This is a joke - Manly vs Who???

[Bullets]

Seriously you wouldn't think two teams are turning up sunday.


Everything i have heard in the last two days is about redemption for Manly

'Manly confident of revenge'
'Manly doing it for Menzies'
'Manly are different team after last year'
'Manly entertainment machine of the NRL'
'Sydney behind Manly 100%'

Are we suppose to roll over sunday and follow the script?   

[kasty]

Are we suppose to roll over sunday and follow the script?   

Of course not, as long as Gallop & Fitzgerald & Co. are around, the NRL is more of an improvised comedy

[Dani_]

I read the Daily Tele on the train on the way to work this morning. Got me so angry i wanted to punch someone in the face.

[Bullets]

oh hang on, actually do remember one thing on the storm today.

about Brett White on the news this arvo the dude was 'The Storm don't have anything to whinge about this week because Brett White has been cleared to play on sunday'

[Play the ball]

i think its beautifull, let them have all the attention.

I'm sure it suits our boys down to the ground.

[Ice]

i think its beautifull, let them have all the attention.

I'm sure it suits our boys down to the ground.

I totally agree with that. As much as these types of articles shit me to tears (especially the Storm bashing ones) I'm a glutton for punishment and i can't help reading them but I think these articles can only be a positive thing.

It gives us the us against them mentality, mentality that nobody gives us a chance and thinks we can't win which will only steel the boys resolve and it also puts more pressure on Manly to perform as favorites and the fear of losing back to back comps as Boofa pointed out. Especially given the papers are imploring all New south welshman to jump on the Manly bandwagon.

I'd prefer to have the us versus them siege mentality as opposed to being favorites who just have to show up to win. One can spur you on and get you over the line when the odds are against you and the other can get too much and choke you so to speak. We've proven how mentally tough we can be but i don't think Manly have really, well not against us anyway. The media up there did the same thing to us last year (albeit on a bit smaller scale and not quite as vicious) but i honestly believe it will makes us even mentally tougher.



If you don't like reading these types of articles then i suggest you don't read this one in todays tele. It's up there with the worst of them i reckon.



Storm have got to be joking

By Garry Linnell | September 30, 2008 12:00am



TAKE care if you happen to be travelling on the Hume Highway this week.Word out of Melbourne yesterday was that just about every Storm fan has decided to head north for Sunday's NRL grand final in a defiant show of support.

The Roads and Traffic Authority says it expects the minibus to reach the outskirts of Goulburn by lunchtime Friday.

At least they're a loyal mob.

Storm officials say that if they beat Manly and win the premiership, they will repay that loyalty by flying all their truly Victorian born and bred players back to Melbourne on a separate flight to acknowledge their fans.

The twin-engine Cessna will touch down at Melbourne airport at 1pm on Monday. The parade will start soon after, providing the Vespa turns up.

Looking forward to Australia Post's new stamp being launched with the Storm logo emblazoned upon it?

Me too. No need for confusion, either. The company says it will issue an instruction manual showing which side of the stamp to spit on.

All right. One more. Three men are walking down a street - Santa Claus, a calm and considered Craig Bellamy and a drunk. A $100 note is lying on the road. Who gets to it first?

The drunk. Sorry kids, but the other two characters don't exist.

OK, now how about a real joke? It's hard to imagine a team nudging Manly out of the No.1 spot in the Most Loathed Club category. But somehow the Storm have managed to achieve the unthinkable over the past week. Last Friday night coach Bellamy and football boss Brian Waldron unleashed a whining, paranoid-laced tirade on the NRL judiciary and anyone else they could think of in the aftermath of Cameron Smith's suspension for a head-high tackle. It was a truly breathtaking tantrum that cost them $50,000 in cash - and far more in goodwill.

If you believe the Storm, the entire competition is out to get them, including the media. Clinging to conspiracy theories and jumping at shadows that don't exist, Bellamy sounded like aman who has had his cage rattled once too often.
This was more than just the usual run-of-the-mill ploy by a coach telling his team the world has embarked on a mission to obliterate them. He actually seemed to believe it.

