When the scandal broke, I was absolutely shattered. We played off in the ’06, ’07, ’08 and ’09 grand finals, winning in ’07 and ’08. I spent thousands of dollars flying up to Sydney at the last minute and buying tickets to the games in ’07 and ’08. Being there for the win in 2007 was one of the highlights of my life, a memory which is now tainted.

I’ve been a financial member (costing around $200 a season) since the club began, they’ve just moved to a new ‘state of the art’ stadium, but I’ve not been to a single since game the rort was exposed early in the year. With the 2010 season coming to a close last weekend, it’s time for me to make a decision on whether I should by following them and/or continuing to be a member into the future.

I’m not entirely convinced by the players and coaching staff claiming that they had no knowledge of what was going on. I feel lots of angst towards those responsible and even though those bad seeds have supposedly now been removed, I don’t know if I can learn to love again.

Not only do I feel burned by my own team, I have some ill-feeling for the code of rugby league and the NRL itself as well. The game has a lot of problems and fails miserable when compared to Australian Rules Football and the ship that the AFL run. I still enjoy watching games, but the administration side of the game is a joke. It’s entirely possible that I may choose to abandon being a fan of the sport altogether.

The Storm are the only Rugby League team in town, so if I stop following them and choose to follow someone else I’ll only get to see one game live a season unless I travel interstate. If I had to nominate another team I have an interest in, it would be the Canberra Raiders. Being good mates with RaiderDuck and him being a huge fan, I could see myself supporting them, albeit nowhere near as closely or with the fervour that I did with the Storm.

Please tell me what you think I should do!

I’ve been critical of Selwood in the past, and probably thought we should de-list him at the end of last year. Under Voss he has grown though, as have other fringe players. His work in the last few weeks has given me new respect for him as did his eyes for the ball in this sick contest (video). Well done to Rance as well, too bad he fractures his cheekbone and he is in my fantasy team

It sucked, we got thrashed, the end. Okay okay… I’ll go into a bit more detail. Plane arrived in Syndey with no hassles and I met up with Hui at the airport. Rohan had driven up from Sydney and parked in a long term car park that was a couple of km’s away so we caught a cab to pick him up and then go to the hotel, which was pretty close to the airport itself. Once we were checked in we pretty dumped our bags in the room and headed to the train station to go to the game.

We got there without any hassles and had a bite to eat before heading into the ground. Rohan was excited because his team (the Canberra Raiders) were playing in the Toyota Cup Grand Final, which was being played before the main game. We got there in time to catch much of the second half. The game ended in a draw and it went to extra time and Rohan was on the edge of his seat. After an eternity of overtime the Raiders scored a try to break the deadlock and win the game.

The pre-match entertainment was pretty uneventful and the game finally got underway after a long day of anticipation. I wasn’t all that confident going into the game and even early in the game I knew it just wasn’t going to be the Storm’s day. When the Storm went into the halftime break 8-0 I was glad that Manly had missed both their shots at goal and we were still in the game, but I knew things would have to change drastically for the Storm to turn things around. The kicking game without Cameron Smith was a real weakness, we really let ourselves down with some of the finishes of sets of six.

The second half of the game is pretty much a blur, think I just totally tuned out after Manly scored the first try. Once the game was gone the Storm just seem to lose all hope and collapse, which was disappointing, but it doesn’t really matter if you lose by 2 pts or 40, you still lose a Grand Final. In some ways its better to lose in that manner than to lose in a really tight contest where your emotions get toyed with. Congratulations to Manly, they were the better side and the Storm just weren’t in form at the right time of year while Manly peaked when it mattered.

The disappointment of the game was washed away quickly as we got out of Homebush and headed into the city for dinner. Hui took us to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. The service was pretty bad, but it gave us more time to reminisce about our Vegas trip earlier this year and plan our next potential adventure to Macau. Recently retired Melbourne Lord Mayor John So was sitting at the table behind us and as we walked out he commiserated with me on the Storm’s loss.

