The NRL Draw for 2012 was released last night:
One of the potential problems with rugby league's Four Nations, which opens with Australia playing New Zealand at Warrington tonight, is that it can hardly avoid comparisons with events on the other side of the world. Set alongside rugby union's World Cup, the crowds will be smaller, the coverage minimal, the rugby and the off-field behaviour better. There will be more tries than goals. All that can be predicted with some confidence.
There is no denying that league's weakness is its lack of a convincing international dimension. The Four Nations, a concept which is itself a rather inadequate replacement for full tours to and by Great Britain, goes into cold storage after this tournament. It is scheduled to reappear in 2014, after a World Cup here the previous year.
By comparison with either that or rugby union's shindig, this is a condensed, intimate affair. Even four nations could be too many, however.
The concept began as Three Nations, with England, Australia and New Zealand playing each other twice, leading to a final. Provided nobody fell down on the job too badly, that was a guarantee of plenty of competitive rugby.
The worthy motive of encouraging France and Papua New Guinea – the next strata down – has diluted that promise. It seemed an exciting development when Wales beat the French to qualify for this year's tournament; now one rather fears for them.
With a couple of their brighter prospects opting to qualify for England, the talismanic Gareth Thomas retired and the guts kicked out of the professional structure in the Principality by the implosion of Crusaders, it will be a major achievement for Wales – now largely and creditably represented by Welsh-born players – to avoid three heavy defeats, starting with England at Leigh tomorrow.
The title will be decided by the games between the big three, culminating in the final at Elland Road on 19 November. Here, there is much to look forward to.
To see the Kangaroos and the Kiwis go head-to-head in a stadium as tight to the touchlines and as atmospheric as the Halliwell Jones is a treat no rugby league follower could resist. Likewise next weekend's double-header at Wembley: England (or rather Great Britain) have a good record against the Aussies in that stadium (or rather its predecessor) and the RFL is confident of topping the 50,000 mark for the two games. They are part of something of a blitz on London next week, with the rebranding of Harlequins RL (who revert to their old identity as London Broncos), the International Player of the Year awards and all four squads spending time promoting the game in the capital.
The key game could well be at Hull the following weekend, when England and New Zealand should be contesting a place in the final against Australia.
The Kiwis might look well below full power this time, but they have fooled us that way before. In Benji Marshall, they have a player who can take any game by the throat, whilst newcomers such as the full-back, Kevin Locke, and the scrum-half, Kieran Foran, look genuine prospects.
Australia, with that familiar spine of Queensland class and experience, also have some exciting new faces, headed by Akuila Uate, a winger who has the potential to become one of the very best.
Which leaves England, or the United Nations, as disgruntled purists might put it. Coach Steve McNamara's decision to use four players from the southern hemisphere has not pleased everyone, but that tough attitude of "whatever it takes" could be just the ticket.
Four Nations: Who's who
Australia
Coach Tim Sheens
Captain On his farewell tour, Darren Lockyer
One to watch Thrilling winger Akuila Uate
Bookies say 11-4 on
England
Coach Steve McNamara
Captain Pack leader par excellence, Jamie Peacock
One to watch Kiwi-born half-back Rangi Chase
Bookies say 7-1 shot
New Zealand
Coach Stephen Kearney
Captain Benji Marshall, developing into the tactical leader that the Kiwis need.
One to watch Kevin Locke
Bookies say 3-1
Wales
Coach Iestyn Harris
Captain Lee Briers
One to watch Widnes-bound Lloyd White
Bookies say At 100-1, the rank outsiders
The Destination NSW New Zealand office has reported record enquiries about flights, accommodation and tickets for Sunday’s Telstra Premiership NRL Grand Final between the Vodafone New Zealand Warriors and the Manly Sea Eagles at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.
There has been a significant increase in the number of interstate and international visitors attending this year’s Grand Final. Current ticket sales indicate that we may see a 40 per cent increase in the number of non-NSW visitors attending compared with last year.
Air New Zealand Group General Manger Australasia, Bruce Parton, said the airline has put on extra services to accommodate the last minute rush, with thousands of Kiwi’s keen to watch their home grown heroes play in their second NRL Grand Final match.
