Finals Week Three
Bulldogs 20 l. Brisbane Broncos 37

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

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The pivotal moment; the controversy, the lapse and it was all over
Mon September 25, 2006
Despite the contrasting tales of the two Qualifying Finals played out over the weekend, both matches were fiercely fought and hanged in the balance for a long, long time. But one moment in both matches proved pivotal, and both involved a lapse shortly after a controversial decision (or non-decision).

By now, every knows the tale of the Friday Night comeback by the Broncos - trailing 20-6 at half-time against a rampant Bulldogs and somehow manufacturing a rousing second half to storm home 37-20. There was a point at which the tide turned; a controversial decision followed by a lapse. In my view, the pivotal moment in this match made up of a missed forward pass from Justin Hodges to Shaun Berrigan (the controversial) and then the poor dummy-half pass from Ben Roberts which was swooped upon by the Broncos (the lapse). Let me explain ...

The Shaun Berrigan try has two wonderful pieces of play, linked by a controversial non-decision. The Justin Hodges kick return was sublime and showed why he's finally living up to the hype surrounding him a few seasons ago. The finishing if Shaun Berrigan was spectacular - he brushed Matt Utai and managed to hold off Willie Mason (who had no right to even be that close) and acrobatically put the ball over the line whilst on his head only inches in from the touchline. The pass from Hodges to Berrigan was visibly forward however, but with the speed that the Broncos turned defence into attack I doubt any referee or touch-judge could have ever recovered their position in order to see it and rule accordingly. Maybe this is a case for video referee intervention, but I tend to agree that unless you can have a camera that moves in line with the play, the possibility of parallex error rendering the footage useless will continue to preclude it from usage.

The Bulldogs could have recovered from conceding this try; it was 20-12 after all and the Broncos had only just died on the last tackle a few sets earlier. However, the lapse was about to occur and the Broncos took full advantage. The pass from Ben Roberts was terrible; it was reminiscent of Brett Hodgson's fateful State of Origin pass in the decider. Bulldogs forward Chris Armit was unable to clean up the loose ball; something strange in itself given his reputation for being error-free. The Broncos scoped the ball up and Dane Carlaw crashed over next tackle. Despite the fact the scoreline was 20-18 at that point, the game was a good as over - the pivotal moment had now come and gone and the rest is, as they say, history.

Whilst it took a little longer on the following evening for the pivotal moment to occur, it followed a similar pattern. The Dragons and the Storm slugged it out in a mostly uneventful match with flashes of brilliance played at a reasonably rapid pace. As has happened so many times in recent history, the game was on a knifes-edge at 12-6 with just over 20 minutes to go with both sides staring each other down waiting for someone to blink; and the Dragons blinked first. Admittedly, the Dragons only really blinked after having sand thrown in their face by the referee (or maybe the referees had the sand in their face?) and thus we have the pivotal moment; the controversy surrounding a Dragons "knock-on", followed by the lapse by Mark Gasnier defending against Matt King.

Making their way up-field through the middle of the ruck, Storm 5/8th-come-lock Scott Hill was taking on the Dragons defence and tried to slip an offload to a support player. The offload went forward and into the Dragons Ben Creagh who tried to catch it but spilt the ball forward too. The Dragons were expecting to get the scrum feed but when it was awarded to Melbourne, they questioned referee Steven Clark but to no avail. The initial knock-on was uncited by Clark, his view obscured. The touch-judges, who have proven themselves as useful as a gay rooster in a hen battery, also had nothing to say on the subject. The video replay, however, clearly showed the knock-on against the Storm but the recent change no longer allowing video referees to intervene meant that the decision was to stay wrong. Herein lies the controversial piece of the pivotal moment; yet another case for video referee intervention.

This alone shouldn't have hurt the Dragons. However, the Storm are renowned for their inventive set pieces and now was a perfect time to put one on. Earlier in the evening, viewers were witness to a scorching piece of play leading to the Storm's opening try. From a scrum, the Storm took the ball from lock and executed several second-man plays to open up a hole for Greg Inglis to slice through in a magical piece of coaching by Craig Bellamy. Unfortunately for the Dragons, this was not the last set piece to burn them. The Storm took the ball down the short side and put Matt King one-on-one with Dragons superstar Mark Gasnier. Unfortunately for Gasnier, his tendency to go high was futile against a player with one of the best fends in the game, and Matt King shoved away from Gasnier, drew youngster Brett Morris in-field and sent Steve Turner away for the match winner. One lapse from Mark Gasnier, forgetting the skills of the man he was marking, and the Dragons had blinked. Even with 20 minutes to go, everyone but the staunchest Dragons fans knew the game was gone.

In both instances, the referee cannot be blamed for the initial controversy. Any reasonable person can see that both mistakes were easy ones to make and the circumstances surrounding them made it very difficult for the man in the middle. It was just unfortunate for both the Bulldogs and the Dragons, but it didn't cost them the game; they cost themselves the game. But, the adoption of video technology for such times is something that needs to be looked at seriously. The current excuses for not adopting video technology more widely are valid, but not seeking to solve the issues is unacceptable. Tens of millions per year are spent on the TV rights by the free-to-air and cable providers; so why can't some money be spent on solving the technical issues? It shouldn't matter if it can't be done during the regular season because not all grounds will facilitate the necessary solution. It CAN be done during the Finals and should be - the stakes are much higher in September and October.

All this aside, lets not take anything away from the victors; the Broncos and the Storm. They capitalised on the lapses of their opponents as any great side should do and as a result, they find themselves going head to head on the last weekend of the season. I just hope that when we see the pivotal moment on October 1, it's a piece of brilliance or wonderful application in taking advantage of the opponents' lapse WITHOUT the controversy nearby. The players and the fans deserve no less.