I didn’t get much sleep as Rohan and I stayed up watching poker training videos, talking about strategy and concepts and just life in general. I got up early and caught my flight back to Melbourne. On the way home from the airport my car started making some strange noises, so I might have a problem there.

To make a dismal weekend worse when I got home the hotel I stayed at last night called. It turns out I’d stayed at the wrong place! I booked through Wotif and printed out my paperwork thinking I was staying at one hotel, turns out I had it completely wrong. The funny thing is the hotel checked me in no problems at all. The funny side ends there though because now the hotel I stayed out has charged me and I can’t get a refund for the other one it seems. It is a public holiday in Sydney today so everyone who I need to complain to isn’t available so I really can’t get anything sorted.

Over the last few seasons the media from the Northern States (rugby league heartland) have been pushing an agenda against the Melbourne Storm and in particular highlighting the supposed use of the illegal grapple tackle. The fact is that yes the Storm have had some ugly tackles, but so has every other team, they just fail to be highlighted because they aren’t from the Storm. In my opinion it is tall poppy sydrome at play and and the media and opposition fans are looking for some sort of out or way to take the gloss off the Storm’s dominance. Mostly, I believe, because they can’t handle the fact that a team outside of New South Wales and Queensland can have had so much success. The same thing happened to the Brisbane Lions when they won three premierships in a row, Essendon and Colling wood tried to balme salary cap conessions and take away from their success.

At the end of the day Cameron Smith is super stiff to be missing the Grand Final and there doesn’t seem to be any jsutice whatsoever if you comapre his involvement in the two tackles he was suspended for this year to that of others in many incidents across the season. We will have to fight for a premiership without our captain, but the great thing about the Storm is that they are a well drilled and balanced team. We have our super stars, but we also have 17 contributers every week and we are the best unit going around. Manly have improved a lot though and the physical drain that having to player three weeks of gruelling finals in a row may show.

I’ll be going to the game with Hui and Rohan. It will be our first re-union since our trip to Vegas. Hopefully I’ll have plenty to report after Sunday from the game and maybe some photos!

This clip just warms my hearte verytime I watch it.

The hasty decision to install Michael Voss was very concerning to me at first, but then some of my fears were dismissed when it was revealed plans had been in place for a while for Vossy to take over from Leigh. Still, I don’t see what the rush was. Why couldn’t others have the opportunity to apply for the job, you never know who might bring what to the table? A radical change might be just what we need and we might not get that from Michael Voss. I understand the urgency to manage the team list for next year, but surely a one week interview process at the end of the season of a range of potential candidates would have veen the best thing. My suspicion is that Voss would have been chosen at the end of the day anyway, but it would have put to rest any fears he isn’t the man for the job.

Now that the decision has been made though I am right behind the coach and already looking forward to the 2009 season. Michael Voss is the heart and soul of our football club and I really do feel he can inject the passion and pride in the jumper that has been lacking in recent times. I also feel that the re-signing of J. Brown will give the team a much needed morale boost as well. It just seems liked the second half of the season the team was playing under the weight of dragged out contract negotiations with Browny.

The marketability of Voss cannot be underestimated either. The Lions are about to face a massive challenge from the Gold Coast starting up in their backyard and we are going to need someone to be the face of the club for the forseeable future. This is probably something that a John Longmire or Damien hardwick couldn’t have brought to the table.

It was a really fun experience, the job was actually pretty challenging of keeping the cable from getting tangled up or in people’s way. It wasn’t made any easier by the fact that it was a cold and wet night and I couldn’t feel my hands the entire time.

The most exciting bit was getting out on the field and amongst the players post game. He had to film post match interviews, so we were right up close and personal. It was pretty well paid too considering it was a lot of just sitting around and then only a short period of work.

Our accountability was pretty horrible all day long. The midfielders were the main offenders. Everything was just way too easy for the Bulldogs. We’d work had for a goal and then they just fire one straight back, extremely demoralising.