It's a lonely life running a sporting club in a hostile city and Melbourne is the toughest assignment in the country. That old Melbourne-Sydney rivalry has only ever existed in the minds of Victorians. I should know because I was once infected by it. Raised in a devout AFL culture, my first adult encounters with Sydney were filled with fear and loathing. Staring out of the cab taking me from Sydney airport to the city, even the people seemed to dress and look different to those back home.

Every man standing on a street corner possessed a thick neck, wore a wife-beater singlet and a pair of elasticised shorts. And they all had tattoos. It was only years later that I realised I had been driving past Labor party headquarters. But what really stood out was the mindset. Unlike Melburnians, Sydney people never gathered in the office kitchen on a wintry Monday morning debating the weekend's footy results. They were too busy comparing sun tans.

They didn't ring sports radio programs and argue over obscure penalties awarded against their team in the 1953 finals series. They called in to report which movie star they happened to be sitting next to in the coffee shop. It took a bit of getting used to but before long even I fell for the grace, the athleticism and the ... oh well, let's be honest, sheer brutality and carnage of rugby league.

So it seems clear that Bellamy and co have done the reverse and fallen captive to the natives. An intervention may be required here. An assault squad of highly trained specialists may need to be sent to Melbourne to seize Bellamy and his troops and sprinkle a little Harbour water over them to bring them to their senses.

Because if we don't do something, this club is going to become the biggest joke in Australian sport.

And we know who holds that title now, don't we. After all, what do you call a group of 17 men sitting around a television set watching the NRL grand final?

The Cronulla Sharks, of course.




All i can say is i'm glad he doesn't live down here amongst us anymore and he moved to that shithole. That for him is punishment enough.

[CaptainKlutz]

Seriously you wouldn't think two teams are turning up sunday.


Everything i have heard in the last two days is about redemption for Manly

'Manly confident of revenge'
'Manly doing it for Menzies'
'Manly are different team after last year'
'Manly entertainment machine of the NRL'
'Sydney behind Manly 100%'

Are we suppose to roll over sunday and follow the script?   

Same as last year actually.

And we all know what the result was that time

[tugga]

I thought it was reasonably humourous. Let's face it, we have a small, but loyal core of supporters. There's no denying that. Most people in Victoria are hoping we win on Sunday, but during the season wouldn't have cared less.
The new stadium will do wonders for our profile in years to come.

[steaming stormer]

Remember too guys, that the Sydney papers are writing for a Sydney market - and in this case that will always mean Manly get the majority of exposure up there - Manly fans down here would prob be just as pissed at the Herald Sun/Melb coverage.

[jellyhead]

It'll be interesting to see what happens come SoO next year if Bellamy is still at the helm for NSW and he gets a game (or even series) win for them.  Watch them turn and say he's the best thing since sliced bread.

[CaptainKlutz]

If your not fired up yet.....

Read this tripe.

Melbourne coach should be sent off

THERE is overwhelming evidence that the heavies at Melbourne Storm have gone more than a little mad. There is enough evidence, too, to suggest that the NRL has a screw loose. The $50,000 fine handed out to Melbourne after the preliminary final win over Cronulla is wrong and laughable.

Weirder still is Brian Waldron, Melbourne Storm's chief executive, suggesting that his board would consider whether the fine was excessive and unjustified. Here is what should have happened. The NRL should have suspended Bellamy from coaching Storm in Sunday's grand final.

The coach forfeited the right to take his team into a third consecutive grand final with his premeditated attack on the integrity of the NRL.

His suggestion that Cameron Smith's fate had already been settled before the judiciary had met attacks more than the tribunal system.

It attacks the ethics and good name of all the officials who run the game and who contribute to it.

Waldron's observation that Smith was denied due process is equally unfair and defamatory.

These two men did not just protect their club and their captain on Friday night but deliberately and spitefully soiled the name of the competition which indirectly pays their wages.

Whatever your thoughts might be on football in general or rugby league in particular, it is fanciful to suggest that the judicial systems of the major codes are not safely independent of interference from headquarters.

Or that tribunal members kowtow to the first paragraph of any story written in the press or observations made by broadcasters.

Waldron and Bellamy have compounded their intolerable behaviour by failing to apologise completely and genuinely. Their comments made after Smith was cited last week now appear self-serving gibberish. Storm might have principles but they appear supple and multi-purpose.

