Granty
30-09-2005, 02:29 PM
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Sport/NRL-grand-final-could-be-a-try-fest/2005/09/30/1127804644188.html
NRL grand final could be a try fest
September 30, 2005 - 1:55PM
It's the grand final straight from vaudeville.
For this year at least, the game has turned its back on bulky, stats-driven teams who run robotic defensive lines and are obsessed by completions.
The North Queensland Cowboys and the Wests Tigers are two teams who have struggled in their short history but never lost sight of the notion that rugby league is all about the try-line and providing entertainment.
And more power to them.
The way they play, this might be the first year when there are more points scored in the NRL grand final than the AFL decider (Swans 58 Eagles 54).
The Cowboys and the Tigers have similar game plans, which is to say they don't appear to have one.
Coaches find it hard to draw up a blueprint for defence which relies on intercepts and scoring 90-metre tries.
It makes picking the winner very difficult.
How do you draw a form line on two teams who've flipped from 44-20 to the Cowboys in round six to 50-6 to the Tigers in the finals?
Far from being inhibited by the pressure of finals football, they have found it liberating.
The Tigers have scored 18 tries in three finals matches, only one of them resulting from a kick.
The Cowboys, with the entire population of Townsville yelling them on, blitzed minor premiers Parramatta 29-0 in last week's preliminary final.
As NRL chief executive David Gallop noted, its teams playing like the Tigers and Cowboys who have made this one of the best rugby league seasons in memory.
Crowds are up, television ratings are up. Interest is up.
Sunday night is a sellout. Who ever wins, it won't be dull.
© 2005 AAP
NRL grand final could be a try fest
September 30, 2005 - 1:55PM
It's the grand final straight from vaudeville.
For this year at least, the game has turned its back on bulky, stats-driven teams who run robotic defensive lines and are obsessed by completions.
The North Queensland Cowboys and the Wests Tigers are two teams who have struggled in their short history but never lost sight of the notion that rugby league is all about the try-line and providing entertainment.
And more power to them.
The way they play, this might be the first year when there are more points scored in the NRL grand final than the AFL decider (Swans 58 Eagles 54).
The Cowboys and the Tigers have similar game plans, which is to say they don't appear to have one.
Coaches find it hard to draw up a blueprint for defence which relies on intercepts and scoring 90-metre tries.
It makes picking the winner very difficult.
How do you draw a form line on two teams who've flipped from 44-20 to the Cowboys in round six to 50-6 to the Tigers in the finals?
Far from being inhibited by the pressure of finals football, they have found it liberating.
The Tigers have scored 18 tries in three finals matches, only one of them resulting from a kick.
The Cowboys, with the entire population of Townsville yelling them on, blitzed minor premiers Parramatta 29-0 in last week's preliminary final.
As NRL chief executive David Gallop noted, its teams playing like the Tigers and Cowboys who have made this one of the best rugby league seasons in memory.
Crowds are up, television ratings are up. Interest is up.
Sunday night is a sellout. Who ever wins, it won't be dull.
© 2005 AAP