Thoughts On the GF now the dust has settled

[Guest]

I finally got around to watching the replay of first half of the GF the other day. Couldn't bring myself to sit through the second half.

As much as I wanted to believe the conspiracy theories about the refereeing at the time, watching the replay in the cold light of day I had to admit that the shit decisions (and there were many) went both ways. We probably got the worst of it but put it down to incompetence, there ain't no conspiracy. The likes of Gallop & Finch & Harrigan aren't smart enough or motivated enough to conspire against anyone. They're flat out getting their jobs done as it is. Leuluai for example got away with a blatant knock on that would have had us staring down the barrel of 12-0 and probably game over. It went both ways folks. Yes it's true. And I did get the feeling that our guys were pushing their luck in terms of holding down in the tackles, like they always do, which explains the constant loss of penalty counts. Its a deliberate Brian Smith tactic for sure. I don't like it much but it got us to a GF so he knows what he's doing with it.

And I felt that we lost the game in the last 10 minutes of the first half when they were choking and we had a heap of chances to put them away but didn't.

It still hurts me to think about the game, I was so sure we were going to win and with bettter luck and composure maybe we could have. But we didn't. So it goes.

[supermario]

checkout www.refgotitwrong.com Ox, he shows all aspects where the ref got it wrong for both sides

[TheLoneRooster]

I've only watched the first half too Ox and will never watch the second half.
Decisions may seem to have been even in the first half but watching only the first would skew the overall effect to my mind. Up to the 78th (?) minute the penalty count was 1 - 5 with the Roosters almost missing out on that 1 which amazes me to this day just how perfect the merge scum behaved. I'm still bitter and it doesn't help seeing merge scum stickers on every fourth car.

[Guest]

Don't think anyone here can deny that poor errors were made both ways, difference is one team copped it far more, with far more obvious calls.

[Guest]

difference is one team copped it far more, with far more obvious calls.

I don't deny that. What I'm saying is enough went the other way to prove there wasn't some kind of crazy conspiracy to deny the roosters a premiership - which plenty around here have suggested there was.

The notion of conspiracies is pretty sily if you ask me. But I guess its to be expected from disappointed fans.

[Guest]

Only morons believe in a conspiracy theory. Well this one anyway.

We got beat.

What a fantastic year though. That loss hasn't taken the year away for me. Just glad to have been competing again.

[Guest]

I thought the first half was reasonably even as far as decisions go...you only watched the first half. But the 2nd half seemed to be well weighted their way....this is where the pendulant swung!

[Chook Norris]

Only morons believe in a conspiracy theory. Well this one anyway.

We got beat.

What a fantastic year though. That loss hasn't taken the year away for me. Just glad to have been competing again.

^ this

[Guest]

I don't deny that. What I'm saying is enough went the other way to prove there wasn't some kind of crazy conspiracy to deny the roosters a premiership - which plenty around here have suggested there was.

The notion of conspiracies is pretty sily if you ask me. But I guess its to be expected from disappointed fans.

We are talking about a strip and one knock on, every team cop these there and then.

For example Archer was standing right in front of jake friend when he got tackled high, didn't blow the whistle until hayne came in!

One penalty for the entire game (hardly count the second in the last minute) does that seem right to you?

How does a touch judge miss both legs of player outside the touch line?

How cannot someone see the mini got tackled without the ball?

Harrigan watching the replay thousand times and can't see the ball went into aubs?

Oh and a free interchange for a supposedly high hit on weyman?

PLEASE, I have watched the whole game so many times now (only gf I can watch) and I can't explain how they can get any of these wrong. A 10yr old would have done better.

Momentum shifted badly, of course we got beat.

[stephenj]

ive finally got to the stage where i can control the tears when i think of the day, im very sick of the continual flaunting of dragons flags on sundry cars, yesterday a bus stopped in front of me with another dragons spin sheet on the back, couldnt help myself, just happened to have an old black roosters sticker in my car so i jumped out and planted it middle of the dragon crap, you might see it wandering around the shire and the merge district? sad act wasnt it, ive now run out of those black stickers, covered up a lot of bunnies though!

