NRL Grand Final. Sharks v Storm

[Sports Prophet]

Lizard please, your whole argument about the NRL being biased against any non Sydney team is laughable.

The Sydney media being biased against the Storm and other non Sydney clubs... What has that got to do with the NRL? At what stage in life has the media ever been balanced and fair as opposed to sticking to a rhetoric that sells to the local market? What is more strange is the fact you don't consider Cronulla to be in Sydney. In fact, it's baffling!

Yours, are close to being the most blinkered opinions on this entire forum Lizard.

[Lounge Room Lizard]

Just like your post then are a joke. A few times you have claimed things and the truth is Different. Could you Please show where I Put the NRL being against the Storm or anybody? The NSWRL refused to Put a storm in their comps.NSWRL is not the NRL by the way. I have Shown the link. Ch 9 and Fox should be talking up the game. They refused to show or make positive comments on internationals.

The Media that claim to support the game, are read to stick the Boot in at any chance. Funny How AFL or Rugby Dont suffer this treatment.

[Farmduck]

http://rugbyleagueweek.com.au/storm-filthy-nswrl/

That link doesn't say what the NSWRL rationale was for the decision. Around that time the NSWRL and QRL were trying to improve the prestige of the State Cups which was part of the reason the NSWRL told Canberra and Manly that, if they wanted to participate in all the junior development levels, they should field their reserve/feeder teams in the NSW Cup, not the Q Cup.

 

The Storm case would have been consistent with the terms laid out for the Raiders and Manly, rather than some special form of victimisation reserved for Melbourne. The notion of supplying a non-Storm, Victorian-based team to compete in the NSW Cup was unsatisfactory for fairly obvious reasons. It would be like entering a 4th- or 5th Division team in a 2nd Div comp.

[audois]

Brisbane, Newcastle and Auckland all played in the winfield cup prior to the NRL and super league wars along with Perth, North Queensland, South Queensland, Illawarra and Gold Coast. It's also very intriguing to read that in the final season of the winfield cup in 1995 saw a record aggregated attendances of over 3 million.

 

Walter - I was in Sydney in the early 1970s and remember the Eels pulling 23,000 for a play off game and thought that impressive. Winfield Cup in Sydney concentric. Just a few years before Penrith arrived from out of town. 80s/90s saw the game extend its foot print. I listened in to the 2GB feed for the Sharks-NQC and picked up so few NQC fans present. You hear it here incessantly reference to the Catalans. English fans have a fixation about it. When Brisbane played Melbourne in a recent GF in Sydney it sold out. Its a different mind set I reckon because the Australian game embraced expansion and its worked for them. The NRL are looking further afield all the time and vetoed new entities in NSW; even the NSW Cup/Queensland comp look towards PNG and Fiji.

[bazzzz65]

Ive got a spare ticket as not now travelling out to Oz as I was scheduled too....anyone interested in buying?

What about your plane ticket? How much would it cost to change the name?

[Ant]

Id love to have seen sharks v raiders but i suppose it makes it easy to pick a side now

Up up cronulla

[jannerboyuk]

Sharkies!

[Sports Prophet]

Lizard, whilst the NSWRL point has been well answered already, is it the fact that Billy Slater has been actively included in Ch 9 match broadcasts and analysis pieces since his season ending injury that makes you think Ch 9 are prejudice against the Storm? Freddy, Lockyer, Joey as well as Slater were all positive about the Storm pre-match.

Ch 9s ambivalence for the international game compared to its coverage of NRL has nothing to do with the Storm.

[Sports Prophet]

This will be an extraordinarily hard fixture for the Sharks.

My opinion, for what it's worth, the Sharks will want to dominate possession early and break out to a lead. Storm are 4 wins and 5 losses this season when falling behind by 8. If they fall behind by 10, they are 0 wins and 5 losses.

The Sharks will be required to look for the offload as often as possible if they are to open up the best structured defence in the league. Fifita is a great exponent of this, as are Prior and Gallen.

The Storm will feel pretty comfortable on their goal line. The Sharks attack from 20m has been far from fantastic since midway through the season. It's the mid field line breaks that the Sharks had plenty of in the Minor Prem play off that were scuttled by last passes going astray. Should these stick, the Sharks will be far more dangerous between the two 30m lines than anywhere else.