The Bulldogs were inaccurate, especially early and once again our inability to move the ball up the field from kick outs was exposed. The more I see it live from a high vantage point, the more I see that the backline really can’t be blamed for it. There just aren’t enough players working into space up the field. Also, it is highly obvious that using Merrett coming out of the backline is a last resort option. His skill level and decision making with ball in hand clearly isn’t trusted by his team mates. A lot of the skill errors today came from open play rebound situations where guys like McGrath, Drummond and MacDonald had to wait and wait and wait for something to present and nothing came.

Hard to gauge the kind of day the backline had, there wasn’t really much they could do with the volume and quality of ball coming in. There were a few soft goals though where the ball could/should have been punched through or more pressure applied. Merrett can hold his head high, whenever the ball came in a fashion that had him in the contest I think he won it everytime.

Simon Black got his usual number of possessions, but he had absolutely no legs or ability to chase. Adcock was our BOG for mine; he tried his heart out all day and is clearly carrying an injury. He ran into space to give his team mates an option, he put his head over the football and he looked ready for the contest. My admiration for his courage and endeavour increases with every game I see him play.

Stiller redeemed himself with an decent game in the end, but there were instances early on where he chose to hang off the play when he needed to commit to winning the ball. Tim Notting was another guy I think you could single out as having a pretty soft game today. He was barely sighted and didn’t really look interested in winning a ball. Johnstone had a shocker, but reading he injured himself early on I’ll lay off him. We really missed Rischa, in recent weeks he has been winning a lot of ball and breaking tackles. Today that was lacking for sure.

Sherman had a promising game, he was exciting with his run and carry, but his finish still isn’t there. He had a touch of the fumbles and couldn’t hit the target, not that anyone else could. Someone needed to step up in the pace stakes in the absence of Harding and he did that.

Brennan faded in and out of the game again; I’m starting to think his best position is that kind of Martin Pike lead up the wing. He has a good ability to take grabs close to the boundary line and work in small spaces. His kicking still leaves a bit to be desired at times, but that is true of many. He was non-existent with his clearance work at the centre bounces and I’ m pretty sure he was in there a lot of the time that the Bulldogs got those really quick centre breaks.

One thing that has been noticeable watching both the Sydney and Bulldogs games live is that when a scrumage forms at ground level, both teams surround it and on foot so as soon as the ball squeezes out they are in front position. Contrasting with the Lions who seem to wait on the fringes for the ball to fly out or commit to piling on top.

The forward line didn’t really get enough ball to have any bearing on the game. The delivery to Clark was pretty poor, he ran hard all day, but it just didn’t work for him today. Corrie and Hooper were serviceable. Browny was supreme, delivery let him down as did his team putting in such an effort for his 150^th game. Around the forward 50 we were outnumbered all day, the Bulldogs always seemed to have players streaming out of the backline and it was left to Clark, Hooper and Corrie to go on long chases down the ground. By contrast we were playing stop start football out of the back, looking like we had 15 players on the field.

Votes
5 – Adcock
4 – Brown
3 – Power
2 – Merrett
1 – Sherman

If we win I will be over the moon and craving September action, if we stick with the Bulldogs, but go down in the end I will be pleased. If we get shown up against quality opposition I’ll be shattered. The Bulldogs had a great win today, former Brisbane Lions Jason Akermanis kicked 6, I’m sure Leigh Matthews will have a solution to shut him down, but the problem is the Dogs have a multi pronged attack.

Another great game by Travis Johnstone today, proving to be an excellent recruit for us this season. Daniel Bradshaw is an injury concern, hopefully it is just something that can be nursed by keeping him close to goal. The problem is Jonathan Brown has an injury that requires the exact same solution. They started to get in each others way a bit today. We missed the cleanliness and poise of Roe and Drummond out of the back half this week too, we can only get better with them coming back in the side.

My Votes
5 – T Johnstone
4 – S Black
3 – J Brown
2 – J MacDonald
1 – J Adcock