Cowboys can do what history shows '09 Eels should have

EIGHT years after crestfallen Parramatta lost a grand final to the formidable Melbourne Storm, North Queensland have an opportunity to claim the legitimate title that only cheating could rob the Eels of.

The parallels between the Eels of 2009 and the Cowboys of 2017 are both near and far.

The Cowboys have burned their former Allianz stadium curse, winning twice at the venue in the 2017 NRL Finals. 

Both snuck into the finals in eighth position, but only one had a strong run home with a string of victories.

Both, were at one stage in the season listed as $151 to win the title.

Both have a group of players playing without fear or favour of their opposition, but only one was missing their two co-captains for most of the season.

One most definitely had an individual performance that single-handedly propelled them in the grand final, but both have a broad collection of no-nonsense players who have lifted to their potential.

Think Jeff Robson, Joel Reddy and Ben Smith for the Eels, and think Shaun Fensom, Scott Bolton and John Asiata for the Cowboys.

And with destructive capacity, both sides have a forward who can lift and inspire their team with game-changing runs. You’ll know of Jason Taumalolo, but will you have remembered the impact of Fui Fui Moi Moi.

Crucially, Taumalolo now knows he can have an impact similar to Moi Moi's.

Eight years is a long time though, so how has the constant in this equation – The Storm – changed?

Same coach, same captain, same halfback, same fullback. 

That’s some consistency in a first-grade football side given their commercial influences of the modern game.

On paper, the Storm side this time around is considerably weaker than in 2009. And it should be, given the ’09 side was close to a million dollars over the salary cap.

But it’s a side still with attacking potency and muscle in defence, albeit with a different crop of men.

The main difference, is the age of Melbourne’s big three. Do they possess eight more years of experience? Or do they have they eight more years of slowing down?

Cameron Smith’s second Dally M this week, Billy Slater’s fullback-of-the-year award and incredible comeback from two season-ending injuries this season, along with Cooper Cronk’s ability to guide Queensland to another Origin series’ victory probably suggest the former.

But it was there in Smith’s performance in game one of Origin, in the match against the Eels in the first week of the NRL Finals, and again in the win over Brisbane last week. The mistakes, slow starts, un-Melbourne like decisions in their play.

The Storm are most certainly beatable and the Cowboys must believe it. That’s how they should view the Storm’s big three; older, slower, weaker.

Melbourne no longer have a career-best Ryan Hoffman or arguably one of the game's best-ever centres in Greg Inglis.

But of the men who adorn the rest of the positions on the park is perhaps where the game will be won. Grand finals are a different ball-game. Nerves can get the better of the sharpest and calmest player.

Until last weekend, I didn’t even know who Melbourne’s centre Curtis Scott was. Perhaps naïve, but equally, who the hell is North Queensland’s John Asiata?  

Melbourne have 11 players backing up from their 2016 grandfinal loss to Cronulla. Quite a number looking to exact revenge and make up for the lost chance.

But just as similarly, North Queensland have 12 players in their line-up who played in their 2015 grand final win over Brisbane.

You have to wonder what the betting lines would be like if Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott were playing on Sunday. Surely, near-on-par.

But that’s the thing, without those two, there is absolutely no pressure on the Cowboys. They’re meant to be on holidays by now. Who cares how far they go? No one expected them to come this far.

Meant to be kicking back grabbing a sun tan, rather than a premiership winner's medal.

The pressure is on the Melbourne Storm, really. They lost in 2016 and have been the best all season as proven by their minor premiership.

Craig Bellamy will look to limit the impact of Taumalolo and Morgan, while Paul Green will hope to shut down the influence of Smith and Cronk.

The key players who can seriously influence this result are Melbourne’s wingers, Suliasi Vunivalu and Josh Addo-Carr, and the Cowboys’ forwards Gavin Cooper, Ethan Lowe and off the bench – Cohen Hess.

