrome Brown’s game was big but Fraggle’s was bigger.
8. Rob Valetini – rock solid.
9. Tate McDermott – inventive and dangerous.
10. Tom Lynagh – was the best Aussie no10 on the weekend.
11. Tim Ryan – wow. He deserves his t-shirt.
12. Hunter Paisami – gets better every week, while Foketi was forgettable and Hamish got cheese.
13. Josh Flook – was rock solid and Icky got cheesed.
14. Dylan Pietsch – one of the few Tahs to do something positive. Tried all night.
15. Tom Wright – was the best 15, especially considering Kellaway had a night to forget.
16. Jay Fonokalafi – the concreter did everything he could.
17. Alex Hodgman – had a really solid run for the Pinkoes.
18. Jeff T-Allen – played a class shift and I couldn’t give it to 7As.
19. Ned Hanigan – the best of the Tahs piggies alongside Gamble.
20. Seru Uru – the guy is a freak.
21. Ryan Louwrens – accurate and composed while his side was imploding.
22. Len Ikitau – saw cheese, but otherwise pretty solid.
23. Noah Lolesio – composed and good options, but Lynagh’s star shone brighter this weekend.

Random Super Comments:

• Perhaps I’m being overly critical of my own team – as the headline suggests, are they ever good enough? But something smells in Donkeyland. Their bread and butter for better than 15yrs has been to use suffocating scrum and lineout set piece basics to strangle other teams out of contention. But we’ve watched that reliability just implode, without any great change in personnel, for two weeks in a row now. Something is up in Pollietown and I fear it’s something among the whole group. I just don’t know what it is yet.
• Our national lock stocks are looking good. We’ve got lads putting their hands up all over the place: Canham, Williams, Rodda, Smith, Holloway, Frost, Swain, Neville, Ryan and that leaves aside the likes of Lukhan S-Loto (hurt) or Big Willy (OS).
• And our 7 stocks aren’t suffering for the loss of Hooper either, with Jahrome Brown, Carlo Tizzano, Brad Wilkin, Charlie Gamble and Fraser McReight all putting in goldworthy shifts over the weekend.
• If anyone thinks skills are dead or dying in rugby, go have a close look at Jona Nareki’s pass to Folau Fakatava in the Highlanders v Drua game, about 5min in. I think most folk, including the commentators, missed it. But that was borderline un-freakin-believable.
• Doesn’t Tim Ryan continue to be a revelation for the Reds? But, is he ready for Wobbly chocolates? Will we do the perennial “Australian Thing” and throw him in early, unready, and when he flails about we cast him to to purgatory? Or will we be (gasp) prudent and give him some time and resources to develop both physically and emotionally? And speaking of Cadbury Gold, I must wholeheartedly agree with Brissy from yesterday’s news: K.Beale is not up to Wobbly standard, he’s just not. Leaving aside the absolute poison he’s always been for team cohesion, major sponsor relations, and so many folk associated with our national team and brand, especially women, the guy just isn’t in the frame anymore. Let it go, people.

Around the Campfires

I saw and heard some things in country rugby over the weekend that really disappointed me. And at the risk of being controversial, I’m going to bring them up here and talk about the difference between country and city rugby in doing so.

See, when I came through country rugby, one of the things we always quietly kept an eye on was competition viability. It wasn’t a ‘big thing’ that we spent hours agonising over. But it was something to keep in the back of your mind. And one of the ways that manifested was, if you were playing for a powerhouse club and you were going to play a much weaker club, then your club pencilled in that fixture in advance as an opportunity to run your lower grade guys in higher grades. You didn’t take a chance, you made sure you had the cattle to get full competition points, but you blooded the lower grade guys to get them game time, to reward them for their training and perseverance, and to make sure your ‘proper’ team had some developed cover in depth for later in the season when injuries impacted finals time (like they always do).

But also, even if unspoken, you also ran your lower graders in the higher grade so as to NOT completely decimate the opponent. Why? Because more so than city rugby, country rugby resources are really bloody tight, and the same faces and names and sponsors are there year after year. So if you smash some little town club into absolute smithereens, and that keeps happening to them consistently all year or over a couple of years, then the chances are that little club won’t field a team next year. AFL or league or injuries, or just sheer pride will whittle away what players, resources and sponsors they have and they won’t be there next year. And now you have a hole in your schedule and a weaker zone and code for the club that disappeared.

Well on the weekend just gone I know of two large, well-known country clubs from big regional areas who absolutely smashed some season-struggling opponents by over 100 points. One of the clubs that got slaughtered had 14 guys play 2nds to then roll straight back out to play 1sts. Now, we’ve all been there and had to do that one or twice in our careers, it’s character building. But then I looked at the names on the team sheets of the strong clubs (one of the joys of the internet) and they were pretty much full teams from the weeks previously. There weren’t too many 3rds lads in 2nds or 2nds lads in 1sts etc. And so they crucified their opponents by over 100pts with largely regular first grade sides.

