Finals Week One
Newcastle Knights 25 d. Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 18

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Knights to fight Buderus charge
Tue September 12, 2006
The Newcastle Knights have elected to fight the grading of the Dangerous Throw charge against hooker Danny Buderus in what should prove an interesting litmus test for the NRL.

Buderus was charged with a Grade 3 offence following his spear tackle on Manly Sea Eagles' winger Michael Robertson in Friday night's match, meaning a 5-week suspension for an early guilty plea or 6 weeks if upheld at the judiciary.

The Knights have entered an early guilty plea, but are seeking a downgrade of the charge in a desperate bid to have Buderus available for Week 3 of the NRL Finals if the Knights get past Brisbane. Should the NRL downgrade the charge to a Grade 1 offence, Danny Buderus would get a 1-week suspension with his early guilty plea. However, if the NRL do not downgrade the charge, Buderus will face the full six weeks on the sidelines. This means he would be unavailable for the start of the 2007 NRL season.

Earlier in the season, the NRL got mixed reactions from their decision to downgrade a contrary conduct charge against Knights skipper Andrew Johns. Johns was charged with a Grade 3 Contrary Conduct charge, which would have seen him miss 3 weeks with the early guilty plea or 4 weeks if he was unsuccessful at the judiciary. Johns had nearly 100 carry-over points from a previous offence which effectively made a 2-week sentence a 3-week one. The Knights successfully appealed, getting a downgrade to Grade 2 and a 2-week suspension resulted. Opinions were divided about the penalty and whether or not Andrew Johns recieved favourable treatment because of his status in the game.

Danny Buderus is considered by some as one of the Top 3 players in the world (with Johns and Lockyer), and his loss will be a significant blow to the Knights chances in 2006. After some strong comments about recent spear tackles in Rugby Union by George Gregan and Lote Tuqiri, it is time for the NRL to back up words with deeds and ensure that Danny Buderus does not play another NRL match in 2006.



Nervous wait for Manly and Buderus
Sat September 9, 2006
Newcastle has emerged 25-18 victors in a brilliant and very controversial game of Football with both Manly and Knights hooker Danny Buderus having nervous waits this weekend.

Buderus was put on report for a dangerous lifting tackle in the final three minutes, which normally would see a run of the mill player during the regular season cop around 4-5 matches. It will be interesting to see how the NRL handles the situation after how poorly they handed the Andrew Johns Contrary Conduct charge.

There's no doubting that Buderus is a fine player but there is no excuse for that tackle and the NRL has to treat the tackle on its merits, the potential damage lifting tackles cause and ignore the status Buderus enjoys in the game. Michael Crocker got nine weeks for a similar tackle and there has to be some consistency.

Manly will now be sweating on two out of Brisbane, the Bulldogs and Melbourne winning this weekend. The Sea Eagles would be confident of the Storm coming on top of Parramatta but the other two games will be making them nervous.

Canberra are entitled to enter into Saturday's clash against the Bulldogs are favourites due to their record at Telstra Stadium, the Clinton Schifcofske factor, the Bulldogs recent form, the Bulldogs embarrassing 'home' Finals record and having more available players. All those factors will be worrying Manly even more now as for once they'll sweating on a Bulldogs victory.

Brisbane's form in the last three weeks has been the best in the Premiership and they will have 50,000 Queenslander's cheering them onto victory. St George Illawarra are consistently inconsistent and are one of those sides when it all happens for them can destroy anyone in the competition. Manly will again be worried that for once the Dragons can click for a full 80 minutes when the pressure is applied.

Possibly the Eels not having Brian Smith in their stable anymore and no expectations on them plus injury doubts over Greg Inglis could force Manly into a sense of panic.

Except in 2004 when Penrith edged out St George Illawarra by one point the 4th v 5th semi-final has been a complete waste of time but it's always good to win as the winning side can relax on the weekend and be immediately focused on playing in the Finals regardless.