Can the outside-flyers find the space to put points on the board for the Storm? Likewise, can the cutting runs of the Cowboys hole-runners nab the two or three defining tries usually seen on grand final day?

SECRET WEAPON: Cohen Hess has scored on 10 different occasions this season; in three of those he got a double.

Parramatta lost on the day in 2009, but history showed they were playing against an un-even spread of talent.

This time, for the Cowboys – and the Storm – the ledges are squared.

They might be missing the world’s best player, but at least North Queensland can know they’re not facing an unconquerable side.  

But they don’t fear anyone, anyway, right? They’re meant to be on holidays.

Prediction: Cowboys to have two titles to their name by Monday to go with their new stadium being built next season that Johnathan Thurston called for after winning their first in 2015.

Raiders to be No. 1 in season’s middle third

As the NRL season begins to enter to its disjointed but highly important ‘middle-third’, a number of NRL teams will look to either capitalise on their origin-effected counterparts, or make use of their own origin-free squads.

The Raiders were arguably the best 'team' in 2016, despite no making the Grand Final

While the NRL’s perennial mid-season achievers – the New Zealand Warriors – will once again take advantage of their predominately Kiwi-based side; free of the Origin discomforts some clubs bear, the big-movers in 2017 will likely be the men from Australia’s capital.

If from round 10 to 19 is considered the middle of the season following rep-round and after the last bye, then Canberra went 6-2 last season.

But they then continued their charge to the end of the 2016 regular season with a remarkable 13 wins from their last 15 games, leaving them with an impressive 2^nd place finish.

Arguably just a dropped pass away from a Grand Final last year, the Raiders have seriously become a force since Ricky Stuart returned home in 2014. While they ran 15^th in his first season in charge, a 10^th place finish in 2015 preceded their near unchallengeable run home last year.

However the Green Machine have experienced a mixed start to 2017, falling to four teams who finished inside the Top Eight last season. Their wins coming against battlers; the Titans, Warriors, Tigers and Eels.

If they’re serious about making a play for the title this year, they need to begin to get their act together.

Having lost their last two games in tight fashion against unheralded Manly and the mixed-bag Bulldogs, there will be no doubt Coach Ricky Stuart will be looking for a highly-dominant performance against the Newcastle Knights this Sunday at McDonald Jones Stadium.

The fiercely competitive Ricky Stuart will know Canberra must make 2017 their year.

Given hope by many at the start of the season as genuine-contenders for the Premiership, the Raiders largely enjoyed a player turnover-free off season.

Losing just regular-starters Paul Vaughan and Edrick Lee from their main 17, along with Brenko Lee and Shaun Fensom from the extended squad, it could be argued Canberra were one of the best clubs who carried consistency amongst their playing squad through to this season.

The addition of Junior Paulo midway through last season proved to be a gamble that has paid dividends, with the troubled forward making huge improvements to his game. And, as a consequence, adding another element to the Raiders’ already formidable pack.

Never a club to be short of a man-mountain in their range of forwards, Stuart added the enigmatic Dave Taylor over the off-season, who returned from the South of France after a year in the English Super League.

Taylor has played just one-game for the Raiders this season, but knowing Ricky Stuart it would be foolish to think he hasn’t added Taylor to the squad without having a plan in place.

The ‘Volcano that has never erupted’ has returned to an extended bench for this Sunday’s clash against the Knights and if he plays, it could just be the extra piece of the puzzle the Raiders have been lacking.

Why is Dave Taylor in the Lime-Green in 2017?

While things won’t be easy as 2016 for the Raiders’ run home this season, they will need to turn their historically dismal away record around in their next four out of five games outside of the ACT.

Just seven out of their last 15 games this year will be at GIO Stadium and while you would expect them to make that a fortress during the colder winter months, currently sitting in 10^th place on the ladder will require a number of away wins to place them in a title-winning place at the end of the season.

With a playing-group that could be completely exempt from Origin football, Canberra look ready to make a mid-season move up the NRL ladder.

