Uncool Dad’s Round 5 Recap
Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later. It seems our run of close and intense games has come to a bit of a halt with a few blowouts creeping into the scorelines this round. I suppose the toughness and intensity that we’ve seen so far would eventually take its toll.
Still, plenty of great footy on display including two golden point matches. There’s a lot to look forward to with one my favourite rounds in the Easter round next week. Let’s have a look at what happened in Round 5.
Thursday
The round kicked off with a prospective cracker with the Roosters hosting the Eels at Allianz. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Thursday night footy. It’s great to watch on tv as a start to the round but it’s no good when your team is playing. The games are so hard to get to during the working week. It’s not helped by the fact Souths haven’t won a Thursday game in ages!
Anyway, back to the match and even though the game promised a spectacle, I thought both teams were a little off their best. It was going to be hard for Parra to replicate their near perfect performance against Penrith last week and this proved to be the case. Two sin-binnings didn’t help their cause either.
The Roosters were better and deserved their win even if they wouldn’t be completely happy with their performance. They did well to do it without Tedesco who went off early with a head knock. New 1.6 million dollar per season rugby recruit Joseph Suaalii had a strong match which would have pleased the blazer wearers. Unfortunately, not even young Joseph will be able to save the extravaganza of dullness that is rugby union in Australia.
Friday
Onto Friday and we had the usual two games with the first being the Panthers travelling to Canberra to take on the Raiders. Canberra were without their star player in Jack Wighton who is suspended for this week and the next. On paper, they looked weak and Penrith, as always, looked super strong. The Panthers had been going fairly well but only one win to show for it. It was only a matter of time till they clicked into gear. This resulted in Penrith putting 50 on Canberra.
Rugby League’s luckiest player – Jaeman Salmon – who gets to sit on Penrith’s bench each week and do very little, even got a chance to sling a few insults Ricky Stuart’s way. This of course was a response to last year’s ‘weak gutted dog’ incident. The boys from the Panthers are the epitome of class and always know how to celebrate a win gracefully.
It’s always difficult writing these things when the Rabbitohs don’t play well but this is what has happened this week. Souths came out flat this round and never looked comfortable against the Storm. Melbourne were good with Munster and Grant showing the way but were definitely beatable had the Bunnies brought a better attitude. It was very frustrating watching this from the stands, we also got to add to our already diabolical win/loss record against the Storm. I think Souths’ tough draw and our many injuries in the forwards really caught up with us this week.
Saturday
Back to our normal three games on a Saturday with our first being in sunny Mudgee for the Manly v Knights clash. This was a real try-scoring shootout with scores remaining locked even after extra time. A very rare 32-32 score was the final result. Manly looked good again but maybe not as sharp as previous weeks. Possibly the Souths v Manly game took its toll on them too? The Knights continue to impress and refuse to give in despite being a few troops down. They look to be going better without Ponga with guys like Hastings and Miller being standouts.
The middle match saw the Dragons put on a score against the Dolphins. St George-Illawarra usually save their best for their Wollongong matches but the Dolphins look as if they’re starting to struggle. Once the injuries happen as they inevitably always do, the new side was always going to find it a challenge. They won’t give up with Bennett at the helm but it will be interesting to see how they cope over the coming weeks.
The final match went exactly as everyone expected it to with the Broncos thumping the struggling Tigers with ease. Wests were never in this at any stage and Brisbane seemed to be scoring tries at will. Brisbane remain undefeated whilst the Tigers look to be in a massive hole larger than Luke Brooks’ salary.
Sunday
Two games which looked pretty competitive on paper were scheduled for Sunday. First up was the Warriors taking on Cronulla at Shark Park. The Sharkies shot away to a 20-0 lead early and looked to be on their way to a big victory like last week. The Warriors of 2023 are a new breed though and found their way back into the game. Never before have I seen a Warriors side as resilient as this one. Amazingly, NZ got the win in the end 32-30. The effort of the Warriors to come back was simply awesome, however, Cronulla can consider themselves unlucky. The penalty NZ received to win the match was highly dubious at best.
The final match ended up being a gripping contest with a seriously busted up Bulldogs side just getting over the Cowboys in golden point. This was a real tough win by the blue and whites as they lost players before and during the match and some of those left out there playing were held together with tape and stitches.
The Easter round is on next week with traditional clashes and close contests to look forward to. I’ll be there in the crowd at Homebush with about 40,000 others hoping my Rabbitohs can get back on the winners list!
Round 6 Preview
Watch out for next round’s preview after the team lists drop on Bunnies TV. As always, there’ll be plenty of tips, bets and biased Rabbitoh insight!
Uncool Dad’s Round 5 Recap.
By Greg Allan for Bunnies TV.
Add comment