The Draw and More...

Well, it looks pretty good for us! The only quirk from first glance is that we play hard-to-beat teams like the Bulldogs, Roosters and Brisbane all in one hit and then for the last month or so of the season are playing mid-range teams. I'm basing this on last year's form, but we could be going into the finals on a five game winning streak. I'd prefer to be put to the torch a bit during this time (hopefully the cowboys will be even better next year!) and it would be bad to get an inflated sense of how good we are before we face a real premiership contender in september. At least we don't have the bye early in the season. With the Bulldogs v Saints game locked-in on Friday night, I'm pretty sure that channel 9 would like to take the Broncos v Cowboys game at Suncorp as their Sunday match. Hopefully, we'll be picking up the saturday night 7.30pm slot.

Meanwhile, for some reason I'm having a hard time believing anything that Brain Waldron says. For example, here's a qoute from an article in this morning's Herald Sun "We had a bye first game last year which is something we didn't want to have to confront again," Waldron said. This is a completely correct statement. The problem is, on taking the job he said something along the lines of 'I don't know much about Rugby League', which kind of taints everything he says from now on. Perhaps he should have said "Hell, I don't know why you're asking me about the draw, I'm pig-ignorant about that sort of Rugby League stuff, you may as well be speaking French. However, we had the bye once in AFL and it was bad to get it early there, so it must be bad to get it early here. Therefore, it's good we have it later on. Maybe." Then, in a months time the Herald Sun can run an interesting bit of puff showing Brain at home with stacks of video tapes proving his devotion to the code by reviewing every single Storm game and saying stuff like 'Gee, I wish we kept Paul Rauhihi on the books.'

Also, there's a lovely article this morning about Scott Hill and Brett Kimmorley and how they are mates and stuff. Good for them. Interestingly, Noddy says that he regrets leaving the Storm. That kind of candor is refreshing, but I'd be kind of annoyed if I was a Sharks supporter (for lots of other reasons, too!) and the best player was regretting being there. Anyway, I think that the Storm should make a big banner out of Noddy's laments and put it up in the locker room to remind off-contract players that the grass in Melbourne is pretty goddamn green.