Should they do so, then perhaps their ever-improving squad can live up to its puff, learn the lessons from their Finals' knockout and make a committed crack of bringing a 4^th Premiership back to the Capital.

With Stuart at the helm – who was involved in winning all three – they probably have their best chance since 1994 to take home the trophy. 

2016: The Sporting Review

One year, 12 months, 366 days. What an incredible year in sport. Insane, even. 

2016 captivated the imagination of sports fans around the world. Drought-breaking, underdog, and resilient tales of success echoed around the globe’s codes and competitions. The constant theme uniting them all has been the ending of historic and long-held losing streaks. There’s never been a time like it. 

Consider that in just the four major American sports alone, two teams broke a combined 154 years of title droughts (MLB – Chicago Cubs, 108 years; NBA – Cleveland Cavaliers, 46 years). 

Across the Atlantic, Leicester rode football’s most unlikely fairy tale at yes, the odds of 5000 to 1. A feat as unlikely to occur again as it ever was in the first place. 

Champions of England, Leicester City.

Closer to home, the Western Bulldogs ended a 62-year wait in the AFL, while in the NRL, Cronulla finally turned off the porch light after 49 years in the competition. Both Australian premierships doing wonders for the rusted-on and long-serving fans of the game. 

On the international scene, the Rio Olympic Games came and went without the much anticipated fuss the world thought the first South-American location would bring. Star of the show Usain Bolt completed a trio of victories in the Men’s 100m, 200m, and 4 x 100m relays to claim all three gold medals for the third Olympics in a row.

Just sit back for a minute and reflect on what that represents in the context of historic places in sport. What a moment in time. While there are many champions and phenomenal achievements this year, it is impossible to not hand Bolt the title of sportsperson of the year. 

Bolt first, daylight second.

Moving back to team games, and specifically to Euro 2016 football championships. The surprising efforts of minnow nations Wales and Iceland surpassed any of the big-guns who simply didn’t fire. Wales, backed by an enduring team-spirit to honor their late manager and a group of players who thrived on their national pride, took themselves to the semi-finals after topping their group through sheer commitment and will, along with the right-foot of Gareth Bale. 

But they eventually ran into Bale’s teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who led Portugal all the way to the final. There they faced France, winning in the most bizarre fashion after Ronaldo limped off early into the game, leaving the world’s best player unable to captain his side to a victory from the field. But, taking it in their stride, Portugal threw off the one-man team perception of them, coming away with a 1-nil extra-time win. Their first major tournament win ever. 

The NRL proved once again, that it is the media’s gift that just keeps on giving, with more scandals, controversies and unpredictable events than ever before. The year began with Mitchell Pearce enjoying Australia Day with a feline friend, moved to Parramatta showing they are the most-dysfunctional club in history, and a betting scandal unfolding that put every Tom, Dick and Harry at the center of. 

It is truly hard to believe sometimes how this sport continues to roll-on through everything uppercut it gives itself. By the end of the season though, the soap-opera somehow always seems to have its football push all the negatives to the side. 

The Robbie Farah farewell, Jarryd Hayne’s return that came with the ‘This is my house’ match-winning field goal, Dane Gagai’s Origin hat-trick, Ricky’s Raiders bringing new Glory Days to Canberra along with their spine-tingling Viking Clap, Penrith’s emergence as the best young-side in the comp, Melbourne’s everlasting and assured success deep into September, and last but not least, Cronulla’s Grand Final victory.

The Sharks celebrate after Ben Barba opens the scoring in the 2016 NRL Grand Final.

In sport, they say there is no better story than a comeback story, and if Cronulla’s meteoric rise to the competition’s highest rank isn’t the comeback of the year, then I’m Miles Davis. Just Two years after going through a near club-destroying drugs scandal, Shane Flanagan and the Sharks fought off their rivals to have the best season in the club’s history. It was their time to win it, but it certainly wasn’t easy. 

