SG Ball thread

[Chip]

Was told they all just played useless...don't know if that's really accurate or one person 's opinion of their own play today (sounded tired)
The Club/coaches talked to them yesterday about what could happen & how to handle it.  Asked if there was anythiing from the crowd & was told there was a little bit of 'things' said before the game started - didn't sound like much.
But if you think about it they were the 1st game after all of this hit the fan & they had to play away from home - that had to affect them.

[stormsally]

Let the boys know that we are proud of them. 

[CooperCronk]

They have done us proud during the year.  There is no doubt what has happened over the past few days has affected them.

[Michael :P]

Bad luck boys.

Im sure they wont look for excuses but the last few days would have affected them.

Now to focus on the Toytoa cup. Tohu Harris, Maipele Morseu, Ben Hampton and Mahe Fonua will add alot of class to that side.

[CooperCronk]

Bad luck boys.

Im sure they wont look for excuses but the last few days would have affected them.

Now to focus on the Toytoa cup. Tohu Harris, Maipele Morseu, Ben Hampton and Mahe Fonua will add alot of class to that side.

I accidently deleted my email and can't retrieve it.  What time does this game begin?

[Michael :P]

3:45 CC

[noa nandruku]

Heres an amusing article I found this morning, also gives a glimpse into the future.

Balmain Good: Storm More So

A field goal 110 seconds from time by Storm fullback Maipele Morseu brokea 22 all deadlock and quite a few Balmain hearts during an enthralling round 5 clash in Tiger Town.

Here’s how I remember it playing out …

Smarting from their first loss of the season seven days earlier, Melbourne took to the playing arena of greater Leichhardt with a fulsome clap and a primal holler. Balmain being the home team were already out there awaiting the razz. The Tigers managed to meet the Storm hoopla and raised them a yee har, when after just 3 minutes Kyle Lovett swooped upon a Ben Saunders grubber kick to pocket the neat half dozen. However orange cheer was dampened shortly thereafter when fullback come winger James Coote was lost to four men and a stretcher. The visitors hit back mid half courtesy of YoungTonumaipea (a name that works fine for him now – but let’s see how he’s going a few decades down into the time tunnel) following a withering burst on the left by second rower Mike Che-Kam. Quickly played (i.e. rolled between his legs with a little tap from the foot on the way through) it was left to the Jonathan Thurston look a-like, Storm number 7 Eman Carlos (my eyes aren’t that good anymore, he probably more closely resembles the Melbourne under 18s half Eman Carlos than he does the Cowboys playmaker) to spread the ball wide(actually, on second thoughts it was five-eighth Adam Milgate who threw the final pass .. Doh!) and the aforementioned winger of well monikered tender years did the rest.

Balmain led 6-4 and if it were Wimbledon they’d be well on their way to victory, but alas this is rugby league and a significant advantage it was not. In a game where big boppers kept hitting in defence like one of those sadistic nuns in a1940s boarding school, the average sized Balmain three quarte rGeorge Khoury found himself having a Moby Dick (whale) of a game and he all but laid on a second try to Lovett after 25 whole clock rotations. His efforts and the excitement of the Darling Street faithful were thwarted however when the man in pink, better known to his bevy of friends as Lawrence McDonnell (the ref) formed a strong SG Ball Cup personal opinion in relation to the linear trajectory of the final pass – and the plea for numerical nourishment was therefore denied.

Not to be disheartened, the Balmain boys scorched into a purple patch (no not the Stormruck defence) just before the 10 minute sit down. Firstly Curtis Sironen, now there’s a famous Balmain name (do you see how I did that, kind of left it open. For I could of guessed and said ‘son of Tigers great Paul Sironen’, but I don’t really know, for the lad could be the so nof Paul’s brother Rod or maybe even the first born of Barry and Muriel Sironen of 14 Elias Place, Corowa … I don’t know so I left the reference wholly without factual substance in a bold bid for journalistic accuracy – for these are the lengths we are willing to traverse at PPDDFF t tthhee mmaaggaaz zzi iinnee).

Anyway getting back to Curtis –the classy five-eighth dummied and went, using all of his considerable height he stretched a finger tip over the paint to force an action and reaction that pushed the orangey lads to 12-4.And then just 2 minutes later, for good measure the very same Curtis Sironen I was just mentioning unfurled (even threw) a lovely flat ball to his rampaging back rower Hayden Crocket and the Tiges trotted off ‘happy as’, leading 16-4.

Whilst I used the break to rest my eyes from the garish clash of jersey colours on display I found myself mutely humming along to Mozart’s ‘Carmina Burana’ and curiously had the sudden urge for coffee. Ducking into the new Gloria Jeans at the base of the exclusive Michael Pobjie Stand I satiated said urge with a frothy cardboard cup of extra hot, skim decaf sporting just the lightest sprinkling of chockydust up on top.

Balmain came oh so close to killing off the Storm early in the new half however a ball dropped over the tryline (or I think it was actually ruled to have been stripped) was followed just moments later by a Melbourne try (obviously and with total certainty - at the other end). It was scored by impressive left centre Jai Ingram however it was created by the socksdown Melbourne custodian Maipele Morseu who would end this day as the undisputed ‘Best On Ground’ winning the superb meat hamper from Trotters Offal Emporium, Lilyfield and a fifty dollar hair care gift pack from Streaks for his quality toil (quality foil for quality toil). Morseu was sublime and not since Billy Slater in his hey day (hang on, that’s now) has a Storm number one so troubled an opposition defence with pure pace off the mark.

At the 15 minute mark (of the new half, ie the 50th minute of the game –20 minutes to go) Morseu danced and shot down the right like a Bogan Moth spotting a 100 watt desk lamp. The sliding Balmain defence had absolutely no hope of laying a finger, and in the inkling of a try it was 16a piece.

Now rugby league folklore has it that the Tigers are a tenacious bunch of streetwise toilers who simply refuse to acknowledge the true meaning of the word ‘defeat’ and when GPS rugby product Joel Luani threw a long ball to put his centre Lachie Piper over in the left corner, nobody was particularly surprised, except maybe that guy on the hill with a sunken chest reading Rogets Thesaurus. Curtis Sironen kicked the extras from on touch and Balmain nosed ahead 22-16.

Yet the lead was nullified when Morseu again got outside a defender using blistering pace to create a channel to the line for his winger Tonumaipea and when Tala Titi slotted an angled conversion, 22 became the shared scoreboard accreditation. The final 10 minutes were tense and I found myselfsweating profusely whilst plucking OCD style at my burgeoning nasal hair. Balmain attacked to no avail and then it was Melbournes turn. As the clock showed 1 minute and 50 seconds to play theball went to that man Morseu, standing in the traditional drop kick spot in behind the ruck the fullback slotted the neatest of close-range field goals.

http://www.footypix.org/reps3a.pdf

Didnt realise how small the font was so I pipmed it.

[stormsally]

That is a classic article - this guy should be writing in Big League (I love the coffee at half time)