Broncos strangle one half Bulldogs
Sat September 23, 2006
The Broncos have provided one of the most thrilling semi-final miracles to come from a demoralising 20-6 halftime deficit to product one of the greatest halves of finals football with a 31-0 second half display.

The final score of 37-20 provides little indication of the drama surrounding the encounter. The match twisted and turned in sweltering temperatures at Aussie Stadium.

The match was played in front of 29,511 people proving again David Gallop's totally ridiculous decision to schedule finals games on a Friday night in Moore park as many fans were unable to get the ground after work. The match would have easily gained 35-45,000 people at Telstra Stadium on a Saturday or Sunday night as the Bulldogs had over 30,000 fans to two big clashes throughout the regular season at Homebush.

Brisbane though have moved into the Grand Final for the first time since 2000, and the club's proud tradition of never losing a Grand Final will be tested next week but they deserve to start favourites after their second half performance.

The Broncos led 6-0 after 9 minutes following a dubious try that was awarded by Video Referee's Bill Harrigan and Steve Nash despite an apparent obstruction on Andrew Ryan by Brad Thorn. The early set back set the Bulldogs into action and they responded by scoring 20 unanswered points.

The Bulldogs first try came in the 12th minute after Roy Asotasi - in his comeback match from injury - burst through the line 30m before linking with Holdsworth to score.

The Broncos were disallowed a second try minutes later when Darren Lockyer ran behind a decoy runner to put Tate over in the corner. This time the video referee ruled no try but it proved bitter sweet for the Bulldogs as Holdsworth suffered a serious ankle injury in the collision with the decoy runner Tonie Carroll and was forced off the field for the remainder of the match.

Steve Folkes made one of his biggest coaching selection gambles of his career by picking Ben Roberts in the centres, it allowed the Bulldogs to shift Roberts back into his natural position in the halves with Reni Maitua shifting into the centres.

Initially the setback to the Bulldogs didn't seem to hurt. In the 21st minute Willie Mason offloaded short of the line to find Brent Sherwin scooping on the ball to score.

Three minutes later a penalty goal put the Dogs 14-6 clear.

Then in the 28th minute the Bulldogs found space outwide following a Sherwin cut out pass to Matt Utai. The nuggety winger powered through players to score outwide and the ever reliable Hazem El Masri in his 300th grade appearance for the Bulldogs, showpieced his skills with a brilliant sideline conversion.

Ahead 20-6, the game threatened to be blown wide open as the Bulldogs surged forward. They had several sets in attack to put the sword to the Broncos but a few forced opens saw the Broncos hold on and take the 20-6 deficit into halftime.

Wayne Bennett gambled and switched Justin Hodges back to fullback, while the Bulldogs must have popped the champagne corks at halftime as it was the worst thing that could have happened to them.

From the first set after the resumption it was the Bulldogs who looked lethargic, despite the Broncos having to make almost 60 more tackles in the first half in the hot conditions.

Then the game turned on one play.

Hodges retrieved the ball on his own goalline and proceeded to burst through a lazy Bulldogs kick chase, running 40 metres then finding Shaun Berrigan who completed the 60 metre run to reach out and score inches from the touchline. It was a brilliant run from both Hodges who shrugged over two defenders, and also Berrigan who shrugged off Utai and held off Mason to score.

From that moment on the Broncos knew they were back in it, i'm not sure what the Bulldogs were thinking.

Perhaps they weren't thinking at all, as they shot themselves in the foot moments later. Working the ball out from their own line, a mis-directed pass from dummy half by Ben Roberts found no one, the Bulldogs quickly raced back to retrieve the ball but the rushing Broncos defence forced the mistake and moments later Dane Carlaw powered over out-wide through Williams, Emelio and Utai to score. Parker again slotted a terrific sideline conversion to send the scoreline back to 20-18 in the blink of an eye.

The Broncos had sensed the opportunity and only two poor mistakes - a poor kick chase and a mis-directed pass - turned the match on its head.

From that moment the Bulldogs were never in the hunt as if they almost sensed their forthcoming demise.

The Dogs held on for 10 minutes but the pressure built and in the 60th minute the Broncos found space outwide and used their stronger match ups and pace outwide to put Tate over the try to put the Broncos ahead 22-20.

Six minutes later they knifed the wound further, Darren Lockyer at his inspirational best - made the break offloaded and then backed up to score. Unfortunately for the Broncos, Parker again missed a relatively simple conversion at the Dogs were still in it at 20-26.

The referee calls continued to frustrate the Bulldogs. After regaining possession following a short kick off the Bulldogs pressed the Broncos line. A kick was charged down by Casey McGuire but the Bulldogs were denied six again by referee Paul Simpkins.

The next set the Broncos put the nail in the coffin for the Dogs as Lockyer produced further magic to put Tate over for the try and an undeniable 32-20 lead.

Lockyer then marshalled his troops and easily slotted the field goal as the Bulldogs lost the run in their legs. 33-20 the match was complete.

A grandstand finish saw the Broncos cross again through Corey Parker to leave the final score 37-20.

It will be a nervous wait for Broncos prop Petero Civoniceva who was placed on report for a high tackle in the second half on Sonny Bill Williams. Civoniceva's good record should see him escape suspension unless the tackle is graded grade three careless or above.

Fri September 22, 2006
• Bulldogs need to produce something extra special to win
  
Wed September 20, 2006
• Prepare for a third Broncos blitz
  
Wed September 20, 2006
• Final four's chance to reignite Finals Fever
  
Tue September 19, 2006
• Hodges and Hunt switched named again
  

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