They almost lost Ben Barba after a mid-year punch up against Sosaia Feki, could have been without Andrew Fifita following his run-in with public criticism, and had to win in Canberra without inspirational skipper Paul Gallen. 

But the two people that brought the Sharks the stability and steadiness they needed to go to the next level were Michael Ennis and Lyall Gorman. Ennis, the side’s hooker provided the competitiveness, confidence, and guidance the team so desperately lacked. In Gorman, the club’s CEO, the Sharks became a club that looked, acted, and smelt-like a professional organisation. 

Congratulations Cronulla, comeback of the year.  

Despite all the crazy triumphs that 2016 brought, there was nothing that brought world sport to the ground more than Leicester City’s English Premier League title win. Every week, every game, every goal, every moment, fans road Leicester’s journey from the start to the end. 

Their success did more for football and the business that sport has become than anything else in the past decade. It gave hope, to every team, coach, player and fan out there, that sport is still a game. 

It can still be won against the odds. No matter the price-tag or the cost of an opposing line-up; hard-work, grit, determination, teamwork, togetherness, fearlessness, and a fighting spirit can still produce a miracle. And that is exactly what Leicester City’s 2016 win was, a sporting miracle. 

Could there ever have been a more wild ride as a fan than the Foxes journey?

A 132-year wait for a title conquest that was built on everything described, and an unbreakable amount of belief combined with a momentum and resilience never seen before. Foxes Never Quit. 

Sports team of the year, Leicester City Football Club.

What a twelve months, what a time to be alive.

Long live the year of the drought-breakers.

But bring on 2017!

Premier League State of Affairs: LIVERPOOL

The Reds find themselves top of the league after 11 rounds of the Premier League, in a place that looked virtually impossible just 12 months ago.

Sadio Mane is Liverpool's top Premier League goalscorer, with six in ten appearances. 
(Photo: Sky Sports)

It’s hard to believe the transformation and evolution of the playing group since Jurgen Klopp took over in October, 2015.

But for those who witnessed the German sprinkle his magic over Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund earlier in his career, maybe Liverpool’s improvement is no surprise at all.

Over the course of last season, Klopp helped restore the Liverpool squad’s confidence in themselves. He set new standards and raised the side’s expectations, with the influence eventually taking them to – two – cup finals.

In his first preseason at the club in July, 2016, he took them on what has become a standard international trip across two continents, building both fitness and camradery.

Crucially, during this time he made the astute signings of Sadio Mane from Southampton, and Georginio Wijnaldum from Newcastle United. Both additions came almost as a surprise to the wider, outside stakeholders, but have provided depth and improvement in much-needed areas.

Klopp didn’t exactly plug the gaps in the side’s holes considering he resisted the urge to sign a left back and utilised what he had on hand, but he made calculated decisions.

While putting faith in the majority of the squad he had might have been considered a gamble by some, the add-ons have installed a healthy competition for places in the starting team.

The fact that striker Daniel Sturridge, who was not long ago considered Liverpool’s best player, cannot hold down a place in Klopp’s favoured XI is a telling sign of how far the Reds have come.

But how far they can go will be an exciting journey to watch unfold. While matching the breathtaking brilliance and deadliness of the Brendon Rodgers’ Luis Suarez-led side of 2013-14 would be tough, Klopp’s side is beginning to open up sides and tear them apart.

Of course, no title is ever won in November, and whether the weight and long held expectations of winning a maiden Premier League title burdens their chances remains to be seen.

In recent weeks, Klopp has been pouring cold water on any title-winning talk, attempting to douse any false pretences that could develop amongst his players.

He knows, no title is secured until it’s all said and done. Liverpool fans should also know this better than any.

But it’s clear this Klopp-guided team is a legitimate chance at winning some silverware this season.

If they can keep their momentum going, Liverpool could do anything this season.

As they say: you’ve got to lose one, to win one.

Last season, Liverpool lost two.

Prediction: Close, very close.