[Guest]

PLEASE, I have watched the whole game so many times now (only gf I can watch) and I can't explain how they can get any of these wrong. A 10yr old would have done better..

Oh dear Julz. You've watched it many times??? WHY??? Why put yourself through that? Time to move on with life. The cricket starts in a couple of weeks. Maybe give that a go and forget about footy til March.

[elo]

Referee errors balanced in the first half? You kidding me?

There was the BJ knock on from a kick and....?.....

Whilst for the Dragons;

1) Brett Morris two feet out pass - lead to the only Dragons points of the first half (6)

2) Deliberately forward pass to a player that was offside by Morris 25 out in front of their own posts -2 points

3) Todd Carney pass that was not forward out of the hands, but amazingly called whilst Young threw forward pass after forward pass out of dummy half all night -4 or -6 points.

Half-time score of 8 - 6 should have been 14 or 16 to blot, game over - Dragons have not chased down a 6+ point lead in over 2 seasons.

I do believe their was bias by the referees towards the Dragons as there has been all season, they get away with a lot crap (particularly in the ruck) that others don't, simply because Finch's video sessions would have never focused on them. The refereeing was nothing short of a blight on the game, but the result went how it was "meant" to so it doesn't matter.

[Johnny Tobin]

The bad calls against us were a lot more, a lot more blatant and a lot more costly.

Nobody can deny that three or four of their tries should not have been.

There was no conspiracy but there was definitely favouritism.

[player 1]

yeah Ox, I agree there was no second gunman on the grassy knoll.

But it was definitely a shithouse display from the match officials that greatly benefited the most boring team to ever become premiers.

And no offense, but what a load of tripe that Smith coached the team to hold down in the rucks any more than any other team. I'm sure like me you must have attended a lot of games in 2010. Our opponents in most matches achieved faster play-the-balls than us, mainly because our guys were shit scared of being penalized (which they usually were anyway).

Bennett's teams have been offside for decades, and I find plausible the previously mentioned theory that, rather than cocks like Archer being told outright to cheat, they were efficiently "coached" by Finch that Bennett's side were good, fast defenders (never offside) whereas the roosters were ill-disciplined and should be penalized often.

None of this however still explains why we received the least penalties per game, not just in 2010 but for 2 years running.

I agree it is time to move on, but we were shafted by the match officials for 2 straight years and when we made the GF in spite of it, we received nothing close to a fair go in the GF.

[Guest]

I finally got around to watching the replay of first half of the GF the other day. Couldn't bring myself to sit through the second half.

As much as I wanted to believe the conspiracy theories about the refereeing at the time, watching the replay in the cold light of day I had to admit that the shit decisions (and there were many) went both ways. We probably got the worst of it but put it down to incompetence, there ain't no conspiracy. The likes of Gallop & Finch & Harrigan aren't smart enough or motivated enough to conspire against anyone. They're flat out getting their jobs done as it is. Leuluai for example got away with a blatant knock on that would have had us staring down the barrel of 12-0 and probably game over. It went both ways folks. Yes it's true. And I did get the feeling that our guys were pushing their luck in terms of holding down in the tackles, like they always do, which explains the constant loss of penalty counts. Its a deliberate Brian Smith tactic for sure. I don't like it much but it got us to a GF so he knows what he's doing with it.

And I felt that we lost the game in the last 10 minutes of the first half when they were choking and we had a heap of chances to put them away but didn't.

It still hurts me to think about the game, I was so sure we were going to win and with bettter luck and composure maybe we could have. But we didn't. So it goes.

Great post.

It's amazing how the great "momentum theory" doesn't apply to Leuluai's blatant knock on. Or how a team that loses penalty counts all year and (surprise,surprise) loses the penalty count in the Grand Final isn't a sign of an ill-disciplined team, but is because of some fanciful (and ludicrous) conspiracy.