“We’ve added two 747 return services – one sold out in an hour on Sunday and when the other went on sale this week, it was gone in six minutes.
“We’ve also added some additional A320 services either side of game day and upgraded a number of flights to larger 777-200 aircraft in order to cater for as many fans as possible,” Mr Parton said.
Last year the Grand Final generated more than $15 million in new money for the State with over 20,000 interstate and overseas visitors coming to Sydney for the iconic Australian event. Destination NSW has worked hard to grow this opportunity with its NRL partners.
(Source: Destination NSW)
The big game might be taking place in Manly's backyard, but Sunday's grand final is shaping up like a home match for the all-conquering Warriors. Thousands of Kiwis and Pacific Islanders on both sides of the Tasman have snapped up tickets for the NRL showpiece, which was yesterday declared an 82,500 sell-out.
And most Aussie supporters look ready to embrace the underdogs in the same way Aucklanders discovered a sudden affection for the Irish rugby team this month.
The Warriors' opponents are the club league fans most love to hate - "Anyone But Manly" sentiment is as strong in Sydney as anti-Wallaby feeling is in Auckland.
Yesterday the city's Daily Telegraph newspaper poked fun at the "silvertails" - named because they are from Sydney's wealthy North Shore - who remain favourites only with the bookies, and their own fans.
"Ever since we were old enough to kick with both feet we were taught there were two teams to support; our own and whoever was playing Manly," wrote columnist Paul Kent.
He suggested the Warriors should follow Russell Crowe, Crowded House, Phar Lap and pavlova as Kiwi imports Aussies claimed as their own.
"With no hint of shame I'm here to tell you that if you can't bring yourself to cheer for Manly ... then it is OK to follow the New Zealand Warriors," he said.
"Or, as I like to call them, the Sydney Warriors. Our grand final team."
In the 1970s and 80s, Manly gained a reputation as a rich club that poached other teams' best players.
NRL marketing director Paul Kind says the club from the northern beaches perpetuated the "us and them" myth.
"It's a healthy culture in many respects," he said.
And on Sunday it will benefit the Warriors, whose underdog status will also attract strong backing.
"There will be supporters of other Sydney teams who have had a long-held grudge against Manly," said Mr Kind. "They would rather back another team against Manly.
"People also love an underdog and the type of fairytale run the Warriors have had."
The NRL boss expects the grand final to have a strong Kiwi feel.
Prime Minister John Key will take his place in the cheap seats next to the Warriors' No 1 fan, Sir Peter Leitch.
And there won't be an All Black in sight; a point not lost on league bosses delighted that the Warriors are sharing the NZ limelight during the Rugby World Cup.
"The fact the Warriors have found a place in the sun during [the rugby tournament] is fantastic for rugby league in New Zealand," said Mr Kind.
It's not the getting there that counts. That's the message Feleti Mateo will be drumming into his team mates this week as the Warriors prepare for the club's second NRL grand final. Mateo knows all too well the hollowness that comes with a grand final defeat, describing his last visit to Homebush on the final day of the season as a "shattering" experience.
The ball-playing Tongan captain also knows that some teams head into the big day intent on winning, while others are happy just to be there.
In 2009, Mateo's Parramatta side staged one of the great NRL surges, riding a staggering wave of form that took them from 14th on the ladder after 14 rounds all the way to a grand final showdown with Melbourne.
There are echoes of that run in the Warriors' remarkable journey this season. They lost their first three games, dropped another four in a row mid-season, and were then belted out of sight 40-10 by Brisbane in their opening finals match.
Having recovered to topple the Tigers and Storm in thrilling fashion, the Warriors might be forgiven for thinking they have already achieved plenty.
They will, however, be a long time forgiving themselves if that mentality proves their undoing.
"I had a lot of people come up to me and say 'we don't care about the GF, as long as you beat the Bulldogs'," said Mateo of 2009, when the Eels beat their arch rival in a hugely hyped Battle of Sydney grand final qualifier.
"We all wanted to win it, but I guess there was a feeling it was a good thing getting there. We have spoken about that. We don't want to be happy to be there. We think we are good enough to win it."