For instance, this is Waldron last Tuesday after the Storm's magnificent win over the Broncos: "I think the greatest tragedy that comes out of something that happens on Saturday night is the focus on the negatives rather than the positives about the game.

"There was no better contest that I've seen in my time in the game and straight away we're talking about the negatives, it's bordering on disgraceful journalism at times that we just can't concentrate on the great things that happen in our game.

"Sure we need to protect players and we need to be conscious of the image of the game but I would think there's a lot of positives that could be commented on about last Saturday night's game rather than negatives but it doesn't always happen."

A week ago Waldron denied any suggestion of a conspiracy against Storm: "I think that would be questioning the integrity of the people making the decision, I think that would be very silly," he said. "That would be a little bit precious from us I think if we thought that (that the intense media scrutiny is because the case involves the Storm)."

Or what about Bellamy's contribution to the debate in his newspaper column: "The club, and in particular one player, Cameron Smith, have had their credibility brought into question once again after our win against Brisbane.

"We would have preferred to have left things as they were -- that's out on the field. But with people working in the background, staining Cameron's credibility as well as Storm's, it's time to say enough is enough."

The coach finished his column thus: "Even after the elation of that win we all had a real empathy for Brisbane. We understood the pain it was feeling. It is a shame that in a game like that there had to be a loser.

"But instead of talking about the game, our press conference was hijacked by questions about Cameron's tackle, and it has gone downhill since. It seems some people had hung him out to dry as soon as the incident happened.

"They wanted to string him up in the town square and have rotten eggs and tomatoes pelted at him. Amazing, really, how our game dwells on the negatives."

Storm, through its petulance and its double standards, has lost many supporters who had previously been won over by the club's professionalism. Not any more. If there is a conspiracy it is one of Storm's making. Smith was guilty of an illegal tackle and received the right penalty. That other grapple tackles have gone unchallenged should concern Storm at the end of the season when it might be able to argue for more consistency. To bleat about it for more than a week is self defeating and indulgent. Melbourne's 28-0 win with a depleted squad over Cronulla was as decisive as the win over the Broncos was inspirational. Both Waldron and Bellamy have seen to it that the victory has been lost in the volley of venom from Storm.

Storm prop Brett White was involved in a questionable incident but it was no more than that and the media treated it accordingly. Yesterday the NRL match review committee viewed the high elbow on Cronulla's Ben Ross and took no further action.

Rugby league is meant to be celebrating its 100th season. Not a lot has gone right. The admission by league chief executive David Gallop that several Sydney clubs were barely hanging on was true, but grim news and the police investigation into the Broncos has hurt. That Darren Lockyer could not recognise himself on video, then not even recall the incident when it was confirmed he was the boofhead on tape was damaging enough.

But nothing can eclipse the CEO and coach of the defending premier turning so vindictively on the competition itself. Alleging improper practice within its judicial system is a self-inflicted grapple tackle that has sent the sport back to ignominy. The $50,000 fine was correct in one sense -- it should have applied to Waldron. Bellamy should have been suspended.

Last week the pair cried that the media had hijacked the good name of Cameron Smith. This week Waldron and Bellamy have hijacked the good name of the game.

patrick.smith@bigpond.com

[steaming stormer]

hahahahahaha - Patrick Smith!!!!  The bloke is an AFL lackie, and he's even a wanker at that! 

[Super Cronk]

they had a little story on sika and about how he drinks kava. also a snipet on cronk and aitken. Better then nothing i guess. i mean if your going to the telegraph to get your NRL news well then give yourself an uppercut!!

[thunder]

If I hear, "Let's do it for Beaver" once more, I will throw up!!

[grey sub]

From the Northern media the only person playing his last game that matters this sunday is Beaver, yeah well I wish him the best of luck, but we have Matty Geyer and that is more motivation for our team as he is a true stalwart for our team, even if he is getting a little older and slower...... only joking what he has is experience and big game experience this is his fourth grand final that has got to be good for the side, give it to em Matty, go out with a bang and a ring, cheers Champ and thank you so much for your time at the club and the loyalty you showed when others moved for money you stayed and played for the team....