For a start, I want to call into question News Ltd's agenda when it comes to this year's NRL grand final. It seems as though "News", so smarting after the defeat of its Abbott-led Coalition, had a bulging surfeit of bias in urgent need of a beneficiary. Cue the
Tuesday's Daily Telegraph contained a full 8 pages (including the front page) of Roosters propaganda with headlines such as "A picture of confidence"; "How Jake gave Roosters steel"; "You Mini marvel" describing Anthony Minichiello heroically clawing his way back from the precipice of has-been status; and "I wish you were here", an admittedly emotional story about Todd Carney and his late father. All of these pages are adorned with huge photos of the Roosters looking at once imperious and approachable, oozing confidence but retaining underdog status, trying to obscure the favouritising glare coming from their sackload of Dally Ms.
The only bits of Dragons-oriented anything are confined to the squat columns skirting the bottom of the page and focus ad nauseum on the crushing pressure of the 31-years drought, and about how actually, the Roosters have a better defence than the Dragons now*.
Of course I know that News Ltd owns the NRL and as a consequence there are some socio-footy truths that they are wont to exploit, it just riles me up that it is so brazen.
Firstly, they know that the Roosters, based in affluent East Sydney, might not galvanise the Rugby League heartland of Western Sydney (and neither the freshly disenfranchised supporters of the fallen fourteen) without a little ‘fair and balanced’ help- and a rags to riches story with Todd Carney-as-talisman is just what the doctor ordered.
Secondly, St George Illawarra has one of the league’s most loyal, immovable and wholly irrational fan bases (of which I am part), a supporter base which will indeed become more insanely fanatical (read: paraphernalia-hungry) in the face of an unsympathetic media. So it could be argued that it’s in the NRL’s best interests to paint the Dragons as the villains, as the eminently topplable Goliath, the pig-headed purveyors of bat-shit boring football… which takes me to my next point.
Everyone who isn’t a Dragons supporter or a diplomatic pundit has summarily shit-canned the Dragons’ unapologetic risk-averse approach over the past two seasons. They deride an apparent win-at-all-costs mentality, without acknowledging the bigger picture.
There has been a single-minded, long-term logic to Wayne Bennett’s approach over the last two years. He has alluded to his strategic ambition in saying that this team’s best is still a few years away. They are focused on defence, they are focused on error-free football, they are focused on their strengths more than they are concerned with rectifying their weaknesses. In considering this brand of football, the outline of Bennett’s plan begins to come into focus.
He recognises that in order for this club to move forward, it needs to shake free of the psyche-munching monkey that comes attached, off the rack, to the back of every Saints jersey. The risk-taking flair that is so admired in the play of the Tigers and the Roosters, is facilitated by a blitheness borne of premiership glory. The pent up radioactive gas of expectation has been recently-enough vented for these clubs but for the Dragons, who have performed consistently over the past 20 years without a post-season Gatorade shower, code-red meltdown is rapidly approaching.
Bennett knows what the club needs right now. It NEEDS a premiership a helluva lot more than it needs to see Soward twinkle-toeing across the opposition’s defensive line, spreading it wide inside his own 20. For such a proud club, victory must necessarily precede all else. It needs the hard grind of a first grand final win to expunge the inhibition. Only once the drought has been broken, can the kids can play under the sprinkler again.
By sticking to his low-risk script of dogged defence and one-off-the-rucksmanship Wayne Bennett has his charges on the brink of completing stage one of Operation Halcyon Days. And if all goes to plan, stage two will be kicking off in 2011 with a new attitude in attack and a little less space in the trophy cabinet.
*That is, Dragons have conceded a whopping 0.7 of a point per game more than the Roosters since Round 21.
