crowd goes wild

Just a quick note this week as have been busy elsewhere - Penrith result is sickening. As noted in previous posts I don't mind losses but hate utter capitulation. This season is a right off unless Warriors win the next five straight games or something similar. Bring the young up and coming players in en masse now.

Anyway I am hung over to death after watching Man U squeek past Chelsea in Moscow. What an advertisement for the sport - a real thriller. State of Origin - for some reason I like Queensland - I guess it goes back to the Wally Lewis/Graham Lowe days and the 91 series (best ever) - if you are ever bored or waiting for a bus or flight try to name as many players as you can who took part in that series. Anyway NSW win game 1 and that is lame. But hey I could not give a toss at this moment Man U have gone and won the double.

NRL fatigue

Well I have realised 10 weeks into the season that my freeview Setanta subscription is insufficient for me to see any NRL live in the UK this season. The reason being that the games are played at like 7 or 8am in the morning and Setanta on freeview is closed down between 3am and midday. If I was on Sky digital or Virgin cable media Setanta plays 24 hours a day and you can watch NRL. What a mozzer.

Anyway to be brutally honest I have been ignoring league over the past couple of weeks - tests don't pique my interest like they used to. Champions league semi-finals and the last day of the premier league have been providing my sporting entertainment of late. And great results for Man U including a Scholes screamer to get them to the Champions league final in Moscow and last day heroics from Ryan Giggs to win the title have left me feeling pretty satisfied.

With that said the Warriors still are the vehicle for my unrealised hopes and dreams - the perpetual battlers fighting against the tide. Next up its the Panthers away. They have an identical win loss record to the Warriors but with a better defensive record for points conceded. However if I recall correctly the Warriors have not managed to win away yet this year - so thats a significant psychological barrier for them to break through. Panthers also coming off a big win against a depleted Dogs side so I would consider the Warriors to be heavy underdogs going into this one.

ANZAC

Had to have a crack at the cowboys somehow

Well I hate losing the Cowboys - they were always the junk team of the NRL - in fact we always seemed to play them late in the season to decide who would get the wooden spoon. To seem them playing at an elite level and knocking the Warriors out of the playoffs last year hurts. Although I bet the rest of the NRL feels the same way when the Warriors beat them - nights like Meli's five try demolition of the Doggies in the playoffs a few years back does help undo a lot of the pain of the Warriors dark ages. Anyway without further ado on the cowboys are objects of ridicule theme check this:

Warriors capitulate to cowboys

I can cope with losses but pathetic blowouts I really tire of. Are the Warriors going to win a game away this year? If they can't they might as well not bother. Looks to me like all the Queensland teams are at an elite level this year - the Warriors however are not.

I watched Man U play Blackburn this evening, a win would have guaranteed the prem title they scraped a 1-1 draw in the final minutes with a Tevez header. A pretty important goal and an important point leading into the crunch match vs Chelsea with a three point lead. Man U play Barca away, Chelsea away and Barca at home all in a period of 7 days starting Wednesday.

Massive win over dogs - you just know that something good is going to happen

Man bring on the Vatuvei cost benefit analysis - great win over the Dogs - this is the yo yo of Warriors fandom at its best. Into the top eight. Lets shoot for a perfect home record.

Doggies and Ridge vs Wiki

Friday again thank goodness for that. Another riveting week at work flys by leading to another exciting weekend of sporting action.

Man U v Arsenal on Saturday is the big prem game of the week and with Arsenal out of the champions league at the hands of Liverpool mid-week (great game by the way shown on free to air TV here in prime time Tuesday night) this game is even more massive than usual as an Arsenal loss is basically their season over. Man U cruised past Roma and look set to have a real crack at the double .

As for the boys they face up to what will no doubt be a Doggies side desperate to redeem themselves after a Mason pounding. SBW is going to be dangerous and I have my doubts about the Warriors capacity to win this one. Lets hope they can. Only a couple more weeks till Price returns and hopefully gets the season back on track. I thinks its clear however that the Warriors are going to struggle to be top four material unless they improve significantly.

Also enjoyable this week was the minor Wiki vs Ridge spat. With Ridge, echoing comments from the hoff (does he read this blog?) and in a view I am tended to share, suggesting that Wiki was past his use by date - "Ruben quite simply can't keep up with the pace any more," Ridge told the readers of Sunday News. "It really pains me to say this, but there comes a time in a player's career when he has to sit back, take stock, and ask himself a simple question - am I still cutting the mustard?". Wiki on the other hand retorting that he was still doing his best for the club and that the "fire was still burning inside".

Notably Ridge also indicated he thought there was zero chance of the Warriors winning the title this year - fair comment and Ridge basically slams the whole squad as unfit, too big and not organised on defence. This is tough to take on two counts - one - because it is probably absolutely correct and two - Ridge was with the Warriors when they never even made the playoffs - this group of players have finished in the top four and played a home semi. So lets not fire Cleary and dump the squad wholesale just yet.