Look, I wasn’t there for either match, I’m looking from afar. Maybe I don’t know the whole picture. But to me, the ramifications of those results aren’t conducive to the betterment and stature of the game, certainly not in country rugby. Sure, both those larger clubs got a sugar-rush, and their for and against differentials are now terrific. But did it really do them any good? And it certainly didn’t make their club, zone or code any stronger. And so that sort of short-term, gratuitous humiliation of a fellow club saddens me.

Moving along, I hear that Nyngan Bogan Bulls had a pretty successful day at home against the Gulargambone Galahs over the weekend. The Bull-ettes got up 27-0 to make it 3 on the trot and the men got up over the Galahs by a solid 64-26. It didn’t help that almost the Galahs entire regular pack were out given it’s sowing season, but that’s life sometimes. That said, I have it on good authority that Gular Galahs road trips are a thing of beauty regardless of score or duration, and I’m sure this one was no different.

In Central West rugby, the Cootamundra Tricolours made the trek over to West Wyalong and their Weevils for a roll about in the dust with the Coota lads coming away the victors by 62-19. Both sides had strong numbers and that, along with dry and warm conditions, made for a cracking afternoon’s rugby by all accounts. While the Coota crew skipped out early to establish a match winning 45-12 lead by oranges, the Weevils didn’t lie down and kept assaulting the Coota line up to the very death of the game. But all said, with the likes of Emani Faavevela crossing for a club-record six tries for the Tricolours, Coota were not to be denied on the day.

Out and about in other zones, in the Central West New Holland competition, Mudgee Wombats put in an enormous showing to travel over to Narromine and knock over the local Gorillas by 26-5 in 1st grade and 27-12 in 2nds. In the main fixture, Mudgee lost two players to injury in the first 5min of the match, and then fell behind by 5-0 by the 10th minute, and so looked to be in for a hard afternoon as they then also spent large sections of the 2nd half bravely defending their tryline against a gallant Gorilla outfit. But it was the 2nd stanza of the first half wherein the Wombats ‘did their thing’ and laid the foundation of the final score line.

Over in Hunter Suburban rugby, there was a very late change in venue for the Bulls Red game against Cooks Hill Brown Snakes, due to ground conditions at Empire Park. Thus the Bulls and Brown Snakes met at the Singleton Allen Bull Reserve instead and there did ‘set to’, with the Cooks Hill Brown Snakes grabbing the chocolates 26-19. That topped out a grand weekend for the Brown Snakes as, while the women lost to Southern Beaches, it was by all reports their best showing of the season so far, and their Friday night team maintained their unbeaten season, knocking over Maitland Rugby by 24-5. So, go you Snakes (Purple Cobra jokes anyone?)!

Across in the South Coast & Monaro competition, middle of the table protagonists Cooma Red Devils and Yass Rams fairly belted the bejeezus out of each other on Saturday. As per the last few weeks, Yass started frustratingly slowly and squandered some good early opportunities. But they settled as the half wore on and took a promising 14-3 lead into oranges, and then piled on 3 quick pies early in the 2nd half to set up what would ordinarily be an insurmountable lead. However Cooma isn’t the side to roll over easily, and with the Yass lads seemingly taking their foot off the Red Devils throat, the Cooma comrades rallied and pinched back four pies, all sauced, to send the game down to the wire. With scores locked at 31-all into the final minute of the match, it was only a last-gasp penalty that gave Yass a shot on goal. And so it fell to Mitch Stevens to take his shot. He did, and the rest was history. 34-31 to Yass.

And speaking of Yass, hats off to Adam Greenwood for making his 150th appearance in the black & white during their nail-biter 33-31 loss to Braidwood Redbacks a fortnight ago.

And lastly for today, big ups to Warren Panthers, the Hay Cutters, Kiwi Hawthorn and Melbourne Power House Rugby and a host of others for getting behind the newly founded Swan Hill Brothers rugby club with jerseys, goal-post pads, and all the other kit that a start-up club needs. The lads have also been shown great support by the local Swan Hill Rural City Council to even just get rugby posts up in such an AFL-dominated landscape (I hear that was a council drama worthy of an ABC mini-series on its own). And with tournaments like the Ballarat 7s, the Rugby Victoria 10s and trial games against the Bendigo Fighting Miners behind them, the Brothers line up for their inaugural official XV game this coming weekend against the Hay Cutters. Go well Brothers and all the best to you. Remember the words of Paul Kelly’s 2nd best song: from little things, big things grow.

Well that will do for this week folks. Get out there and support your club by pulling on the boots, or carrying a touchie’s flag or even just showing up, buying a few beers and a steak sandwich or three. And don’t forget to offer the referee the sort of helpful advice they all seem to so often need (by the power of all things holy did we get robbed over the weekend, let me tell you…).

Anyway, play hard, cobbers. Run straight. Tackle brave. Put stitches that are worthy of remembering into the fabric of your jersey. And always remember that Saturday is rugby day (somewhere).