sidelined

Aah, the NRL pre-season is upon us with the now traditional opening drunken scandal of the year involving Penrith’s Craig Gower. It seems though that there are a lot of accusations being thrown around concerning Gower’s behaviour and hard to work out what happened.

I’ll pass judgement on this one till there is more evidence either way. Parra fans will remember last year that halfback Tim Smith (admittedly after a few earlier indiscretions) was accused of bad behaviour at a pub only to be cleared by the CCTV footage and the club management. The Manly Sea Eagles have also been targeted by someone who wanted a payment to prevent from going public about alleged bad behaviour by a number of their players. Manly called the bluff and the claims were shown to be false.

In no terms I am excusing bad behaviour by NRL players. Unfortunately there is form in this regards. But some members of the public see them as easy targets and fodder for The Daily Telegraph sports pages.

Having said that, Gower and alcohol do not seem to be a good mix. The smart thing will be for Gower to give the grog away for the season at least. It would remove him from any similar situations regardless of whether Gower or some idiot are at fault.

The good news is that the on-field action really gets going this weekend. A few teams have already been playing low-key trail games. Notably Brisbane who head to Ole Blighty to play St Helens in the World Club Challenge on February 23rd. Plenty of local action in the following weeks.

This weekend we see:
Foundation Cup - Sydney Roosters v Wests Tigers @ Aussie Stadium, Sydney
Parramatta v Cronulla @ Pioneer Oval, Parkes
Melbourne v Gold Coast @ BCUIS Coffs Harbour
Raiders v North Queensland @ Rockhampton

Then on the 24th it is almost like a full NRL round with:
South Sydney v Cronulla @ Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, Gosford (I’ll be going to this one)
St George Illawarra v Bulldogs @ WIN Stadium, 7:30pm
Parramatta v Gold Coast @ Lismore
Manly v Melbourne @ Caloundra
New Zealand v North Queensland @ Mackay
Souths Logan (QRL) v Wests Tigers @ Davies Park
Penrith v Newcastle @ Richardson Park, Darwin
Canberra vs Brisbane @ Redcliffe
Canberra vs Balmain Tigers @ Leichhardt Oval (PL + JF)

Weekend after (March 2,3 and 4) see:
March 2:
Gold Coast v Penrith @ Gold Coast Stadium
March 3:
Charity Shield - South Sydney v St George Illawarra @ Telstra Stadium, Sydney
New Zealand vs Bulldogs @ North Harbour Stadium, Auckland, 5:30pm
Parramatta v Sydney Roosters @ Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, Gosford (curse the final game of the cricket season)
North Queensland v Manly Warringah @ Barlow Park, Cairns
Canberra v Wests Tigers @ Davies Park
Newcastle v Cronulla @ Cessnock Sportsground, Cessnock
Melbourne v Brisbane @ Princes Park
March 4:
Canberra vs Penrith Panthers @ Queanbeyan (PL + JF)

Bring on March 16th. Coincidentally our baby is due on March 18th but the maternity unit is equipped with Foxtel. Even in the birthing units.