Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
A week on, weak effort forgotten
What a difference seven days make. That was much more fun to watch as the All Blacks beat the Wallabies at the fortress that is Eden Park.
A week ago we limped to a draw that had the critics firing, this one was no good, that one was past it, such and such was out of position, the coach was hopeless, and so on.
Seven days and a 27-7 win later and we are again apparently world beaters.
One young bloke is, or at least is destined to be. Caleb Clarke was astonishing, running like a rampaging bull, and when you consider he is the size of a small mountain but plays on the wing, you have to have sympathy for the defenders he constantly left in his wake.
But the most fun about watching him was when the cameras cut to his former All Black father Eroni in the stands cheering his boy on. It might only have been a few seconds of TV but the pride in his son was evident, and it was a genuinely touching moment.
But being a diehard league there were two games on my radar and neither disappointed.
The Melbourne Storm blew the Canberra Raiders off the park in the first 20 minutes, so much so that the game was really over at that point, only the most optimistic Raiders’ fan thinking they might recover.
Speculation has surrounded the future of their 37-year-old captain Cameron Smith, who has refused to confirm if he will retire, and now he has set up the perfect finish, a place in the grand final assured by the 30-10 result.
He has been playing for 19 seasons and anyone who watched his form against the Raiders would back him to go around again, so good was he.
All that separates Smith from a fairy-tale ending is the Penrith Panthers, who made sure that after a season and a final series, the grand final will be between the number one and two sides, by beating Souths 20-16.
And even the Storm will find that a decent hurdle.
The minor premiers made it 17 wins in a row by getting past the Bunnies, and they have defied the experts all year.
Many said they weren’t the real deal, that they would crumble under pressure, that they did not have the star quality of other sides, yet former Vodafone Warriors coach Ivan Cleary has his team, and that is what they are – a team, in the big dance.
The Panthers are the perfect illustration of a team that is better than the sum of its parts, and while half of me wants the Storm to win just because Waiheke Island’s Brandon Smith is in the side, I have a soft spot for Ivan, a terrific bloke who was always a good friend to me during his playing and coaching career at Mt Smart.
I am not bold enough to make a prediction, but I will say this. It has the feel of a superstar side in Melbourne about to be broken up and wanting to send off their captain after years of service, against the rising stars of a Penrith side that contains several players who are actually too young to even remember the start of Smith’s career.
The old dogs or the young guns?
It’s grand final time and there is not a lot of room for sentiment. Only 80 minutes will tell us, just as it has silenced, for a while at least, the All Blacks critics.
Is there anything that provides greater theatre than sport… maybe an election, but I’ll leave that well alone. Me, I’ll just stick to the drama on the field.