Darren Lockyer with the Four Nations Trophy
Well after spending many, many hours working on this new template, I finished it off at the early hours of this Sunday morning. At 3:30am to be more specific, knowing full well that the Four Nations final was starting at 5:00am Queensland time. I had my alarm set for 5 and pretty much fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow.
An hour later and I’m wide awake to watch the last game of Rugby League for 2009. I can quite easily wake up at any hour to watch a good game of Football, especially an International Final that includes big names such as Slater, Hayne, Inglis, Thurston & Lockyer – The whole team are stars and lets be honest – It’s a hell of a backline, with the exception of Israel Folau, although Morris did a fine job regardless.
Anyone who knows me well personally, would know that I take rugby league incredibly seriously. I watch it religously and yell at the TV, screaming instructions like a lunatic – almost as if I were the coach. I’m a Queenslander through and through, I have and always will support the boys in maroon in the State of Origin. When it comes to club level, I support the Sydney Roosters and have a soft spot for the Melbourne Storm (It might have something to do with the fact their team has over the past few years been filled with Queenslanders). If you are by chance a Sydney Roosters fan, then I encourage you to visit my website – The Chookpen (www.thechookpen.com.au). The largest unofficial Sydney Roosters community on the internet.
Leading into the Four Nations series, I was pretty damn excited. Jarryd Hayne was playing some absolutely incredible football towards the end of the season and I believe his efforts are the sole reason Parramatta ended up doing so well. To put him into the mix with Thurston, Lockyer, Slater, Inglis & Hodges? I think many people (and myself included) were expecting something pretty magical. With those players, their reputations and the form they were in at the time – I think everyone had incredibly high expectations of this particular backline.
Morris Crosses Over for a Try
Inglis proved once again, that he is the best player in the game. Now note, I said player, not playmaker. We all know Thurston is the best playmaker in the game but Inglis terrorises his opponents everytime he gets near the ball. His defense is top notch and he is one of the hardest players to bring down in attack. Rarely does he make mistakes and he steps up in almost every big match with some insane play, line-break, pass or run that leaves the audience thinking “Did he really just do that?”.
I think the game started off pretty intense. Gould & Sterling were right from the start, Australia had to silence the crowd early on – but they didn’t. Then England were the first to cross through Sam Burgess and what a player this guy is? I watched almost every game of the Four Nations tournament, this was the first I’d seen of Sam and he did not leave me disappointed. At only 20 years of age, he has shown that he is destined to become a legend of the game. Russell Crowe has secured the Rabbitohs an incredible signing with this man. I have actually predicted the Rabbitohs to make the top four (pending injuries) based on their forward pack – It will be the best forward pack in the game. Containing Dave Taylor, Michael Crocker, Sam Burgess & Roy Asotasi? If the Rabbits can’t go forward with this pack, they’re destined for years of failure.
The halves combination of Thurston & Lockyer should go down in history as one of, if not the best. It will be a sad, sad day when Lockyer does announce his retirement from rep football. Thurston runs the show and Lockyer plays an incredibly composed position which allows the two to work so freely together. However, even when that day comes the selectors can quite easily shift Thurston to six and place Cronk or Prince into the halves.
From the start I had my doubts about whether or not Australia would win this Four Nations tournament, despite fielding an incredible backline once again. Based on teams on paper, they should have won the World Cup Tournament last year, but it wasnt to be as they were simply outplayed by a better New Zealand team on the day. It was one of the biggest upsets in Rugby League history and it made people question the Kangaroos superiority. Has international Rugby League really seen the end of Australia’s dominance? Throughout most of this tournament I was thinking yes, as England & New Zealand showed they are quite capable of taking it to Australia.
Slater Scores Again
The future of international Rugby League does look bright, New Zealand & England are developing stronger players and fielding stronger teams all the time. I’m disappointed that it took the Kangaroos 300 minutes of Football to finally click together as a team. Had they been playing like that from the start, they would have wiped the floor with their competitors from the start. Regardless, I’m sad to see that the game I love is over for another year. They started off with a few disappointing and lazy efforts, but the Kangaroos did power home strong and deservedly won the game.
I guess its time to hibernate and occasionally take in the off-season news.