Newcastle celebrated victory as if it was an elimination match with both sides no doubt believing that the Dragons and Raiders are massive chances for victories on Saturday.

One of the major controversies out of the match was the performance of referee Sean Hampstead and it highlights how bad refereeing has become when he can get such a big match. Manly scored some lucky tries and scored against the run of play but they were very hard done by with the penalty count and the 50-50 calls. The Sea Eagles have every right to complain about Hampstead's performance but only two weeks before were beneficiaries of even more diabolical effort from Hampstead. Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes said that referee decisions could cost a side a crucial semi-final and it only took 80 minutes for that to happen. Rugby League is a PLAYERS game and the quicker referees at all levels from NRL to Juniors realise that the better it is for the game and for the referees.

Taking aside the Buderus incident, Manly's nervous wait and Hampstead's performance it was a brilliant game of Rugby League that had absolutely everything and much more in front of a sell-out and emotional crowd at EnergyAustralia Stadium.

Manly led 12-0 at half-time thanks to an early try from classy fullback Brett Stewart and a length of the field intercept from winger Michael Robertson after the Sea Eagles withstood three sets of six on their try-line.

Andrew Johns got Newcastle going in the second half when he scored a strong try close to the line but Manly responded back quickly when Steve Maitai scored following sensational work from Robertson who did remarkably well to keep the ball in play and passed it straight to Maitai who strolled over. Matt Orford landed a great sideline goal and Manly led 18-6.

Two tries from Kurt Gidley in the space of nine minutes leveled up the scores with a thrilling final 10 minutes on the cards.

Johns missed a drop-goal attempt with the Sea Eagles charging it down. When Newcastle were next in position they went to Jarrod Mullen who slotted over the crucial one-pointer.

Manly found themselves in great field position thanks to the Buderus incident. However, the Sea Eagles were a man short when captain Ben Kennedy was sent to the sin bin after he rushed in to push Buderus away that caused a scuffle between the two sides.

Orford went for the one-pointer when in the attacking zone with the Knights defence a bit more desperate than the Bulldogs two weeks ago where they charged it down only for Manly to get the ball back. A few tackles later Newcastle were caught off-side giving Orford an opportunity to win Manly the match but his kick was wide. Mullen caught the ball on the edge of the dead ball line and ended up being tackled right on the edge of the try-line nearly 110m up the field. That put Newcastle pretty much home and they sealed victory when Johns kicked across the field and Brian Carney plucked it out of the air and carried Robertson over the line for the try. Johns landed the sideline conversion for a 25-18 victory.

Newcastle's victory was further soured on top of the Buderus incident with both David Seage and Steve Simpson coming off early injured. Seage is out until well into next year after requiring a knee reconstruction whilst Simpson injured his shoulder with the full extent of damage unsure at this point.

Manly's defence was something that coach Des Hasler can be extremely proud of and providing two of the Broncos, Bulldogs and Storm get up tomorrow can head into week two of the Finals full of confidence that his team can handle the big match atmosphere and soak in plenty of pressure.

It's going to be a tough wait for the Sea Eagles as both the Dragons and Raiders fancy themselves and whilst the Broncos are probably 60-40 favouites to get up, the Bulldogs record in week one of the Finals is something that will make Manly very nervous indeed.

Taking aside Hampstead's performance and the Buderus incident, Rugby League was the winner from this clash and both Manly and Newcastle have raised the bar to a new level that the other six sides now have to match. Oddly enough the 4th v 5th semi-final last year was the Grand Final, giving both the Knights and Sea Eagles confidence that they might meet again when it matters.

Fri September 8, 2006
• Knights come from behind to stun Sea-Eagles
  
Fri September 8, 2006
• Tickets remain for Knights v Sea Eagles, Seage in for Thaiday
  
Wed September 6, 2006
• Preview: Knights v Sea Eagles
  
Tue September 5, 2006
• Kennedy back for Sea Eagles
  

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