Coach Ivan Cleary didn't think getting his team to switch from being desperate to reach a grand final to desperate to win it would be difficult.
"I have no interest in coming second," Cleary said.
"It is not hard to work out when you get up every morning where you want to finish - that is not in the grand final, it is winning it. But we never set it out as a particular goal, we have just arrived here based on what we have been able to do.
"It is absolutely fantastic to get the opportunity to experience all this but, really, it is about having the opportunity to become champions, not a side show."
Despite a transtasman surge of support the Warriors are still firm underdogs.
"No one expected us to beat the Tigers and no one expected us to [beat the Storm]," Mateo said. "Let them keep doubting us."
Having joined the Warriors after the Eels' 2010 campaign, Mateo never doubted the move - not even after those three season-opening defeats.
"Never mate. Those first three games, we didn't win them but we played some good footy. And looking at the squad the club had, it was really promising."
The Junior Warriors and feeder club Auckland Vulcans also contesting grand finals on Sunday supports his view the club is stocked with talent.
Often described as a special player for his prodigious offloading and line-breaking ability, Mateo insists there is, in fact, nothing too special about this Warriors team.
"It's just been dirty, ugly footy. Going forward, completing sets and taking our opportunities when they come. That is what we have been doing for the last two weeks and, hopefully, we can do it again this week.
"Manly are a great team, they have got strike across the whole field. But it is just another game you have to grind out. They have some hard heads in that pack and they will get even harder with Glenn Stewart coming back.
"But if we just worry about ourselves, play our brand of footy and keep level headed, then I think we can win it."
Few could imagine the emotion Brett Stewart carried to his comeback NRL season and now a grand final, writes Richard Hinds. Tomorrow, it will be precisely 12 months since Manly fullback Brett Stewart heard the verdict. A year since, in a formal sense, his personal ordeal came to an end.
Back then, overwhelmed by a torrent of emotion, you can only imagine how distant, even insignificant, the thought of playing in another NRL grand final would have seemed. After the humiliation Stewart had endured, and the toll injury and a long absence from the game had taken, how far-fetched it might have been to think he would appear again, so soon, in the far more glowing public spotlight of ANZ Stadium.
You can only imagine, because, for the most part, Stewart has maintained what seems - from afar - a brooding silence. Attempts to talk to Stewart, through his agent, have been rebuffed or met with no response at all. Stewart accumulated six-figure legal bills and his story is a tradeable commodity. It might well appear elsewhere.
But, other than for potential financial gain, Stewart's reluctance to talk is hardly surprising. Tried, judged and - in his own mind, at least - persecuted by the media since the day of his arrest, it is understandable he has withdrawn into a protective cocoon. Even more so at a club that famously holds the world at arm's length.
Yet, as he prepared to feature in what should be one of the feel-good stories of the NRL grand final, the heavy, almost oppressive atmosphere that has surrounded Stewart this season seems unfortunate. In the manner in which he has returned from the harrowing ordeal of the sexual assault trial and a series of serious knee injuries, Stewart deserves to be praised beyond his Brookvale backyard. To be re-embraced by the game he once - very briefly - publicly symbolised.
Instead, there remains a note of defiance, even bitterness, about Stewart's great comeback. Manly fans cheered when the fullback ''Galloped'' after scoring his 100th first grade try in May. But what should have been a crowning moment was again dominated by old wounds and unsettled scores.
Grand final week is usually replete with tales of redemption, near-death experiences and other entertaining back stories told to whet the appetite for the contest. Stewart's tale is awkward, unorthodox and difficult to define.
No doubt, many would begrudge Stewart any form of ''heroism'' on the grounds his supposedly heroic act is merely to have been found not guilty of a serious crime. But that fails to take into account the mental anguish he must have endured between his arrest in March last year and his trial. The public humiliation, the personal doubts and the effect on family and friends.
Perhaps that lingering bitterness and resentment drives Stewart. Perhaps, if he forgave and forgot his public vilification, he would not have found the motivation to return to the top so quickly. Maybe, if he was not playing angry, he would not be playing at all. Or does the smile, concealed from the public, appear the moment he reaches the sanctuary of the sheds? You would love to ask Stewart if he had found peace inside, and outside, the white lines.
No doubt, Stewart's looming happily-ever-after owes much to his handful of confidantes, particularly coach Des Hasler. Asked earlier this year, when was he convinced of Stewart's innocence, Hasler said it was when he saw him at the police station after his arrest and looked into his eyes.
To some, no doubt, such a seemingly superficial assessment would reek of partisanship, even disrespect for the alleged victim. Given what Hasler had to gain from his superstar fullback, it might even be considered rank opportunism.
Yet, with his faith and conviction vindicated by the jury's verdict, Hasler has created an unbreakable bond. Similar to the familial bond that made it not merely understandable but purely reflexive, that Stewart came to his brother's aid as the ''third man in'' during the Battle of Brookvale.
Almost as an afterthought, there is also an old-fashioned football element to Stewart's story.
The knee injuries that forced him from the park for most of last season, and which have been a lingering concern right up until the eve of these finals.
But, if Stewart has not quite reached the peak of his try-scoring powers, he has been a reasonable facsimile. Sound at the back, a threat near the line. Back in a place that was, just 12 months ago, unimaginable. It would be nice to speak to Stewart about what that all means. Then again, on Sunday, just trotting out to play another grand final will speak for itself.
SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/silence-speaks-volumes-about-the-pain-that-drives-stewart-20110927-1kvjo.html#ixzz1ZCuISXrv
If the Warriors win the National Rugby League grand final in Sydney on Sunday, they won't be just notching up an historic first premiership for the only non-Australian club in the competition – they will be flying in the face of pure statistics as well. A team ranked from outside the top four, going into the playoffs, has never won the NRL since the rebranded competition began in 1998.
The Warriors are the sixth team from outside the top four to make the season's decider in that time, but the closest any non-top four team has come was in 1999, when the sixth-placed Dragons were just nudged by the Storm 20-18.
All remaining outsiders have typically been handed hidings, with the averaging losing margin for each of the other five teams being 14 points.
In 1998, a year before the McIntyre System was introduced, the ninth-ranked Bulldogs reached the grand final, which they lost to the Broncos.
You have to turn back the history books to 1995, the Warriors' foundation year, for the last time a sixth-placed team won the first-grade competition.
The then-Sydney Bulldogs beat minor premiers Manly 17-4 to win the Australian Rugby League title that year.
In a good omen for the Warriors, former captain Steve Price started in the second row for the Bulldogs that day, while, interestingly enough, former All Black John Timu played in the centres for the premiership winners.
The Warriors' 20-12 victory over the Storm last Saturday meant that for the first time since 2005, when the fourth-ranked Tigers beat the Cowboys, there will be no minor premier in the grand final.
Don't think that it is all sunshine for the Sea Eagles though, who finished the season placed second. Since the McIntyre System was introduced in 1999, second-place teams have made the grand final five times, only winning twice.
These victories came in 2004 when the Bulldogs overcame the Roosters, and in 2008 when the Sea Eagles themselves trumped the Storm.
The Junior Warriors will also be aiming to rewrite history on Sunday.
A victory against the Cowboys Under-20s in the Toyota Cup grand final would be the first back-to-back pair of premierships in the junior competition's history.
And while the Rugby World Cup has swept New Zealand throughout the past month rugby league fans will, very quietly, point out that since their inception in 1995 they have now made two finals, compared to the All Blacks' one, against South Africa in 1995.
AT A GLANCE
Warriors' run to the NRL grand final (since August):
Lost to Broncos 21-20 in Brisbane
bt Knights 20-12 in Auckland
bt Panthers 26-12 in Sydney
lost to Dragons 26-22 in Wollongong
bt Cowboys 18-6 in Auckland
lost to Broncos 40-10 in Brisbane (qualifying final)
bt Tigers 22-20 in Sydney (semifinal)
bt Storm 20-12 in Melbourne (preliminary final)
Manly coach Des Hasler will need to be alert to signs of complacency among his players in the lead-up to Friday night's preliminary final against the Broncos now that Darren Lockyer is a confirmed non-starter.
